What characteristics might Mrs. Garcia look for in a reading approach?
Page 1: Overview of PALS
As she reviews approaches for improving the reading skills of her ninth-grade students, Mrs. Garcia becomes particularly interested in Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies for reading (PALS-R or PALS). Modeled after ClassWide Peer Tutoring (CWPT), PALS complements the existing reading curriculum by providing research-validated learning strategies through reciprocal peer tutoring (i.e., peer-mediated instruction in which students in pairs take turns serving as a coach and as a reader). In the PALS approach, teachers team a higher-performing reader with a lower-performing one in order to complete activities designed to promote the development of reading skills. In addition to reciprocal peer tutoring, PALS incorporates:
ClassWide Peer Tutoring (CWPT)
Instructional program in which students in pairs take turns acting as the tutor; originally designed to address developmental goals among students, with or without disabilities, from low socioeconomic backgrounds.
- Highly structured activities that have been demonstrated to improve students’ learning
- The use of scripted prompts
- Frequent verbal interaction and feedback between the coach and reader
- A competitive game format
Listen now as Doug Fuchs discusses the development of PALS, and Karin Prentice highlights PALS intended purpose for high-school students who are struggling with reading.
Doug Fuchs, PhD
Nicholas Hobbs Endowed Chair
in Special Education and Human Development
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
(time: 0:55)
Karin Prentice
Former High-school PALS research coordinator
Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
(time: 0:27)
Transcript: Doug Fuchs, PhD
Researchers at Juniper Gardens children’s project in Kansas City, Kansas, resurrected a technique for involving all children in a given classroom that really goes back to almost the turn of the [twentieth] century but had been forgotten for a long time. And the Juniper Gardens folks called what they were about “class-wide peer tutoring.” They developed this really neat format for children working together simultaneously in this classroom. And we really liked the idea and saw that it had lots of potential. The specific activities that the Juniper Gardens folks had developed for class-wide peer tutoring, we thought, didn’t go far enough in terms of challenging the kids. And so, over a period of ten years, we’ve worked to create different activities that are higher level in terms of the cognitive press that they put on kids.
Transcript: Karin Prentice
PALS is obviously designed to build fluency and comprehension for students—especially in high school, where they’re lagging behind and they need something extra because what they’ve gotten so far has not worked for them. It was targeted for remedial reading classrooms and resource rooms, where students had poor reading skills. And, many times, those students would actually be more at an elementary-school reading level.
Though PALS was originally developed for use with students in grades two through six, it was later expanded to include a version for high-school students. The main features of the approach are largely the same with the exception of the type of reinforcement system used to motivate students. The table below briefly outlines the skills addressed for each group and the activities that are used to improve their reading skills.
| 2nd–6th Grades | High School | |
| Skills |
|
|
| Activities |
|
|
| Reinforcement |
|
|
For Your Information
Although no version of PALS is specifically designed for seventh- and eighth-grade students, teachers can use either PALS for grades 2–6 or PALS for high school.
Because Mrs. Garcia is interested in approaches appropriate for secondary students, this module will highlight PALS for high-school students. If you would like to learn more about PALS for other grade levels, we encourage you to take a look at this IRIS Module:
