Teacher of the Year Uses Peer Mentoring To Improve Student Work

Once a week during 9th period, a group of 8th grade students visit Mrs. Vazquez’s classroom to help her 6th graders become better writers. They play word and language writing games, help revise 6th graders' written pieces, and share ideas on how to be a stronger writer. The 8th graders who chose to participate in “The Write Stuff” elective were motivated by the opportunity to help younger students and by their love of writing. Over the past few months, students in both grade levels have experienced a boost in their confidence as writers.

Students spend most of their school day listening to teachers and adults. They listen to the adults in their lives because it is required, but research shows the people they choose to spend the most time observing and listening to, are students a grade or two older than themselves. After reading about this well documented theory, 5th and 6th grade Language Arts teacher Jennifer Vazquez decided to put it to the test with some of her struggling students. After spending a large portion of their day listening to adults explaining and demonstrating good writing skills, Vasquez thought it would be a nice break for her students to hear from a different demographic on the topic. Vazquez created “The Write Stuff” elective and invited 7th and 8th graders to join her class once a week and work with younger students on improving their writing skills.

When asked what prompted her to create this unique class, Vazquez answered,” Writing is one of the harder things teachers ask students to do. You need to be able to do so many things at once - take in information, think about information, make decisions, come up with new ideas and get those new ideas on paper correctly...this is very hard for most people. In my experience as a Language Arts and Special Education teacher, I have seen how students appreciate and respond to the feedback and ideas of other students more than their teacher, this is especially true when the student is a few grades older.” Both the 6th and 8th grade students in the “Write Stuff” class agree that working together makes the writing process more fun. In fact, since the program began in October, more 8th graders have signed up after hearing about it from their friends and classmates.

Peer mentoring has been used in colleges and universities for some time, however there are benefits for younger students as well. Peer mentoring is an opportunity for people to help others while developing their own skills, at any age. When a person teaches someone else, they develop a deeper understanding of the subject matter and are exposed to new perspectives on the topic. The 8th graders in the class all mentioned the sense of pride they felt when helping their 6th grade writing buddy, and the increased confidence they have in their writing ability. One student even exclaimed, “It’s pretty cool to be considered an “expert” in writing by someone, I never thought I would volunteer to do more writing but the class is so much fun, I love working with my buddy.”

As for the 6th graders, in additional to making the writing process more enjoyable, the mentoring program has helped them realize that people have different ideas about the same topic and there is no one right answer. They better understand that different viewpoints can both be correct, as long as a writer clearly explains and communicates their ideas. This new understanding has helped them to work more quickly, take more risks and think a bit more about how to write stronger sentences.

Though still a pilot program, “The Write Stuff” has shown the potential peer mentoring programs have for middle school aged children. Vazquez and her colleagues are encouraged by the program’s success and hope to see the peer mentoring strategy work itself into other areas of the curriculum.

On Wednesday January 9, 2019 Mrs. Jennifer Vazquez was recognized as Mendham Township Middle School’s Teacher of the Year. She has been a Special Education Language Arts teacher at the school since September 2000 and this is her second time being named Teacher of the Year, having also won in 2012. "The Write Stuff" program is just one of the many programs Mrs. Vazquez has spearheaded to help the students at the middle school.