Meeting The Standards
Standard 1
d. Model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments
Providing one-on-one support to students was a priority for the peer tutors. Their primary focus was on the group of students in the classroom at the time, but they also provided a lot of supplementary help and support videos for my students in other class periods by posting their videos to YouTube.
Groups of peer tutors would work together during break periods and/or lunch time to finish a set of videos or instructional materials for students in the classroom. These peer tutors were often spread throughout separate class periods, but still came together to share resources and put them online in an accessible manner.
Standard 2
c. Customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources
During the Solving Equations Unit, peer tutors split up the four math operations and made multiple video examples for each type of problem, to varying degrees of difficulty. Following this, a one-page reference sheet was provided to students in the form of QR Codes that could be scanned to jump to the topic they needed further practice or help working through. An example of students working with QR Codes is located in the first and second panel, on the right.
Standard 3
b. Collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation
Peer tutors were provided with a blog platform to post the resources and materials they individually and collaboratively created for students in my classroom. This extended beyond the classroom as parents could also access this extra help when working with their child. Additionally, teachers and schools beyond our district started to notice some of the material and inquired about its use. The impact continued to spread!