What is Kid Helper?
Kid Helper is a teacher-created approach to encourage students to share and develop problem solving strategies. As a result, it empowers children to collaborate to address social challenges in school.
How it began: Kate McCormick has been a classroom teacher for 13 years and was noticing that her students needed help solving their social issues. Instead of resolving many issues for them (enabling learned dependency), she decided to create a forum where problems could be presented to the class and then solved collectively. She began this approach on the Island of Martha's Vineyard, first in third grade at the West Tisbury School, then she formalized it in third grade at the Oak Bluffs School (www.kidhelperob.weebly.com), and is now continuing it in her fourth grade classroom at the Edgartown School.
How it Works: The class takes on the role of Kid Helpers. Realistic (and age-appropriate) student problems are summarized and generalized in the form of a “Dear Abby” letter, which is addressed to “Kid Helper.” The problems come from the teacher's observations, actual students, as well as parent concerns. Students work whole group, in pairs, and individually to write a response to the letter, giving good advice and strategies. At least once a week, students in this class come together to discuss 1-2 problems and then develop responses. When actual problems are presented openly by students, the specific student gets to collect the advice and keep it.The teacher uses the following prompts during Kid Helper discussions:1. What is the problem? (restate it in your own words)2. How is the person feeling? Why? Have you ever felt this way? (to identify with the student)3. Who is involved and what are the different perspectives?4. What is the goal of the person in the problem?5. How can our suggestions help the person reach his/her goal? When necessary, a school guidance counselor serves as a Kid Helper consultant, providing support around problem solving strategies.
To read actual problem scenarios and advice, click on any of the categories: bullying, teasing, friendship, lunch/recess, and learning. We look forward to adding more problems and solutions to this web site.