A Structure for Peer Academic Support in High School Classes

“Come on, Ms. Lee, I was just helping him!” This response came as I confronted a pair of my students—one clearly copying the other’s classwork. The student doing the copying was also quick to explain himself, claiming that the assignment was so unreasonably hard and long that the only way to finish it on time was to “work together.”

It was the start of my sixth year teaching ninth-grade physics, and this scenario was not new to me. But my students’ responses gave me pause. The student who finished and shared his work really seemed to believe he was helping his friend. And his friend was clearly struggling with the content.

Perhaps the work was indeed so daunting that he felt he had no option but to seek “assistance” to stay afloat? When I caught other students copying, they responded with similar honesty: They felt they simply couldn’t keep up in school without “teaming up” on assignments. 

I saw these struggles across classes, especially after remote learning, when many (but not all) students had lost time to practice basic skills. Despite heavy differentiation, some students needed more than a class period to do the same activity that others completed with time to spare. 

Some students felt rushed or insecure as peers finished around them, and so they resorted to copying or avoiding work altogether. I saw large imbalances in work distribution during group activities. This perpetuated a lack of meaningful engagement among those who needed the most practice, while leaving others with far too much empty time in class.

I wondered, could I redefine “helping” in a way that would benefit those who excelled and those who struggled? After all, students’ wanting to assist others is not an inherently bad thing. I realized that I needed to find a way to facilitate in-class collaboration that would lead to my seeing less copying and more explaining. I needed to find a way to incorporate meaningful peer support into the structure of my class.

INTRODUCING ‘JUNIOR TEACHERS’

I decided to try something new the next time we did a group activity. Before beginning a lab, I put a timer up on the screen and had students silently preview the instructions. After they initially digested the information, I gave students who felt comfortable with what they had just read the opportunity to self-select to serve as “junior teachers,” or “JTs” for short.

I instructed the class to form lab groups, each with at least one JT. I emphasized to everyone that the goal of the JTs was to help everyone in their group understand what was going on, not just to complete the lab. 

To my surprise, not only did I have enough JTs for every lab group, but most JTs took their new role very seriously. Simply designating the role and explaining its goal and parameters ended up completely changing how students helped each other in class. 

BENEFITS OF PEER SUPPORT

Incorporating structured peer support in my class had multiple benefits. Students who frequently finished their work early had something meaningful to do when they were done. Kids expressed to me that being JTs made them realize how good it felt to help others. 

Collaboration and community grew within the class. Competition and insecurities began to fade away. Supporting each other grew to be part of the classroom culture, and students became invested in each other’s successes. Allowing students to preview work and self-select the JT role, with new opportunities presented each day, encouraged them to reflect on what they understood so far in a lesson/unit and what they needed help with.

JTs benefited by explaining their understandings to others, reinforcing their own learning through teaching. When students received support from peers, I had more time to circulate through the room and give extra help to the students who needed it most. Soon, I was using the practice in all kinds of class activities.

MAKING THE EXPERIENCE INCLUSIVE

It’s important to note that I continually emphasized that anybody could be a JT; there were no set roles. I made an effort to lift up the strengths of every student. For example, I encouraged a student who normally struggled with the more abstract components of physics but excelled in hands-on activities to show, share, and explain things during lab and project days. I wanted everybody to feel that they could help others and that they each had something to bring to the table. 

As I continue to experiment with and modify this system for my class, I encourage others to think of how they too could incorporate peer support in the classroom. Kids’ helping and teaching each other in a supervised environment can be a powerful tool to enhance learning and interpersonal relationships, as well as to improve teamwork and collaboration skills. Giving students the opportunity to teach each other helps them feel more confident in their own abilities and solidify their own knowledge. 

It should be said that this approach is no replacement for the differentiation strategies we must also employ in the classroom. But in this post-remote learning era, where the gaps between students appear larger than ever before, utilizing JTs or another form of structured peer support can go a long way in filling basic skill gaps while also teaching grade-level content and improving class community.