Buddy Reading (How to)

Building fluency is central to developing good readers in the elementary grades. Teachers are always seeking new and better ways to enhance this process, a popular technique is called buddy reading. Unlike the normal term of buddy reading, this style uses readers of vastly different reading levels to enhance the learning process. Kindergarteners are paired with a more advanced reader, a fifth grader, in order to scaffold their reading much like a classroom teacher would. This unordinary pairing enables children to advance easily in their reading, have a more positive outlook on school, as well as develop higher self esteem. They use common terms such as “sounding it out,” re-reading, and using picture and text context clues while modeling how to be a fluent reader. The key to making this a valuable teaching tool is that the buddies will need to read books on the level of the younger reader. While it seems that this would hinder the growth of the older children, modeling and explaining how to read to the younger student actually helps them decode their own mental process and grow as readers themselves. Also, this learning tool helps the older students learn how to be mentors and role models. They learn how to deal with life situations such as miscommunication, breaking rules, and working together. I am interested in using this in the classroom. I remember doing this in elementary school and was pleased to find out how beneficial it really is. This would be a good teaching method for me to use in the classroom. It seems to me like this would work well with several different grades, as long as they are atleast two grades apart (such as first and third) so that there is a sense of respect between the two grade levels and a distinct difference in reading levels. I have seen some peer helping in the first grade classroom of my lab placement this semester, and it has been very effective within just one grade level so I can only imagine how powerful this could be when used on a bigger scale. Peer tutoring, such as this, is a good way to extend teaching beyond the realm of the general classroom teacher. Having advanced students help lower level students is always good to use in the classroom, so this would definitely work as well.