Instructional Strategy - Peer Coaching Fluency Building

Peer coaching fluency building actively involves students in the process of bettering their reading skills and relates specifically to reading and comprehension skills. Peer coaching pairs strong readers, or coaches, with poor readers. The classroom is divided into two groups: coaches, or strong readers, and struggling readers. Each student in the classroom receives a reading passage that is suitable to his or her skill level. After being allowed to read the passage silently, the teacher then instructs students to read their passages, with the coach and partner alternating sentences. This allows the coach to provide a model of fluency for the struggling reader.

A third reading then takes place, in which the struggling reader reads the entire passage aloud, with the coach assisting the reader with any words that he or she may need help pronouncing. By this time, the struggling reader has read through the passage three times, first silently familiarizing himself or herself with the text; then reading the passage with a partner and being providing with his or her example of fluency; and finally reading the passage primarily independently, with help from the coach as needed. This concludes the guided practice. The instructor then starts a one-minute timer, during which time the struggling readers read the passage aloud, marking the words they read during the minute.

Reading fluency for second grade students is considered to be 90 words per minute. Students that reach this level are promoted to a slightly more difficult passage; students that do not reach the level of 90 words per minute will use the current passage for up to three sessions. Peer coaching fluency building occurs up to three days a week in the classroom.

Peer coaching fluency building in the general education classroom is an effective means of reaching students that need reading assistance while simultaneously preserving their confidence. Peer coaching fluency building avoids having a child make mistakes the first time he or she approaches a passage by allowing the child to read the passage silently. Any mistakes the reader may make, when alternating reading sentences aloud with his or her “coach,” are audible only to the reader, the coach and the teacher, if he or she happens to be nearby. In theory, only students mature enough to be reliable coaches are selected to coach their peers; otherwise, peer coaching fluency building could quickly become an opportunity for more academically successful students to tease less successful ones. For students with mild or moderate learning disabilities, peer coaching fluency building allows time for the passage to be processed the first time it is introduced to a child. The student is not confronted with an unfamiliar passage and asked to read it aloud immediately; he or she is given time to read through the passage and then to pass it back and forth orally with a more experienced reader. In a classroom with students with mild or moderate disabilities, there may not be a supply of reading “coaches” readily available. This would provide an opportunity to involve general education peers with their mild or moderately disabled peers. Additionally, peer coaching fluency building could address the problem of mild or moderate disabilities in relation to reading within the general education classroom.

Peer coaching fluency building could be very beneficial to M.W. She is apprehensive of making mistakes and, after having made them, likely to withdraw from her peers, teacher and the task at hand. Peer coaching fluency building would provide a small audience for M.W. and a structurally unthreatening framework in which to build her reading skills. Peer coaching fluency building also makes it possible for teachers to address students’ individual needs because peer coaching fluency building isolates and enhances reading difficulties. Teachers are more likely to be able to identify specific reading deficits and address them if these deficits are brought to light; they can often go overlooked in the overall scheme of the classroom. Peer coaching fluency building also provides and opportunity for students to build relationships with their peers. Confidence is essential in entreating students to pursue seemingly difficult tasks, as reading may appear to students who have long struggled with reading.

References

Marr, M. B., Algozzine, B., Kavel, R. L., and Dugan, K. K. (2010). Implementing peer coaching fluency building to improve early literacy skills. Reading Improvement 47(2), 74-91.