Briefing session on setting up a Reading Pals Program in school

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Briefing session on setting up a Reading Pals
Program in school

• 4 October 2008

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Run-down
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SBA
Extra reading time
fiction and non-fiction
Reading strategies
discussion
individual presentations
Low voice
Flat tone
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READING PALS PROGRAM
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Reading Pals Program is
a cross-age tutoring program in which an older
student, with teachers guidance, reads to a
younger student.

• .

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Reading Pals Program Objectives
Students helping students to become better
readers

• To extend students reading time outside the
  classroom
• To provide opportunities for students to practice
  reading strategies when they read
• To establish a friendly relationship between the
  tutors and the tutees

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Expected outcomesfor tutors

• By reading aloud to tutees regularly, tutors will
  have a better reading fluency.
• They will also practice reading strategies more
  often
• Their communication skills and social skills will
  be enhanced.

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Expected outcomesfor tutees

• They will practice reading and listening skills
  more often
• They will enjoy reading more

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Schools participated in 07-08

• St Louis School
• HHCKLA Buddhist Ching Kok Secondary School
• Tin Ka Ping Secondary School

Ho Yu College
CCC Kei Chi Secondary School
SKH Lam Woo Memorial Sec School
Liu Po Shan Memorial College
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Schools participated in 08-09

• St Louis School
• St Joan of Arc Secondary School
• Tin Ka Ping Secondary School

SKH Lam Woo Memorial Sec School
Ho Yu College
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T.W.G.Hs. Li Ka Shing College Fanling
Government Primary School
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Background

• Low writing motivation
• Weak and shy in speaking

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What is Project WISE
Writing Interesting Stories in English
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Why Project WISE

• Giving students a purpose of writing
• Providing students with a real audience when they
  read the story to junior students
• Allowing students to create their own stories
• Encouraging students to work collaboratively

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How did we do it?
Textbook Unit Mystery
Generating Ideas with Mind Map
Language and vocabulary input
Writing draft, revising and editing
Publishing
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Speaking

• Demonstrating the reading of sample readers
  students work by the teacher
• Highlighting pronunciation, stress,
  intonation, facial expression, body gestureetc

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Checking classmates storytelling skills and vote
for the best three
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Preparation for unexpected scenarios
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Our show time will be on 23/4/07. See you there!
Hurray!
Thank you!
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Results

• Improving the confidence in students reading,
  writing speaking abilities
• Internalizing the 5 stages of process writing in
  students own writing in future

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Generating ideas with Mind Map
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Peer review form
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Students work
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Publishing students work
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(No Transcript)
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• St. Louis SchoolReading Pals Program

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Infusing reading strategies into the formal
curriculum
Explicit Teaching of Reading Strategies Noticing
text structure Making predictions Making
inferences Visualisation Making
comparisons Making connections
Suitable reading materials
S 1 Stories
S 2 Pop culture texts
S 3 Social-issues texts
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Students seldom read outside the classroom
Students dont have enough opportunities to read
aloud
There is no effective co-curricular activity that
promotes reading and speaking
Extending students reading to the informal
curriculum
Setting up a reading program and using reading
stories as an entry point
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Aligning the formal and informal curriculum
Informal Curriculum
Formal Curriculum
Reading Strategies Story-telling skills Reading
aloud skills
We are the tutors of the Reading Pals
Program!!!
Explicit teaching of reading strategies
Reading Pals program
developing skills for SBA
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Student Training
8 Training sessions based on a training CD rom

• 1. Purpose setting
• Roles and responsibilities
• Setting goals

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Student Training

• 2. Reading strategies
• doing a picture walk
• making predictions
• making connections
• questioning
• using pictorial cues

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Learning how to do a picture walk
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Student Training

• 3. Reading aloud skills
• Delivery
• reading with appropriate expression, phrasing and
  pace
• voice projection

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Engaging in speaking activities
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Practice and Role-plays
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Student Training

• 4. Post-reading stage
• Post-reading tasks
• Giving feedback

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Post-reading tasks
Designing a new book cover
Drawing a favourite character
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Giving feedback
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Post-reading session discussion
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Post-reading session discussion
handout
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What is a reading session like?
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Run-down of the program
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Reading Sessions
Doing a picture walk Activating prior
knowledge Questioning Using pictorial cues Making
predictions
Learning
Guessing word meanings with contextual
clues Encouraging participation with positive
feedback Making connections
Genuine communication
Reading with appropriate expression, phrasing and
pace Good use of voice
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Tutees post-reading tasks
Designing bookmarks
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Tutees work
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Tutees work
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Impact on the tutors

• They have learned various reading strategies.
• They can apply what they have learned from the
  program in their lessons.
• They enjoy being in the program.
• They will take part in the program next year.

