What types of activities can Mrs. Garcia use to increase her students’ reading skills?
Page 4: Partner Reading with Retell
The first activity in each PALS session is Partner Reading, sometimes referred to as Partner Reading with Retell. Mrs. Garcia recognizes that this activity will be beneficial for her students because Partner Reading has been shown to improve reading accuracy and fluency and—with its story retelling component—to enhance reading comprehension. Partner Reading consists of the three main steps outlined in the box below.
| Partner Reading with Retell (12 minutes) |
|
Step 1. The higher-performing student reads first for five minutes. Step 2. Starting where the first reader left off, the lower-performing student reads for five minutes. Step 3. For two minutes, starting with the higher-performing student, the students take turns retelling the main ideas as they occur in the story. Note: Whatever text is selected for Partner Reading should be appropriate for the less-proficient student. |
Corrective Feedback
Partner Reading
During training, teachers should take care to emphasize that making mistakes is okay, because it’s by making mistakes that students will learn words they didn’t know. In addition, teachers should train the Coach to point out and correct word recognition errors as they occur.
Hard-Word Errors
When the Reader encounters a difficult word, the Coach says, “Stop. Do you need some help with that word?” Or the Reader says, “I need some help with this word.” The Coach encourages the Reader to:
- Look at the parts of the word.
- Say the word very slowly.
If the Reader continues to have difficulty, the Coach provides the word or the students ask the teacher for help.
Careless Mistakes
When the reader makes one of the careless errors listed below, the Coach says, “Stop. You made a careless mistake. Reread the sentence.”
- Leaving out a word
- Adding a word
- Saying the wrong word or word ending
Retell
It sometimes happens that a student will disagree with his or her partner’s retelling of a main idea. When this occurs, the students should pause, articulate their disagreement, and then resume the activity as normal.
PALS in Action
Once they have completed the Partner Reading activity, the students engage in Story Retell. Watch the movie below to see a student pair engaged in Partner Reading with Story Retell and a demonstration of error correction procedures. For the sake of time, the movie highlights only one student reading before it fades to Story Retell (time: 1:40).
Transcript: Partner Reading with Retell
Reader:
“Choose your battles wisely” is a popular phrase in parenting. But it is…it is also useful for anyone who wants to live a happy life. It means life is filled…filled with op…op…
Coach: “Stop. Do you need some help with that word?”
Reader: Yes.
Coach: “Look at the parts of the word and say the word slowly.”
Reader: “Opportunities.”
It means life is filled with opportunities to choose between making a big deal out of something or simply letting it go. If you choose your battles wisely, you’ll win the ones that are truly important. There will be times when you [omits word] want or need to argue.
Coach: “Stop. You made a careless error. Reread the sentence.”
Reader: There will be times when you will want or need to argue, confront, or even fight for something you believe in.
Reader: People who want to be happy should choose their battles wisely.
Coach: People who fight all the time are usually unhappy.
Reader: Um…there are lots of things in life you might not like.
Coach: If you decide which battles are worth fighting, your life will be less stressful.
(Story text from Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies [PALS] for High School Students, by L. S. Fuchs, D. Fuchs, S. Kazdan, P. Mathes, and L. Saenz, 1997, pp. A-13a–A-13b)
