Testing the Testing Waters

Entering the world of test prep is a fraught prospect for many families. Competition can be a valuable motivator in the right context, but it can also sow feelings of inadequacy, bring added stress to students and parents, and wield undue influence on a student’s educational experience. As we guide families through the process of test prep, from the ISEE to the SAT/ACT, there are a few tenets we hold to in order to align with our own philosophy of teaching and learning.

1. Treat testing (and preparation) as a learning opportunity — for content, and for executive function skills

In most cases, the test prep process occurs entirely outside of school - this makes it a valuable opportunity to teach good habits around independent time management and structured goal-setting. Since test prep also inherently involves an element of repetition and error analysis, it’s also a chance for students to learn how to evaluate the effectiveness of different learning styles and study strategies as they reflect on their own mistakes and track their own progress over time. These metacognitive and executive function skills will empower students to work more effectively across the board.

2. Teach a growth mindset: embrace challenge, celebrate effort, support learning

We’re big believers in the growth mindset - and dealing with standardized tests is both the perfect chance to put it into practice, and, unfortunately the perfect trap for falling back into a fixed mindset perspective. From day one we want to encourage students to sit with the discomfort of not knowing how to solve a puzzling problem, and remember that challenge is an opportunity to grow by trying new strategies, rather than a sign of failure. We help them recognize the value of their effort, and demonstrate through results that their abilities can improve in direct relation to the work they put in - rather than allowing their test score to define them in a fixed, unchangeable way.

3. Remember that every student is unique

One reason standardized testing can be stressful is that it throws everyone into the same basket, ignoring (but in practice amplifying) differences in schooling, family background, learning style, etc. Although the test is the same for everyone, though, we must remember that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to test prep. The value of tutoring is that it can - and should - be individualized to match the specific needs of each child, both in terms of learning style, and in terms of content. It’s also vitally important that the goals and expectations set for students by parents and tutors be appropriate, and based as much as possible in the mastery of skills and strategies that will be useful beyond the context of the test as well.

Chasing Your Curiosity Outside the Classroom

With the increasing demands of high school academics, it can sometimes feel difficult to find time for extracurriculars — but the danger of feeling overwhelmed by schoolwork is all the more reason to carve out a balanced schedule that includes time for development outside of the academic sphere. Of course you have continued license as a high school student to explore new interests, but by now you have hopefully also found an area or two in which you know you can thrive, whether playing a sport, learning an instrument or art form, or advocating in support of a particular cause. Pursuing these extracurricular interests with sincerity is more than just a signal to colleges that you are a well-rounded, passionate individual; it is the time-tested formula for becoming one. 

The first step toward extracurricular development is setting ambitious but appropriate goals for yourself. In your first year at a new school, seek out older students whose example you can follow. Next cast your net more widely — look online for students who have excelled at something that interests you, and absorb what you find about the steps they took to get where you want to go. You will find students your age who are conducting independent research projects to compete in national contests, forming their own bands, making short films, volunteering with the elderly—almost anything you can imagine. You can even research the biographies of established professionals you admire to give yourself something to aim towards; let yourself be inspired!

Next, take the initiative to start down the path you find most compelling. Does your school already have a jazz band you can audition for, or a speech and debate team? If not, consider starting one yourself, gathering a group of like-minded peers to form a community that might well become an important part of your high school experience. You can also look outside of your high school for opportunities. If you’re living in New York City, the possibilities are endless — aspiring veterinarians can nurse wounded birds back to health at the Wild Bird Fund, and budding journalists can apply to the New York Times’ Summer Academy. Often the hardest part is getting started, so avoid procrastination by setting a clear timeline for applications and find a friend who can help you stay on track. 

Finally, remember that the more sincerely you can pursue the thing that interests you—rather than the one you believe will look best on a resume—the better you will do. It’s not a bad thing to consider how your skills and experiences will be perceived by colleges, and to work strategically to present yourself in the best light. However, it is also important to trust your instincts, and go after the goals that excite you. The authenticity that this kind of activity will show to colleges is not something that can be easily replicated, and so long as you chase your own particular passion with a dedicated effort, your work will pay off in one way or another. 

