Relationships with Peers
Peer influence (sometimes negatively labeled “peer pressure”) is another powerful developmental force. However, rather than being inherently negative, resilience research has documented the positive power of peers and the need to belong. Studies have shown that supportive friendships and positive peer role models are critical protective factors for youths who need many opportunities to form positive, healthy peer relationships both during school hours as well as in after-school programs.1
Peer helping strategies in schools combine the adolescent needs for peer relationships with adolescents’ need for meaningful participation. Peer helping strategies include one-to-one helping relationships, support groups, tutoring, service learning, conflict mediation, peer education, cooperative learning, and all services of a helping nature. Peer helpers who serve as tutors improved their academic achievement in terms of test scores, grade point averages, and course pass rates.2
In the Spotlight
Calavera Hills Middle School, Carlsbad Unified School District, a 2011 Schools to Watch™-Taking Center Stage Model School
Coyote Crossroads—This program was developed to highlight the unselfish dedication and hard work exhibited by student assistants that work with special needs peers. The students support the autism classroom in an effort to build self-esteem and confidence of the Crossroads student.
In the Spotlight
Diablo Vista—Where Everyone Belongs
Diablo Vista Middle School, San Ramon Valley Unified School District, Contra Costa County, is one of the 2009 California Distinguished Schools. Diablo Vista Middle School is featured on the California Department of Education's (CDEs), Closing the Achievement Gap Web site for its “Signature” Practice, WEB: Where Everyone Belongs. This exemplary practice addresses relationships, one of the CDE’s 12 Recommendations for Middle Grades Success.
Three years ago, during its annual review of testing and climate survey data, Diablo Vista Middle School’s site council found that there was need for renewed focus in the areas of respect and safety. Also of concern was a decrease in standardized test scores based on grade five performances as compared to grade six.
To address these issues, the WEB program was implemented. Designed to help sixth grade students transition to middle school by creating a safe, welcoming social and academic atmosphere, the program is also intended to alleviate anxiety brought about by entering a new school and encourages student success during the first year of middle school by pairing small groups of sixth graders with eighth grade WEB leaders.
The program begins with a morning orientation filled with games, activities, presentations, and a school tour and culminates with WEB leaders giving sixth grade students (“Webbies”) their class schedules. This early distribution of schedules allows the students to find all their classes before they start the school year, alleviating some of the anxiety of getting lost on the first day. Between 85 and 90 percent of incoming students attend the orientation.
WEB leaders visit their Webbies at least four times a quarter to facilitate discussions and provide some sort of social activity one or two times a quarter. Discussions range from typical concerns—I’d like to know how to prepare for a test—to more topical issues like dealing with rumors and gossip, bully prevention tactics, and how to become fully involved in all the opportunities that Diablo Vista has to offer. The WEB leaders also plan and practice activities that enhance social interaction among the sixth grade students which have included an after-school ice cream social and a country line dancing event during lunch.
For many transitioning sixth graders, fear of older students on campus was reported as a source of anxiety. Through WEB, eighth grade students are assigned as mentors and instead become their friends.
By all accounts, the program has proven itself successful. It has grown in size from one coordinator and 39 leaders at its beginning to two coordinators and 48 leaders.
During the 2007-08 school year, all sixth grade students completed a survey about the transition to middle school. When asked what scared them the most, 68 percent responded not knowing their schedule/getting lost, and 50 percent reported the balancing of homework with outside activities.
When asked how the WEB program helped, 50 percent reported it helped make them feel more comfortable, safe, and welcome at school. When asked what could be done to make the WEB program better, 77 percent reported that they would like more activities, and 50 percent wanted to meet more often with their WEB leaders.
The targeted outcomes for this program were to help in the academic and social/emotional transition from elementary to middle school. The test results indicate that sixth grade students are performing at a higher level with the WEB program in place. The drop in test scores from fifth to sixth grade has been decreased or eliminated.
Peer Assistance and Leadership (PAL) (Outside Source) is a peer helping program that combats problems such as violence in schools, drug abuse, teen pregnancy, gang participation and school dropouts.