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School context HHCKLA Buddhist Ching Kok Sec.
School
F.4 students need more practice with reading
aloud skills to improve their pronunciation,
intonation and expressions.
Some F.1 students have poor reading skills. They
need extra reading time and individualised
instructions
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Preparation work for Reading Pals Program

• Communicating with parents
• Recruiting tutors and tutees
• Choosing books for tutees
• Finding regular time and place for regular
  meetings
• Matching tutors and tutees
• Doing fluency pre-test using running records

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Good illustrations
Dialogues
Short simplesentences
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What is fluency?

• Fluent reading comprises three key elements
  accurate reading of connected text at a
  conversational rate with appropriate prosody or
  expression.
• (Hudson, Mercer, Lane, 2000.Exploring reading
  fluency a paradigmatic overview. Unpublished
  manuscript, University of Florida, Gainesville)

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Running Records
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A visit to a primary school
Simple questions
Gestures
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Service learning
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Results of fluency tests
w/m words per minute
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Fluency pre-test
Fluency post-test
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Your choice
WIN WIN
Different time slot
Different abilities
Different objectives
Different elements
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How to set up a reading pals program?
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How to set up a reading pals program?
Different strengths weaknesses
Different ability groups
Different manpower and time
Different goals
Different needs
Different versions
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How to set up a reading pals program?
Set goals and choose learning objectives
Decide how to evaluate the program
Decide who will be involved in tutoring
Decide how to monitor the program
Decide when tutoring will take place
Language Support Officers
Decide on tutoring materials, procedures and
strategies
Schedule the tutoring sessions
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How to set up a reading pals program?
Training CD Rom

• Introduction of reading strategies
• Training video clips
• Training tools lesson plans and T/L materials
• Preparation tools
• Evaluation tools

CD Rom
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Introduction of Reading Strategies
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Training videos
Lesson plans and materials
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Lesson plans and T/L materials

• Lesson 1 Setting purpose and confidence building
  
  
  
  
• Lesson 2 Conducting a picture walk
• Lesson 3 Using pictorial cues and questioning
• Lesson 4 Reading with appropriate expression
• Lesson 5 Reading with smoothness phrasing
• Lesson 6 Dealing with unexpected scenarios

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Booklet for Tutees
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Booklet for Tutees
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Booklet for Tutees
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Booklet for Tutors
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Booklet for Tutors
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Booklet for Tutors
Post-reading activities
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Evaluation Tools
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Letters to parents
Certificates for tutors
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Reference materials

• non-exhaustive
• to be adapted
• some essential knowledge and skills needed for
  effective story-tellers

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Let's play a game!
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Sharing Smarties
Sharing about..

• Red what you will do after the workshop today
• Blue a movie you watched in the summer
• Green one interesting thing you did in the
  summer
• Yellow one thing you really want to do this
  year
• Orange one thing youre worried about this year
• Purple one thing you wanted to do but didnt in
  the summer

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Lesson 1Setting purpose and confidence building
Getting to know one another

• an ice-breaking game
• played after the teacher welcomes the tutors
• let tutors nominate a group leader
• use different prompts

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Sharing Smarties
Sharing about..

• Red one teacher at school you like most
• Blue a TV programme you like most
• Green your favourite hobby
• Yellow your favourite singer
• Orange your favourite sport
• Purple one subject you dont like

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Understanding how the tutoring program operates
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Understanding their roles as tutors in the
program?
qualities?

• a storyteller
• a tutor
• a helper
• a friend
• a role model

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Building up a good relationship with tutees
Remember 2 E 2 F 2 P

• Be encouraging
• Be empathetic
• Be friendly
• Be flexible
• Be positive
• Be patient

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Dont.

