Junior Mentors in the Making

Early stages in the Peer Assisted Learning (PAL)

process at SK Pulau Mansok - Junior Mentors

Teacher Noriza Bt Ibrahim and I are in the early stages of a Junior Mentor Programme with the Year 5 pupils at SK Pulau Mansok. We want the Year 5 pupils to take the lead in a crafts-in-English assisted learning project with the Year 3 pupils.

The old dice cubes are looking a bit tired and sad, so it is time for some new ones. This time we will make cubes with the theme of occupations. The finished cubes will represent different occupations that the students study in Years 1 and 2. This craft project will create a useful classroom resource for Year 1 and 2 pupils as well as give a good language review opportunity for the Year 3 and 5 pupils.

But, as with any project, the first step can be the most difficult. We have organised some time with the Year 5 pupils in between all the other school activities that are keeping the teachers and pupils busy lately, and we have made a start on our Junior Mentoring project at SK Pulau Mansok.

And it was a good start, too.

Some of the pupils had difficulty with the final assembly technique, but overall the class produced a sturdy bunch of boxes. The next step will be to reinforce the cube-making process and identify tasks and task leaders for when we introduce the activity to the Year 3 pupils.

Do you want to do something like this with your classes? Talk to your mentor!