About Us
Our Story
22 Years of Experience
Our founder, David Polacheck has experience in adult literacy tutoring going back to 1998, while two of our board members, Karen and Angeliska Polacheck have extensive teaching experience.
A Family Passion
We are an organization and a family. Read Now is run by the Polachecks, a husband (David), wife (Karen), daughter (Angeliska), brother (Jon) team along with an ever growing group of volunteer tutors.
A Proven Methodology
Our teaching methodology is unique to Read Now and is based in part on the Learning Interactive Constructivist Principles of Dr. Dee Tadlock.
An App for That
Conceived of in 2010 to assist students in at home silent reading practice, the Silent Reading Teacher application is now an integral part of the Read Now teaching strategy.
Behind How Our Program Works
Listen to Our Methodology
Our Methodology Transcript:
The Read Now methodology is based on the insight of Dr Dee Tadlock that silent reading is a cognitive function and not a linguistic one. To be more specific, decoding, or sounding out words is not the reading strategy that effective readers use. If you reflect on your own experience of reading, you will realize that when you are engrossed in text, you are not conscious of marks on paper; instead, you experience something like a mental movie of the content you are interacting with. It is not something that you think about while you are doing it, and if you try to think about it, you realize you can no longer do it. This means that effective silent reading is a procedural memory skill, like riding a bicycle, driving a car or playing a musical instrument.
Procedural memory skills are not memorized, like facts, but are practiced to obtain mastery. If you think back to all the procedural memory skills you have learned, you will see a consistent pattern. First, you observe the skill being done. Second, you try again and again, recognizing when you are off track, but not giving up. Finally, the neural network needed to perform the skill is established. The Read Now methodology is based on these concepts and gives the student the guidance that helps them to develop the skills needed to be an effective reader in a relatively short period of time.
Our Beginning
Listen to Our History
Our History Transcript:
Read Now was initiated in 2018. It developed out of a history that David Polacheck had with a succession of other non profit entities. As all of the previous efforts had limitations to the literacy effort that David had dreamed of. His daughter, Angeliska encouraged him to start Read Now to realize his vision of offering free, effective help for adults with reading problems. David’s methodology became so effective during his previous literacy work, that Read Now made it feasible to offer it much more widely.
The board has smoothly worked together as a team to utilize their different skills to realize a common purpose. Jon has provided IT support in many ways. Karen has been with the program every step of the way, including administrative work, graphic design and execution and much needed transportation (David no longer drives) along with unflagging support and encouragement.
Our long term goal is to make a real difference in the community as far as eliminating reading problems and promoting textual literacy.
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Karen recognized that our vision had to do with the fact that we are all “book worms” with a deep founded love for reading. Her painting of the book worm and the book inspired the first Read Now logo.
Our Team
David Polacheck
Director - Founding Member
David Polacheck, our founder, has a background in the volunteer adult literacy tutoring going back to 1998. He has worked with several nonprofit organizations, established Read Now in 2018 and is the creator of Read Now‘s amazingly successful teaching methodology.
Karen Polacheck
Member of the Board
Karen Polacheck is a founding member of the board. She holds an LMSW degree, and has 33 years of experience as a crisis counselor for the University of Texas. She is a certified Secondary Art Teacher and is an artist and former Art Therapist. She has many years of social activism and volunteerism.
Angeliska Polacheck
Member of the Board
Angeliska Polacheck is spiritual counselor and writer who is passionate about reading. A native Austinite, Angeliska is deeply committed to serving her community. She lives in East Austin, with a small menagerie of big dogs and regular sized cats, many fruit and pecan trees, and the occasional barred owl.Â
Jon Polacheck
Member of the Board - IT
Jonathan Polacheck is an IT professional and the author of the original Reading Teacher web page, an open source project to bring the Read Now teaching method to the World Wide Web.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you have questions? Check out our FAQ page, or send us a message anytime using the contact information below.