Today we went to DYE as we usually do on Wednesdays. Many of the participating SWA students have been mentoring in TTRM for the whole 7 weeks now, while some of them have only been mentoring for 2 weeks. It has not been as difficult to train the new ones and switch out mentors with the 3rd grade mentees as we thought it would be initially, probably because the timing was right at the beginning. When we started Session 1, there were many new SWA students, and now many of them are still mentoring in the program at week 7.
Overall, the mentors enjoy coming to see their mentees and reading with them, even if it's only to get out of school for an hour. Today as I monitored, I noticed that the mentors have improved on interacting with their mentees, answering questions, guiding them to the right answers, and relating the reading to their everyday lives. They seem more comfortable, and they have found what strategies work for them. I didn't have to guide them much today, which is a sign that they are improving as mentors and leaders. As I have been training the new SWA students, I have told them that their goal for their mentees is to train them to read better and more independently, and the way to do that is through scaffolding: I do (modeling), we do (choral reading, shadow reading), you do (independent reading). I see that they are understanding this concept more now that they have had this experience. Also, I hope that this experience is showing the SWA students that they can have a positive influence on someone else, and maybe that will make them think more about the decisions they make in their personal lives and at their regular high schools. I have found that working with children can have that effect on people when they begin to take up the mindset of a leader and mentor. When you want children to make positive decisions, as a mentor for them, you want to show them what it looks like to make good choices, and as a result, you become influenced by them to make better choices yourself.
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my bad on not getting back with you on the blogs! let's do them all at once...
you mention that the mentors are sending the mentees mixed signals. Do you think this is typical adolescent behavior, or related to why some of the kids are at SWA? Do these kids ever really care about reading? and is it too much to expect for them to get across a love of reading to 3rd graders? tough to address b/c ideally the SWA and DYE kids will bond and then work together better.
are the new kids buying into the program as well as the ones you've been working with? What challenges do you see working with them?
good to see improvement with the mentors. i like how you go through the training processes--is this something you'd do in your own classroom? Did the previous teachers you worked with do a similar thing?
you're absolutely dead on that this experience will (hopefully) help the SWA kids make positive choices down the road. And the idea of modeling for younger kids fits nicely--better then having them continually re-hash who they "are". so you've put it nicely in the last para of your latest entry.
Keep up the great work!
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