The plan was to go to DYE on Wednesday to meet and greet with the 3rd graders. The SWA mentors had a craft planned to do with their mentee once they were paired off. However, school was called off Wednesday because of snow, so they are going to have to shorten the meet and greet next week so they can get 10 sessions in this semester.
Today I went to Kelly's 2nd and 4th period classes to mentor the high school mentors. Some of them are new to the school, so they needed to get filled in on what they were supposed to do with the 3rd grade mentees. I wanted to make sure they are confident when they begin mentoring the 3rd graders. I went over the Teacher Guide with them, focusing on how much time they have per activity and what reading strategies they can use with their mentees (Modeling, Choral Reading, Shadow Reading, and Independent Reading). Then, to review, I asked them the order of activities they will be doing during their mentor sessions. Once I felt that they knew what to do, we practiced together. They paired off, one as the mentor and the other pretending to be the mentee. Once they got through the activity in the TTRM magazine, they switched so that both would have a chance to practice mentoring. Afterwards, we reviewed the order of activities and reading strageties again.
Also, just so you know specifically what the mentors will be doing with their mentees, here is a brief description of the weekly session:
For the first 5 minutes, they will meet & greet and review last week's theme from the TTRM student magazine. The magazine's theme for this semester's 10 sessions is titled "Great Lives," and it focuses on people such as Louie Pasteur, Thomas Edison, and George Washington Carver. Next, they will spend 15 minutes on the student magazine (title, pictures, vocabulary words, "find it" grammar review, reading section, timeline, and questions about the reading). Finally, they will read through a book together that TTRM provides for us to give to the mentees, and the mentees will be able to keep the book.
As I reviewed the mentors today, I noticed that some of them were very confident and excited about participating in this reading program. Others seemed nervous and shy about taking on the role of the mentor. After all, some of the vocabulary words in the student magazine were tough (e.g. microorganisms). Each week, I will be going with them to DYE for one hour and reviewing/mentoring new students on how to mentor their 3rd graders for one hour at SWA. Hopefully they will become more confident in their leadership abilities once they have started. Our first day will be next Wednesday, and I am excited! : )
Elizabeth
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1 comment:
how are you integrating the new students into this program? this is always a challenge working with SWA...especially since a grading period is right around the corner, right? which means some movement in and out. are the swa kids getting the strategies you're teaching them? i wonder if the other SWA teachers are seeing better work from these students. as you know, you learn so much more when you;re teaching yourself. and you're correct in pointing out the leadership opportunities for the SWA kids. for some of them this could be one of a small handful of positive school experiences.
keep up the great work!
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