The Joys of Creative Writing

A central part of the human experience is finding effective ways to express ourselves and be understood by others. As children we can work through complex feelings, emotions, and ideas, with our parents, teachers, or a trusted caregiver. As adults we have partners, siblings, and life long friends to hash out our thoughts with. Unfortunately, though, it’s during the tumultuous teenage years when it is often feels most difficult to find a good listener. For many students, creative writing can be a great outlet that leads not only to emotional catharsis, but also to improved writing skills!

Whether writing poems, stories, plays or lyrics, the process of putting thoughts down on paper is a great way to reflect and process without fear of judgement. Troubling thoughts that might otherwise fester and breed negativity, anger, and self-consciousness can be exorcised from the brain as teens acknowledge them and attempt to move on. There is no fear of confrontation and no need to be on the defensive or offensive; instead, creative writing offers students the opportunity to reflect and hopefully learn from experience.

Apart from being a therapeutic form of self-expression, creative writing is also good for communication and problem-solving. A writer must describe an experience or scenario in a way that will make the reader fully believe and even feel the things the writer is feeling. This requires an amazing vocabulary, heightened awareness, and empathy. When students translate abstract observations and feelings into well-formed sentences and paragraphs, they are engaging in the human experience: learning, listening, and decoding. After all, storytelling is the oldest form of human communication and exists in every culture and society; when a student is able to engage another person in their story, not only does it feel good, that child is also learning how to create a meaningful social bond.

Creative writing is beneficial to students on so many levels. It encourages emotional development and self-confidence, and improves teenagers’ ability to empathize and connect with others. At the same time, creative writing also leads to academic gains as students learn how to analyze the world around them and communicate their ideas about it with more clarity and sensitivity. We are all driven to reflect on and understand our environment, and to try and make things better both for ourselves and those around us. By encouraging independence, empathy, catharsis and expression, creative writing is one of the best ways to ensure a child becomes a conscientious and well-rounded adult!

Computer Literacy in the Digital Age

In a world of supposed ‘digital natives,’ we’ve forgotten that certain computer literacy skills still need to be taught. Although it’s true that kids growing up in a world of omnipresent gadgetry have a natural ease with certain aspects of the digital world that might escape their parents, this does not translate into automatic mastery of the essentials, such as organizing materials, evaluating the reliability of sources, safeguarding privacy, and even typing. Guiding students toward best practices in these areas is a vital part of teaching them to succeed both in and out of the classroom.

For a certain generation of students--those raised on instant messaging in a world of desktop computers--typing practice was a natural part of growing up, and a bit of guidance toward proper technique made all the difference. Nowadays, since most students learn to type in their free time on phones and iPads, touch-typing on a more traditional keyboard is a much neglected skill. As students enter middle and high school, a growing proportion of their work is typed, rather than handwritten -- but for many, this is a laborious process, one that hampers the transmission of thought from mind to page. A few daily minutes of practice with free online resources, including the appropriately named www.typing.com, can quickly improve a student’s approach, saving hours of time in the long run.

Anyone who uses a computer regularly -- which is to say, nearly everyone -- knows the importance of keeping an organized desktop, file system, and inbox. Computers serve as a portal to increasingly vast realms of information, and an important repository for personal data. Without some level of structure, this mix can quickly become chaotic. Parents and teachers can help by explicitly guiding students through the process of building nested folders by school year and subject, on the desktop and in cloud-based systems such as Google Drive. A long term research project might deserve a folder of its own, where source material, drafts, and notes can be stored together. 

Digital time management tools can also be of help to many students; iCal and Google Keep provide electronic alternatives to supplement traditional paper planners and to-do lists, with programmable reminders, color-coding, and the ability to share appointments and tasks. Many schools now have their own version of an online portal for students and parents, where teachers post assignments, grades, and course materials. This should be a resource for students that is checked daily and then processed and recorded in their own planners. 

In addition, students benefit from a clear explanation of the guidelines for evaluating the reliability of different sources online, and for keeping their own information safe from potential hackers or other unwanted eyes. In an online world without clear editorial standards, students need to understand how biases function and be guided toward reputable sources, learning to be wary of taking what they read at face value. Parents should also have a plan for discussing how to choose and manage passwords around the internet, what information to share and what to keep private, and how to deal with the dangers of operating in the public forum of the internet, while feeling like you’re in private. 

