By: Amanda Johnson

Classwide Peer Tutoring is a strategy used to accommodate the needs of all students and can be adapted for use in any classroom with any subject. It consists of two students working in pairs in a tutoring session that typically lasts about 20 minutes for 3-5 times a week. Each student acts as a tutor for half a session and a tutee for the other half. Sessions are scripted so that students of any level can successfully act as tutor. A typical interaction consists of the tutor asking a question and the tutee responding, but it can be adapted to include writing or physical activities. Points and scripted feedback are given by the tutor based on answers. The teacher observes and awards points for groups correctly following procedures (Greenwood, 2001).

The benefits of this strategy are that no additional adults are needed for it to be successful, students of all ability levels can work together, students get one-on-one practice and support with a skill or concept, students learn to work together and see that everyone needs and can help each other, there is no cost to set up the strategy, and it requires minimal training and teacher time to set up.

I tested this strategy in my classroom of eight EFL students who are 14-16 years old. We used CWPT to review past vocabulary words from our Picture Dictionary textbook. I spent about an hour each day the week before preparing scripted flashcards for use during the sessions. The initial time investment is higher, but after deciding how to create the materials and script, it became much faster in subsequent weeks. Once the flashcards are created, they are able to be reused for future years, so the time commitment drops to almost nothing after starting the strategy for the first time. My suggestion would be to prepare it over the summer or during a long break. Time can also be saved by having students help create the flashcards the first time the words are taught.

The flashcards contained a vocabulary word on the front for the tutee to see. The back of the flashcard contained a question for the tutor to read, directions for giving out points, a prompt to use if the tutee gave the incorrect answer, and what the answer to the question was. Each week focused on one unit of words. The flashcards were divided into four sets. Sessions occurred four days a week so that students would get each flashcard set once. I began with ten minutes for each partner to be the tutor, but found the students would get off-task for that length of time. I gradually decreased the time until I found five minutes per student, ten minutes total, was the best choice for staying on task. Students were able to get through each word about 3-4 times.

An important component to the success of this strategy is effective modeling, practice, and teacher feedback. I explained and showed how students would do the activity. I then had students practice in front of the class. During the first week, we discussed what went well and what did not. On Wednesday of the second week, I noticed that the students smoothly completed the tutoring sessions with no reminders from me. I continued to monitor and offer feedback as needed, but after a week and a half of reviewing the procedures, practicing, and discussing, they followed the procedures well.

Students were given a pre-test to evaluate how many of the vocabulary words they remembered. They completed a post-test to analyze how many vocabulary words they remembered after a week of tutoring sessions. Class time was taken to review the words as a whole class as well because the effectiveness of CWPT increases when paired with whole group instruction (Greenwood, 2001). All four weeks, every student improved his or her score. The greatest improvement was seen in two students who are at a lower English language level than the other students. The large gains were significant; each week they improved their scores by 25-50%. The class average from pre-test to post-test increased an average of 25% each week.

At the end of sessions, partners shared their points, which were then added to a total for “Team A” or “Team B.” At the end of the week, the winning group of four would get to choose a reward. It was important to have the students verbalize daily what the main point of the sessions was: to review vocabulary words, not to get the most points. It would be interesting to test the effectiveness without giving points, because during the last week, two students were lying about the number of points they had gotten.

At the end of the four-week period, students were asked if they liked doing the sessions. All students responded positively. They stated that the sessions were fun and helped them remember words they had forgotten.

I like this strategy because it only used about 15 minutes of school time, kept all students engaged, had positive effects on vocabulary word retention, and was easy to set up. I enjoyed seeing the lower level students work with the higher level students in a way that both could be in charge instead of the higher level student always being in control.

This strategy can benefit Lutheran schools because of its minimal training, set-up time, and cost. It doesn’t require additional personnel to be used effectively. It offers a way for our schools to meet some of the needs for individual attention and positive social interaction of the special education students who choose to attend a Lutheran school over a public school.

Link to Amanda’s Research Paper

Link to Project Data

Amanda Johnson is currently a  EFL Teacher at Canaan Lutheran Academy in Seoul, South Korea and a current MLC graduate student with special education emphasis.

References:

Greenwood, C. R. (2001). ClassWide Peer Tutoring Learning Management System. Remedial & Special Education, 22(1), 34.