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PEER-ASSISTED LITERACY STRATEGIES (PALS) SERIES

Peer-Assisted Literacy Strategies (PALS) series includes three supplemental reading programs, Kindergarten PALS, First Grade PALS, and Teacher-Directed PALS, based on current and confirmed research in reading. These programs have been demonstrated through multiple research studies to be highly effective reading interventions, especially for students who experience difficulty in learning to read. The programs provide students opportunities to practice the skills most critical for becoming competent readers through carefully taught, fast-paced peer tutoring routines.

PALS curriculum materials are available from Sopris West.

Kindergarten PALS (K-PALS)

K-PALS is taught during 20-minute sessions, three days a week for 20 weeks. To conduct K-PALS, the teacher groups the class into pairs and then teaches the students how to do each activity, with one student starting as the Coach and the other student starting as the Reader; students change roles during the activities. To accommodate academic diversity, the level of difficulty of the reading tasks can be adjusted for students who need more time to master the content. K-PALS provides completely scripted lessons for teachers to use in teaching students how to conduct peer tutoring.

Tutoring routines focus on phonemic awareness and word recognition. Phonemic awareness is taught through the use of picture cards that represent words in the Letter Name, the Letter Sounds, and Hearing Sounds “games.” In the Letter Name game, the teacher presents a new letter each day and provides a review of previously learned letter names. The Letter Sounds routine teaches basis letter-sound correspondences, while Hearing Sounds teaches students to verbally segment a word into its phonemes and then to identify the beginning or ending sound in isolation. Word recognition is taught through the Sound Blending, Segmenting Words, and Sounding Out Words activities, which provide explicit strategies for sounding out words. By the end of K-PALS, students begin reading simple connected text.

The K-PALS Curriculum Package

  1. A Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Literacy Strategies Teacher’s Manual
  2. A Kindergarten Peer-Assisted Literacy Strategies Reproducibles Kit that includes:
    • Game Sheets 1-60 (pages 1 and 2)
    • K-PALS Daily Direction Cards 1-4
    • K-PALS Rules
    • K-PALS Partners
    • Scorecard
    • TELL, ASK, and START AGAIN Strategy
    • Picture Cards
    • Sound Cards
    • Word Cards

First Grade PALS

First Grade PALS instruction consists of 30-minute sessions conducted 3 days a week for 16-20 weeks. The teacher groups the class into pairs, then teaches them how to do each activity, with one student starting as the Coach and the other student starting as the Reader; students change roles during the activities. First Grade PALS provides completely scripted lessons for teachers to use in teaching students how to conduct peer tutoring. The lessons teach phonemic awareness and word recognition, and focus on fluency development, wide reading and vocabulary development, and comprehension. The lessons combine carefully designed, systematic phonics instruction with independent practice in reading connected text as well as trade books to actively engage children in reading.

Phonemic awareness is taught through the Sounds and Words routines, specifically the Letter Sounds, Hearing Sounds, and Sounding Out activities. In Letter Sounds a series of letters is listed, including a new sounds as well as previously learned sounds. Hearing Sounds teaches students to verbally segment a word into its phonemes and then to identify the beginning or ending sound in isolation. Students progress from identifying the positions of sounds in words to producing the sound and adding, deleting, and changing selected sounds. Students conduct these activities in pairs.

Word recognition skills are developed through Hearing Sounds and Sounding Out routines, progressing systematically from simple word types to more complex word types. The Coach models instruction in letter-sound correspondence, blending, and reading whole words. Sounding Out routines teach the strategy of sounding out unknown words by learning to sound them out, then students then read connected text that incorporates known letters or letter-sound combinations. The decodable texts they read are based on specific phonics lessons and contain the phonics elements and sight words they have already learned. The Coach is one of the students in a pair.

Fluency is developed through Passage Reading activities, beginning when students can read a list of words accurately. Passage Reading incorporates the skills practiced in the Letter Sounds, Hearing Sounds, Sounding Out, and Sight Words activities. Students have the opportunity for repeated practice with a partner.

