High Schoolers Tutoring Elementary Students

As I was reviewing pictures and videos from my school iPad, I found a video of a project I worked on with students from my at-risk English class in preparation for the state test last year. Knowing that students would retain better something that they've taught to someone else, I made contact with the principal and then a teacher at the elementary school down the road and set up one day each month during the spring when my 10th graders could come and work her 3rd graders, who were also facing a major state test that spring.

The teacher and I worked together to identify appropriate stories and nonfiction articles for her students to read, and she shared with me some of the major standards and reading strategies she was working on. I would then do the readings and go over the skills to be taught with my students, and it just so happened that doing so was extraordinarily useful for their own reading development, too! But since they were learning for the sake of their 3rd graders instead of themselves, they took to it more willingly and with greater interest than I think they would've otherwise.

Once we'd been bussed over there, we'd spread out in the library or her classroom and go to work. It was awesome watching my teens with some really tough lives be so tender toward and interested in the squirrely 3rd graders. During the get-to-know-you visit, they asked each other some fun starter questions and most groups then delved into an excited conversation about each others' hobbies. When it came time to work, my students did a great job of teaching the skills, negotiating how they would alternate reading, and generally keeping the students on track.

On the bus ride home, it was rewarding to hear my students talk so excitedly with each other about their students, and it was hilarious to hear them regale each other with stories of how hard it was to get their student to "get it" - they sounded like veteran teachers!

Some of my students chose to opt out of the visits, but others took to it like it was the most engaging thing they'd ever done at school. It's something I definitely need to figure out how to do again.