It’s the countdown to day 100!  And I completed day 3 of night school!

I’m working with this concept of Partner Reading/Pair Reading at the high school level in my English classes and my Integration classes.  I’m doing this by asking students to partner, with a friend for now, read a passage (or a page) aloud and then have the other partner look for a quote to prove a point or to summarize what was just read.  On one level it scares me because my students aren’t always the most fluent, as they are primarily English Language Learners, so they struggle to read aloud, understand new vocabulary, and interpret text.  On the other hand, it’s pretty cool to see more of them getting involved with the language and doing their best.

I’m watching today to see how they do with it, naturally, with role instruction but not much more.  I don’t know my Integration classes well enough to highlight high and low readers.  Here’s what I do see.  Students in this first class are NOT good at following directions.  They would rather work alone.  Frankly, I don’t blame them.  I was the same way in high school.  However, they’re not even pretending to try.  Which is not cool.  As I look around, and ask groups what they’re reading, or how their summaries are going, or what they learned … I’m getting some blank stares and even some open hostility.   To the drawing board again, to make this more organized.  I think, in a room this small, I need to look at doing this just as partners with one group of 3 or one “group” of 1.  So while it would be more voices reading at the same time, it would easier to maintain and monitor.

Have you tried Pair Reading or Partner Reading in a high school classroom?  Were you successful?  What worked for you?