Abstract of

What Makes Literacy Tutoring Effective?

Connie Juel

Juel (1991) reported that university student-athletes who were poor readers seemed to be effective tutors of first-grade children who were poor readers. The current study explored factors that may account for successful tutoring outcomes when poor readers tutor other poor readers. The form and content of tutoring in 30 tutoring dyads was closely examined. To determine what factors contributed to successful outcomes in individual dyads, tutoring sessions over a school year were tape-recorded and videotaped. Tapes were analyzed into type of verbal interactions (i.e., scaffolded or modeled processes) and time spent engaged in seven tutoring activities (e.g., reading literature, writing, letter-sound instruction). Multiple measures of reading, writing, and attitude towards school were administered at the beginning and end of the school year both to the children and to the older poor reader tutors (who also engaged in additional reading and writing activities outside of tutoring), and to control groups. Both tutors and children made significantly greater literacy growth than their respective control groups. Two activities were found to be particularly important in successful dyads: (a) the use of texts that gradually and repetitively introduced both high-frequency vocabulary and words with common spelling patterns, and (b) activities in which children were engaged in direct letter-sound instruction. Two forms of verbal interactions were found to be particularly important: (a) scaffolding of reading and writing, and (b) modeling of how to read and spell unknown words. A synergistic relationship was found to exist between the form and content of instruction.

Abstract from Juel, C. (1996). What Makes Literacy Tutoring Effective?. Reading Research Quarterly, 31(3), 268–289. doi: 10.1598/RRQ.31.3.3