don rubin - english-david-yellindye.macam.ac.il/department events/2010/donald rubin/tutoring...

Don RubinUniversity of Georgia, USA

in collaboration with Paul Matthews, University of Georgia

Presented at David Yellen College23 December 2009

Department of Language & Literacy Education


Paul

“Tutors have the task of delivering a social side of education‐‐the mortar to the bricks of the academic learning that students achieve at school. Good tutoring can make a child's experience of school, while ineffective tutoring can break it. Demotivation, demoralisation and despondency are all possible outcomes that sound tutoring can help avoid.”


“As a tutor you are not concerned simply with whether homework has been completed or how well a child is getting through his or her work. You are concerned with the whole child.”


Tutoring as a context for teaching oral communication

1.Tutoring allows students the time and the occasion for oral expression

2.Tutoring is “safe” environment for practicing and experimenting with L2 speech

3.Tutoring offers opportunity for conversation in L2, not just monologic presentations

4.Quiet students have a chance to speak up5.Tutoring is individualized6.Feedback is immediate


Explicit modeling Talk about your thinking process – what you do to get meaning from the text. For example: "That's a new word. It begins with cl. I don't know how to pronounce the next part – ue. Harriet is a spy. It must be clue because spies look for clues.“

Implicit modeling When a child is stuck on a word you can suggest strategies he or she can use to figure it out. You might say, "Try reading the sentence again." "Try reading the next sentence." "Where did the boy go at the beginning of the story?" "Where do you think he might be going now?"

Tutoring Strategies for Speaking and Reading


Choral reading Hold the book together and ask the child to read along with you. As the child becomes more comfortable with reading the text, lower your voice and let the child set the pace.

Echo reading Read aloud a line of text. Ask the child to read the same line. Continue taking turns reading and rereading the same lines. When the child begins to read with more expression and fluency, suggest that she or he read aloud on his own.

Paired Reading Sometimes you will read aloud together – duet reading – and sometimes he or she will read alone – solo reading. Agree on two signals the child can use to switch back and forth from solo to duet reading.

More Tutoring Strategies for Speaking and Reading


Example: Documenting Achievement on One Oral Standard

1. Remedial tutoring2. Assignment tutoring3. Strategic tutoring4. Enrichment tutoring


Student Centered

Curriculum centered

1. Partner A is the “student.”2. Partner B guides the student through the

paraphrasing strategy (RAP)3. Partner B gives feedback based on the criteria

for paraphrasing4. Partner A writes a 2‐3 sentence paraphrase that

reflects the “tutor’s” input.



Read a paragraph

Ask yourself, “What were the main idea and details in this paragraph?”

Put the main Idea and details into your own words

1. Tell the main ideas you read1. Include important details2. Exclude minor points or examples

2. Put those ideas in your own words3. Make the ideas easy for your listener to

understand4. Give credit to the source of the ideas


"The Antarctic is the vast source of cold on our planet, just as the sun is the source of our heat, and it exerts tremendous control on our climate," [Jacques] Cousteau told the camera. "The cold ocean water around Antarctica flows north to mix with warmer water from the tropics, and its up wellings help to cool both the surface water and our atmosphere. Yet the fragility of this regulating system is now threatened by human activity." From "Captain Cousteau," Audubon (May 1990):17.


READ... ASK... PUT...


According to Jacques Cousteau, Antarctica is necessary to balance the climate of the entire Earth. He fears that human activity could interfere with the balance between the heat of the sun and the important source of cold from Antarctic waters that flow north and cool the oceans and atmosphere ("Captain Cousteau" 17).


Assignment Tutoring:The Tutoring Cycle-Observation Form(Adapted from Ross MacDonald, Tutor Evaluation and Self-Assessment Tool)

The goal of tutoring is to help tutees increase their confidence and learn how to learn independently, eventually reducing their dependence on tutoring. By following these steps, tutors can help tutees become more independent learners. This cycle can be adapted for all subjects, and for group, individual, and drop-in tutoring. Use this guide to monitor your own tutoring sessions.


Step 1: Identifying Task__2a. Provide opportunity for tutee(s) to take control and determine focus of session__2b. Use questions to clarify tutees’ immediate concerns. (“What is the hardest part for you?”)__2c. Restate tutees’ problems to help tutee understand what was needed and to focus activities for session.__2d. Use empathetic statements to help tutee(s) define the problem ("That part can be hard.")