• put your tutees on the spot
• give negative feedback to your tutees
• punish your tutees
• shout at or scold your tutees

How?
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Understanding their roles as tutors in the
program?
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Building a good relationship with tutees
Role-play cards
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Confidence building
Will I be able to be a tutor?

• Training sessions for tutors
• Teacher support
• Another schools experience
• Encouragement from teachers

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Sharing another schools experience
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Program Pledge
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Program Pledge
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Break
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Good Reading Buddies

• Picture walk
• Making predictions
• Using pictorial cues
• Questioning
• Making connections

The next step. Teaching reading strategies
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What is picture walk?
Lesson 2

• pre-reading reading strategy arousing readers
  interest
• helps readers think about
• - what can be seen on the book cover
• book concepts
• - what they already know about things in the
  story
• activating prior knowledge
• - what is happening in book
• interpreting pictures
• - what the book is about based on picture cues
• making predictions
• - how the book is relevant to them or life
  experience
• making connections

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Picture Walk
Arouse interest
Make predictions
Activate prior knowledge
Make connections
Interpret pictures
Encourage participation
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How to do a picture walk?

• Look at the book cover and read the title
• Flip through the book without reading the
  words
• Ask questions about the pictures in the book
• Elicit responses based on the images instead of
  words

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How to do a picture walk?

• Clip 1 Doing a picture walk using the book
  cover
• What are the questions used?
• Clip2 Doing a picture walk using the book
  content
• What are the questions used?

Activity 1 Handout
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Activity 1 Handout
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What are the questions used in clip 1?

• Book concepts
• Can you tell me the title of this book?
• Who is the author?
• Who is the illustrator?
• Interpreting pictures
• Where are they? Whats going on?
• What are the mouse and rabbit doing?
• Making connections
• Do you sweep the floor at home?
• Making predictions
• What do you think might happen in the story?

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What are the questions used in clip 2?

• Book title
• Can you tell me the title of the story?
• Making predictions
• What do you think the story is going to be about?
• What do you think it is going to happen next?
• Interpreting pictures
• Look at these pictures. What do you think the
  people are feeling?
• In this picture, what do you think they are
  doing?
• How can you tell?
• Making connections
• Is that what you would do?

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Story books for training purposes
Practice doing a picture walk
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Skills involved in conducting a picture walk

• To create interest in reading stories or texts
• Let's look at the front cover. What do you
  think this story is about?
• It seems the book is about ___________. What do
  you want to know about _________?

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Skills involved in conducting a picture walk

• To activate prior knowledge
• What do you know about ____________?
• Have you read something similar before?
• Have you heard of something similar before?

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Skills involved in conducting a picture walk

• To interpret pictures during pre-reading
• Whats happening here?
• What do you see?
• How about this page? What do you see? What do you
  think is happening?

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Skills involved in conducting a picture walk

• To connect pictures to personal experiences
• Have you had a similar experience?
• What do you usually do when you ________?
• Do you have any _________ ?

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Skills involved in conducting a picture walk
To elicit readers responses on the possible
development of the text

• What do you think will happen next?
• What do you think might happen in the story
  /in the end?
• Here we are almost at the end of the book.
  How will the story end?

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Skills involved in conducting a picture walk

• To encourage active participation
• Thats very possible!
• Good try! Maybe you are right!
• Are you sure about that? Lets see if you are
  right!

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Using pictorial cues and questioning
Lesson 3
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Using pictorial cues in reading

• a very important part of learning to read.
• help readers develop comprehension.
• help readers make sense of what they read.
• help readers make predictions, e.g. what will
  happen next, or what the words may mean.

Picture cues in reading
Picture Walk
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Picture walk VS Picture cues in reading

• While-reading strategy
• Involves reading
• Pictures are used to make sense of the text

• Pre-reading strategy
• Doesnt involve words

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How to use pictorial cues to ask questions?

• Choose pictures with good clues
• Stop at appropriate places to ask questions
  about
• the characters
• the likely development of the story
• word meanings (for more able students)
• Ask students where they got such ideas
• Guide them to relate their answers to the
  pictorial cues.

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Training clips How to use pictorial cues to ask
questions?

