Search results

Eleanor Kalejs talks about working from 1999 to 2014 as the tutor/student coordinator for the BoulderReads literacy program. She discusses training tutors in literacy education methods, matching tutors and students, what motivated students to want to improve their literacy skills, how BoulderReads met their needs, and the transition to working extensively with second language learners. Other topics include reading, writing, and ESL proficiency assessments; specific programs that BoulderReads implemented, and her reflections about the importance of the program and the ways in which working for it was satisfying for her.

Diana Sherry talks about the founding, development, and accomplishments of the BoulderReads adult literacy program, which she ran for twenty-six years. She details some of the specific subprograms and events that she and her staff developed over the years, which contributed to the program’s success: GED classes, literacy tutoring for jail inmates, the Picturing Writing program for adult-literacy students at the library and at the jail, Reading Progress Celebrations, Discoveries publications, Reading Buddies, Read to the Dog, the Outstanding Adult Learner Award, and the Janet Driscoll Turner Award. She tells many inspiring, illuminating stories about BoulderReads students. She praises the institutional support the BoulderReads program received from the Boulder Public Library, the Boulder Library Foundation, the Boulder County Commissioners, and a variety of foundations. She also calls attention to the tremendous support of BoulderReads staff members, volunteers (including some she mentions by name), former library director Marcelee Gralapp, former Library Foundation president Doris Hass, and others. She discusses both the pedagogical approaches that BoulderReads has used as well as the fundraising challenges and techniques that contributed to keeping the program going and growing. She also talks about the impact of the Boulder Rotary Club, which sponsored the Outstanding Adult Learner award and worked with Diana Sherry to bring Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program to Boulder.

Laurie Watkins talks about her work with the BoulderReads program, where she first worked as a volunteer tutor and then as a paid administrator from 1996 until 2016. She describes her role as administrator, discusses the economic structure of the program and how it evolved, and details the many sub-programs that BoulderReads offered in addition to one-on-one tutoring, such as GED programs, tutoring in the Boulder County jail, the Reading Buddies program, the Read to the Dog program, the Picturing Writing program and others. She stresses the individualization of the program, which is oriented toward meeting student-defined goals. She talks about change in the program over time from mostly serving native-English speakers to serving many ESL students. She ends by describing the Boulder Library Home Delivery program for which she has volunteered since retiring.