Educators
(Hughes, Guth, Hall, Presley, Dye, Byers, 1999)
Contents:
Why Have A Peer Tutoring Course?
Getting course approval
Teacher Credentials
Credit issues
Ages of peer tutors
Grading Issues
Developing Materials
Recruiting peer tutors
Introducing the peer tutoring program to your school
and classroom
What are the limits of peer tutors?
Getting special education students and peer tutors
into general education classes
Advisory Board
The peer tutoring class has been approved, so what do I do now?
Screening
Orientation /Training
Scheduling
Why have a peer tutoring course?
A peer tutoring course can greatly enhance the education of students with moderate to severe disabilities. A peer tutoring course will increase the involvement and social interaction of students with disabilities. The course is also a great learning tool for general education students. Peer tutoring program have been reported to be as much of a success for the general education students as it has for students with disabilities. (Hughes, et al., 1999) Peer tutors have been shown to help students with disabilities improve their skills in the areas of social, work, community, as well as academics.
With all of the requirements put on special educations teachers in addition to teaching, a few extra sets of hands could help. Most students with disabilities can benefit from more intensive instruction, but rarely get it due to the ratio of students to teachers. Peer tutors can allow for more one-to-one, or small group instruction (Miracle, Collins, Schuster, Grisham-Brown; 2001)
The beginning stages of a peer tutoring class will take both time and work, but the long term effect will be worth it! Peer tutors can do so much for students with moderate to severe disabilities. Once the program is up and running, routine supervision and instruction is all that will be needed. The outcomes will be obvious and all of the hard work will have paid off!
Each school system differs as how to get new courses approved. We recommend
that you research how new courses get approved in your school and follow
those steps. Check with the school counselors and administration. When
getting new courses approved, we recommend that you work closely with
the school counselors, because they can help the process.
In most Kentucky high schools, all new course approvals must occur though
the School Based Decision Making Council. It is advisable that you check
with your school’s SBDM policies and procedures to make sure that
the correct steps are taken.
Before trying to get the peer tutoring course approved, make sure that you work out all of the logistics of the class, so that if any questions come up, you will be prepared.
Another important point to consider is appropriate teacher credentialing for peer tutoring. Since peer tutors are regular education students earning academic credits for their peer tutoring course, the teacher of record for the Peer Tutoring Course must be a teacher with a regular education high school teaching certificate. If the special education teacher does have a teaching certificate in regular education at the high school level, then she/he can be the primary course instructor. If she/he does not have the certificate to teacher regular education at the high school level, then another teacher with this type of certificate must be designated as the primary course instructor for peer tutoring (as an example, this could be a Guidance Counselor). Within this arrangement, the special education teacher can be a collaborative or co-teacher for the Peer Tutoring Course. This meets the requirements of KDE for appropriate certification.
This, of course, will need to be consistent with the school’s reporting
to KDE regarding teaching assignments and cross -referenced with any other
school or district reports of persons being properly certified for their
prescribed duties
In some Kentucky high schools, there is a limit on the number of times that a class can be taken. This issue should also be addressed in your school’s SBDM policies and procedures manual. If there are any questions as to the credits, you should address your school’s administration. It is recommended that several levels of peer tutoring be offered so that students can take peer tutoring several times.
Most high schools with peer tutoring classes do not offer it to freshmen. Starting in their sophomore year, student can take peer tutoring as an elective. By starting peer tutoring in the sophomore year, more natural friendships can begin and be sustained. If peer tutoring is not offered until the junior and senior year, the friendships that occur between peer tutors and the special education students will not be as natural because of the age difference and because of the short amount of time together. Think of it this way: if you have peer tutors who are juniors and seniors (ages 16 to 18) and students with disabilities who are starting in your program at age 14 , the age differences could hinder natural relationships from occurring. There have been some schools that have accepted peer tutors in their freshmen year. This should be left up to the special education teacher to decide.