• Video clip 3
• Picture cue (bag) what will the fox do?
• Picture cue (trees) where will the fox take the
  rabbits and mouse?
• Video clip 4
• Picture cue (face) how did the pied piper feel?

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Questioning Tips in setting questions
?
?

• questions based on tutees responsiveness
• too many questions based on one picture
• too difficult to answer
• questions based on weak picture cues

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?
?
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Teaching Demo Asking questions based on strong
pictorial cues
Little Red Hen wanted to water her apple tree.
Who can help me water the tree? she asked her
friends.
The hen is asking her friends for help. Do you
think her friends will help her? How do you know?
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Teaching Demo Asking questions based on weak
pictorial cues
The Little Red Hen had a garden. She was very
proud of her garden and loved working there. In
the garden there was an apple tree. It was Little
Red Hens favourite tree, and she looked after it
very well.
What do you think Little Red Hen will do
next? What do you think will happen next? Why
isnt there any apple on the tree?
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Tips in setting questions

• Start with the five W and one H questions
  words.
• Pay attention to the use of tenses.
• Form questions with the help of the question
  creation chart.

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Question creation chart
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Practice forming questions
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Modifying questions based on tutees responses

• Encourage tutees participation
• Build up tutees confidence through easier
  questions
• Narrow down questions by using close-ended
  questions
• Use open-ended questions when they are more ready
• Allow wait time
• Give obvious clues

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How to modify questions?

• Gingerbread man

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(No Transcript)
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(No Transcript)
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How to modify questions?

• Tutor What do you think the Gingerbread Man
  will do?
• Tutee Hmm
• Tutor Do you think the Gingerbread Man will
  believe in the wolf?
• Tutee Hmm.
• Tutor Is the wolf nice to the Gingerbread Man?
• Tutee Yes.
• Tutor Yes. The wolf is nice. He said something
  nice about the
• Gingerbread Man, right?
• Tutee Yes
• Tutor What did the wolf say to the Gingerbread
  Man? Look
• at the picture on p.13.
• Tutee He can help him.
• Tutor Yes, he can help him cross the river.
  How about P.14 here?
• What did the wolf say to him?
• Tutee He is clever. He is fast.
• Tutor Very good! So do you think the
  Gingerbread Man will
• believe in him?
• Tutee Yes because he is nice to the Gingerbread
  Man.

Close-ended questions
Prompt
Picture cue
Follow-up question
Comprehension check
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Questions for post-reading

• Do you like the story/book? Why or why not?
• Do you like the character? Why or why not?
• Do you like the ending? Why or why not?
• Will you tell your classmates it is a good book?
  Why?
• Which part of the story do you like most? Why?

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More challenging questions

• Was it a good idea for the character to do that?
  If you were the character, what would you do?
• How would you end the story if you were the
  author?
• What is the moral of the story?
• Have you had a similar experience to the
  character?
• Have you read anything similar to this book? What
  was it about?

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What other skills should tutors be equipped with?
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Student training (contd)

• Reading strategies to help tutees read
• Reading aloud skills for effective and
  interesting delivery

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Lessons 4 5

• Delivery read with appropriate expression,
  volume, phrasing and pace,

Shouting Partners
OH !
Typhoon coming
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Lessons 4 5

• Delivery read with appropriate expression,
  volume, phrasing and pace,

Shouting Partners
OH !
Reading with expression
Typhoon coming
Monitoring speed
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Lesson 6

• Handling difficult situations
• tutees voice too soft
• tutee asks questions in Cantonese,
• the book is too hard for tutee
• etc

How do you say this in English?
What is the meaning of this word?
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Activity (Difficult Situations)
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Post-reading activities
Graded activities
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(No Transcript)
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Activity (Oh! Game)
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Tips for setting up a cross-age tutoring program
in school
Preparation stage

• Communicate with the tutors, tutees and the
  parents
• Teachers-in-charge Partnership ( e.g. NET
  local teacher)
• Criteria for choosing tutors and tutees
• Give recognition to the tutors
• Record stories and put the sound files in e-class

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While-practice stage

• Trouble shooting with tutors support and
  training
• Using the teacher observation checklist to
  monitor the progress
• Videotaping tutor-tutee interactions for
  discussion
• Checking tutors and tutees reading log

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Post-practice stage
Celebrate success together and evaluate our
program !
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