This manual is intended to assist school personnel in their efforts to initiate effective reading tutoring programs to help children in the early grades (generally, grades K-3) who lack the literacy skills required to be successful students. This manual can be used by program coordinators to help volunteer tutors who may not have had formal training in teaching literacy. Effort has been made to explain how children learn to read and to present instructional strategies and activities in a user-friendly way. Section I (Characteristics of Effective Tutoring Programs) highlights program components essential for ensuring that students learn to read; Section 2 (Getting Started: Selecting Students for Tutoring and Recruiting Effective Tutors) gives suggestions for selecting students for tutoring and the recruitment and characteristics of effective tutors; Section 3 (A Model for Training Tutors) presents a model for training volunteers to be successful reading tutors, including developmental learning activities appropriate for children at the emergent and beginning stages of literacy development, planning lessons, and recording progress; and Section 4 (Tutoring Resources) provides a glossary of terms, book lists, and related program and teaching resources. Contains 24 references. Attached are 15 two-page activity sheets that address reading, writing, and word study skills. (RS)