This is even more important given the emergence of tools like ChatGPT (which, incredibly, wrote a first draft of the paragraph you are about to read). As artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more and more prevalent in our daily lives, it's important for students to have a basic understanding of what AI is and how it works. Students should know that AI is a field of computer science that aims to create intelligent machines that can perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and natural language processing. Additionally, students should be aware of the implications and ethical considerations surrounding the use of AI, including issues related to bias, privacy, and job displacement. Ultimately, having a foundational understanding of AI can better equip students to navigate a world increasingly shaped by these technologies.

Understanding Executive Functioning and ADHD

Challenges with executive function skills go hand-in-hand with ADHD. These difficulties can impact a chid’s ability to organize resources and information, manage time and tasks, and maintain focus and attention. As a result, many kids with these issues are labeled as “lazy,” “scattered,” or a “space cadet,” when in fact they are doing the best they can but simply need more support.

Given that nearly 10% of kids have ADHD, these challenges impact 1-in-10 kids and families. That’s why Smarten Up and Braintrust CEO and Co-Founder, Mara Koffmann, was so excited to speak with psychologist, Dr. Ami Norris-Brilliant, about ADHD and executive function skills. Dr. Norris-Brilliant, the Clinical Director at the Center for ADHD, LD, and Related Disorders at Mount Sinai Medical Center, discussed the connection between ADHD and executive function skills, the cause of these challenges, and strategies for supporting children who struggle with these skills.

Key Takeaways:

• Approximately 9.4% of children in the United States have ADHD. Boys are far more likely to be diagnosed than girls. That is because ADHD presents differently in these two populations.

  • Boys with ADHD are more likely to be hyperactive and struggle with self-control. This causes them to act in school and at home in ways that are more disruptive.

  • Girls with ADHD are less likely to be disruptive and hyperactive. Instead, they tend to be described as “dreamers” or “absent-minded.” Because they don’t have any problematic behaviors, girls with ADHD tend to be overlooked more often.

• Difficulty with executive function skills is a part of the ADHD profile, but these struggles also impact kids who do not have a disability. Some common signs with this area of learning include distractibility, careless errors, and forgetfulness.

• The frontal lobe controls executive function skills, and this area of the brain doesn’t fully begin to develop until age 8. It then continues to develop well into early adulthood. Accordingly, parents often begin to see signs of ADHD and challenges with executive function skills at specific developmental junctures. It is recommended to seek the support of a specialist when these difficulties interfere with a child’s safety, confidence, or academic success.

  • In early childhood, children with ADHD can make decisions that create cause for concern around safety. They act impulsively and have difficulty following directions on a regular basis.

  • Around 3rd grade, when kids are 8-9 years old, they are expected to complete more complex tasks with greater independence. Kids with executive function challenges and/or ADHD often begin to struggle to make this transition in school.

  • In 5th or 6th grade students transition to middle school where they have to keep track of more complex schedules, materials, and classroom expectations. This juncture is often a challenging one for students who struggle with ADHD and executive function skills.

  • With the transition to high school, students once again have to learn to manage an even more complicated collection of materials, information, expectations, and responsibilities. This is also a point in time when many kids need a new level of support in order to be successful.

• Recommendations for learning:

  • Create a visual schedule to support younger students with expectations for what to expect each school day.

  • Schedule breaks for your child during the day that create opportunities for movement and activity away from the screen. The possibilities are endless, but some ideas to explore include building with Legos or Magna-Tiles, movement games like Simon Says or a scavenger hunt, any sort or arts and crafts activity, a dance break or yoga session, or even a movement game.

  • Schedule time to complete work. Many kids need support and direction when it comes to understanding when to complete work and what needs to be done. Parents can help by printing out assignments and creating set times for completing independent work.

  • Use rewards charts! Set experiential rewards that are motivating to your child and directly linked to behavioral expectations.

Teaching Students to Self-Monitor

Self-monitoring refers to our ability to track what we are doing and how or why we are doing it. We self-monitor (or at least we should) in every setting and activity. From how we read and write, to how we engage with friends and family, self-monitoring greatly improves our academic performance, social interactions, and daily life. The more aware we are of what we are doing and why we are doing it, the better we are able to perform any given task. And while self-monitoring is important for all of us, it is especially essential for students. The earlier they can learn to self-monitor, the better.

Strategies for Teaching Students How to Self-Monitor

BUILD METACOGNITION.

