PALS: A Reading Strategy for High School

Benefits Allows all students to peer mediate Students with disabilities who participated in peer mediation did better on tests than those with notes Students with disabilites are in environments that are least restrictive Research-based option for RTI

Activities Partner Reading with Retell Reading fluency and Summarizing 12 minutes Higher student reads for 5 minutes; lower students reads for 5 minutes Taking turns, students summarize the main ideas Paragraph Shrinking 10 minutes Higher student reads a paragraph; students stop and summarize the paragraph. Then vice-versa Prediction Relay 10 minutes Reader makes prediction about what will happen next; reads half of next page and determines if prediction was correct or not

Implementation Pair Students: Based on student reading level, pair a higher student with a lower student. Change partners somewhere between every day up to every 4 weeks (absenteeism, behavior, etc.) Prepare Materials: Procedures: Assignment charts, responsibilities, etc. Activities: Partner reading, paragraph shrinking, prediction relay, word recognition correction procedures Recognition: on the job behaviors, highest-earning pair, employee of the month, etc. Train Students: New activity every other week Implement Independently: With 6 weeks of trainings, students should be ready to work on their own. Keep Interest: PALS Dollars $1: Being focused, cooperating, catching mistakes $3: Using helping strategies $5: Attending class Can be turned in at a certain time for tangible items