Thinking Reading Writing:
A Practical Guide to Paired Learning with Peers, Parents & Volunteers
Keith Topping
Continuum International: New York & London (2001)
Parents, peers and volunteers are increasingly involved in literacy skills tutoring - at school, in the home and in other contexts. This book extends these developments into higher order reading skills and thinking skills - currently areas of great interest to educators, government, and employers.
The book details specific structured methods for improving quality and effectiveness in parent, peer and volunteer tutoring. The methods cover reading, thinking, writing and spelling. They are solidly based on decades of work in hundreds of schools with thousands of children, and a very large amount of research evidence in the UK and elsewhere.
These practical methods are designed so all can benefit, including tutors as well as tutees, irrespective of age and ability. They are:
- inexpensive to use,
- require no special materials or complex technology,
- are flexible and durable in a wide range of settings,
- are compatible with professional instruction of almost any type.
Full descriptions of the methods are coupled with detailed advice about successful organisation, brief summaries of the relevant research findings, and guidance on local evaluation. The book is linked with a web site containing over fifty free resource materials to help with implementing projects and with staff development presentations, which can be adapted and copied for use by readers (the Thinking Reading Writing or TRW resources web site - www.dundee.ac.uk/eswce/research/projects/trwresources).
This book and the electronic resources together are intended to make innovation and quality improvement easier, quicker and more assured for the busy professional who is striving to raise standards of achievement, improve school effectiveness, and develop collaborative community partnerships. The methods described in this book are also enjoyable, and sociable and intrinsically rewarding. They can help to create a co-operative and positive social ethos and promote social inclusion and citizenship.
The book and the accompanying electronic resources will be of interest to:
- practising teachers
- those who educate or train teachers (pre-service and in-service)
- those who consult with, advise, appraise and manage teachers, schools and school systems
- organisers of before-school, after-school, and summer school supported study provision
- any other agency or professional involved in the organisation of parent, peer or volunteer tutoring (e.g. community educators, voluntary organisations, libraries, adult education facilities, and parents' groups).
- some parents, including those educating their children at home
- those interested in family literacy, workplace literacy, and other contexts for lifelong learning (the methods have been used successfully with adults of limited literacy as tutees and tutors).
- those interested in evidence-based methods for raising achievement and promoting social inclusion and citizenship