The Benefits of Reading Buddies

Orientation to the Profession | Learning outcome #3 | Develop professional relationships with students, teachers, other teacher candidates and school staff

According to Cunningham and Stanovich, found in an article by the WGBH Education foundation, an associated with PBS Kids, research shows that oral vocabulary plays a powerful role in determining a child’s academic success. In fact, the size of a first grader’s oral vocabulary is a reliable predictor of that student’s eleventh-grade reading comprehension (WGBH Educational Foundation, 2010).

Professional engagement and interaction amongst students

Today I participated in the Ready Buddy program facilitated by one of the school's Kindergarten teachers, and my mentor teacher who is the prime instructor for my grade 8s. My observations today reiterated my understanding of learning between students. Oral vocabulary, and the communicative exchange between learners strengthens their language, thus provides the skill of decoding and comprehending text.

Though there seems to be much learning from the perspective of a grade 1 student or kindergartener, there is a fair exchange of learning between the older "buddy" and the younger "buddy". For the older students, they too enhance their vocabulary and practice their decoding skills by tutoring their buddy. To their knowledge, there are no teachers evaluating their abilities, so students can engage with their buddy without the pressure of being graded. Through cross-age tutoring and partnerships, it improves both buddies' reading, fluency and overall literacy skills.

Today, though most often literature is read to the youngsters, worked on an art project together. My role in the program was to trouble shoot and to promote cooperation and collaboration between young buddy and older buddy. Students sponge painted flowers to celebrate the spring season. This exchange, though not oral vocabulary per se, students benefitted in the social aspects to their partnership. Such social skills include mentorship and leadership for the older buddy; cooperation and collaboration; verbal and non-verbal communication; active listening; the ability to read social cues and many more.

This program allows social interaction between peers and demonstrates the power of play: it's often the best teacher in our lives. Educators like myself are the facilitators who put play into the context of learning.

Professional engagement and collaboration with mentors, staff & TCs

This experience is also a learning opportunity for teachers. Learning and working with others gave me an opportunity to further explore who I was as a learner and a teacher. In addition, it allowed me to observe my students in a learning environment. Working with another TC, and teachers encourages collaboration, cooperation enhances our professional growth and the growth of our students.

References

Cunningham, A. E., and K. E. Stanovich. 1998. The impact of print exposure on word recognition. In Word recognition in beginning literacy, ed. J. Metsala and L. Ehri, 235–62. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.