The first step in improving a student’s self-monitoring skills is to improve their awareness of their own strengths and challenges, which is to say their metacognition. Otherwise, kids won't be able to plan for challenges, identify successes, and learn from mistakes. One way to help students get to know themselves is by giving them a metacognitive survey. Surveys like this one can help them become aware of their strengths, values, learning styles, and study habits. As a result, they'll be able to self-evaluate more effectively.

CREATE CHECKLISTS.

A simple but impactful strategy to help students learn to self-monitor is to create checklists with their most common mistakes. This will not only help students learn to identify the errors they make most frequently, it will also help them actively check their work to avoid those same mistakes. This strategy can be applied to a series of math problems, a piece of writing, a recording of them reading a text – you name it! The key is to reinforce that mistakes are just information for learning, but students must learn from them so they don't make the same ones again.

QUESTION OFTEN.

As students are working, they should periodically stop and ask themselves what they are doing and how or why they are doing it. Questions like “does that sentence look right?” or “did I show my work in a way that makes sense?” can help students self-evaluate and learn from experience. The best way to get students comfortable with asking themselves these questions is for them to see it modeled often and in different contexts.

IDENTIFY THEIR PURPOSE.

As students are going through their day, they should stop and reflect on their purpose. Why am I reading this book? What is this emotional reaction helping me accomplish? Am I communicating what I want to get across in this paragraph? Once they have identified their purpose in any given task, they can evaluate whether they are on the right course.

STOP, REVIEW, REFLECT.

A big part of self-monitoring is self-evaluation. As important as it is, many students are resistant to checking their work. But self-evaluation is about much more than double-checking answers. It’s about reflecting on not just the end-result, but the process, and how the student felt in that process. It’s about identifying gaps in skills, strategies, or knowledge that may have caused any errors or frustrations, and coming up with a plan for how to do better next time. Once again, there is nothing wrong with making mistakes; they are a part of the learning process. Identifying those mistakes through self-monitoring and learning from those experiences is the key to growth and improvement!

How to Address Writer's Block

It can be hard to know how to help students who feel “stuck” in their writing. As students progress through the grades, writing demands grow more and more challenging. Many students are able to keep up, whether with or without extra supports, like sentence starters. But sometimes students who have been doing just fine so far suddenly find themselves struggling with writing. So how can we tell if a student is experiencing writer's block or something more concerning? 

Writer’s block can look very different from one student to the next. It can last varying amounts of time, from a few minutes to several weeks. Therefore, it can be difficult to identify the root cause. Plus, writer’s block can sometimes resemble a writing disability in that they both result in the student feeling stuck. And while students with disabilities can be more susceptible to getting writer’s block, the two things have nothing to do with each other. 

WHAT TO WRITE VS. HOW TO WRITE

When a student suffers from writer’s block, they are unable to decide what to write. Sometimes they are unable to come up with any ideas at all, and sometimes they just can't choose one. While this can be a very frustrating experience for any author, especially for an amateur writer, there are ways to tell when this type of roadblock is due to a lack of creativity or a lack of understanding.

While true writer’s block comes from being stuck on what to write, difficulty that stems from a writing disability exists because the student may not know how to write what they are supposed to be writing. Sometimes a student is stuck in their writing because something about the task or writing purpose feels too challenging. This is when a teacher will need to intervene with some explicit teaching in whatever it is the student is struggling with.

SIGNS OF A WRITING DISABILITY

When a child experiences writer’s block for one day, then it will be clear very soon that that’s all it was. But if the student is dealing with a long-term struggle, the best way to determine whether it’s just writer’s block or a writing disability is to carefully observe the student’s habits in other areas of writing. How does he perform when writing for other academic purposes? Is his writing more proficient or does he experience more or less the same struggles? How does he appear to feel about writing for other purposes? If he is motivated and confident in other areas but struggles when it comes to informational writing, then it’s probably writer’s block. But if you notice the same struggles across classes or subject areas, and/or the student’s feelings about writing have gotten more negative and stay that way, it might be worth a preliminary evaluation.

Active Reading

By the time we reach middle and high school, what we learn is increasingly built on what we’ve learned before, reliant on the scaffolding of connections our brains have been constructing for us since we were crawling across colorful living-room carpets. But these connections, clusters of experience and information that help us make sense of the world, are still developing all the time — and the more that students can consciously access these categories of information and experience as they absorb new knowledge and master new tasks, the more confident and creative they will become. One of Smarten Up’s core messages to students is that learning itself is a learnable process: that the skill of being a student can be developed through a set of reflective habits and creative practices. 

