TRADITIONAL KINDS OF MENTORING
Formal Mentoring consists of mentoring relationships initiated by an organization (such as Big Brothers and Sisters of America) that provides specific expectations, guidelines and structure to the relationship. The relationship lasts a finite period and is focused on specific objectives. Formal mentoring can be seasonal, topical mentoring and tactical.
Informal Mentoring are those relationships between a young person and a caring adult that just happen and happen organically. Informal mentoring can take place within existing support systems, such as the family (and extended family) and schools, clubs, religious organizations and/or outside of established organizations.
Peer Mentoring. According to the National Center on Mentoring, peer mentoring builds on the tradition of “peer leadership programs, peer counseling and peer support groups and often deliver their services in schools or after school settings.” It can be delivered one-on-one or in groups. “Common models include high school students who mentor middle school and elementary students and older students who work with incoming students.” Peer mentoring can also thrive in religious organizations, nonprofit out of school-time programs in which older youth lead their near-peers in recreational and developmental activities.” Peer mentoring, to be more precise, is in reality “near peer” mentoring, for the mentor clearly is somewhat older and more experienced.
Tutoring. The root of our word, tutor, (from Latin) is a “watcher, a protector and a guardian.” A tutor is now best characterized as a provider of instruction, especially remedial. A good tutor can help students strengthen such academic behaviors as attendance in school, active participation in class, doing homework and organizing materials. A tutor is often a necessity for young people who lack the most basic family and societal supports.
The chief role of the tutor is to help students develop learning strategies that are meaningful to them personally. These include study skills, the ability to “think about how you think” (“meta-cognition,” self-regulation, time management and goal setting.
HYBRIDS
Mentor/Tutor Hybrid. The Mentor/Tutor Hybrid combines two roles: the mentor (whether natural or formal) and the tutor, who focuses on strengthening a student’s academic skills.
A tutor is often a necessity, especially for students who need to shore up their basic academic skills and keep pace with the rest of the class. Yet a tutor’s effectiveness can be diminished without having a wider grasp of a student’s social and emotional world. While each of these functions can be necessary, each can also be insufficient—hence the merger. By linking the wisdom and experience of the mentor—who guides young people to discover who they are and find their place in the world—with the skills of the tutor—who provides students with the most effective learning strategies to succeed in their school work, the mentor-tutor is able to gain access to the most essential and often most overlooked facets of academic success: students’ inner and social lives.
The mentor-tutor is especially attuned to such activities as school attendance, class participation, doing homework and organizing materials. The mentor-tutor also attends to nurturing in their students such social and emotional skills as perseverance, grit, self-discipline, self-control and delayed gratification.
By merging the roles of mentor and tutor, the sum becomes greater than its component parts. For, a mentor’s effectiveness can be undermined without an accompanying set of tasks and mutual sense of purpose. A tutor’s effectiveness can be diminished without a full understanding of their student’s social and emotional world.
NEWER MODELS
The Mentor-as-Changemaker is a diagnostician, a designer, an advocate and a futurist all rolled into one.
Holistic Mentoring. A holistic mentor is the point person who mobilizes resources—from medical attention and emotional support to academic skills building—on behalf of low-income students, playing the role of “changemaker.”
Virtual Mentoring. This is mentoring done on line, remotely, for example on Zoom. It can be done one-on-one or in groups. Virtual group mentoring is particularly effective on Zoom, as there can be multiple mentors working with multiple youth, and online sessions can involve both large groups and smaller "breakout groups."
Reciprocal (or Mutual or Reverse) Mentoring is the bringing together of older persons and younger adults who mentor each other on behalf of their students. For example, young adults bring a passion for justice and social change and an ability to work “24-7” for a cause they can embrace. They posses what older persons may have lost: the ability directly relate to the culture of youth.
Together, older persons and young adults can unleash an untapped source of innovation: two undervalued and underutilized sets of human resources combining forces to bring out the best in each other and form a highly productive and cost–effective team. Each generation can guide the other—younger folks instructing their elders in the ways of new technology and older persons offering their experience.
The result: a “win-win-win.” It’s a win for older persons, by giving them new opportunities for living a healthy and productive life well into the traditional retirement years. It’s a win for young adults, especially in launching them into the world of work and giving them the opportunity to work older folks. And, most important of all, it’s a win for low-income students themselves and their families.
Cascading Mentoring is reciprocal mentoring in the context of serving on a team. The team leader is in a position to guide those experts on a steering committee, such as pediatricians, school counselors, social workers and community members, who in turn can guide those who are working on the ground in schools and clinics, who in turn guide case workers, who in turn guide one-on-one mentors and tutors, “cascading” on down the line.
Another way that cascading mentoring works is when older persons take on the role of diagnostician and designer in vetting promising initiatives. They are in a good position to oversee the recruitment, training and equipping of teams of younger mentors (no age restrictions) who work on the ground in schools and youth organizations. Let’s call this second level of mentors “advocates.” These advocates, can take on a case load of mentees, depending on their availability and skill sets. They can also oversee a third level of mentors—college and high school students who work more directly with students.
Formal Mentoring consists of mentoring relationships initiated by an organization (such as Big Brothers and Sisters of America) that provides specific expectations, guidelines and structure to the relationship. The relationship lasts a finite period and is focused on specific objectives. Formal mentoring can be seasonal, topical mentoring and tactical.
Informal Mentoring are those relationships between a young person and a caring adult that just happen and happen organically. Informal mentoring can take place within existing support systems, such as the family (and extended family) and schools, clubs, religious organizations and/or outside of established organizations.
Peer Mentoring. According to the National Center on Mentoring, peer mentoring builds on the tradition of “peer leadership programs, peer counseling and peer support groups and often deliver their services in schools or after school settings.” It can be delivered one-on-one or in groups. “Common models include high school students who mentor middle school and elementary students and older students who work with incoming students.” Peer mentoring can also thrive in religious organizations, nonprofit out of school-time programs in which older youth lead their near-peers in recreational and developmental activities.” Peer mentoring, to be more precise, is in reality “near peer” mentoring, for the mentor clearly is somewhat older and more experienced.
Tutoring. The root of our word, tutor, (from Latin) is a “watcher, a protector and a guardian.” A tutor is now best characterized as a provider of instruction, especially remedial. A good tutor can help students strengthen such academic behaviors as attendance in school, active participation in class, doing homework and organizing materials. A tutor is often a necessity for young people who lack the most basic family and societal supports.
The chief role of the tutor is to help students develop learning strategies that are meaningful to them personally. These include study skills, the ability to “think about how you think” (“meta-cognition,” self-regulation, time management and goal setting.
HYBRIDS
Mentor/Tutor Hybrid. The Mentor/Tutor Hybrid combines two roles: the mentor (whether natural or formal) and the tutor, who focuses on strengthening a student’s academic skills.
A tutor is often a necessity, especially for students who need to shore up their basic academic skills and keep pace with the rest of the class. Yet a tutor’s effectiveness can be diminished without having a wider grasp of a student’s social and emotional world. While each of these functions can be necessary, each can also be insufficient—hence the merger. By linking the wisdom and experience of the mentor—who guides young people to discover who they are and find their place in the world—with the skills of the tutor—who provides students with the most effective learning strategies to succeed in their school work, the mentor-tutor is able to gain access to the most essential and often most overlooked facets of academic success: students’ inner and social lives.
The mentor-tutor is especially attuned to such activities as school attendance, class participation, doing homework and organizing materials. The mentor-tutor also attends to nurturing in their students such social and emotional skills as perseverance, grit, self-discipline, self-control and delayed gratification.
By merging the roles of mentor and tutor, the sum becomes greater than its component parts. For, a mentor’s effectiveness can be undermined without an accompanying set of tasks and mutual sense of purpose. A tutor’s effectiveness can be diminished without a full understanding of their student’s social and emotional world.
NEWER MODELS
The Mentor-as-Changemaker is a diagnostician, a designer, an advocate and a futurist all rolled into one.
- A diagnostician "makes a map” of those physical and psychological settings and situations where a youth encounters negative energy and "minds the gaps" in a youth's world to pinpoint where positive energy gets blocked.
- A designer “builds the app” and determines the right approaches to take in leveraging the most viable resources to create an individualized plan.
- An advocate carries out the plan, directly serving the needs of their youth and indirectly mobilizing the relevant resources within the community.
- An investor ensures that our youth will be able to become changemakers themselves. Those who are not equipped to adapt to the changes that will come their way over the course of their lives and careers will fall behind. Those who can take the initiative in making change will thrive.
Holistic Mentoring. A holistic mentor is the point person who mobilizes resources—from medical attention and emotional support to academic skills building—on behalf of low-income students, playing the role of “changemaker.”
Virtual Mentoring. This is mentoring done on line, remotely, for example on Zoom. It can be done one-on-one or in groups. Virtual group mentoring is particularly effective on Zoom, as there can be multiple mentors working with multiple youth, and online sessions can involve both large groups and smaller "breakout groups."
Reciprocal (or Mutual or Reverse) Mentoring is the bringing together of older persons and younger adults who mentor each other on behalf of their students. For example, young adults bring a passion for justice and social change and an ability to work “24-7” for a cause they can embrace. They posses what older persons may have lost: the ability directly relate to the culture of youth.
Together, older persons and young adults can unleash an untapped source of innovation: two undervalued and underutilized sets of human resources combining forces to bring out the best in each other and form a highly productive and cost–effective team. Each generation can guide the other—younger folks instructing their elders in the ways of new technology and older persons offering their experience.
The result: a “win-win-win.” It’s a win for older persons, by giving them new opportunities for living a healthy and productive life well into the traditional retirement years. It’s a win for young adults, especially in launching them into the world of work and giving them the opportunity to work older folks. And, most important of all, it’s a win for low-income students themselves and their families.
Cascading Mentoring is reciprocal mentoring in the context of serving on a team. The team leader is in a position to guide those experts on a steering committee, such as pediatricians, school counselors, social workers and community members, who in turn can guide those who are working on the ground in schools and clinics, who in turn guide case workers, who in turn guide one-on-one mentors and tutors, “cascading” on down the line.
Another way that cascading mentoring works is when older persons take on the role of diagnostician and designer in vetting promising initiatives. They are in a good position to oversee the recruitment, training and equipping of teams of younger mentors (no age restrictions) who work on the ground in schools and youth organizations. Let’s call this second level of mentors “advocates.” These advocates, can take on a case load of mentees, depending on their availability and skill sets. They can also oversee a third level of mentors—college and high school students who work more directly with students.