Lessons from a decade's research on poverty alleviation

1. Implementing cross-age peer tutoring in
the teaching of reading in Kenya
Frank Hardman & Justus Inyega
UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI

2. What is cross-age peer tutoring?
• Cross-age peer tutoring consists of student partnerships
in which an upper primary pupil is trained to work with a
younger child to conduct reading sessions
• Teachers train students in how to support younger
students to apply four comprehension strategies –
generating questions, summarising, clarifying and
predicting
• During the early stages of the programme, the teachers
assumes primary responsibility for modelling how to use
the teaching strategies
• Gradually, as the students become familiar with the
strategies, older tutors are trained to work with younger
tutees on structured reading sessions

3. How is it structured?
• The programme matches ‘tutor pupils’ in Standard 6
will ‘tutee pupils’ in Standard 4 and tutor pupils in
Standard 5 with tutee pupils in Standard 3
• Tutoring takes place two times each week for 35
minutes each
• Half the younger class go to their tutor’s class and half
of the older class go to their tutee’s class
• The teachers circulate among the tutoring pairs and
help children choose appropriate books, monitor
children’s reading, ask comprehension questions, and
help children who are struggling

4. Main features of cross-age peer tutoring
• Choosing the right book
• Supported reading
• Error correction
• Questioning
• Positive feedback

5. Choosing the right book
* Inbetween tutor and tutee reading
ability
* Right level of challenge for tutee
Supported reading
* Reading together
* Reading alone
Error correction
* Whole word approach
* Phonetically sounding out
words
Questioning
*Understand the plot
* Summarise what has happened
*Predict what will happen
* Level of enjoyment/interest
Feedback
* Promote confidence
* Build esteem
*Make clear what has been achieved
* Praise achievement

6. Selecting reading material at right level
• Reading material selected for use in the cross-age
peer tutoring is above the independent reading
ability of the tutee, but below that of the tutor
• The tutee decides what to read. This encourages
them to be interested in what they are reading
• Students trained to use the ‘five finger test’ and
to ask the teacher for help if you’re not sure

7. Choosing ‘Just Right’ books
Use the Five Finger Test
1) Tutor or tutee: put 5 fingers on the page
2) Tutee: read the words under each finger
3) Repeat the process over four page
4) Add up the total number of mistakes:
•1 or less = book is too easy
•2 – 3 = book is ‘Just Right’
•4 or more = book is too hard

8. Supported reading
• Sessions run twice a week for 35 minutes
• Students sit side by side - so both can see the
book easily
• Students read together until the tutee feels
comfortable and signals they want to read alone
• Tutee reads alone until they make a mistake that
they don’t self-correct
• After the tutor corrects a mistake, students read
together again

9. The paired reading cycle
• Cycle alternates between the tutor and tutee
reading together and the tutee reading alone
• Tutor helps the tutee gain confidence by
modulating the speed of their reading to be just
behind the reading of the tutee
• Tutor trained to provide a good model by reading
with expression or intonation
• Tutor reads with the tutee until they signal they
want to read alone
• Tutor reads with tutee after a mistake has been
made to re-establish the flow of the reading

10. Error correction
• Tutor and tutee start by reading together
• Tutee signals to read alone when they feel confident enough
to tackle the text reading independently.
• When an error occurs the tutor waits 4-5 seconds and if the
tutee does not self-correct, the tutor corrects the tutee by:
 Repeating the error word correctly Or
 Helping tutee sound out the word by connecting the sounds
of spoken English with letters or groups of letter together to
produce approximate pronunciations
• Once the word has been corrected the tutee repeats the error
word correctly, the tutor praises the tutee and they read on
together until the tutee signals to read alone again

11. Reading together and alone
Read together
Tutee signals to
read alone
Tutor:
1.Monitors
for errors
2. Gives
feedback
3. Asks
questions
Tutor changes
reading speed to
follow the tutee
Tutee
reads
alone

12. Questioning
• One of the keys to getting the most benefit from
cross-age peer tutoring is to get effective questioning
and probing of answers going on during the tutoring
session.
• Tutors and tutees ask each other questions at
different stages during the reading of the book

13. Different stages of questioning
1. Before reading questions about:
the book/text
the author
reasons for choosing the text
2. During reading questions to:
make sure the tutee understands what they are reading
help the tutee understand
summarise what has been read
predict what will happen next
look back at the whole text
3. After reading questions to:
gauge their understanding of the text
about what they thought of the ending
about what they enjoyed or found interesting

14. Probing tutees’ answers
• In addition to asking questions, tutors trained to probe
tutees’ answers
• In following up an answer to a question tutors trained
to:
 prompt tutees to expand upon their ideas (e.g. ‘Can
you say more about that?’ ‘So are you saying?’)
 help tutees to provide evidence to support their claims
(e.g.’ Why do you say that? What’s your evidence?’).
Others help students read deeper as they provide
evidence to support their claims (e.g.’ Why do you say
that? What’s your evidence?’)

15. Question mats
• ‘Question Mat’ have been developed to help the
questioning process
• These include a mat for general use and
easier/harder versions of the mat
• Pupils have copies of mats as they read to act as
an aid memoire to help prompt and frame
effective questioning
• Students encouraged to design their own
question mats (but based on those contained in
the pack)

16. Before reading
questions
During reading
questions
After reading
questions
Why did you choose
this book?
What do you think the
book is about? Why
do you think this?
What do you think will
happen in the book?
What do you think
you’ll like about this
book?
Who are the main
characters?
Who is your favourite
character? Why?
What do you think will
happen next?
What is the book
about?
What have you found
most interesting so
far?
Did you enjoy the
book? Why?
If you did not enjoy
the book, why not?
Where you surprised
by the ending?
Would you
recommend the book
to someone else?
Question mat for tutor & tutee (1)
Remember: both tutors and tutees should ask questions!

17. Question mat for tutor & tutee (2)
Before reading questions During reading questions After reading questions
What information can we find out
about the book?
What is the title? Who is the author?
What does the cover tell us about the
book?
When was it published?
Is there an author biography?
What do you know about the topic?
What type of book is it?
Is it a fiction or non-fiction book?
What topic is it on?
Does it include various forms of
writing?
How hard do you think the book is?
Have you tested the book?
Does the tutee need more challenge?
What do you think you will get from
reading this book?
What is the book about?
Where and when is the book set? Is it
set in a real place? Is it in the past,
present or future?
Who are the main characters?
What does the book mean?
Do we understand all
words/sentences?
Have we missed anything?
What do you think will happen next?
Describe what might happen. Can you
give reasons why you think this? What
might make it happen? Can you
imagine characters and places in your
head? Describe them.
Does the book remind you of
something?
Does it remind you of another book?
Does it remind you of an event in your
life or feelings you have had?
What is the main point of the book?
Give me a summary of the main
points.
Can you summarise the book to
another pair?
How does the book make you feel
and think?
Did it end in the way you thought it
would? Were there any bits that
puzzled you? Would you recommend
it to someone else? Who and why?
What is most memorable?
Which bits did you like/dislike? What
was most memorable? What was most
exciting?
Does it make you want to read
another book like this?
Will you change the type of book?

18. Tutor: Tutee:
Session & date Book read Comment
Tutee comment:
How is your reading
improving?
Tutor comment:
How has the tutee
improved?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
PAIRED READING LOG