Oral Reading with a Partner

Partner reading increases the amount of reading students do during the day while freeing the teacher to work with individuals or small groups. Partner reading allows students to support one another as they enjoy reading in groups of two or three. Partner reading is often a student favourite in the literacy block. Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies, or PALS (Mathes, Torgesen, Allen, & Allor, 2001), is a research-supported, structured way of teaching students to work productively as reading partners. When establishing reading partners, the PALS method ensures poorer readers are paired with partners who read somewhat better than they do, but that students area reasonably well matched.

Creating partners:

Rank the group according to reading ability. (Some students - those who have learning disabilities, have emotional handicaps, or are already highly proficient readers - may need to be assigned to other activities during this time.)
Divide the remaining group in half.
Assign pairs by matching the top reader on the top half of the list with the reader on the bottom half of the list, and so forth. DO NOT PUT A STUDENT WHO HAS READING DIFFICULTIES WITH A STUDENT READING AT STAGE LEVEL.
Review the pairings and change any that might not be compatible.

Books or passages should be at or slightly more difficult than their instructional level.

Students should be shown what to do before engaging in partner reading, so the following procedure includes modeling. Explicitly assigning and defining roles puts students at ease. Once students are familiar with the process, the modeling can be dropped and the procedure will start with Step 7. See the steps below.

(LETRS, Louisa Moats & Carol Tolman)

Partner Reading

Materials: Reading materials at the appropriate level, role-assignment cards for Readers and Coaches (optional).

Select a student 'partner' with whom to model the process. Have other students observe what you and your partner are doing.
Assign the roles of 'Reader' and 'Coach', taking the role of Coach.

As necessary, distribute the role-assignment cards and discuss the roles of Reader and Coach.

Have the Reader select a text. Sit side-by-side and hold the text together, or have a separate text showing the same passage.
Have the Reader read a previously agreed-upon section of text (e.g., a paragraph, a page, a chapter, or the whole book). As the Coach, follow along and watch for mistakes.

When the Reader makes a mistake, either provide the word or ask the Reader to 'Check the word' and try again.

When the text is finished, return to the beginning and, page by page or section by section, ask the Reader what happened or what each part was about.
Exchange roles with the student and model the process again, allowing the student to become the Coach.

Role-play making mistakes, and remind the Coach what to say when a mistake is made.
Demonstrate reading at a comfortable speed, reading with expression, and understanding what is read.
When the text is finished, return to the beginning and allow the Coach to ask what each page or section was about.

Assign roles to all pairs of students. The first Reader in each parid should be the stronger reader.
Have the Reader read while the Coach listens, follows the text, corrects mistakes, and conducts the comprehension check.

Remind Coaches that they can prompt the Reader by saying, 'Check that word', before providing the correct word.

The second Reader picks up where the first Reader stops reading - and the roles are reversed.
After the passage, book, etc, is finished, the first Reader asks the second Reader to look at each page and answer the question, 'What happened here?'
To add summarising or retelling to the activity, ask each pair to share what they read with another pair.

Oral Reading with a Partner.webm

PARTNER READING INSTRUCTIONS

LETRS, Louisa Moats & Carol Tolman

Establishing Partners.webm

REVIEWING PARTNER ROUTINES

LETRS, Louisa Moats & Carol Tolman

Oral Partner Reading Example.webm

ORAL READING PARTNER EXAMPLE

LETRS, Louisa Moats & Carol Tolman

oral reading with a partner - kindergarten

Click on the image to view a clip of two students completing a fluency read of a list of CVC words.

Oral Reading with a Partner

More than perhaps any other aspect of reading instruction, fluency practice requires the development of productive routines and astute observation of children's interactions. Children will be required to read to one another, to listen to each other, and to follow the words in a text as their partner reads. Making this work requires the instilling of routines and clearly modeling how repeated oral reading should take place. Expectations need to be made explicit in minute detail, ideally ones that are matched in classrooms across the school. Children need to know exactly what to do if they and their partner have finished the text three times or what to do if they cannot decode a word. Simple rules for fluency practice are a must.

For example, a set of rules might look like this.

The reader reads while the listener follows with a ruler.
Let the reader try to decode the word. If they can't and the listener can, the listener can help after the reader has had a go.
If neither the reader nor the decoder can decode the word, write it on a whiteboard for sharing with the teacher.
Keep taking turns until the timer finishes/the teacher rings the bell, etc.

(The Art & Science of Teaching Primary Reading, Christopher Such)

Other recommendations:

Sweat the small details when the students first get started. This will ensure things will go smoothly from the outset.
The rhythm of fluency practice may take a couple of weeks. Don't give up!
Don't be afraid to tinker with the seating plan, changing it frequently to keep things fresh.
Be intentionally visible to all children and circulate the room to ensure that they are keeping on track.
As children become more adept at fluency practice, begin to take the opportunity to support the fluency practice of the children who seem to be struggling, supporting them for longer periods as the rest of the class become more accustomed to the routines of fluency practice.
Modelling of fluent reading is an important aspect of fluency practice. Model reading the text aloud at a speed that is slightly slower than you might normally use, without hampering the prosody of your natural speech. Make a conscious effort to read clearly, to give slightly longer emphasis to the gaps between sentences denoted by punctuation, and perhaps even to gently accentuate the natural rhythms and changes in tone in your voice.
Be very cautious in doling out lots of praise for fluent reading as this will likely serve to add unnecessary pressure to those who cannot yet meet that standard. A focus on improvement secured during the lesson and a warm 'thank you' to the child who has read aloud is more than enough.

((The Art & Science of Teaching Primary Reading, Christopher Such)

PARTNER READING

Many students with reading difficulties do not read fluently, even though they can decode many words accurately. Students who read slowly and accurately but with difficulty with comprehension, need to have opportunities to practise fluent reading orally with feedback from a more proficient reader, either a teacher or a peer.

The purpose of this strategy is to provide fluency instruction and train students to read effortlessly. Students who read effortlessly are free to focus on comprehending text because they do not have to work out the words. Once students are familiar with partner reading it can also be used to practise comprehension skills such as retelling, summarising, and the main idea.

Click on the image for further information regarding partner reading from the Dept.

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