The subject of this booklet is cross-age helping. It begins with a discussion of what cross-age helping is and why it is effective. Cross-age helping is described as a program where children teach or help other children. The older children help the younger children learn what the younger children want to know, and the younger children help the…

A field test of "Guiding Older Children As Tutors," one of the four motivational-instructional procedures of Individually Guided Motivation (IGM), was used in two Milwaukee, Wisconsin schools. A total of 34 tutees, 22 tutors, and 24 adults participated in the field test during the 1972-73 school year. The field test objectives sought an increase…

Argues that peer-assisted learning is a good option for teachers concerned with providing as much individual help as possible to their students. Describes one such peer tutoring program. (FL)

Researchers and two elementary teachers designed a cross-age tutoring program in which they examined the features and processes of peer interaction from a Vygotskian and Piagetian perspective. The study specifically focused on the following issues: characteristics of the tutor and tutee that are most likely to enhance learning; types of learning…

The institution of peer tutoring among black school children is the subject of this paper. The author acknowledges that while peer tutoring is not a new concept, the idea is resurging, especially among educators, because of: (1) the failure of the educational system to adequately prepare a large portion of urban youth educationally; (2) a…

This paper identifies three trends in reading research that reflect the shift from an emphasis on teaching method to the examination of individual and contextual variables, an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the reading process, and the effort to develop more comprehensive models of the reading process. Three studies of cross-age and…

Outcomes for methods to accelerate thinking skills involving some peer interaction have been more consistently positive than those for purely teacher-directed or materials-led methods. However, methods involving mainly or only peer interaction are rare. This paper describes and evaluates such a method for peer tutoring in thinking skills, which…

Advocates the use of peer and cross-age teaching in the elementary grades. Play as a method for peer teaching is emphasized. (CM)

A study examined whether cross-grade peer tutoring increased student performance on weekly spelling tests. Subjects, 7 sixth graders and 19 second graders attending Coal City Elementary School in Raleigh County, West Virginia, spent 10 minutes each day for 9 weeks working on spelling. The experimental group used cross-grade peer tutoring and the…

Reports the results of a study that supports the use of cross-grade tutors reading along with poor readers to improve their reading skills. (HTH)

Describes how book buddies activities enable both tutors and tutees to reach new heights in their literacy abilities. Describes how teachers can significantly increase these benefits by incorporating record-keeping and writing activities. Offers examples of book buddy journals, reflection forms, reading records, strategies checklists, question…

A study investigated whether grade-level status affects learning through cross-age activities. Data were collected through unstructured and open-ended audiotaped interviews with 11 pairs of students in a combined third- and fifth-grade class. Coding and analysis of data revealed seven themes related to students' perceptions of their interactions…

Two experiments compared cross-age and peer tutoring interventions within special education settings. In experiment 1, 47 elementary age learning and/or behaviorally disordered (LD/BD) students acted as tutors of younger LD and BD students. In experiment 2, 31 same-age LD and BD students alternated tutor and tutee roles. In both experiments,…

Four third-grade male students with behavior problems were given tutoring sessions by sixth-grade tutors either contingent on or not contingent on classroom on task behavior. Contingent tutoring always produced improved on-task behavior, while noncontingent tutoring did not, suggesting that tutoring was an effective reinforcer. (Author/DB)