See the example of a peer tutoring course syllabus for grade suggestions. The success of a peer tutoring program depends on the peer tutors being at school, and thus attendance should be a big factor in the grades. There will always be a student who misses an excessive amount of school due to reasons that cannot be helped. So that this student is not penalized, there should be extra credit options to earn back the daily attendance points. However, even though a peer tutor is in school, if the peer tutor is not participating, the program will not be successful. So, we recommend that you reward daily points for both attendance and participation (see the syllabus in the forms section).
It is also recommended that you conduct monthly observations of your peer tutors. Several peer tutor programs require peer tutor logs; peer tutors have responded favorably to this assignment because they can express their feelings and ask the teacher questions directly in the context of their logs. Both teacher observations and student logs should be included in the grade given to the peer tutor.
The main part of this website is the peer tutor units and assignments. These units and assignments are meant to enhance the peer tutors’ learning experience and are set up to help you administer the course effectively and assign grades to your peer tutors. We recommend that during the first peer tutoring course (Peer Tutoring I) peer tutors complete units 1 through 5; the careers unit may be included as one of the units in this first course as well. At the end of each major content section within each unit, there are comprehensive questions for the peer tutor to print out and complete to turn into you. At the end of each unit, there is a computer-generated quiz. The quiz will cover all of the material presented in the unit and the results will be immediately given to the student and emailed to you. We recommend that near the end of each peer tutoring course, peer tutors choose one of the culminating activities to be completed and turned in for a grade. Culminating activities are designed to incorporate a range of skills and concepts that the student has learned throughout the course or semester. Please go to the assignments section of the web site to get more information on the units and the culminating activities.
How a teacher determines grades for the peer tutoring class will vary from school to school. The information that we have provided above is just a suggestion. You may choose to not use any of these units and instead develop your own units, or you may choose to adopt these units to fit your class as needed.
As your peer tutoring class continues to develop, you will develop different materials for different aspects of the program. As you talk to other teachers, ask them for materials that they find helpful for their programs. As you develop materials, then share them with other teachers. Find out in what areas or topics your peer tutors have questions and then find materials to help answer those questions. As you get information, share it with your peer tutors and they will learn even more. One peer tutoring program has developed binders or packets on all types of disabilities. As the teacher finds more information on different disabilities, she puts them into specific binders for each disability. Her peer tutors can check out the binders and use them as references. As the peer tutors ask about disabilities for which there are no binders, the teacher makes new binders. The teacher now has over 50 binders of resources for the students to use!
Some programs have had trouble recruiting peer tutors and other programs have a long waiting list of peer tutors waiting to get in! Some programs have equal representation of peer tutors by gender and race and other programs do not have equal representation. The way that peer tutors are recruited for the program is very important. If you are starting a new program, one strategy might be to recruit several of the more ‘popular or visible students (e.g., honors students, athletes, student leaders) in the school to take the class. Encourage them to bring their friends into the room or to have students with disabilities join them in many of the school activities (lunch, clubs, assemblies). As students with disabilities begin to interact with more members of the student body, other general education students will begin signing up for peer tutoring. Most of the teachers with peer tutoring programs have said that in the first two years of the program, they had to do a lot of work to get peer tutors and then the peer tutors started coming on their own! The reason that most general education students do not sign up is that they have little experience with people with disabilities and are very hesitant to interact with these students. If you are at a school where interactions between students with disabilities and general education students are not that common, then you will have to first get students comfortable with each other and with the idea of being in classes together. This is not just a fear for teachers, but also unfamiliar territory for the students. As special education teachers, it is our job to jump the hurdles and make inclusion into daily school activities natural and comfortable for everyone. So, take that jump and get going! Listed below are a few ideas on ways to recruit peer tutors (Remember that you want your peer tutors to reflect themselves the diversity of the student body!)
