"Peer supports really work: They help all students learn, make the most of teacher and paraprofessional time, and foster important social connections among students. This is the concise, practical guide every middle and high school needs to implement peer support strategies - including cooperative learning and peer tutoring - to benefit students with moderate to severe disabilities and their peers." "Filled with photocopiable planning, implementation, and evaluation tools, this must-have guide will help educators and paraprofessionals create schools where all students - with and without disabilities - achieve academic and social success."--BOOK JACKET.

Peer support and social relationships have a tremendous influence on development, motivation, and achievement for all students, including struggling learners and those with disabilities. This highly practical book is one of the few resources available to guide classroom teachers and special educators in the application of peer-assisted instructional strategies in grades K-12. Expert contributors describe evidence-based approaches for building students' skills in reading, writing, math, and other content areas, as well as social competence and executive functioning. Sample lessons and more than a dozen reproducible tools are provided. Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials.

Contains suggestions for fostering positive, mutually supportive relationship among students with and without disabilities in the inclusive classroom.

Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) involves children in school consciously assisting others to learn, and in so doing learning more effectively themselves. It encompasses peer tutoring, peer modeling, peer education, peer counseling, peer monitoring, and peer assessment, which are differentiated from other more general "co-operative learning" methods. PAL is not diluted or surrogate "teaching"; it complements and supplements (but never replaces) professional teaching--capitalizing on the unique qualities and richness of peer interaction and helping students become empowered democratically to take more responsibility for their own learning. In this book, PAL is presented as a set of dynamic, robust, effective, and flexible approaches to teaching and learning, which can be used in a range of different settings. The chapters provide descriptions of good practice blended with research findings on effectiveness. They describe procedures that can be applied to all areas of the school curriculum, and can be used with learners of all levels of ability, including gifted students, students with disabilities, and second-language learners. Among the distinguished contributors, many are from North America, while others are from Europe and Australia. The applicability of the methods they present is worldwide. Peer-Assisted Learning is designed to be accessible and useful to teachers and to those who employ, train, support, consult with, and evaluate them. Many chapters will be helpful to teachers aiming to replicate in their own school environments the cost-effective procedures described. A practical resources guide is included. This volume will also be of interest to faculty and researchers in the fields of education and psychology, to community educators who want to learn about the implications of Peer Assisted Learning beyond school contexts, and to employers and others involved in post-school training.

Like having a hidden camera in other teachers' classrooms, this book contrasts how two teachers respond differently to common situations. The authors bridge the gap between educational psychology and peer and student-teacher management from the perspectives of student engagement, classroom relationships, and teacher self regulation.

In Peer Feedback in the Classroom, National Board Certified Teacher Starr Sackstein explores the powerful role peer feedback can play in learning and teaching. Peer feedback gives students control over their learning, increases their engagement and self-awareness as learners, and frees up the teacher to provide targeted support where it's needed. Drawing from the author's successful classroom practices, this compelling book will help you Gain a deeper understanding of what meaningful feedback looks like and how it can be used as a tool for learning. Establish a respectful, student-led learning environment that supports risk taking and honest sharing. Teach students to be adept peer strategists who can pinpoint areas of needed growth and move forward with specific strategies for improvement. Develop cooperative student expert groups to help sustain effective peer feedback throughout the year. Use technology to enhance collaboration, streamline the learning and revision process, and strengthen students' digital citizenship skills. The book also includes extended reflections that express, in students' and teachers' own words, the approach's powerful effect on their practice. Invite students to be your partners in learning, and enrich your collective classroom experience.

A practical and straightforward peer buddy program that promotes inclusion, encourages development of social relationships, and improves academic achievement of students with and without disabilities.