Let’s consider the best habits for reading, a skill whose importance in the life of a student is hard to overstate. All of the work that students have done in elementary school to master the technical building blocks of reading fluency pays off as reading becomes a critical skill across disciplines, from biology to history, and from foreign languages to English literature. By this time, the decoding process has become more automatic, and students can put a larger share of their brainpower toward constructing meaning, analyzing connections, and processing information. While many of us remember ‘learning to read’ as young children, it is at this stage in our academic careers that we learn to read critically and deeply. 

There are concrete steps that will improve students’ ability to go past knowledge into understanding — this active reading checklist is a good place to start, with habits for before, during, and after reading. This is also where reflecting on the way we read different types of texts can be useful.  There is a clear difference between reading and writing poetry, and reading biographies of historical figures. Students should be able to approach each task with a strategy that fits its specific needs, while also recognizing the connections between distinct tasks and subject areas so that they’re not reinventing the wheel every time they approach a reading or writing assignment. One starting place is to ask: How does this content relate to what I already know? Or: how does this assignment resemble other tasks I’ve tackled in the past?

When students consider these questions, they activate prior knowledge that will shape how they understand the new content. Students should also consider, as they read, other connections they can activate to enrich the perspective they’re bringing to the text, and make the information stickier in their memory. Consider text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections. How does Hamlet’s relationship with his uncle compare to the bonds in your own extended family? Hopefully, not too closely! Can you think of any links to the often melodramatic history of royal households in medieval Europe, or the family politics in your favorite television series? What songs would you put on a moody Hamlet playlist? Ultimately, the takeaway is simple: the more that we bring with us to the reading process, the more we get out of it.

Understanding Anxiety in Education

We’ve all felt nervous before a test or big performance. Sometimes you feel butterflies in your stomach, sweaty palms, or a pounding heart. You might also experience a moment of total panic as the test is handed out. But for most of us, once the test begins, we are able to use that burst of adrenaline to focus our thoughts and perform our best. For others, though, testing anxiety can be crippling.

Key Takeaways

• It’s appropriate to have a little bit of anxiety before one has to do something big and important. Those feelings serve to focus attention and organize one’s thinking. However, if someone experiences intense physical symptoms of anxiety such as chest pain or a panic attack, she will not be able to function adequately during a test (or beyond). When anxiety interferes with performance in this way, it is important to seek out the help of a professional.

• A diagnostic assessment will help to identify the cause of anxiety. Common causes of anxiety around testing include:

  • Generalized anxiety, which is when a person feels anxious most of the time. She isn’t anxious about specific things, but rather usually feels these sorts of feelings with varying levels of intensity. People with generalized anxiety might also experience heightened anxiety before a test.

  • Obsessive compulsive disorder can also be a source of test anxiety. If a person will only accept a perfect score on an assessment, for example, she might struggle to perform under this pressure for perfection.

  • Post-traumatic stress disorder is another potential source of test anxiety for students. Sometimes the trauma is a result of an experience in the classroom or with a teacher, and other times the trauma is related to expectations and pressure from parents.

  • ADHD can also create feelings of anxiety around testing for students. Difficulties with attention and focus in class can impact a student’s ability to process and understand classroom material. Plus, challenges with executive function skills often make it hard for students to study effectively. For some, this leads to testing anxiety, especially as academic demands become greater in high school and college.

  • And for others, test anxiety is isolated and more specific!

• During a diagnostic, a doctor will want to learn about the following:

  • The child’s developmental history and family history. If there is a genetic pattern of learning disabilities or anxiety, a child is at much greater risk for developing anxiety.

  • A family’s attitude about academics and achievement. If parents have unrealistic expectations for their child, she is at greater risk for anxiety as well.

  • A child’s peer group. If a child’s social circle is filled with high achievers, she can sometimes become anxious about acceptance. If that student isn’t able to keep up academically, she might worry about losing her friends which can create anxiety around testing.

  • Study habits. It is helpful to know more about how involved parents are, how independently students work, and what their approach to preparation and test taking looks like.

