LAWRENCEVILLE, NJ -- For Dr. Susan Mandel Glazer, Rider University's internationally-known reading specialist, training 12-, 13-, 14-, and 15- year old youngsters to work with pre-school children to prepare them to learn to read in school is one of the most unique concepts she has encountered.

Dr. Glazer, professor of graduate education, director of Rider's Center for Reading and Writing, and past president of the International Reading Association, is working in partnership with the Pearl S. Buck Foundation to direct its Project Literacy program in the Trenton After School Program at Trinity Cathedral.

"This is an amazing process and one of the most rewarding in my professional career," she said.  "It is amazing because when the project started the caregivers were to be adults, hopefully parents. That situation just did not work."

Tina Blackledge, director of the After School Program, suggested the young teens as a good alternative. After all, they were part of a leadership training program and working with pre-schoolers would be a wonderful experience.

Dr. Glazer agreed and the recourse was to use these young volunteers. They have not missed a session and have made this pilot project one of a kind.

The program is designed to train caregivers to teach young children to get ready to read so they are able to handle kindergarten and first grade. One of Dr. Glazer's main responsibilities -- besides developing this program in Trenton -- is to write a series of mini-books to instruct caregivers how to use various techniques in giving children the foundations necessary to learn how to read.

So, being resourceful and with some trepidation, Dr. Glazer decided to bring in the older children, five boys and eight girls, to work with the pre-schoolers.

"I didn't know what to expect. Training these young teens is a lot of work because we are dealing with adolescent personalities, but it has turned out to be very rewarding. They are so enthusiastic and making such a difference. This experience may help them one day become better parents," she said.

She said it is a significant volunteer effort on their part. The young teens are asked not to miss any of the twice weekly sessions (Mondays and Thursdays, 4-5 p.m.) for the program that began in February and will end in late May. Before that, Dr. Glazer had them attend training sessions in December and January so they would be prepared to work with the children.

"I have nothing but praise for the commitment they have made," said Dr. Glazer, who earlier this year visited Guatemalan schools where she observed schools with chicken wire walls, dirt floors, chickens walking around the classrooms, yet children writing journals and books.

The teen volunteers find the experience rewarding. Tawanda, 15, says she enjoys "working with the kids. It is important to have them pay attention. We must ask them what the book is about." Salama, 13, adds it "takes time and a lot of patience" teaching the children. And Davon, 13, echoed some of Dr. Glazer's feelings when he said, "Now I will know how to teach my own children when I grow up."

To prepare for the Pearl S. Buck Foundation's Project Literacy at the cathedral, Dr. Glazer's staff, which includes Phyllis Fantauzzo (assistant director of the Center for Reading and Writing) and Eileen Burke (literature consultant), identified 48 books within groups of concepts children need to know for school.

These concepts are divided into four categories -- (1) what children need to know for living in schools (letters and numbers, shapes, quantities, colors, using language); (2) personal things to know in and out of school (about oneself, relationships of family members, names of clothing, names of household items, foods, names and purposes of places, dealing with feelings, history and culture); (3) things to know about working with people (making friends, following rules and directions, being a team member); and (4) things to know about the world (weather, time, labels and captions, communities, getting around, plants and animals, and technology).

"Books are selected based on availability to parents or represent the types of books parents can obtain to accomplish the same training," said Dr. Glazer. "The lesson I present is important. I have three graduate students assist me to oversee the young teens work with the children and to record notes of each session for my mini-books."

Each week Dr. Glazer selects a book for the teens to use and has them present the story to the pre-schoolers. When the pre-schoolers enter the room, the teens pair off with their child to review previous weeks' books for 15 minutes. The children munch on some cookies.

Then Dr. Glazer has everyone sit in a circle on the floor for the day's lesson. In one recent session the lesson was a person's five senses. She reads the book, "My Five Senses," by Aliki (author uses one name) and has them repeat sections after her. Then there is a tape recording of sounds for the children to hear and guess the sound, a bag of things to touch and guess what they are, a jar of vinegar and an onion to smell, and so on. For another week's lesson, "Brown, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" by Bill Martin Jr. was the book selection. The purpose of the book is the teaching and review of colors.

The 30-minute lessons are fast-paced. Everyone listens and participates -- the teen volunteers and graduate students make sure of that.

When this project began, Dr. Glazer, who has spoken on teaching reading in 49 states of the union (except Alaska) and 21countries abroad and who served as president of the 450,000-member IRA in 1994-95, envisioned training adults to work with the children. However, training teen volunteers to do the same thing became the challenge. And it appears to be working.

"The uniqueness of this program is that it can be used by caregivers of any age to teach children the concepts they need to read in school," she said.