*Ask counselors and other teachers for recommendations
*Go talk to classes
*Go talk to clubs, organizations, youth groups, student councils
*Find out about students interested in becoming teachers
*Find out if any students have family members with disabilities
*Find out who the friends of your students currently are
*Talk to the students who you already know
*Get some popular students to sign up
*Find students who have outgoing personalities
Introducing the peer tutoring program to your school and classroom
After getting the peer tutoring course approved, one of the first steps that you need to take is to get your administration, teachers, and staff on board. If you do not get others to ‘buy into’ the program, then you are going to struggle. The first thing to do is to talk about the program with your administration, department chair, and to the teachers with whom you are friends. Explain to them the value of this program and the success that it will bring to both students with disabilities and to general education students. Explain to them how peer tutoring can help with the CATS assessment (see the Assessment page on this website). Talk to the general education teachers for the classes in which your students are included. Explain to them how having peer tutors in their classes will be more natural then having you or the para-educator providing all of the support to the student. Explain to these teachers how much assistance the peer tutor will be able to give them. Once you have started talking with everyone, you should ask your principal to allow you to talk for about a few minutes at a faculty meeting. At the faculty meeting, present the peer tutoring program and why you see it as so valuable. As you tell the faculty about the peer tutoring program you are starting, make sure that the faculty can see your excitement and eagerness for this program! Explain to everyone how a peer tutoring program will help raise assessment scores (Alternate Portfolio scores for your students and assessments scores for peer tutors, such as Writing Portfolio entries taken directly from their peer tutoring experiences). Ask the faculty for help with implementing the peer tutoring program and in recruiting peer tutors. During the days after the faculty meeting, make sure that you discuss the program with at least a few teachers and get their feedback and perceptions of the program. Answer any questions and if teachers appear hesitant, try to ease their worries.
What are the limits of peer tutors?
Peer tutors can be a great asset in your classroom, but remember that they are not teachers. Peer tutors need to be trained in their roles. Make sure that, as the teacher, you know what you want the peer tutors to do and not do, and make sure that everyone working with the peer tutors know and understand these limits. As the teacher, you are responsible to make sure that a peer tutor is not asked to go beyond these limits.
Peer tutors are to be role models. They are to learn side-by-side with your students. They are to arrive in class with a respectful and positive class. The peer tutors should feel like they belong in the classroom, and that they can come in and visit with their friends whenever appropriate (this will help in recruitment). Peer tutors are to try to develop friendships with the students with disabilities, though we realize, of course, that friendships cannot be forced. This is true of friendships for everyone!
Peer tutors can also be valuable resources for increasing your instructional effectiveness, and can be taught to reliably conduct systematic instruction. Moreover, peer tutors can be taught to take instructional data (Miracle, et al., 2001). However, be careful that your peer tutors also have plenty of opportunities to interact in non-instructional activities with your students, in order to promote your students' social and communication skills and hopefully the development of friendships! Peer tutors can help the rest of the school learn to interact with students with moderate and severe disabilities. Peer tutors can also use 'peer pressure' in a positive manner to help students with disabilities learn appropriate social skills. Peer tutors are to maintain confidentiality in everything that they do.
Here is an important list of "NOTS" for peer tutors:
• Peer tutors are not to be used as disciplinary figures.
• Peer tutors are not to deliver any type of intrusive physical prompts or interactions.
• Peer tutors are not to be present when students with disabilities deserve and need privacy.
• Peer tutors are not to step in when the teacher is handling a situation.
• Peer tutors are not to override any teacher or faculty member because they think that they know what is good for the student.
• Peer tutors are not to be used as supervisors of students.
• Peer tutors are not to have access to due process folders or any other confidential information.
Getting special education students and peer tutors into general education classes
Get to know the general education teachers of the classes where you believe inclusion of your students will work. You may want to sit in and observe these classes and then schedule a meeting with the respective teachers. Ask the teachers how they feel about your students be included into their classes. Find out what hesitations or concerns teachers have. Explain to each teacher the purpose of inclusion and how peer tutors will help make inclusion successful. Explain to the teacher your role and how you will give support in enabling your students to achieve their instructional goals while in that teacher's classroom. Tell the teacher that you will be there as a support in any way needed. Explain to the teacher her/his role in the peer tutoring program. Be sure to give the teacher some control in the whole process. Schedule several meetings with the general education teacher to guide the inclusion of your student(s) and peer tutoring program into her/his class.
