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want to read them - as many
times as they like before they actually try to read them to somebody else."17
When the student feels confident enough, the teacher checks progress.
"Some of the best results," says Medcalf, "have been four to five years'
reading gain over approximately eight weeks on the program." Overall documented
results show a three-year reading gain in eight to ten weeks.18
The program is helped greatly in New Zealand through the graded School
Journal material, backed by a regularly updated catalogue covering content, subjects
and age-levels. Students may choose from a selection of taped stories that the school has
built up, or may ask a teacher or parent to record on to a tape a story or article of
special interest.
Where a similar program has been used in
America, the results have also been striking. Marie Carbo, Director of the National
Reading Styles Institute, refers to it as "the recorded book" method. As a
strong advocate of matching reading methods and materials to learning styles, she says it
can even be adapted for use with highly kinesthetic youngsters: reading a book on a music
stand attached to a stationary bike while listening to the tape and pedaling. If that
sounds "far out", listen to the answers from two boys who tried it:
"When you read on that thing, all the words just
come out like that. I'm serious!"
"When I got up there, well . . . when I started to
read, I mean, I don't know, it was probably like a miracle. I started laughing because I
couldn't help it because I was reading almost 100 percent better."19
Peer tutoring
Medcalf has also built on earlier work by Professor Ted
Glynn, of the University of Otago, in developing a successful peer tutoring program in
reading, using "pause, prompt and praise" techniques.
Here one student in an primary school simply acts as a
mini-teacher for another student. Generally the mini-teacher is only a little bit more
advanced - so both the tutor and her buddy benefit. The tutor very de-finitely is not the
best reader in the class - although she may end up that way. Effectively it's one-to-one
teaching without taking up the time of an adult teacher. Each "tutor" is trained
in "pause, prompt and praise" techniques: to praise good work in everyday
language ("Neat," or "Nice one!"); to pause for ten seconds while a
reader may be having difficulty (so the tutor can think of ways to help); and to prompt
with suggestions.
Contents Page Preface
Introduction
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