ClassWide Peer Tutoring Classroom Description The students will participate in ClassWide Peer Tutoring during spelling time. Students are in a 5th grade self-contained classroom. Students in the classroom have a range of disabilities including Specific Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder, Attention Deficit Disorder, Aspergers, and students with borderline IQs. Students are in three different spelling groups. For spelling instruction students are in small groups to complete their work. Before each lesson begins students take a pre-test of the lesson s words to see if they already know how to spell the words. The words that they miss on the pre-test become their words for the two week lesson. Students learn the rules that go along with the lesson s spelling words and practice many activities which can include sorting by syllable type, vowel type, alphabetizing, adding suffixes/prefixes and a mix of other activities that vary from lesson to lesson. For the lower level spelling group the student s words are a teacher created list that may include Dolch words, specific vowel sounds, blends, or word families that we are working on in their reading group. At the beginning of the spelling lessons we meet in the groups for about 10-15 minutes to review the lesson s rule and practice using the rule by completing oral activities and/or pages in their workbooks. After we have met with the groups, students are engaged in peer tutoring for the remainder of the class period 10-20 minutes. Students homework is to review their spelling words and they may have to complete a page in their workbook. Practice/Implementation of Peer Tutoring Before beginning the classwide peer tutoring, we took a period of time to go over the steps. My assistant and I modeled a brief spelling peer tutoring session to show how the process should look and sound. We had a discussion about what the students saw and heard during the session. I then set the students up with a partner and gave them each the sheets that they would be using when we started the peer tutoring. Students were given spelling lists that they had already completed in a previous week. We practiced the correct way to complete the sheets, count points, and how to give corrective feedback to their partner when getting an answer incorrect. We also went over who would be a mover and who would stay. I explained to students that they would be part of a team, team X or team O. Each team is divided evenly. I made sure each student understood the tutor and tutee roles before stopping the practice lesson. I clarified any questions they had before we stopped the practice lesson. Students seemed really excited to do something different than just picking a partner and reviewing their words to prepare for upcoming assessments. I had to take into account the students disabilities and characteristics when putting them into pairs. I placed the top student with the middle and went down the list to put them in pairs. I had to have one group of three because there are 11 students in the classroom.
When pairing students in the group I had to make sure that students would be able to read each other s words or not be ashamed to ask for help from the teacher or other student to help them read. I also had to take into consideration the number of words each student had when putting the partners into team X or O. We started the peer tutoring the day after we modeled and practiced the example lesson. Students were engaged in the peer tutoring and really enjoyed the session. We continued with the peer tutoring for 4 days. Each peer tutoring session my assistant and I walked around to ensure that students were following the steps for tutor and tutee. At the end of each tutoring session we recorded the points for each team. I also asked the class if they did the same or better than the day before. Each student did better each day when spelling their words. On the fifth day students took a mid-lesson assessment to see how they were progressing. After the mid-lesson assessment students have 3 more nights to review and complete their pages before their lesson s test. We will have 1 more peer tutoring session before their final assessment. If the student did well on the mid-lesson assessment they had the option to keep the grade or retry on Thursday to spell the missed words on the mid-lesson assessment. Results All students in the classroom improved their scores by at least half. The following are the results from the pre-test (where list derived) and mid lesson assessments (number missed). I have also included the percentage for each. Student Team Pre-Test/% Mid-Lesson/% Draco O 20/0% 5/75% Rory O 20/0% 0/100% Blackey X 8/67% 1/96% Monster Man X 9/62% 1/96% Flamingo X 11/54% 3/88% Bong-Bong X 16/33% 8/67% Griffon O 16/33% 8/67% Actgal O 9/62% 4/84% Tiny Squishy Boy O/X 20/0% 3/85% Hannah Montana O/X 15/0% 2/92% Smart Brains O/X 12/50% 6/75% By the end of 4 sessions team X had received 349 points and team O had received 377 points. The last team on the chart I added their points and divided among both teams since this team had 3 people. We will add the mid-assessment or final lesson scores on Thursday to get the total points for each team. The winning team for this lesson will get 2 bonus points added to their final assessment grade. Students came up with a list of reinforcers for the winning team. They voted and chose the 2 points for this lesson.
