I have recently developed a intrigue over the change in attitude students have around mentors/tutors as opposed to the attitude they have with their teachers.  Student mentors are a tool that many schools (including my alma mater) utilize. Pairing an older high school student with a younger, struggling middle school student seems to be an efficient and cost-effective way to help struggling students get back up-to-par. 

A school district in Colorado has implemented a student-mentor program for middle school ESL students.  Lotte Laursen, a teacher at Bookcliff Middle School, has organized this program, coupling a high-school ex-ESL student with a middle school ESL student, primarily focusing on male Latino students. 

ESL teacher Lotte Laursen got the idea for the program after seeing how some Latino boys in ESL were struggling to fit into the classroom and were disengaged in learning.

The program started in January and has gotten so much demand from Bookcliff teachers that the ESL mentors are double-booked for afternoon science, social studies and algebra classes.

The mentors, who can be high school juniors or seniors, come for about an hour during the school day as part of a high school service-learning project.

In addition to helping the younger students with their academic work, the high-school mentors also serve as role models.  Laursen began to see that the younger ESL students were having a hard time fitting in socially.  The high school mentors provide a way for students to outlet their frustrations in a healthy way.

The mentors also are there to talk to the boys about outside issues that might be affecting their education. Juan said they sometimes talk to the boys so “they don’t fight or get into trouble.”

Laursen said having male role models for male ESL students is key.

“Hopefully, with them learning from other students of the same background, they will be inspired to make it through high school. That’s the long-term goal,” she said. “If they feel they belong, then they can succeed.”

While this article was a very short one, it brings up two points that I find interesting.  The first point is that student-mentors can be a big help in the area of academia.  I had always thought contrary to this, especially when I was in high school.  Whenever I’d mentor a younger student, I felt like I wasn’t really accomplishing much and that the only reason that the younger student had agreed to work with me was so that they could get out of class.  However, in my recent mentoring experiences, quite the opposite has occurred.  Over the past year, I have mentored in two different schools in two different districts, both of which were high schools.  Both times, the students responded very well to individual mentoring, as the teachers reported that both of their grades seemed to go up.  Perhaps that’s sort of a testament to my age.  When I was younger and in high school, I probably didn’t care as much about mentoring younger students as I do now, and thus, the mentoring time was usually unproductive.  But in situations where the mentor keeps the mentee focused, good things can happen.  Why does this happen?  I think it has a lot to do with a change in scenery.  Most students don’t really enjoy being bossed around by the same person all the time.  Therefore, when they get an opportunity to get away from the bossy teacher, they flourish.

A second point that the article brings up is that student-mentors can be a big help in the area of just plain socialization.  Laursen claimed that her student-mentors were able to not just talk about academics, but also other things that effected the mentees’ lives.  Home life, friends, school, and various other factors can influence the way a student learns.  If a student is given a way to outlet frustrations or concerns, it can help uninhibit the learning process.  Now, why is this?  I think student-mentors are able to help so much in this area because they are perhaps a little bit younger, and closer to the age of the students that they are assisting.  Thus, they are more able to relate to what the mentee is going through.  And besides, how many of us would have rather been mentor by a cool, college kid as opposed to the stuffy old teacher that we had to see everyday?

This entry has been sitting in my blog, unpublished for about two weeks while I’ve been trying to figure out a way to relate this to class.  After yesterday’s discussion on tracking, I had a moment of clarity!  In my group, we talked about how, in low-track classes, one-on-one attention is necessary whenever it can be given.  The use of mentors is an excellent way to do this!  It’s very cost-effective, too.  Since ESL students are generally (and I do really mean generally) put in low-track classes, the use of mentors is a useful method of catching them up to high-track students.

I just really like the idea of mentors.

Found in translation, Student mentors bridge language gap at Bookcliff
by Kylene Kiang
4 February 2007
Full article