Responsible peer tutor or helper: is this still a thing?

[EmilyM]

And if so, is it considered a reasonable accommodation?

In the casual world, I've heard various complaints about IEP accommodations assigning another student to help them. Some say it stresses the student helper out too much, and even one story said the parent pulled the kid from school as the kid shouldn't be doing a teacher or para's job.

But it's also seemed a good idea in popularity fit quite some time, so what's the current view?

[Lisa Lightner]

I think there are still varying opinions.

I would ask your child what they think might be helpful. Not everyone wants help from a peer.

[JSD24]

As the parent of a gifted student, you do not want your child doing too much helping with peers because they are not learning anything new when they are assigned to do this.  (Gifted students can & should make at last one years worth of academic progress - they might be capable of more being gifted - so you want to make sure they are also meeting goals.)  Teachers often cannot convey how things should be taught with a peer versus a professional paraeducator.

That said, I feel it is very appropriate for the whole class to have a buddy that they work with.  Someone who reminds then not to forget their glasses or lunch.  If a student needs help carrying their belongings, I can see different students having a rotation to provide this help.

I'm not sure what the current view is.  I have a feel that different schools have different experience with doing this which might be favorable or unfavorable.  Having students help peers is a good way to teach empathy, inclusion, kindness and other social/emotional concepts so I think it's good to have students watching out for peers and helping from time to time.  You don't want to pull a gifted peer too often to tutor so you don't want this as the gifted student's 'job'.  Keep in mind that the helper student will not be privy to the IEP & its goals and their job at school is to learn so relying too heavily on one peer shouldn't happen in a school.

[Backroads]

Well, I don't think anyone should or even could go as far as putting some random kid by name in the IEP as student helper. The duty of the IEP is on the LEA, not fellow students. They're there for their own learning. I myself would be furious to find my kid doing the teacher's job. 

That said, as long as it doesn't put undo pressure on any kid to help out, I think it's fine to include verbage such as "student helper when appropriate" or something similar, as long as it's using the classroom as a whole to help the student: placing the student near good examples, including teaching methods such as partner work (without making permanent partners, of course). 

[Lisa Lightner]

On 8/9/2023 at 5:06 PM, Backroads said:

Well, I don't think anyone should or even could go as far as putting some random kid by name in the IEP as student helper. The duty of the IEP is on the LEA, not fellow students. They're there for their own learning. I myself would be furious to find my kid doing the teacher's job. 

 

I understand that many feel this way. However, this assumes that nothing is gained by the "peer tutor." Which is not the case, according to data. Everyone benefits from this, based on research done. Not just the disabled kiddos.

[Backroads]

On 8/24/2023 at 8:22 AM, Lisa Lightner said:

I understand that many feel this way. However, this assumes that nothing is gained by the "peer tutor." Which is not the case, according to data. Everyone benefits from this, based on research done. Not just the disabled kiddos.

I agree it's a good teaching strategy with benefits, but that's also different from Billy being the official student helper for someone else's IEP.