Pause, Prompt, & Praise ©
Beginning Reading

Pause, Prompt, and Praise is a technique originally designed to help parents improve their children’s levels of literacy. The technique is now used by many schools as part of their peer tutoring programs and is adapted for use in curricula such as daily reading. In this Shared Reading version of the technique, the peer tutor must listen to the tutee read continuous prose at the appropriate reading level. If the tutee makes a mistake, the tutor must wait five seconds (pause) for the tutee correct the error. If the child does not correct the error, the tutor prompts the tutee with the appropriate clues related to the story’s meaning. If the tutee does not solve the error after two attempts, the tutor corrects the student. Finally, the tutor is encouraged to praise the tutee as often as possible. The goal of the peer version of Pause, Prompt, and Praise is to increase reading ability in both the tutors and the tutees.