Rrhearsal Strategy: Repeating: Examples

READING TUTORS
The Recall Knowledge objective is for students to read all the words in a selection, so all the words in the selection constitute the target information. Students read the words to be learned in sentences because that provides a meaningful context for the words, and meaningfulness is an important factor in students learning words [1]. In order to provide active task performance for every student the teacher organizes students in tutorial pairs with adult volunteers or older students. Using adult volunteers in the kind of reading activity described here can significantly improve students' reading achievement [2]. Cross-age tutoring, where older students tutor younger students, can significantly improve the reading abilities of both those being tutored and those who are tutoring [3]. The Rehearsal Strategy has students read and reread words aloud because oral rereading is effective in helping students learn from written text [4], especially lower-ability students [5]. The tutor begins using a Rehearsal Task when the student cannot read a word in a sentence. The tutor prints the missed word on a card, says it, and has the student say it a number of times. The tutor then asks the student to reread the sentence. The tutor provides Rehearsal Guidance by focusing the student's attention on the words and sentences by pointing to them as the tutor or student says them. The tutor also provides guidance by praising students as they work. After a while, the tutor uses a Recall-Practice Task that consists of showing each word printed on a card and asking that it be read aloud. If the student is able to then the tutor shows the next card. If the student is unable to then the teacher provides Recall-Practice Guidance by pointing to the sentence containing the word and asking that it be pronounced. If the student is able to read the sentence correctly, the tutor shows the word card again and asks that it be pronounced. They they go onto the next word card. When the tutorial session is over the student keeps the word cards in order to practice them some more.

GEOGRAPHY
The Recall-Knowledge objective for this part of the study of Canada is for students to know the names and locations of its provinces and territories. The target information consists of those names and their locations on a map. The teacher did not use an assessment task before beginning the map lesson, assuming that any names students did not already know, they would learn. The class has finished reading a chapter on Canada in their textbooks. The teacher asks students questions about their reading. After a while the teacher says that now they will learn the names and locations of the territories and provinces they have been talking about. The teacher uses two maps in carrying out a Rehearsal Strategy. The first is a large wall map containing the names of the territories and provinces. Students also have a map with names in their geography textbooks.

In addition each student is given two copies of a blank, outline map, without names on it.

The teacher begins with a Rehearsal Task, and asks students to use the map on the wall or in their textbooks and write the names of the provinces and territories on one copy of the blank, outline map. They are to carefully check the spelling. They are also to write the name of each location 3 or 4 times on another piece of paper as spelling practice. The teacher provides Rehearsal Guidance by walking around the room and helping students with the locations and the spelling of the names. After a while, the teacher begins using a Recall-Practice Task by covering the wall map and having students turn the copy of the blank map they wrote on and the paper where they practiced spelling the location names. They take out a second copy of the blank, outline map that they have not written on, and are given a blank piece of paper. Students work in tutorial pairs. They take turns pointing to a location on the blank map, and they both try to name and write it. If they cannot, they provide themselves Recall-Practice Guidance by turning over the maps they wrote on. They write the name a number of times on a piece of paper. The teacher provides Recall-Practice Guidance by walking around the room helping students, and keeping everyone on task. The teacher will provide short recall-practice sessions over a number of days, especially with those students having difficulty learning the names and locations.


SCIENCE
Students are studying electricity. Today's Recall Knowledge objective is for students to know the definition of a simple electric circuit, and be able to draw an example of one. The teacher beging the Rehearsal Task that has this drawing on a chart of the aactukal electric circuit the teacher has constructed on a table in the classroom.

The teacher points to the chart and says that this is a simple electric circuit, and describes its parts. The teacher has some students take turns coming to the front of the room to manipulate various parts of the actual circuit on the table to see what happens, such as disconnecting a wire between the battery and light. The teacher says that the battery is the power supply and the light is the load. There are other possible power sources, such as in this classroom the lights on the ceiling are part of the load and the power supply is the power plant a mile down the road. The wires in that circuit are carried on power poles. The teacher has students copy the drawing of the simple circuit in their science notebooks, on a page entitled Simple Electric Circuits. They are also to copy the definition of the circuit that is given on the chart. The teacher provides Rehearsal Guidance by helping students with their drawings and written definitions. Over the next several days, students in small groups carry out experiments in the science center with the electric components in a box. They are to make drawings of the simple circuits they construct, and to write why the circuits they construct are simple electric circuits. They write and draw in their science notebooks. Later the teacher provides a Recall-Practice Task that has students do two things in writing, explain what a simple electric circuit is and draw an example of one. While students write and draw, the teacher circulates around the room and provides Recall-Practice Guidance when and how it is needed.
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1. Anderson, R.C. (1970). Control of student mediating processes during verbal learning and instruction. Review of Educational Research, 40, 349-370.
2. Schoeller, A., & Pearson, D. (1970). Better reading through volunteer reading tutors. The Reading Teacher, 23, 625-636.
3. Robertson D. (1972). Children learn from children. In S. Sebesta & C. Wallen (Eds), The first R: Readings in teaching reading, (277-283). Chicago: Science Research Associates.
4. (For example). Dowhower, S.L. (1987). Effects of repeated reading on second-grade transitional readers' fluency and comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 22, 389-406.
5. (For example). Morgan, R., & Lyon, E. (1979). Paired reading--A preliminary report on a technique for parental tuition of reading-retarded children. Journal of Child Psychology, 20, 151-160