VOLUNTEER RESOURCES
WITS is committed to supporting our volunteers to ensure they feel prepared to be literacy mentors. The following suggestions and tools can assist volunteers in creating a safe reading environment to build strong relationships and maximize reading level growth.
Program Policies
Attendance
- In order to build community within the WITS program space, all volunteers are expected to attend the first two sessions of programming to meet their students and volunteer partner. After the first two sessions, volunteers will begin their regularly scheduled session with students.
- Volunteers will do everything they can to attend all scheduled program times and be ready to engage with students. If volunteers will be absent from a session for whatever reason, they will notify their WITS program staff member as soon as possible.
Safety
- All adults who interact with CPS students must agree to the Standards of Conduct for Maintaining Professional Boundaries between Staff and Students.
- All WITS program staff members are mandated reporters. If a volunteer is suspicious of child abuse or neglect, they must let their program staff member know immediately.
- Students may disclose information about sensitive topics, including, but not limited to: hunger, homelessness, and/or feelings of depression or anxiety. If a student says anything that is concerning, please let the WITS program staff member know immediately.
Clothing
- Volunteers must be dressed appropriately for all WITS sessions.
- Casual dress (t-shirts, sweatshirts, jeans, etc.) is acceptable.
- Do not wear any article of clothing that may have inappropriate sayings, decals, or logos (ex: local breweries).
Presence
- Be actively engaged with WITS students throughout the entire session.
- Volunteers are encouraged to set their phones to silent.
WITS Talks: Get Your Mind Into the Gutter: Teaching Graphic Novels
On January 7th WITS held our first WITS Talk of 2022: “Get Your Mind Into the Gutter: Teaching Graphic Novels.” Hannah Nolan-Spohn (teacher, RLTA recipient, and RLTA Summer Institute Facilitator) taught participants how to support students as they read graphic novels. Hannah designed this workshop for WITS mentors. It would also benefit anyone who reads with 3rd-8th graders in any setting.
Promoting Pro-social Behavior Through Literature
There are messages woven throughout books, and these messages can impact everyone who reads them. Though we may not realize what these messages are at first, they can be extremely powerful, especially for children who are still developing their own identities.
Explicit messages are easily identifiable. For example, the book It’s Okay to be Different by Todd Parr is explicitly telling readers to embrace their differences. Implicit messages are subtle and can be found within the context of the story, forcing the reader to interpret the message themselves. For example, the book This is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from Around the World by Matt Lamothe has a similar message of celebrating our differences, but readers have to dig deeper to find the meaning.
Children’s literature that promotes pro-social behavior towards people, animals, and the environment create messages that helps readers be more mindful, problem solve, and encourages community engagement.
Books with informative messages provide readers with important information about topics they may not be familiar with. After reading, engaging in conversation about these topics can help create a positive behavior change.
Books with aspirational messages provide an opportunity for children to see themselves in an expansive light. For example, they help students see who they can become in the future, learn about causes they want to champion, and learn about people they want emulate. Talking about these messages with students can help them grow as readers as well as in their own identities.
Learn more about this topic by checking out “Promoting Prosocial Behavior Through Literature,” facilitated by Courtney Jones, a Children’s Book Reviewer at Booklist, and Mickey Kudia, HEART Chicago program manager.