Some schools have developed peer tutoring advisory boards to help them guide the development of their peer tutoring programs, and to continue to make those programs better. See the page on this site that explains the use of a peer tutoring advisory board. Not every school may want to develop an advisory board. You may want to adapt the idea of the advisory board to the specific needs of your school and your program.
The peer tutoring class has been approved, so what do I do now?
The first step is to figure out how you will recruit and screen peer tutors. In the beginning stages of the program, while you are still trying to get students to sign up to be peer tutors, intensive screening may not be as necessary. Once you start having peer tutors apply or sign up to be peer tutors in larger numbers, you may want to establish more formal mechanisms for screening them. In the Forms Section on this site, you will find a screening form. This form can be adapted to meet your needs. You may choose to not use the form at all. If you do chose to use the form, you need to make this form available to students before scheduling occurs and make a decision on the selection process. Remember to not go over board on your selection process; you do not want to turn down everyone and then wonder why you have no or few peer tutors! Also, if your selection process is too picky, then students may hesitate to sign up in the future. You need to have the form available to be picked up and returned by a certain date. An explanation of the form should be included. Once the forms are in, then you need to follow your selection process. A letter of approval needs to be given to the students and the scheduling office. The approval letter needs to be turned in by the student when the student schedules her/his classes.
You and your para-educator(s) need to decide how and when you will conduct training of the peer tutors. You should have several handouts available at the training so that the peer tutors can read over and understand the information you give them. If they do not understand, then they can refer to the handouts. If you have provided these handouts, the peer tutors can not claim that they did not know of any issues. We recommend that the training be done during the first week of classes. During this time, you will need to work with the general education teachers on the support of your students in the general education classes. During the training, you need to cover every issue of your program that you feel might be of importance to your peer tutors. Below is a suggestion list;
*What is the role of a peer tutor
*Behavior in the community
*Attendance issues
*Responsibilities
*Role in the general education classroom
*Grades
*What a peer tutor is not to do
*Confidentiality
*Emergency procedures
*Role in delivering of instruction
*How to take data (Miracle, et al., 2001)
*Developing relationships
*Brief explanations of the students and their disabilities (what to do
and how to react, but be careful here that you do not violate the confidentiality
of your students, and that you do not share confidential information about
any of your students without permission).
Before the school term starts, the issues of scheduling should be addressed. We recommend that the special education teacher and the para-educators in the classroom sit down and take a look at each class. Make a list of where each of your students will be during each class and what she/he will be doing. Determine the level of assistance that each of your students will need to be successful during each class. Then make a list of the peer tutors that you will have each for class. After you have these two lists, then try to match up where you can use a peer tutor to assist specific students, and where the teacher and para-educator can be used as well. Some teachers match one peer tutor to work with the same student the entire term (often letting peer tutors and students select each other!). Other teachers alternate peer tutors and students. There are positives to both choices. When using the same peer tutor with the same student, a very close relationship can develop. The peer tutor will know the student’s capabilities and what the student is working on. This can be a great strategy in the general education classroom so that a new peer tutor is not coming and trying to figure out what work is being done. On the other side, when a student with a disability works with a variety of peer tutors, then there are natural and reoccurring opportunities to generalize skills. Your students will also develop stronger social skills when working with a variety of peer tutors. Your students will learn different ways to get along with different personalities. Remember to be flexible, because not every one of your students will be successful with every peer tutor. You need to be prepared as to what you will do when a student refuses to work with a particular peer tutor. You also need to be prepared as to how you will handle a peer tutor who can not develop the skills to work with certain students with disabilities. All of these issues need to be worked out as soon as they occur.
Tips for Teachers
Setting Up a Peer Tutor Program