The Story Sharing activity develops vocabulary and comprehension, with students reading a short book of the appropriate reading level for 10-15 minutes during each lesson. This activity also increases comprehension by developing memory skills, sequencing skills, and students’ knowledge of basic story structure. The Pretend Read routine activates students’ prior knowledge and teaches them to make predictions – to learn to think about what they are about to read before reading. The Read Aloud routine facilitates comprehension through repeated readings of each text selection, and teaches concepts of print and print conventions, such as where to look for title and author. The teacher selects trade books for each pair of students in the class, based on the reading level appropriate for the higher ability student of each pair. The students take turns reading the story. During Retell, the student Coach prompts the reader to retell the story by asking, “What did you learn first?” then, “What did you learn next?,” until the reader has retold the entire story.

The First Grade Peer-Assisted Literacy Strategies Curriculum Package

  1. A First Grade Peer-Assisted Literacy Strategies Teacher’s Manual
  2. A First Grade Peer-Assisted Literacy Strategies Reproducibles Kit that includes:
    • Sounds and Words Preparation Exercises – Visual Presentation Sheets
    • Sounds and Words Placement Test
    • First Grade PALS Rules
    • First Grade PALS Partner Assignments Chart
    • Scorecard
    • Punctuation Marks Sheet
    • Sounding Out Practice Sheet
    • TELL, ASK, and START AGAIN Strategy
    • First Grade PALS Daily Direction Cards
    • Game Sheets

Teacher-Directed PALS

As an alternative to the peer-to-peer instruction of K-PALS and First-Grade PALS, Teacher-Directed PALS is designed for teachers to easily instruct another adult on how to effectively deliver the lessons. The lessons teach phonemic awareness and word recognition, and focus on fluency development, wide reading and vocabulary development, and comprehension. The lessons combine carefully designed, systematic phonics instruction with independent practice in reading connected text as well as trade books to actively engage children in reading. The program is taught directly by a teacher, a parent volunteer or a paraprofessional, and provides scripted lessons for use with the entire class. Instruction consists of 30-minute sessions conducted 3 days a week for 16-20 weeks.

Phonemic awareness is taught through the Sounds and Words routines, specifically the Letter Sounds, Hearing Sounds, and Sounding Out activities. In Letter Sounds a series of letters is listed, including a new sound as well as previously learned sounds. Hearing Sounds teaches students to verbally segment a word into its phonemes and then to identify the beginning or ending sound in isolation. Students progress from identifying the positions of sounds in words to producing the sound and adding, deleting, and changing selected sounds. The teacher leads the class through the routines.

Hearing Sounds and Sounding Out develop word recognition skills, progressing systematically from simple word types to more complex word types. The Coach models instruction in letter-sound correspondence, blending, and reading whole words. Sounding Out routines teach the strategy of sounding out unknown words, then students read connected text that incorporates known letters or letter-sound combinations. They read decodable texts based on specific phonics lessons and that contain the phonics elements and sight words already learned. The Coach is always the teacher.

Fluency is developed through Passage Reading activities, beginning when students can read a list of words accurately. Passage Reading incorporates the skills practiced in the Letter Sounds, Hearing Sounds, Sounding Out, and Sight Words activities. The teacher guides the students through multiple readings of each passage.

The Story Sharing activity develops vocabulary and comprehension, with students reading a short book of the appropriate reading level for 10-15 minutes during each lesson. It increases comprehension by developing memory skills, sequencing skills, and students’ knowledge of basic story structure. The Pretend Read routine activates students’ prior knowledge and teaches them to make predictions – to learn to think about what they are about to read before reading. Read Aloud facilitates comprehension through repeated readings of each text selection, and teaches concepts of print and print conventions, such as where to look for title and author. The teacher reads the story and during Retell prompts the students to retell it by asking, “What did you learn first?” then, “What did you learn next?,” until they have retold the entire story.

The Teacher-Directed Paths to Achieving Literacy Success Curriculum Package

  1. A Teacher-Directed Paths to Achieving Literacy Teacher’s Manual
  2. A Teacher-Directed Paths to Achieving Literacy Reproducibles Kit that includes:
    • Teacher-Directed Lesson Sheets
    • Mastery Monitoring Form
    • Detailed Directions for Presentation Techniques and Correction Procedures