Coaching Reading Buddies for SuccessAuthor(s): Joan Leikam Theurer and Kathy Burson SchmidtSource: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 62, No. 3 (Nov., 2008), pp. 261-264Published by: International Reading AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20143939 .Accessed: 26/09/2011 15:20

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Coaching Reading Buddies for Success

Joan Leikam Theurer, Kathy Burson Schmidt

The bell rings, 20 heads pop up, and a chorus of

eager voices exclaims, "Are our reading bud

dies coming?" Kathy (second author), a first

grade teacher, has been using reading buddies in

her classroom for many years. She pairs each of her

first-grade students with a fifth-grade buddy, and ev

ery Friday afternoon the buddies get together to read.

Reading with their reading buddies has become one

of the most memorable experiences for Kathy s first

graders. Yet, in recent years, it has also become ap

parent to her that there was room for improvement. While many of the fifth-grade buddies were naturals

and interacted comfortably with the first graders, oth

ers seemed uncertain and tentative, not quite know

ing what was expected of them.

After some research, we decided that Kathy needed to make two changes to her reading buddy

program. First, she and the fifth-grade teacher need

ed to meet with the fifth-grade buddies at the begin

ning of the school year to give instruction about how

to be a reading buddy. Second, she needed to add

some follow-up activities that would help keep stu

dents on task and reinforce the purpose of their time

together.

Getting Off to a Good Start To make the reading buddy experience a positive one from the start, Kathy decided to meet with the

fifth-grade buddies at the beginning of the school

year to offer some training. She began by reminding them of their reading buddy experiences as first

grade students. She explained how the experience would be different for them now that they were the

older buddy and emphasized that they would now

take on more of a leadership role and would be re

sponsible for choosing a book and supporting their

buddy as they read together. Kathy decided to focus

the training on the following areas: choosing a buddy book and coaching the reading buddies.

Choosing a Buddy Book The fifth-grade buddies had always brought a book to

share with their first-grade buddies, but sometimes the

choices they made were not suitable. Kathy brought in examples of books that would be appropriate and

also samples of books that might not be suitable. The

fifth-grade buddies examined the books, and togeth er with Kathy listed the characteristics of appropriate and inappropriate books. Kathy provided the fifth

grade buddies with a grade-appropriate book list, which was posted in the school library and also on

the district website so buddies would be able to refer

to it from home. Additionally, she reminded the bud

dies that when choosing a book they should keep in

mind how much time they would have to read togeth er (Friedland & Truesdell, 2004). She explained that

there would also be times during the year when the

first-grade buddies would be responsible for choos

ing the books they wanted to read (Kreuger & Braun,

1999).

Coaching the Reading Buddies After several years of watching the reading buddies

in action, Kathy realized that the fifth graders would

also benefit from some coaching on reading to and

with their buddy. When she met with the fifth-grade

buddies, she talked about the strategies she uses as

she prepares for read-alouds with her class. She ad

vised them to preview the book they planned to read

to their buddy by reading it aloud prior to the meeting with their buddy. Additionally, she encouraged them

to be ready to model fluency and read with expres

sion, using different pitches and even creating distinct

voices for different characters (Block & Dellamura,

2000/2001). Another strategy Kathy suggested was

to read the title of the book and ask the first-grade

buddy to make a prediction about the text. She also

recommended that the buddies choose some prede termined places in the text to stop reading and talk

with their buddy about the book. Modeling for the

fifth-grade buddies how they might decide where to

The Reading Teacher, 62(3), pp. 261-264 ? 2008 International Reading Association

DOI:10.1598/RT.62.3.8 ISSN: 0034-0561 print / 1936-2714 online 261

stop and discuss the text was an important part of

this training. Then Kathy gave the fifth-grade buddies some

guidance in reading with a beginning reader (Caserta

Henry, 1996). She reminded them of reading and de

coding strategies they might have forgotten: sounding out a word, looking for a little word in the big word,

looking for word chunks/word families, separating the base word from the ending of the word, asking

what makes sense, reading on, looking at the picture,

giving a synonym, thinking of a similar rhyming word, and rereading the sentence once a difficult word has

been decoded (Block & Dellamura, 2000/2001).

Finally, Kathy asked the fifth-grade buddies to

think about how they would read with their first-grade

buddy. She encouraged them to consider the follow

ing questions: Would they take turns reading? Would

they read as a pair together? Also, who would hold the

book? Rather than having the older reader hold the

book as some have suggested (Block & Dellamura,

2000/2001), Kathy encouraged the buddies to decide

for themselves what felt more comfortable.

Interacting With Their Buddy Sometimes the students were not certain what they should say or how they should act when they were

with their buddy. Kathy reminded the fifth graders to

say something nice to their buddy when they greeted them and to smile and say goodbye when leaving.

By engaging in role-playing with the fifth graders, she was ensuring that their first interactions would

go more smoothly (Kreuger & Braun, 1999). The fifth

graders also practiced encouragements that com

plimented their buddy, and Kathy talked with the

fifth graders about what to do when a buddy was

not listening, was not cooperating, or was behaving

inappropriately.

Easing Into the First Meeting Before the reading buddies met for the first time,

Kathy provided the fifth-grade teacher with a copy of her class list along with comments about students

who might need a special buddy?students who

were English-language learners, very shy, or very ac

tive. The fifth-grade teacher then made the matches,

generally pairing girls with girls and boys with boys. Because the first reading buddy session could be

a little awkward for some students, Kathy decided

to begin the relationship with letters of introduction

(Bromley, Winters, & Schlimmer, 1994). The fifth

grade students wrote a letter of introduction to their

first-grade buddy, and the first-grade students replied to the letter and included some information about

themselves.

