THE MENTOR'S DIAGNOSTIC & PLANNING TOOLKIT
(USED TO PRACTICE ON AURELIO VILLANUEVA)
(USED TO PRACTICE ON AURELIO VILLANUEVA)
Mentor Diagnostic and Planning Analytic Tools
Aurelio's story also brings to life the framework and the tools we’ve developed and keeps our focus on what’s most important— what the author, David Bornstein told this author a decade ago—“the single most important leverage point in all of school reform is the social and emotional wellbeing of the individual student.” Aurelio’s story is designed to personify how the new organizational design of “teaming up,” presented in the previous chapter, can actually work. In this regard, Aurelio is a “stand-in” for other young people in similar situations. We encourage the reader to keep the “Mentor Toolkit” handy as an analytic tool to better understand Aurelio’s story. We then encourage you to read Aurelio’s story again, this time utilizing the “identity engagement process” tool for a more advanced analysis of his journey.
As a dress rehearsal for working with your mentee, you may want utilize this “basic inventory” to gain a deeper understanding into the various influences in Aurelio’s life—especially the stages in his development, the “domains” and the “three variables.”
First, the diagnostic component of the toolkit is a guide book to uncovering any number of debilitating “hidden injuries of class”—the social and emotional dynamics that low-income youth routinely encounter.
Second, the planning component of the toolkit presents the mentor with a list of innovative and even unexpected ways to support students like Aurelio. After all, even one or two resources, well-placed and skillfully executed, can serve as a major tipping point in any young person’s development.
Aurelio's story also brings to life the framework and the tools we’ve developed and keeps our focus on what’s most important— what the author, David Bornstein told this author a decade ago—“the single most important leverage point in all of school reform is the social and emotional wellbeing of the individual student.” Aurelio’s story is designed to personify how the new organizational design of “teaming up,” presented in the previous chapter, can actually work. In this regard, Aurelio is a “stand-in” for other young people in similar situations. We encourage the reader to keep the “Mentor Toolkit” handy as an analytic tool to better understand Aurelio’s story. We then encourage you to read Aurelio’s story again, this time utilizing the “identity engagement process” tool for a more advanced analysis of his journey.
- This dichotomy is intended, for Aurelio’s story, so constructed, serves as a vivid context for the mentor’s “Diagnostic and Planning Toolkit,” a companion piece that can help the mentor in two major ways.
First, the diagnostic component of the toolkit is a guide book to uncovering any number of debilitating “hidden injuries of class”—the social and emotional dynamics that low-income youth routinely encounter.
- Second, the planning component of the toolkit presents the mentor with a list of innovative and even unexpected ways to support students like Aurelio. After all, even one or two resources, well-placed and skillfully executed, can serve as a major tipping point in any young person’s development.
As a dress rehearsal for working with your mentee, you may want utilize this “basic inventory” to gain a deeper understanding into the various influences in Aurelio’s life—especially the stages in his development, the “domains” and the “three variables.”
First, the diagnostic component of the toolkit is a guide book to uncovering any number of debilitating “hidden injuries of class”—the social and emotional dynamics that low-income youth routinely encounter.
Second, the planning component of the toolkit presents the mentor with a list of innovative and even unexpected ways to support students like Aurelio. After all, even one or two resources, well-placed and skillfully executed, can serve as a major tipping point in any young person’s development.