  • How the child processes information. By doing neuropsychological testing, a doctor can identify strengths and challenges in a child’s learning profile, including a potential learning or thinking difference. This can and should be provided by the school distract at no cost to the family by law because of IDEA.

• The results of this diagnostic will determine the best course of treatment. And if a child has specific anxiety around testing, there are a range of approaches for treatment.

  • A family conversation about academic expectations can go a long way. It is important to keep in mind, though, that these discussions sometimes go best with the help of a professional. Children, especially teens, can have a hard time being honest with parents around this sensitive topic; and parents might struggle to control their emotions during these conversations. A doctor can help to make sure that this important discussion is a productive one for the whole family!

  • Cognitive behavioral therapy is a very effective treatment for testing anxiety. It is specific and targeted, and can help to adjust a child’s thinking about test taking.

  • Exposure response prevention is a common treatment for obsessive compulsive disorder that can also be applied to test taking anxiety. It helps to address irrational fears or superstitions a child might have around assessments.

  • There are also medications that can be used on an as-needed basis to treat performance anxiety. These medications are not addictive nor are they drugs of abuse. They damper the physical signs of anxiety (increased heart rate, sweaty palms, etc.), which in turn helps to calm the anxious thoughts one might otherwise have.

  • Breathing, mindfulness, and meditation are also very helpful for calming anxiety. These are holistic treatments that are incredibly effective and are sure to improve the overall wellbeing of any child!

• Lastly, it’s important to normalize anxiety. These are feelings that all of us experience at one time or another. They are normal, and it is important for kids to understand that. Once they do, they can begin their journey to conquering those emotions!

Getting in the Zone (of Proximal Development)

It’s a challenge for teachers to keep track of all of their students’ exact levels of performance at all times. Still, it’s important information for teachers to have in order to deliver appropriate instruction. Knowing students’ levels helps teachers determine their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD refers to a student’s academic “sweet spot” in which a task is challenging enough, but not too challenging. Psychologist Lev Vygotsky coined the term to describe the difference between what students are able to do with independence, and what they cannot yet do at all. It is critical that students spend a significant amount of time in this zone each day in order to make academic prorgress.

Scaffolding within the Zone

In order to make sure students are working within their ZPD, teachers and tutors provide scaffolds. Scaffolds are activities, tools, or other measures put in place to ensure that a student is working toward a goal or performance task at an appropriate pace and with appropriate levels of guidance. Scaffolding for students allows them to take appropriately sized steps toward completing a task or reaching an objective.

Examples of scaffolding:

Math: Scaffolds in math provide students with smaller goals along their path to the larger goal. Young students learning fractions might need independent work scaffolded. For example, this might look like smaller, more manageable steps toward building a complex fraction. Other students may not need these scaffolds and go straight to building the complex fraction.

In middle school geometry, some students may need scaffolds as they are learning how to measure angles. Some students may quickly be able to use a protractor to measure the size of an angle. Others may need to spend a bit more time identifying 90-degree angles or visually determining whether the angle is acute or obtuse before measuring, etc.

ELA: Literacy scaffolds allow students to be successful with a text or task by providing them with extra steps or tools to support their learning. Some students will benefit from vocabulary definitions given ahead of time. Others may need to pause periodically to annotate, sketch, or otherwise process what they’ve read so far before moving on. Some may simply want to follow along in their text with an audiobook. All of these scaffolding strategies are likely to help some students in a class, but not all. It’s important for teachers to know individual needs and what will help each student be most successful.

Another common example of how ZPD can apply to reading is through guided reading groups. Students read books at their independent reading level that they are able to manage with virtually no teacher support. Guided reading groups should be facilitated using books that are slightly more challenging than those they can handle independently. This is usually one reading level above their independent level, but not always.

ZPD and Group Work

The guidance that students receive when working within their ZPD doesn't always need to come from the teacher. One of the most effective ways of providing students with the support they need to progress is to partner them with a peer. Students have the most potential for growth when they have been properly coached in how to work productively with peers. It’s possible for students to learn even more from each other than from their teachers, and it benefits all parties involved. Student working in their ZPD benefits from working with a more capable peer. The more advanced students benefit from helping their classmate understand something in a different way. They get to practice their leadership skills, communication skills, and further solidify their own understanding. Plus, putting students together frees the teacher up to work with the students who need the most attention. It’s a win-win-win!