Follow-Up Activities That Added Purpose Although the buddies clearly enjoyed the time they

spent reading together, Kathy wanted to incorporate a meaningful follow-up activity that would bring social interaction?a vital part of reading?to the

reading buddy sessions. Inspired by the Question

Game (Block & Dellamura, 2000/2001), Kathy cre

ated fiction and nonfiction question cubes, writing a different question on each side of the cube. (See Tables 1 and 2 for sample questions; blank cubes

can be purchased at a teacher supply store or can be

easily constructed out of milk cartons or sturdy tag

board.) As part of the training, she modeled for the

fifth-grade buddies how the question cubes could be

used. When the buddies finished reading their book,

they rolled the appropriate fiction or nonfiction ques tion cube. Answering the question from the question cube promoted conversation and discussion between

the buddies and facilitated critical thinking about

Table 1 Fiction Cube Questions

! Does this book remind you of another book you have read?

I Who was your favorite character? Why?

I What is the message in this book?

| What was your favorite part of this story?

? How would you change the ending of this

story?

I What character would you like to be? Why?

\ What is the problem in this story? How was it resolved?

I Did you like this book? Why? Give two good \ reasons! ,

262 The Reading Teacher Vol. 62, No. 3 November 2008

Table 2 Nonfiction Cube Questions

What are two things you learned from this book?

Does this book have a Table of Contents? What are the topic headings?

Does this book have an Index? What can you find in the Index?

Did you like this book? Why? Give two good reasons!

How was the information in this book

organized?

What was the most interesting part of this book?

Do you have questions this book did not answer?

Would you want to read another book by this author? Why?

what they had read. It also helped improve reading

comprehension (Block & Dellamura, 2000/2001). Later in the year, after Kathy's students had be

come comfortable talking with their buddies about

the books they read together, the buddies transi

tioned to a reading log in which they recorded the

name of the book they read, rated it on a happy-face

scale, and responded in writing to a simple question. Table 3 lists the questions found in each reading log. The buddies were not required to begin on page one

and work sequentially through the log; rather, they were encouraged to choose from any of the pages in

the reading log for their response. The reading buddies spend most of their time

reading and discussing their reading, but Kathy also

includes a few seasonal and holiday activities. In ad

dition, when the fifth-grade buddies went to science

camp, her first graders wrote personal letters to their

buddies and these were distributed at a surprise mail

call in the middle of the week.

Final Thoughts The effectiveness of reading buddies is supported

through extensive research (Morgan, 2006). In Kathy's

classroom, reading buddies support her young read

ers in both decoding and talking about the books

they read together, reinforcing the idea that reading is more than identifying words. The reading buddies

Table 3

Reading Log Questions

Sometimes we make a personal connection

with a story. This book reminded me of:_

Here is a new ending for this story:_.

The problem in this story is:_.

Here is an important point from this

book:_.

My favorite character is:_. My favorite word in this story is:_. My favorite part

is:_.

I like the character_because:_.

Here is a quote that I like:_.

This book made me think about:_.

The character Sees:_Does:_

Feels:_Thinks:_.

I think the author wrote this book

because:_.

Here are some wondrous words from this

book:_.

After reading this book, I wonder:_.

This is something I learned from this

book:_.

If I could be a character in this book I would be

_because:_.

can be effective cross-age tutors (Wright & Cleary,

2006). If you've never used reading buddies in your

classroom, we would encourage you to explore the

possibility. If reading buddies are already a part of

your classroom routine, we hope the ideas we've sug

gested will help you to put a new twist on a great idea.

References

Block, C.C, & Dellamura, R.J. (2000/2001). Better book buddies.

The Reading Teacher, 54(4), 364-370.

Bromley, K., Winters, D., & Schlimmer, K. (1994). Book bud

dies: Creating enthusiasm for literacy learning. The Reading

Teacher, 47(5), 392-400.

Caserta-Henry, C (1996). Reading buddies: A first-grade interven

tion program. The Reading Teacher, 49(6), 500-503.

Friedland, E.S., & Truesdell, K.S. (2004). Kids reading together:

Ensuring the success of a buddy reading program. The

Reading Teacher, 58(1), 76-79. doi:10.1598/RT.58.1.7

Kreuger, E., & Braun, B. (1999). Books and buddies: Peers tutoring

peers. The Reading Teacher, 52(4), 410-414.

Coaching Reading Buddies for Success 263

Morgan, S.A. (2006). Introduction: Four classroom peer tutoring

programs?research, recommendations for implementation, and future directions. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 22(1), 1-4.

doi:10.1080/10573560500203483

Wright, J., & Cleary, K. (2006). Kids in the tutor seat: Building schools' capacity to help struggling readers through a cross- v

age peer-tutoring program. Psychology in the Schools, w

43(1), 99-107. doi:10.1002/pits.20133 -^

Theurer teaches at California State University, Long ^ Beach, USA; e-mail jtheurer@csulh.edu. Schmidt >

teaches at Soleado Elementary in the Palos Verdes

Peninsula Unified School District, Rancho Palos

Verdes, California, USA; e-mail burson@pvpusd.kl2 xa. us.

?^Lesson Unk

For a related lesson plan, visit ReadWriteThink.org and click Lessons to find

Exploring Cross-Age Tutoring Activities

With Lewis and Clark

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264 The Reading Teacher Vol. 62, No. 3 November 2008