Every child’s learning development is unique, so educators and caregivers must recognize this fact. When creating a curriculum, it is essential to design ones that can accommodate all types of learners, not just those who grasp the material quickly. Peer Assisted Learning Strategies reading (PALS-R or PALS) is a technique that emphasizes the significance of reading skills for children. This approach caters to the needs of all learners and enhances instruction in regular education classrooms (IRIS, nd). PALS combines peer-mediated instruction with effective reading activities (IRIS, nd).
The benefits of PALS are extensive for both students and teachers. One major advantage is its effectiveness for a variety of student groups, including those with learning disabilities, low-performing students without learning disabilities, average- and high-achieving readers, and English learners (ELs) (IRIS, nd). Additionally, PALS provides an efficient method for customizing reading instruction. Unlike whole-group instruction, which limits teachers in tailoring instruction to individual student needs, peer-mediated instruction enables teachers to personalize reading material for each student pair and adjust the instructional pace accordingly (IRIS, nd).
According to IRIS, PALS is a program that allows teachers to provide personalized lessons for students with different instructional needs. In addition to catering to students of various academic abilities and ensuring their inclusion in reading activities, PALS offers several advantages for both teachers and students. These benefits include easy implementation, cost-effectiveness, improved reading achievement, promotion of on-task behavior and student engagement, motivation for students, and fostering collaboration and positive social interaction among students.
According to research conducted by IRIS (nd.), students who participated in first-grade PALS showed enhanced performance on measures of phonological awareness, decoding, and word recognition compared to a control group of students in a non-PALS classroom. This improvement was observed among students with disabilities, as well as low-, high-, and average-achieving students, regardless of their school’s socioeconomic status. In addition, IRIS (nd.) notes the availability of two versions of PALS: K-PALS for kindergartners, which concentrates on teaching advanced reading skills beyond the typical grade level curriculum.
According to IRIS, K-PALS sessions usually last for 20-30 minutes and are held at least three times a week. These sessions consist of two types of activities: Sound Play and Sounds and Words. Kindergarten students benefit from decoding and word recognition, which enhance their early reading skills, even if they have disabilities. Additionally, they outperform students in teacher-led and control groups in terms of word reading. For first-grade students, PALS is highly structured, with sequential lessons and cumulative learning of skills.
Additionally, the sessions of PALS, which picks up where K-PALS leaves off, typically last about 40 minutes and are conducted at least three times per week (IRIS, nd). The sessions begin with a five-minute whole-group instruction, in which the teacher introduces new sounds, sight words, and vocabulary words (i.e., rocket words), and conducts a segmenting and blending activity (IRIS, nd). Similarly to K-PALS, first-grade students also benefit from decoding in PALS, but now they focus on comprehending the text instead of word recognition.
The use of K-PALS has resulted in improved reading skills in first-grade students, leading to increased fluency. Both the K-PALS and first-grade students have excelled in certain areas of performance. The first-graders acquired better scores on standardized and informal reading tests (IRIS, nd.). As a kindergarten teacher, if I had a student without a partner due to their original partner’s absence, I would assign them to another group.
The Readers, who are the two students that perform better, take on the role of leading in the PALS activity, while the Coach, who is the lower-performing student, supports them. If I were a first-grade teacher and planning to introduce PALS for the first time, there are some steps I would need to follow to create a positive team atmosphere. The first step is to make sure my students receive adequate training. In the case of K-PALS, this involves four initial Sound Play lessons and eight training lessons where I demonstrate the PALS rules, activities, and correction procedures to the whole class (IRIS, nd).
As a first-grade teacher, I will spend the first two weeks of PALS training my students four times each week for at least 15 to 30 minutes. Throughout this two-week period, the students will learn the PALS procedures and how to perform the Sound and Words activities. Once they have completed this initial training, and the students have been implementing PALS independently for at least eight weeks, I will then introduce Partner Reading. This Partner Reading activity will be divided into two sessions, with each session lasting 15 minutes.
I will ensure that I work towards maintaining their interest and regularly encourage them to motivate and implement PALS correctly. In K-PALS, the lesson sheets have two types of motivators and prompts built-in (IRIS, nd). Firstly, the What Sound? section of the lesson sheet has stars (IRIS, nd). When the Reader comes across a star, they pause, and the Coach gives praise (IRIS, nd). Secondly, each section of the lesson sheet has four happy faces; as the Reader finishes a section of a lesson, the Coach circles them (IRIS, nd).
The first-grade PALS lesson sheet contains stars to prompt the Coach to praise the Reader, and the Coach colors or circles a happy face after the Reader completes a section of a lesson (IRIS, nd). I believe that these two prompts on the lesson sheets will encourage teams to work together and boost their self-esteem. Additionally, as the teacher, I will immediately make any necessary changes when I notice an issue with a team I have formed. From my understanding of the overall purpose of PALS, it provides students with an opportunity to motivate each other in a team environment. To successfully implement PALS in a classroom, it is important to observe each child’s reading skills and match them accordingly. When executed correctly, PALS appears to be an effective method for learning reading skills and overcoming reading disabilities. After learning about PALS, I wish we had these strategies in place when I was in school. I am glad that we are now discovering more effective ways to teach and support future generations of children.
