Peer Support Strategies for Improving All Students' Social Lives and Learning

Peer supports really work: they're a great, efficient way to help all students learn, make the most of teacher/ paraprofessional time, and increase the achievement level of challenging 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.

With this reader-friendly, step-by-step planning guide from the foremost authorities on peer supports, educators, paraprofessionals, and other school staff will

• discover how peer supports are a "two-way street," boosting the academic outcomes, social skills, and self-esteem of students with disabilities and the peers who support them
• determine which students might benefit most from peer supports
• recruit and match the students most likely to form mutually beneficial relationships
• develop effective support plans that promote access to the general curriculum
• work peer supports into IEP goals to meet state and national academic standards
• give students the training and guidance they need to approach their support roles with confidence and enthusiasm
• clarify the responsibilities of everyone involved in a peer support system: students, general and special educators, paraprofessionals and other school staff
• provide peers with constructive ongoing feedback
• extend peer supports to school activities and extracurricular events
• evaluate the social and academic impact of peer support arrangements

A complete, start-to-finish guide to peer supports, this book is packed with photocopiable planning, implementation, and evaluation tools; evidence-based strategies; and vignettes that illustrate successful peer supports.

With this must-have book on one of the hottest topics in inclusive education, educators and paraprofessionals will create schools where all students--with and without disabilities--help each other reach their academic goals, make new friends, and live full and meaningful lives.