Select mentors

• Explain and follow ethical guidelines required.
• Consider carefully what part the mentor will play in the project: a male role model, an academic tutor, an informal literacy mentor, or a facilitator of games and recreational activities.
• Look for mentors via information meetings, notices and through community clubs or university teams.
• Select mentors from already existing organizations or institutions. This is helpful as these groups include individuals who have demonstrated that they are capable of commitment.
• Be prepared to provide mentors with educational sessions on project expectations.
• Continue to support mentors at the school or community site.
• Continue to get feedback from community or school.

Prepare literacy mentors

• Prepare literacy mentors with foundational knowledge of literacy education models; transmission, transaction, transformation.
• Introduce theoretical perspectives on reading; modernist, transactional and critical theories (Serafini, 2000) (do workshops).
• Prepare or find excellent literacy responses and activities for use by the mentors. For example, the mentor log and student response log contributed greatly to the success of the male mentor reading program.
• Be sure that mentors understand the various genres or type of text that they are using (e.g. biography).
• Develop concept webs on the various types of text/story structure, with the mentors.
• Expand the Read Aloud or text collection.
• Select books for the collection that have issues: friendship, families, poverty, racism, literacy, disabilities, and abilities (books that will encourage higher level thinking skills).
• Expand critical literacy response activities.
• Hold focus group sessions with mentors on a regular basis.