When students don’t meet the standard on a math assessment, I have a policy of mandating that they redo some of the problems and hand them in a few days later. I meant for this to help students grasp the concepts and formulas they don’t understand. Unfortunately, it wasn’t working very well, because there was not enough time in my schedule to sit down individually with that many students. My policy was not helping.

Beginning peer tutoring
I knew that meeting one-to-one with all of my students was out of the question, so I decided to set up a peer-tutoring system. The rules were simple: any student who met the standard on the assessment could sign up to be a tutor. After that, any students who wanted help could pick one person from the “available tutor” list to assist in his or her studies.

The pairs of students worked together in my room during recess. I know that the previous sentence probably sounds ridiculous—after all, what teenager would willingly give up his or her recess to tutor a classmate in math, right? To tell the truth, I had the same doubts. But the results were inspiring.

Pride in competence
With the exception of a few students, almost everyone was willing to give up recess to tutor classmates. I believe this was because the feeling of competency the practice instilled was so powerful. We all want to feel like we’re good at something; we all want recognition for the skills we hone. In young adolescents, this desire is particularly acute. After the students selected their tutors and paired up, the student teaching was phenomenal to watch. Rarely had I seen students so patient and thoughtful with one another. The ways they helped each other and the questions they asked were skillfully incremental, as if designed by professionals!

Autonomy and validation
Of course, the social piece was a huge part of why the peer-tutoring worked so well, but I attribute the success of this practice to more than the socializing aspect. I think the tutors who were chosen by their classmates were vali-dated in a way that doesn’t happen to them very often. Being recognized for their hard work by their peers gave them the right mindset—a wholly positive one—to serve as tutors. The structured system of choice, both for tutors and tutees, was also important. It fed their desire for autonomy to make their own choices and help each other without adults.

Add reflection
In the future, I want to strengthen this effective process by embedding reflection. Both tutors and tutees should get a chance to reflect on their partnership in hopes that it will lead to a better understanding of the benefits and poten-tial pitfalls of such a situation. I will pose questions such as: In what ways did this experience help you improve your math skills? What did your tutor do that helped you learn? How did you help your tutee when he or she was confused? Would you recommend peer tutoring to other students? Why or why not? What did you learn as a tutor?

This successful system is now a part of my practice. I already have students who perform at every level saying, “I hope I meet the standard on the next test so I can be a tutor next time!”

Eric Charlesworth teaches 6^th graders at Paul Cuffee School in Providence RI

This article first appeared in Origins' Special Issue 2010