Kids Tutoring Kids

We starting something at the Education Center this week that I am really excited about. We are having the older three students (Jeremiah, Felicia and Godwin) tutor one or two of the younger kids once a week. I met with both classes and explained what this would look like. All of them had a lot of questions about it (the concept of letting students help other students here is foreign), but they seemed excited to try it. It went great!! The older students were told to read two books to the younger students and then use different teaching aids to help them with their alphabet. They choose books that they knew well and were told to ask comprehension questions about the book while they read and after. I was so proud of the older students! They were patient, asked great questions and were encouraging to the younger students. I have to admit, I was kind of worried about how the younger students would respond to it. I didn’t know if they would want to learn from the other students or if they would feel embarrassed. However, they LOVED it! They listened well and answered the questions much better than they would have if I had asked them the question ;).

I love the idea of kids learning from other kids. Godwin, Felicia and Jeremiah are not far removed from what it was like to not be able to read. They remember, so they are able to be patient when teaching others to read. They also felt pride in knowing that they had a skill that they could help the other students acquire. At the same time, the younger students thought it was cool to learn from the older kids. They were on their best behavior and wanted to impress them.

I told Godwin, Felicia and Jeremiah afterward that we were really proud of them and that they were good teachers and Felicia said, “Yes, Auntie, I am proud of myself too! I did a good job!”. It made me laugh but I love that she was proud of herself! I love that she knew that she is a good teacher and that the other students learned from her during that time. I am looking forward to continuing this tutoring time each week.