Chapter 15 page 363
Figure 15.2: The PALS procedure in the Fuchs et al. (1997) study. <This diagram provides a
very rough sketch.>
Each pair within each team did the following 3 times a
week:
--Partner reading with retell
--Paragraph summary
--Prediction relay
Teachers and tutors assigned points based on how well
students did.Each week, the team with the most points that week
received applause from the other team.In the no-PALS condition of this experiment, teachers were asked to teach reading in their usual way.
These teachers usually had students read silently before they led whole-class discussions with their
students. Thus, the teachers’ goal was to improve students’ reading ability, but they did not learn about or
use the PALS method.
The chart below displays the percent correct on a reading comprehension test administered at the end
of the 15-week program. (Percentages are low because the test was designed to be challenging.)
You can see from the chart that students with learning disabilities and readers who are below-average
especially benefited from PALS. In addition, on a fluency measure (how many words students read
correctly in three minutes) and on another comprehension measure (of the ability to fill in blanks in a text
with meaningful words), PALS students improved more than control students.
Figure 15.3: Results of the Fuchs et al. (1997) study
Figure 15.3 will be a bar chart of the results, showing percent correct
Learning-disabled students receiving PALS: 56.8%
Learning-disabled students receiving no PALS: 41.5%
Lower skilled readers receiving PALS: 53.0%
Lower skilled readers receiving no PALS: 44.5%
Average readers receiving PALS: 69.5%
Average readers receiving no PALS: 69.5%
The chart shows that lower skilled readers and students with learning disabilities benefited from
the PALS method. Average readers did equally well with PALS and regular instruction.
Guided Peer Questioning. Educational psychologist Alison King (1994; 1999) has developed a
method called guided peer questioning. The goal of guided peer questioning is to encourage students to