Based on previous lesson assessment scores some students performed even better on the mid-week assessment than they do on the final assessment. Students successfully practiced positive reinforcement with others as well as giving corrective feedback. I feel that with another peer-tutoring session students will continue to improve their score on the final assessment. The peer-tutoring not only helped the students practice their spelling words but also improve their vocabulary and/or reading skills. Some students were not able to read all of their partners words. By the end of the lesson students were able to read all the words. Reflection My assistant and I were amazed at the results we were seeing from just a few sessions. The students were able to get most of the words done in the time period they were given. I feel that the next time we do this students will work faster because they have gotten used to the peer tutoring process. Students were working well together and following the steps correctly. Each tutor/tutee did an excellent job fulfilling their role. Students did not get upset when they were given corrective feedback and students tutoring gave a lot of verbal praise to their partners. Next time I am going to pair the students a little differently. I want them to work with different people each lesson and it will provide a good chance for students in various spelling groups to learn to recognize new words. It was also difficult for me to pair some students up because of their reading disability as well the number of words some students had. I am going to create several different lists of pairings so after the next pre-test I can quickly set up pairs. By doing this project I found out that it may take a little time in the beginning, but in the end I was lecturing/talking less and students were more engaged in the lesson because of the more structured tutoring sessions. Before I would let students partner up to review the words and sometimes they would spell them out loud and others would write. By having them participate in the peer-tutoring they were involved in a more structured approach that became motivating to them to help each other and themselves learn the words. The students asked if we could do the peer tutoring for all subjects. I feel that students self-esteem improved and one of my student s even comment, Spelling is now my new favorite subject. The one day students looked at the board and peer-tutoring was not on the schedule, they questioned why. Now that students are used to the process, I am coming up with new packets of information for peer tutoring and cooperative learning groups in other subject areas for the class to use.
Note: As a variation of cooperative learning, students may design and implement a peer tutoring arrangement with a class or multiple pairs of students following the recommended steps addressed in class/the readings. ClassWide Peer Tutoring (Greenwood & Delquadri, 1995) (replaces independent seat work in high school classes for 30 min. 2-3 times per week; 15 min. 3-4 times per week is recommended in elementary classes) 1. Teacher introduces new material to be learned (big ideas, key concepts and skills of a chapter, unit, or lesson series). 2. CWPT explained and class is divided into two balanced teams. Tutoring pairs are assigned within each team. 3. Flashcards with questions, vocabulary terms, or problems on one side with answers, definitions, or examples on the other side may be used for practice. 4. Students take turns being the tutor and tutee during tutoring time; teacher supervises interactions. 5. Tutees earn points by giving correct answers to tutor questions and by correcting their errors when they make mistakes (but receive fewer points than if they had answered correctly in the first place). Bonus points may be awarded by the teacher for on-task tutoring and responding. 6. Points earned during tutoring sessions are added to points earned on weekly individual quizzes on the same material to comprise the total team score. 7. Public posting of team scores and social rewards for the winning team provide added incentives for practice and performance.
Tutoring for Content Areas (Mastropieri, Scruggs, Spencer, & Fontana, 2003) 1) Begin by reviewing and presenting information. 2) Assign students to tutoring dyads. a. Match a higher performing reader with a lower performing reader. b. Consider which students are likely to work well together. c. Tell the higher-performing readers that they will be called admirals. d. Tell the lower-performing readers they will be called generals. Note: Keep students unaware of their higher- or lower-performing status to the extent possible. 3) Explain roles, rules, and materials to whole class. 4) Pass out folders that contain cue cards with relevant instructions (see article for cue card contents and other materials to be used). 5) Have students practice reading and correcting errors while tutoring. 6) Introduce the summarization strategy procedures. a. Have the admirals read a paragraph first. b. Have the generals read the same paragraph. c. Have students implement the summarization strategy to promote reading comprehension: i. What is the most important what or who in the text? ii. What is the most important thing about the what or who in the text? iii. What is the summary sentence? 7) While partners work together to develop responses, each student writes the answers on his or her own worksheet. 8) Have students repeat the process for each paragraph. 9) Lead a review session. a. Use an overhead projector to show the class a blank summarization sheet. b. Have students supply the answers. c. Discuss the different responses. d. Encourage students to alter their own responses based on class discussion. Note: Review the following article on Blackboard (documents) for a more complete explanation of this procedure as well as the Guided Notes procedure. Mastropieri, M. A., Scruggs, T. E., Spencer, V., & Fontana, J. (2003). Promoting
success in high school World History: Peer tutoring versus guided notes. Learning Disabilities Research and Practice, 18(1), 52-65. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Checklist for Peer Tutoring (Partners are trained to use these steps to structure their peer tutoring across multiple sessions using teacher-provided materials.) 1. Obtain worksheet. 2. Study words/problems/questions. 3. Locate a partner. 4. Orally quiz each other. 5. Take out test papers. 6. Individually take the test. 7. Correct your paper. 8. Record (and graph) your score. 9. Review items missed.