Transcript Slide 1
Minimum requirements for training and qualifications
• • Complicated, much depends on context and the scale of the program For example: – The university-associated McGuffy Reading Center uses graduate students, so the minimum requirement is getting into grad school – In a Book Buddies adaptation in NYC, volunteers • Participate in a week-long onsite training • • • • Pass quizzes and tests are required to: Provide a writing sample and demonstrate their own literacy Be a high school graduate Be able to read and write well themselves – In Book Buddies • • in Charlottesville, Va., Volunteers are recruited, trained by reading specialists Reading specialists write the lesson plans, provide the materials, and provide ongoing training to volunteer tutors throughout the year • • Very minimum requirement for volunteers is a lack of a criminal record Also, an interview process seeks to determine if volunteers have some experience with children, a demonstrated love of reading, and commitment to literacy – Larger scale tutoring programs have to be much more rigorous about minimal requirements and screening
Choosing continuous versus short-term tutor training
• BELL which provides tutors for over 12,000 children in five different states takes training very seriously • In addition to a rigorous screening process, tutors – Go though 15 to 20 hours of e-learning • Web-based, interactive program • Must pass every segment before they're actually hired – Go through additional classroom instruction (after the e learning component) – Are observed by a lead teacher and a site manager • They will model improved methods of delivering tutoring, as appropriate – Are reviewed • BELL finds ongoing training is critical in terms of delivering a high quality, effective program
Tutor supervision and support
• Ongoing supervision, quality control, and feedback are absolutely essentially to any good tutoring program • The best way for tutors to learn is by seeing good tutoring modeled and receiving constructive, specific feedback • Parents should be very suspect of tutoring programs where tutors are left on their own • It's critical to have ongoing fidelity mechanisms in place Tips for Volunteer Tutors
What good student/tutor relationships look like
• Interpersonal relationships are very important – Because we learn better in situations that are meaningful to us • If everything's going right, a good student/tutor relationship should be a positive experience – Child should look forward (or at least neutral about going) to tutoring – While some children complain a little, there shouldn't be major complaints about going to tutoring – Goal: kids look forward to their tutoring session because they are beginning to see learning success • A good student/tutor relationship is such an important part of tutoring, it’s almost taken for granted. It's fundamental • At Kingston, parents rate their child's tutor each semester – Helps assure good student/tutor relationship – Helps with quality assurance
How to interview potential tutors
• Look beyond a resume • Look at the tutor's commitment and passion for making a difference in the life of that child • BELL uses a multi-stage screening process: – First, potential tutors have to provide a writing sample • If they're going to be tutoring in literacy, they must be able to write a coherent, grammatically correct sentence • Then they are asked about their motivation, why are they doing this – Is this a mechanism of gaining income?
– Do they really want to make a difference in the life of a child? – Then a phone screen – Then an in-person interview – Then they have to complete the online e-learning system • By the time a tutor has gone through all of those stages, it’s pretty certain that they're tutoring for the right reasons
Fostering volunteer retention and satisfaction
• When volunteer tutors see • Volunteers appreciate a
success
with their tutee, it goes a long way towards creating satisfaction – When they see their child learn to become a proficient, eager reader, they know they’ve made a difference in the life of that child. And they're eager to repeat that experience
planned experience
where there's a definite lesson plan, a framework, a structure • Some volunteers have remarked that they appreciate: – Organized and prepared materials – Training and support in delivering the lessons plan – Feedback at the end of each lesson plan – A coordinator who listens – Showing how to do a lesson properly, or changing it, or taking another tack • Volunteers who
form a close bond
with their student are highly motivated to return • They need to feel good about what they do
Tutoring programs for children with learning disabilities
• • • It affects tutor selection and training – Kingsbury's tutoring program, geared toward children with learning disabilities (LD), specifically trains all tutors to work with students with LD – All tutors also learn about dyslexia, since it is the most common learning disability – Tutors must take two graduate-level courses It affects how lessons are planned – Tutoring for children with LD is really remediation, so it is vital to start where the student is at – Good communication (with the student, and also parents and teachers) is key to determining where the child's strengths and weaknesses are – Teaching methods should take advantage of students' strengths rather than their weaknesses – Building the student's interest areas into the lesson is a good idea It affects time – A longer-term effort, usually – Let children know that this longer timeline is okay • Many famous people have been successful in spite of the fact that they didn't learn to read at seven years old • With the proper help, you too will be successful Learn more about Finding a Good Reading Tutor for Your Child With LD
Considerations for working with inner-city kids
• Be sensitive and be culturally aware • At BELL, for example – Books that share relevant stories of hope, overcoming obstacles, community, and democracy are selected – Every tutor's training includes a culturally relevant segment – Each tutor is trained to be aware of the student’s home situation • Staff makes sure they understand who the child can (and cannot) go home with • Very focused on the child's safety – A premium is placed on tutors who can transmit both hope and academic skills to the child • Role models who prove that, whatever situation you find yourself born into, it does not limit your possibilities to succeed in the world – Lessons address self-esteem issues as well
Including parents who find school intimidating
• • • • Make it a positive experience Too often, parents only get a call from school when their child has acted up To change this dynamic, BELL: – P hones every parent with positive news (when parents start getting positive calls, they are more and more willing to become part of the education system) • With a pre-program welcome call • With a call in the first week saying something like, "Anne did a phenomenal job today in read aloud. And you should be so proud of her" – Sends progress reports that focus on the positive to every parent – Explains to parents how important they are to their child's success in school Tutoring programs can make measurable improvements in how parents see themselves as engaged players in their child's education
Serving English language learners well and appropriately
1. Find out as much as possible about the native language, and about their schooling history 2. Pay particular attention to vocabulary and language development in adjusting a tutoring program for English language learners (ELLs) – ELLs do quite well at the word-level instruction in tutoring – But because background knowledge and vocabulary play such a big role in text-level processing and comprehension, this is an area in which ELL students will often struggle – So text-level instruction will need particular emphasis in working with English language learners – Even ELLs who appear to have good social vocabulary may have huge gaps in their academic vocabulary – Sometimes unexpected, so that terms that we take for granted, like
paragraph
or
stanza
, need to be explained often referred to as basic interpersonal communicative skills
Serving English language learners (cont.)
3. Find out about the cultural background of students – Don't want to commit any taboos inadvertently – Two suggested books for tutors: •
Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands (The Bestselling Guide to Doing Business in More than 60 Countries)
about cultural mores of social interactions and taboos you don't want to commit •
Learner English: A Teacher's Guide to Interference and Other Problems (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers)
don't exist in other languages, as well as some of the most glaring differences in syntax , a great little book which lists the phonemes that are in English that – If tutors know what English sounds don't even exist in a student's native language, then they can be careful and explicit in teaching – For example, drawing attention to how the tutor’s mouth moves to make a sound, and providing a mirror so the student can practice
Good parent involvement despite a language barrier
• A challenging problem – Especially challenging if no one in the tutoring program speaks that language • Where possible, find someone who can speak the native language – Even when tutoring is in English, often vocabulary questions or conceptual issues came up. Tutors can switch into the native language get it straightened out and then switch back into English • Find out about the parents' language as well as their cultural expectations • Collaboration is key to working not only with native English speakers, but particularly with English language learners
Other ways to engage English language learners
BELL, for example: • Tries to find a site leader and tutors who are fluent in the predominant languages • Makes a point of having the parent/teacher conferences in the parent's native language, if possible • Prints all outreach materials (such as the parent handbook) in the languages needed (Spanish, Haitian Creole, Bengali) • Reaches out to the parents and makes them comfortable in whatever the native language is