Using peer tutoring to improve reading skills : a practical guide for teachers / Keith Topping, David Duran and Hilde Van Keer.

Keith James Topping is a university professor of educational and social research, an author of many books and other publications, and an international speaker and presenter. To date, Topping has written 24 books and over 350 other publications including 183 peer reviewed journal papers. His writing has been published in 12 languages.
Further details are at https://www.dundee.ac.uk/esw/staff/details/toppingkeith-j-.php#tab-bio

He worked as a residential social worker, teacher and practising educational psychologist for Social Services and Health, before moving to education as an educational psychologist. After working for many local authorities (including Kirklees latterly) and becoming increasingly interested in research, he moved to the University of Dundee in 1992 to establish a new training course for educational psychologists. He subsequently developed a doctoral level course and then become wholly focused on research, training and consultation. He became a professor in 2003. He has extensive experience working with teachers, children and parents in many school districts, as well as with government and non-governmental organizations, in the U.K., U.S. and other countries.


Education
University of Sussex
University of Nottingham
University of Sheffield
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
His main research interest is peer learning, but he is also interested in parents as educators, problematic behaviour and social competence, computer assisted learning and assessment, and inclusion..

DAVID DURAN is PhD in Psychology and Assistant Professor of Educational Psychology in the Faculty of Sciences of Education at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. He worked for 16 years as a secondary school teacher. In addition to initial training for teachers, he has long experience of in-service training of teachers in Spain and Latin America. In the field of peer learning, and especially on peer tutoring, he has written a dozen of books (in Catalan and Spanish, translated into Portuguese and Basque), some of them in English. He is the director of the Research Group on Peer Learning (GRAI) (http://grupsderecerca.uab.cat/grai/en), which is training teachers and schools to implement educational programmes based on peer tutoring, as Reading in pairs, in 300 primary and secondary schools.
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
Peer Learning, cooperative learning, peer tutoring, learning by teaching.. HILDE VAN KEER In her work, Hilde Van Keer focuses on three main research themes, which are often intertwined in studies. A first theme focuses on innovative teaching methods in education, with an emphasis on peer learning (e.g., peer and student tutoring, collaborative learning), including both effect and process-oriented studies into the underlying dynamics and interactions during collaboration. A second theme focuses on the different components of self-regulated learning. In this respect, both the issue of measuring self-regulated learning as its promotion in educational contexts are dealt with. The third theme centers on the study of reading and writing (instruction) in compulsory education.
Areas of Research / Professional Expertise
Peer learning; self-regulated learning; language didactics, and reading and writing in particular.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Table of Contents

Section A INTRODUCTION 1. Reading 2. Peer Tutoring 3. Peer Tutoring in Reading Section B EVIDENCE-BASED GOOD PRACTICES 4. Paired Reading: What Is It? 5. Paired Reading: Does It Work? 6. One Book for Two: What Is It? 7. One Book for Two: Does It Work? 8. Reading in Pairs: What Is It? 9. Reading in Pairs: Does It Work? Section C ORGANISING AND IMPLEMENTING PEER TUTORING 10. Planning: Context, Objectives, Materials, Recruitment, Selection and Contact 11. Operating: Training, Monitoring, Feedback and Evaluation 12. The Role of the Teacher in Peer Tutoring 13. Evaluation of Peer Tutoring 14. Sustaining and Embedding Peer Tutoring

Description

Using Peer Tutoring to Improve Reading Skills is a very practical guide, offering a straightforward framework and easy-to-implement strategies to help teachers help pupils progress in reading.　 A succinct introduction, it shows how schools can make positive use of differences between pupils and turn them into effective learning opportunities.

Outlining the evidence base supporting peer tutoring approaches, it explores the components of the reading process and explains how peer tutoring in reading can be used with any method of teaching reading.　 Core topics covered include:

Planning and implementing peer tutoring

Getting your school on board

How to structure effective interaction

Training peer tutors and tutees

Paired Reading - cross-ability approaces

One Book for Two -　 fostering fluency, reading comprehension, and motivation

Reading in Pairs - cross and same-year tutoring

Supporting struggling readers

Involving families in peer tutoring

Evaluation and feedback.

Illustrated throughout with practical examples from diverse schools across Europe, Using Peer Tutoring to Improve Reading Skills is an essential introduction offering easy-to-use guidelines that will support teachers in primary and secondary schools as they enhance pupil motivation and improve reading standards..

REVIEWS:

"This is a rich resource for those interested in peer tutoring and a clear window into a specific type of peer work for those committed to deepening their understanding of the power of cooperation for learning. One thing that makes this book paticularly powerful is that each author?s work has been detailed, sustained, and extensive. A second is that the three authors speak about peer tutoring from the point of view of projects from three different cultural, social, and linguistic contexts." - Lynda Baloche, International Association for the Study of Cooperation in Education

"The book offers useful strategies for all teachers who want to improve the reading skills of their students through the practice of peer tutoring, a cooperative learning method to manage the diversity of levels in a way that all the students can teach and learn from each other [?] A very interesting and practical book which is written in clear language and well-structured that offers many guidelines and resources on how to effectively implement peer tutoring to improve reading skills." - Mariona Corcelles Seuba, Revista de Educación