In the Spotlight
Bernice Ayer Middle School, Capistrano Unified School District, a 2005 Schools to Watch™-Taking Center Stage Model School
The PAL program at Bernice Ayer Middle School is part of a comprehensive program that has helped the school become a School to Watch™-Taking Center Stage Model School.
Rio Norte Junior High School, William S. Hart Union High School District
Associated Student Body (ASB) leaders receive training from the district psychologist to become lunchtime “Yes I Can!” buddies for special education students. The student helpers share lunch and introduce the special education student to their friends. They also invite them to join into sports and games.
Serrano Intermediate School, Saddleback Valley Unified School District
The Peer Assistance Leadership (PAL) class was recognized as the top Orange County PAL program for three years in a row. The class includes 40 students yearly. The teachers report that the program has made numerous contributions to the school.
Schools play an important role in channeling peer influence in a positive direction—providing another reason for the establishment of small learning communities.
From a developmental perspective, the middle grades are generally a time of growing concern for popularity, with students placing increasing importance on interpersonal relationships. This shift in emphasis often results in increasingly nonconforming peer values, social competition, and negative behavior. The issue is more problematic in middle schools, some argue, because adults in the school do not have as much of an opportunity to know what goes on among students, as instruction is structured such that students move from classroom to classroom. Similarly, students spend more time outside the classroom, which means that adult intervention in the social arena is scarce.3
The middle grades are a time when students experience a growing need for belonging.4 As a result, seasonal events such as school dances and Valentine’s Day require a different kind of sensitivity to relationships. Such events tend to be highly charged with expectations. Teachers and staff need to make sure that students are positively included in schoolwide events and provide alternatives if students cannot participate due to religious, medical, or other reasons. Successful school communities find ways to involve all students and to help them feel that they belong. In one school, officials organized a project for students to write Valentine’s Day cards to a local senior center so that the focus moved from the haves and have-nots of teen romance to a “feel-good” service project.5
In the Spotlight
Rio Norte Junior High School, William S. Hart Union High School District
To engage those students who often feel marginalized, Rio Norte established “Wings Wednesdays.” It is a time set aside at lunch every Wednesday for students to “hang out” in a designated room, play cards, and meet others who—for a variety of reasons—are not as comfortable in the large common lunch areas and activities.
California schools face the additional challenge of helping immigrant students and English learners to feel included. One way to do that is to recognize the resources they bring into classrooms. Although most reports focus on the services English learners need, immigrant students can also provide their classmates with valuable lessons. For example, recent immigrants can bring stories, food, and dress to help students understand other cultures and countries. Students at multicultural schools have an opportunity to learn about other cultural perspectives, which will help them in the global community of work.6
Possible projects that involve middle grades students with their peers include:
- Writing and research projects on standards-based essays.
- Service-learning projects in teams.
- Visual and performing arts projects such as dramatic presentations, choir, band, poetry readings, or school beautification murals.
- School gardens as part of a life science unit.
Related Links
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Small Learning Communities
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Opportunities to cooperate (cooperative learning)
Footnotes
1Youth Development Strategies, Concepts, and Research: a supplement to the Healthy Kids Survey Resilience & Youth Development Module report (PDF; Outside Source). Prepared by WestEd and the Safe and Healthy Kids Program Office. Sacramento: California Department of Education, n.d., 22.
2Ibid., 22.
3Christopher C. Weiss and Lindsay Kipnes, Reexamining Middle School Effects: A Comparison of Middle Grades Students in Middle Schools and K-8 Schools, American Journal of Education (February 2006).
4Resilience & Youth Development Module, 1; Getting Results: Developing Safe and Healthy Kids Update 5-Student Health, Supportive Schools, and Academic Success , 43.
5Judith Baenen, The Valentines Conundrum, Middle E-Connections (January 2006).
6Eileen Gale Kugler, What We Owe Immigrant Children, Education Week (May 17, 2006).
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