Big readers helping little readers is a “win” for everyone!
Cross-age tutoring works!
The practice of older children helping younger peers probably dates as far back as our hunter-gather ancestors who turned to older siblings to learn how to survive. Academically, cross-age tutoring can be traced to ancient Greece and Rome.
Positive effects on both students
Modern research now suggests peer-to-peer tutoring can have a significantly positive effect on the academic achievement of both the older student and their younger peer.
(Rekrut 1992)(Palincsar and Brown 1986; Wheldall and Mettem 1985; Wheldall and Colmar 1990; Giesecke, et al. 1993; and Barbetta, et al. 1991) (1989a, p. 135)
Tutoring from an older peer is highly motivating for the younger student
It turns out, a little support from an older peer goes a long way!
In fact, students with learning challenges — actually prefer to work with another student — and many young learners consider older students to be their favorite teachers!
Literacy benefits
Important benefits for early readers includes comprehension, identification of sight words, acquisition of vocabulary, and general reading skills.
(Klingner, Vaughn, Schumm, Cohen, & Forgan, 1998).
See results with easy-to-follow resources for your tutors
Reading LEAPS recommends StoryWorld®, a fully-interactive literacy program based on mastery of one story a week. The program moves developing readers from learning letter sounds to reading fluency in a coherent, and engaging way:
- Each “lesson” is 30 minutes
- Ready-to-go, no prep-time needed
- Practice in all modalities: listening, reading, speaking & writing
- All resources are multilingual in English, Spanish & Mandarin (with 8 other languages)
- Includes optional printable activity sheets for off-screen writing
*Requires access to a computer and wife connectivity. (Headphone with a mic is recommended for listening & speaking exercises)
Get things started with our train-the trainer program, tailed to your local needs
Reading LEAPS provides a step-by-step reading approach that helps peer tutors guide younger learners. We provide in=person or remote “train-the-trainer” sessions until the afterschool program leadership feels fully comfortable with the process.
A dashboard keeps track of each learner’s activity and progress. This means the same peer-tutor does not have to be there every time and the learner can continue with each session regardless of who the tutor is.
Our goal is to make the peer-to-peer process a fun and rewarding experience for everyone!
See results with easy-to-follow resources for your tutors
Reading LEAPS recommends StoryWorld®, a fully-interactive literacy program based on mastery of one story a week. The program moves developing readers from learning letter sounds to reading fluency in a coherent, and engaging way:
- Each “lesson” is 30 minutes
- Ready-to-go, no prep-time needed
- Practice in all modalities: listening, reading, speaking & writing
- All resources are multilingual in English, Spanish & Mandarin (with 8 other languages)
- Includes optional printable activity sheets for off-screen writing
*Requires access to a computer and wife connectivity. (Headphone with a mic is recommended for listening & speaking exercises)
Here’s what you’ll receive with your membership:
- Over 100 interactive stories & wordbooks
- 1000 games cover vocabulary, phonics
- 700 worksheets – printable and online
- All Dolch and Fry words through 3rd grade
- Lesson plans with phonics for every story
- 64 audio-supported phonics books
- In-app practice on speaking and writing
- Flashcards with each story for vocabulary practice
- Parent dashboard displays student audio and writing
- Track reading progress of up to 4 learners
StoryWorld was developed by former Scholastic VP Technology, winner of 2 US Presidential awards, 3 US Dept. of Education awards with research conducted by WestEd.
Bring Reading LEAPS to your afterschool program!
Reading LEAPS is a project of the Literacy & Language Institute
A program of the Global Action Platform 501 c-3
All rights reserved.
