Preparing Students To Peer Tutor.

 

We all know that peer tutoring is a great thing to include in the classroom but it is not something you want to just do otherwise one student will give the other the answers.  They will tell you they are tutoring but that isn't it.  To avoid this, one needs to prepare the students so they really tutor.

The first step is to select the students who will be tutors.  You want students who are either good at math or have learned the material well enough to teach it and they should be able to verbalize the process so they communicate well. They should also be willing to be tutors.

Next, one should communicate expectations clearly to both the tutors and those who will be tutored. Expectations should include expected behavior, how the tutoring will be done, what the job of the tutor and tutoree will be so each knows what they will be doing, and the time each session should last.

Speaking of communicating, the tutor needs to be taught how to communicate effectively using techniques such as leaning to ask open ended questions, explain the material, using active listening, and learning to give appropriate feedback.  Giving appropriate feedback can be difficult for teens and preteens.  

In addition, one needs to provide the appropriate materials such as answer keys for worksheets, books, any online resources, whiteboards, etc so the session goes well and the tutor is able to provide the necessary instruction.  One of the last things the teacher should do is to monitor the pairs to make sure the tutor is doing a proper job.

The bottom line is that most students need to be taught how to tutor another student. One way is to provide information on how the tutoring should be done. It is important to show the students how to tutor and what one does during the session.  In other words, we have to train the tutors since they are not teachers.  It is also good  to have students role-play so they learn how to tutor, communicate, and practice giving both corrective and positive feedback.

Another item is to provide tutors with prompts they can use when they need to give feedback should the tutee make a mistake, praise for when they do well, questions to help the tutor guide the tutee to the answer, and questions to help the tutee explain their thinking.  

To help reinforce tutoring expectations, reward system be set up to reinforce the expectations for the tutor.  It might be the tutor gets a ticket every time they do a good job and once a week have a drawing for a small prize.  This should be enough to get started.  Stay tuned for something called reciprocal peer tutoring next week.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great weekend.