K-Pals

My first graders are reading mentors to two kindergarten classes using the K-Pals program. Each first grader pairs up with a Kindergarten student to help him/her learn to read better. If there are "extra" first graders, s/he uses the FLIP to record the entire session(s). We record our sessions with our K-Pals using our school FLIP. Afterward, we review our video together. We discuss whole group how each session went, what was good or bad, and how we can improve. My six and seven year old students are self-critiquing their reading mentoring to Kindergarten students. They LOVE being able to discuss how the sessions should look and sound like. They look forward to "seeing" their improvements in mentoring, on video. When they see themselves with their K-Pal, we pause the video. My first-grader will then tell me what was good, bad, how it could be better along with any other pertinent information about their session (the behavior or ability level of their K-Pal). They reference the video as support for their opinions. Each of my 25 students are involved with the 40+ Kindergarten students and this event. We do it very Friday in the morning and in the afternoon. The FLIP works great for allowing students to self-critique. I never would have thought that 6 and 7 year old students would be able to do such high level learning. Thanks to the FLIP they can! Its easy and quick to use!