Paired Reading: A Effective Peer Tutoring Technique for Improving Literacy

1. Paired Reading: Background, Organisation & Technique Allen Thurston (Queen’s University Belfast) a.thurston@qub.ac.uk Maria Cockerill (Queen’s University Belfast) cockerill_maria@yahoo.co.uk

2. When have you used peer learning? • What subject? • Which years? • How did you form groups? • How did you structure interaction?

3. National and international significance • Literacy is a national concern • UK lagging behind OECD partners regarding young people’s social relationships • Sutton Report (2011) report on pupil premium identifies peer tutoring as an effective, low cost strategy to improve learning

4. Why bother? EEF Toolkit evidence

5. New version of toolkit - 2016 http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/

6. EEF evidence on peer tutoring • Low cost: i.e. £10-£20 per pupil plus staff training • High benefit: approx. five additional months’ progress • Highly recommended: disadvantaged pupils and low attaining groups benefit most.

7. Looking more closely: Two projects • Primary • Fife project: • 129 primary schools • Year 4,5, 6 and 7 • Significant benefit to reading

8. Looking more closely: Two projects • Secondary • North East England project: • 128 post-primary classes • Year 7 & 9 • Significant benefit to bottom 10% of Year 9 students specially

9. What is it? • Peer tutoring • A better reader reads with another child • Structured technique • Errors are corrected • Praise is given • Talk about books to promote understanding

10. What are we doing and why? What • Year 4s and Year 6s to read together in pairs Why • To improve reading skills • To gain confidence about reading and in speaking to new people For how long? • 30 minutes once per week • 12+ weeks

11. What to read • High interest • Books or magazines, newspapers, etc • From school, public library or home • Information as well as stories

12. Time and place • For each pair • Once a week • 30 minutes per session • Find a quiet place • Sit comfortably side by side

13. Materials • Readability • Books should not be so easy that the tutee could read them successfully alone, but not so hard that the tutor struggles to read them! • Choosing • Tutee selects • Sources • Reading scheme • School or public library • Home

14. Matching of students Reading ability gap • Background factors e.g. age • Relationships • Child preference • Spare tutors and tutees • Parental agreement

15. Matching of students Cross age Year 6 tutoring Year 4

16. Matching of students

17. Training Tutor and Tutees • Tell them • Demonstrate • Practice • Session 1-3: Introduce techniques • Session 4-12 • Coach • Give feedback • Advice in manual

18. Checking difficulty? 5 Finger Test • Spread 5 fingers and put them on any page to touch any 5 words • Can you read all the words successfully? • Try another three pages  20 words • Of the 20, the tutor should be able to read almost all successfully • The tutee should be able to read fewer! Check the book is at the right level!

19. Getting to know your partner Tutors: Help your tutees choose a book

20. How to do it?

21. Talk • Pause quite often to talk together about the book (words and pictures) - to make sure the tutee really understands it • How does the reading connect to their life? • Talk before, during and after reading • Ask questions and discuss the book • Advice follows……

22. Mistakes • If the tutee says a word wrong, the tutor waits for them to put it right (up to 4 seconds) • If they don’t put it right, the tutor says the word right, then the tutee repeats it correctly, then they carry on reading • Tutors remember - it's OK to say you don't know! Don't guess if you are not sure - try to find out

23. Praise • Praise for good reading of hard words or longer sections • Praise for the tutee putting their own mistake right before the tutor has to help • Praise very often, in different words • Praise, smile and sound as if you mean it! • Praise in the paired reading diary

24. Praise

25. Reading together • Start by reading together • On hard books and hard bits, read together • The tutor matches their reading speed to that of the tutee • Point to words only if you really need to

26. Reading alone • Agree on the tutee’s signal to read alone (tap, knock, nudge) • At that signal, the tutor praises and stops reading together

27. Mistakes in reading alone • If tutee puts it right in 4 seconds, tutor praises and tutee goes on reading alone • If the tutee doesn’t put it right in 4 seconds, the tutor reads the word, tutee repeats correctly, and pair go back to reading together • Later the tutee signals again when ready to read alone, and so on . . .

28. Tutoring cycle

29. In practice

30. In practice

31. Questioning • 4 levels of questioning • Help mats in manual • Photocopy/print and lie them out for students • Build them up slowly • Benefit to tutor and tutee • Both need to ask questions (mats for both) • Question time • Stop the class • Quiz time

32. Talking points • Thinking of the students you teach, how do you feel they may benefit?

33. Teacher views (n=62 respondents) Pairs worked well together most or all of the time 86% 6% 0%

34. Teacher perception of impact (n=62 respondents) • Improved confidence in reading • Improved communication skills 76% of teachers perceived impact as high “Year 7 grew in confidence talking with older students.” 77% of teachers perceived impact as high

35. Teacher perception of impact (n=62 respondents) • Improved relationships in the classroom • Improved attainment of reading 73% of teachers reported impact as high “The relationship between Y9s and Y7s has grown both inside and outside of the classroom.” 63% of teachers reported impact as high “Students with lower literacy attainment were choosing more difficult books to read and understanding them more with the help of a partner.”

36. Outcomes

37. Curriculum

38. Training, Resources and implementation issues

39. Support and monitoring • Resources • Manual, films, teaching power points • Tutoring templates • Observation • Teacher • students • Self-recording • Tutor & Tutees • Teacher

40. Paired Reading Log

41. How to do it?

42. Teacher Log

43. Peer Tutoring in Secondary Schools Paired Reading Sessions 5 - 12

44. Starter Activity

45. Get Ready! Remember what you need… • Book (and 5 finger test mat) • Peer Tutoring Checklist • Praise Card • Question mat • Paired Reading Log

46. Remember: use the checklist

47. Pre-reading Questions New book Talking about what you read last lesson • Who are the main characters? • Who is your favourite character? • What do you think will happen next? • Can you identify an interesting fact? • Why do you think the author wrote this? • Where is the book set? • Is it set in a real place? • When is it set? • Is it in the past, present or future? • Does it remind you of an event in your life? • Does it remind you of a feeling you have had? • Is there a theme or a moral? • Did the author have a message to convey? • What was fact and what was opinion? • How might the book help you in life? • How could the information help you? Use Question Mats & Top Tip: Write your own fantastic questions! • Why did you choose the book? • What do you think you will like about this book? • What kind of book have you chosen? • How hard do you think the book is? • What do you want to get from reading this? • What is the title, who is the author? • Does the cover tell us about the book? • What do you know about the topic?

48. Start by reading together

49. During-reading Questions Talking about what you are reading • What is this character like? • Who is your favourite character and why? • What do you think will happen next? • Can you identify an interesting fact? • Why do you think the author wrote this? • Does it remind you of an event in your life? What happened? • Does it remind you of a feeling you have had? Which one? • Is there a theme or a moral? • What is fact and what is opinion in this book? • How might the book help you in life? Use Question Mats

50. Continue reading together