The Effects of Cross-Aged Tutoring On the Comprehension Skills of Remedial Reading Students

Abstract

To compare the effects of 3 tutorial reading programs, 53 elementary-aged disabled readers were assigned to 1 of 3 experimental (tutorial) treatments — hypothesis/test (H/T) instruction, oral-reading (OR) practice, or word-recognition (WR) training — or to a small group H/T control. Students received 20, 15-minute lessons and were tested on WR, OR, and cloze comprehension measures, and on a standardized comprehension test. Differences were significant on the cloze measure only: The H/T tutorial group scored significantly higher than the WR group. The tutorial and H/T control groups did not differ. Thus, the cross-aged tutors administered the H/T program as successfully as did the teachers working with small groups. The use of tutoring and H/T instruction in programs for disabled readers is advocated.

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