• PALS: A Reading Strategy for Grades K–1 (Archived)
Challenge
Initial Thoughts
Wrap Up
Assessment

How can the teachers at Washington Elementary implement these activities?

Page 8: Implement with Class

Collage of paired studentsAfter they’ve been trained, students should be ready to independently implement PALS. Though students in both grades will engage in PALS sessions three times a week, the length of those sessions varies: kindergarten sessions are 20 minutes, and first-grade sessions are 35–40 minutes. (This includes both the teacher-led and peer-partner activities.) In order to create a consistent and predictable schedule for their students, the teachers at Washington Elementary conduct PALS sessions during their daily reading times. They implement PALS at the same time and on the same days each week. For example, Mrs. Doris conducts PALS from 10:00 to 10:20 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

As for the actual implementation, several notable differences between the two grade levels regarding teacher-led instruction, student responsibilities, and implementation tips are worth exploring. Click the links below for more details.

K-PALS Implementation

K-PALS Implementation
Teacher-led Instruction
  • During each session, the teacher leads the students through the Sound Play activity, which may address sound identification, rhyming, blending sounds and segmenting words.
  • During each session, the teacher introduces the Sounds and Words activity, reminding students about K-PALS procedures they will use during paired activities. The teacher completes the lesson sheet at least one time acting as the Coach while the students (i.e., Readers) respond in unison.
Student Implementation Roles:

  • The higher-performing student:
    • Acts as Coach first (to provide guidance)
    • Gets and returns PALS folders
  • The lower-performing student:
    • Serves as Reader first
    • Gets and returns pencils

Procedures:

  • Each time the Reader completes a Sounds and Words task, the Coach marks one happy face. Then the students switch roles and repeat the process.
  • The students repeat each task at least four times (i.e., two times per student).
Implementation Tips
  • The Sound Play and Sounds and Words lessons correspond and should be completed in the same session.
  • Because students’ ability levels vary, pairs may work on different lessons. However, because the teacher-led Sound Play activities correspond to the Sound and Word activities, it is recommended that most students work on the same lesson.

First-Grade PALS Implementation

First-Grade PALS Implementation
Teacher-led Instruction During each session, the teacher conducts approximately five minutes of whole-group instruction to:

  • Introduce new sounds, sight words, and rocket words,
  • Review old rocket words
  • Provide a fluent reading model by reading the story aloud
  • Lead a blending and segmenting activity using words from the lesson
Student Implementation Roles:

  • The higher-performing student:
    • Acts as Coach first
    • Reads first during the Partner Reading activity
  • The lower-performing student:
    • Serves as Reader first
    • Reads first in the Sounds and Words games

Procedures:

  • Each time the Reader completes a section of the lesson sheet, the Coach marks one happy face and five points. Then the students switch roles and repeat the process.
  • When the Reader completes a book, the Coach marks five points. Then the students switch roles and repeat the process. The students read the book at least four times (i.e., two times per student).
Implementation Tips
  • Because students’ ability levels will vary, pairs may work on different lessons. However, it is recommended that most students work on the same lesson.

Nichole Lawson emphasizes that consistency is a key to the successful implementation of PALS (time: 0:38).

Nichole Lawson

Nichole Lawson
First-grade (and former kindergarten) teacher, Interdistrict Downtown School
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Transcript

Transcript: Nichole Lawson

This year my scores in first grade were awesome. All of the students made great gains, and the thing I attributed it to is being consistent. On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I knew what I was doing. I was prepared. I was organized. The students grew accustomed to it. They knew at nine o’clock it was time for PALS. No matter what else was going on, we always did PALS at nine o’clock. So consistency is the key. The students caught on quickly, and they loved it. They actually look forward to PALS. I remember there were a couple of days where we couldn’t do PALS because of field trips or guest speakers, and they were disappointed. It just made me glad to know that they look forward to doing PALS.

Activity

As the teachers at Washington Elementary School were researching K-PALS and first-grade PALS, they watched this video of two students engaged in a PALS activity. Help them answer the questions below (time: 0:23).

    1. What is the Coaches role?
    2. Describe two things the students will do next.
    3. Why do the students switch roles?
    4. Were another student to join the pair, describe what the session might look like.

Transcript: PALS Activity

Student in white: Read the word slowly.

Student in red: /s/ /a/ /t/.

Student in white: What word?

Student in red: Sat.

Student in white: Read the word slowly.

Student in red: /m/ /a/ /t/.

Student in white: What word?

Student in red: Mat.

Student in white: Read the word slowly.

Student in red: /c/ /a/ /t/.

Student in white: What word?

Student in red: Cat.

Monitoring

palsK1_08_monitorDuring every session, teachers should take care to spend time monitoring each student pair. As the teacher moves about the classroom, he or she should provide corrective feedback and remind students to use the correction procedures. During this time, the teacher may award bonus points to those students who work together in a cooperative manner, stay on task, and use PALS procedures correctly.

Devin Kearns discusses considerations for teachers who notice that students are not mastering the concepts presented in a lesson. Next, Stephanie Johnson describes how she monitors her kindergarten class during PALS and what she looks for as she observes each pair.

Devin Kearns

 

Devin Kearns, MA
PALS trainer
Vanderbilt University

(time: 0:32)

Transcript

Stephanie Johnson

Stephanie Johnson
Kindergarten teacher, Westwood Elementary School
Bloomington, Minnesota

(time: 1:00)

Transcript

Transcript: Devin Kearns, MA

It’s important not to go too slowly in PALS, but it’s also important to remember that if students are really struggling with a lesson it’s okay to do it again. You can do the same lesson for two different days if you really feel like students need the extra practice with a certain skill. But also we encourage you not to go too slowly because students will get bored and you can end up holding them back. If you have one or two particular students who are falling behind, it’s okay to give them an earlier lesson than their partner. That’s a great way to adjust for students’ levels.

Transcript: Stephanie Johnson

When I am monitoring the students during K-PALS, I am just going right through the room to make sure that everyone is on track, and if I see anyone struggling personality-wise, struggling with whose turn it is to cross off the smiley face, anything like that. So I see each pair every day. Then at the end when the bell rings, they’ve got their folders open, and I can look at each folder and see are they stuck on their sounds, are they not getting through their sounds to the rest of the sections. So I can go through as I’m monitoring daily and see who is getting through the sections, who is not getting through the sections. If I see a pair that isn’t getting through a section, I know that they’re struggling with something, and so I kind of pay special attention, watch them for a little while to make sure they’re using the language and make sure that they are following through on everything and not struggling over whose marker it is or what page they’re on.

Research Shows

  • Teachers and students are able to implement the PALS approach with fidelity.
    (Fuchs, Fuchs, Thompson, Al Otaiba, Yen, Yang, Braun, & O’Connor, 2001; Fuchs & Fuchs, 2005)
  • Teachers report that:
    • They enjoyed implementing PALS and were very satisfied with the approach.
      (Calhoon, Al Otaiba, Greenberg, King, & Avalos, 2006; Fuchs & Fuchs, 2005)
    • Their students worked hard during PALS sessions.
      (Calhoon, Al Otaiba, Greenberg, King, & Avalos, 2006)
    • K-PALS fit nicely into the “existing language arts program and required little preparation time.”
      (McMaster, Kung, Han, & Cao, 2008)
  • Students in PALS classrooms, report that they enjoy the activities, like working in pairs, and believe that they can read better.
    (Calhoon, Al Otaiba, Greenberg, King, & Avalos, 2006)

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