Step 2: Setting Agenda__3a. Involve tutee(s) in setting the agenda (i.e. "We have ___ minutes today. How should we use them?" "What should we work on today?”)__3b. Require tutee(s) to state agenda explicitly to help him/her play active role in allocating time on each task.__3c. Readjust agenda when necessary, keep track of time.


Step 3: Breaking Task into Parts__4a.Ask tutee(s) to break task or problems into steps. (“Show me how you did this in class;”“How do you begin?”__4b. Restate steps mentioned. Have the tutee take notes, if appropriate.__4c.Ask tutee(s) to explain the steps to confirm understanding ("OK, so now you tell me what we have to do for this kind of problem")


Step4 : Identifying Thought Process (Strategies) Involved in Task

__4a. Ask the tutee(s) to explain the strategies learned in class for this type of problem/concept/thought process.__4b. Help tutee(s) understand the textbook/lecture notes.__c. Help tutee understand other sources of information (i.e. notes, handouts, workbooks, classmates, etc.) for solving problems. Tutor should not be only source of information.__d. Ask tutee(s) to explain the strategies learned to ensure tutees’ understanding for doing similar tasks when studying alone.


Step 5 : Addressing the Task

__6a. Encourage tutee(s) to address task without overly directing him/her (i.e. "Where should we begin? What do we do next?")__6b. Respond appropriately, but do not interrupt tutees’thinking. Show attention without taking over. Pencil and paper should remain in front of tutee, not tutor.__6c. Encourage tutee(s) to do most of the talking/learning. Did not over explain or take control.__6d. Allow sufficient "wait time" (“10 Second Rule”) for tutee to do act, speak, or learn before you take over and explain.


Step 6: Confirming and Reinforcing Confidence

__9a. Offer positive reinforcement, and confirm that tutee really did understand or improve. __9b. Congratulate tutee(s) for working hard and not giving up.__9c. Reassure tutee(s) that he/she can now do similar tasks independently.

Step 7: Looking Ahead

__10a Help tutee(s) anticipate what he/she will learn next that might connect to current task.__10b. Help tutee(s) understand how information from class, tutoring, and resources is connected.__10c. Ask future-oriented questions like "What is the next concept you will learn in class? How will what we did today help you?"


Instructions for the assignment

Your familiarity with the writing task

Preferred textual patterns in Academic English)

Development

Lower Order Concerns

The student’s responsibility for setting the tutoring agenda—Not just lower order concerns


Back to Paul’s Research Study


Instructional delivery in private and corporate education

Ancillary to classroom instruction (often framed as remedial assistance)

+/‐ intelligent tutoring systems in individualized instruction


Not mentioned in leading FL methods textbooks (e.g., Ramirez, 1995; Schrum & Glisan, 1994; Lee & van Patten, 1995; Omaggio Hadley, 1994)

Some attention to ESL tutoring in handbooks for community literacy tutors (e.g., Shollar, 1982)

May be addressed in handbooks at tutoring centers


Expert tutors attend to motivational as well as cognitive outcomes (e.g, McArthur et al, 1990)

Presume that tutees are low in self efficacy (e.g., Lepper et al, 1993)

Presume that tutees are high in performance rather than mastery motivation


Based on expert tutor discourse practice—not outcomes (esp. Lepper et el., 1990, 1993, 1997; Graesser, et al, 1997; Juel, 1996; Merrill et al., 1992)

Positive feedback to increase self‐efficacyTransfer locus of control to tutees—operationally as well attributionallyBut inoculate against failure in terms of task difficulty (external locus)Model intrinsic task value, but also utility value


Ask questions guiding student to reach own insight (self‐efficacy)Use student ideas and examples (autonomy)Praise effort (internal, controllable attribution)Point out improvements rather than failures (self‐efficacy)Segment complex problems into parts (mastery orientation)Pose reasonable challenges (intrinsic value)


Site: University tutoring center

Purpose: Associated with course success

Only initial meetings

29 complete sessions videotaped

Pre/post session questionnaires on self efficacy

Selected 4 motivationally effective and 4 dysfunctional sessions for discourse analysis


Session duration (minutes) Overlapped speech

Tutor overlapTutee overlapOverlap at transition relevant place

Ratio Tutor/Tutee talkRatio L1/L2 for communication


QuestionsDeep/Rule‐basedSuperficial/Correctness‐based

Rule formulationsExamplesGlobal session function: “Deep Explanatory” vs. “Superficial Correction”


Statements about the FL (learnability, regularity)

Explicit attributions (to ability, task difficulty)

