What is it?

‘Pause, prompt and praise’ tutoring procedures were developed for use by non-professional reading tutors, primarily parents of low progress readers, peer tutors and volunteers. This method stresses that children learn to read by reading, not by learning a large number of separate words or subskills. It assumes three things: first, that the child is provided with an appropriate level and type of text; secondly that the child’s progress is carefully monitored with respect to the text using running records or simple miscue analysis; and thirdly, that the teacher or tutor listens to the reading and gives appropriate feedback.

Who can benefit from Pause, Prompt and Praise?

Low-progress readers-benefit from the extra practice of reading aloud; improving fluency, self-corrections and reading level.

Parent tutors-working together to successfully remedy a weakness in reading may result in an improved parent-child relationship.

Peer tutors-working together provides feelings of closeness and friendship and is good social training.

Who can be a Pause, Prompt and Praise tutor?

Anyone interested in helping a struggling reader can be trained in the ‘pause, prompt and praise’ method. This method has been used successfully with teachers, parents, peers and community volunteers. Numerous studies have been completed demonstrating its effectiveness.

How often should the tutoring take place?

Tutoring sessions for younger students should occur at least three days a week and last approximately 10-15 minutes each.

Older students may be tutored three days a week for approximately 15-20 minutes per session.

How does this method fit into my child’s busy routine?

Tutoring sessions can be done during the school day using peer tutors, cross-age tutors or parent volunteers. Tutoring sessions may also take place at home using parent tutors.

Where will I find the appropriate materials?

You will use the correct level reading materials supplied by your child’s reading teacher. Children learning to read must adopt a variety of strategies for predicting and working out unknown words. Reading material at the appropriate level provides some unfamiliar words, but also enough known words to be able to make good predictions, even if these are miscues. Running records will be used to assess the child’s rate of reading accuracy. If the rate is below 80% the text is too difficult. If the rate is over 95% it is too easy. An ideal level for children learning to read, with all the advantages of making mistakes, is said to be between 80% to 90% accuracy.

How do I know if my child is making progress?

Running records will be taken regularly to monitor your child’s progress. When the student reads a title at 90% or better, he/she will be given a title at the next highest level. Your child will be able to chart his/her own progress.

How do I motivate my child to participate?

The ultimate goal is for our children to adopt a life-long love of reading. In order for this to happen, students must encounter successful reading experiences. Children will only succeed when they are given appropriate leveled materials. It is also beneficial to keep a record of the many titles your child has read. Once they see how they are progressing, their intrinsic motivation will increase. Students participating in this tutoring project will receive free take-home books which they will keep. This will help instill a love of reading and pride in ownership of good literature.

Pause

Pausing is difficult for most reading tutors, but it is a key factor in responding helpfully to the child who is learning to read. Mistakes (errors, miscues) are to be expected; it is an important part of the process of learning to read. When students are interrupted immediately upon making an error, their opportunity for self-correction is limited. This not only inhibits learning and progress, but also fosters dependence. The delaying of attention to errors by five seconds or until the end of the sentence leads to more self-correction and an increase in the child’s reading accuracy. Self-correction is seen as an indicator that the child is reading actively. They are able to ‘solve’ problem words independently

PromptThe type of prompt or feedback given depends on the nature of the miscue. If the error does not make sense, then the prompt should be aimed at giving clues about the meaning of the story, perhaps by asking a question (contextual prompt).

If the mistake makes sense but the word is still not correct, the tutor’s prompt should be aimed at helping the child to look again at the graphic and auditory properties of the word, how it looks and sounds (graphophonic prompt).

Should the child hesitate and then say nothing, the tutor can either ask the child to read to the end, or from the beginning of the sentence. Often this additional context will help the child to work out the unknown word.

When the child is not able to correct the miscue after two prompts, the tutor is to provide the correct word. This encourages the fluency of the story and does not draw unnecessary attention to the child’s difficulty in responding correctly.

Praise

Praise for correct reading must be specific and immediate. The praise should be contingent upon good reading behaviors. For example praise should be given following:

•Self-corrections

•Prompted corrections

•Reading sections or pages without error.

The criterion for success should be allowed to shift from small, tutor-dependent to more complex, independent behaviors.

A Team Effort

Setting up a ‘Pause, Prompt and Praise’ peer tutoring program requires some initial effort from teachers. Continual monitoring of both tutors and tutees is essential for a successful program.

At the end of the year, all participants (parents, teachers, tutors and tutees) will be asked to complete a survey in order to evaluate the success of the program. We believe that with a little time, patience and planning our low-achieving readers can experience the success they deserve while learning to read.

Resource PageGlynn, T., Dick, M. & Flower, D. (1992) Pause, Prompt and Praise: a reading tutoring programme (Education Department, University of Otago, Dunedin).

Merrett, F. (1994) Improving Reading: a teacher’s guide to peer-tutoring (London, David Fulton.

Wheldall, K. & Colmar, S. (1990) Peer tutoring for low-progress readers using “Pause, Prompt and Praise’, in: H. C. Foot, M. J. Morgan & R. H. Shute (Eds) Children Helping Children (London, Wiley), pp. 117-134.

Wheldall, K., Colmar, S., Wenban-Smith, J., Morgan, A. 7 Quance, B. (1992) Teacher-child oral reading interactions: how do teachers typically tutor?, Educational Psychology, 12, pp. 177-194.

Wheldall, K., Merrett, F. & Colmar, S. (1987) ‘Pause, Prompt and Praise’ for parents and peers: effective tutoring for low progress readers, Support for Learning, 12, pp. 5-12.