Admitting tutor ignorance

Admitting tutor error


S: all right first of all um (.) the imperfect?/ now I thin:k I m:ight finally have a grasp on them …

S: …right well actually that’s pretty much it/ I had those two things that I needed to be explained a:nd that took a lot less time than I thought/

Total elapsed time: 18 minutes


S: um it’s been like a year since I’ve taken this/T: oh really/S: and so I did-- I’m doing independent study and so: I’m having a hard time I don’t knowwhere to begin/T: m:kay (unclear)/S: h- I’m not understanding the book either/ I just T: o:kay yeah/S: good/T: yea:h/S: I never e-- I-- I’ve never been to tutoring here so I don’t know how you guys do it/T: well if you can show me a particular problem that you’re having/S: okay/ I did the first lesson: and I’m not sure if I-- I did it right/ I mean if I’m even doing doing it close/ this booklet it’ll tell me like the directions in English and it’ll tell me like what to read over but everything that isn’t explained in the chapter is in Spanish/


50 minutes elapsedT: there you go/S: ummT: (hhh) (3.0) there you have it/S: I think that’s all of that/ I wanted to go over at least a little bit like the next lesson so that I can work on it be cause I have this to do and I didn’t (.) understand/T: (.) you didn’t understand/

Eight more minutes pass-during which T attempts to translate and “explain” first chapter of textbookT: There you go. Okay, we’re done /


EX2T: this is infinitive ah sorry here you need gerundive/S: so I want to say “su[ccendo”?/T: [“-ccedendo” right/ the verb is “succedere” but (.)S: “succendo”/T: “-den:do”/ right/ [“succedendo”/S: [okay/


S: okay/ there’s a couple things I wanted to do/ first of all I want tosee if you’d look at my composition/S: there’s like a few things I didn’t know/ and then this is an old one and he wanted us to um correct? and there’s a couple things I didn’t really know how to correct [really/ this is the wrong tense/ both of these which I didn’t really understand why that was the wrong [tense and then the other thing was I have a test tomorrow so I just wanted to see if you would go through the exercises I’ve done and tell me if they’re right or wrong [and go over a couple things [so basically whatever you want to do first/T: [okay/ [okay/ [okay/ [okay/ whatever you’d like/S: I guess we can do-- this is the one I have to type up and turn in todayS: so I didn’t know like the word for “soon”/


T: do you have other questions for right now?S: um (4.0, reading composition) okay right here I was trying to say that “the pants cost too much”?/ did I say that right?/T: um if you want to say… Okay first of all to say that something is like “too much” of something?/S: huh?T: there’s a wor:d for that/ and it’s “trop”/ (., writing on board) it’s spelled with a “p” like that?/ so: if you say like “I ate too fast” is that passé composé or imperfect/?

(dialogue continues for several more minutes on this example)


Superficial Correction was typical of the

motivationally dysfunctional sessions

Phi=.7750

4

3

1

0

1

2

3

4

# s

essi

ons

global session function

superficialdeep


Tutors produce proportionally more questions in motivationally effective sessions

Tutors produce proportionally more questions in deep explanatory sessions

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

rati

o tu

tor/

tute

e qu

esti

ons superficial

-motivatedeep +motivate


Negotiate the specific purpose of session

Keep the session focused and brief

Ask about 1/3 of the questions

Present about one example/minute


Ask rule‐based questions

Avoid “homework buddy” ploy; give rules, not corrections

Wait; don’t interrupt

•Accuracy criteria•Minimal pairs tests

•Intelligibility criteria•Intonation•Transcription•Referential communication accuracy



Referential Communication Accuracy

“Your partner has the same pictures that you have. But your partner’s pictures are in a different order. Help your partner choose the picture you are thinking of.”


Assessing minimal pairs: Vowels


Which One Am I Saying?


Functional intonation

1. Use rising tones for “given” or shared information

2.Use falling tones for “new” information or “declarations”

3.Pause only at tone units4.Stress prominent syllable(s) in each tone unit


Working on your own, decide how you would read it aloud. Mark your tone‐unit boundaries with //, and use circles to mark your prominent syllables (remember there maybe one or two of these in a tone unit). Read out to a partner the script you have prepared and listen to your partner readingher or his script.

// there was NO ANswer // I RANG aGAIN // it was getting cold so I decided to go back I should have come in thedaytime this was hopeless I could be walking about all nightand never find Market Street I went back to where the shopswere it was raining hard and the precinct was deserted I feltvery miserable ...

Intonation Assessment Activity

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