Make sure when planning your tutoring sessions
that you have an agenda for the day with clear objectives.
Be realistic about what you intend to accomplish for the
day and focus your lesson, rather than trying to touch on
a number of different areas. The secret to an effective
lesson plan for your tutee is understanding the unique characteristics
that make your student tick and planning your lessons based
on a combination of these factors. Remember that age, cultural
tendencies, language experience, personal interests, and
learning style can be valuable information to know in helping
you plan instruction. Thus, it is important that you are
familiar with a student's background when planning instruction
because this will help individualize your tutoring to meet
the specific needs and/or characteristics of your student.
Of course, as tutors, it is important to understand
that there are myriad factors that can impact a child's
ability to focus on a particular day, and we need to be
sensitive to these situations and adjust the lessons accordingly.
Furthermore, as a tutor, your primary role is to support
the academic development of your student. You are in partnership
with the child's teacher and his/her family to help support
the students cognitive growth. With that said, your input
can be a valuable source of information for a child's teacher
and/or family in making decisions affecting the future of
your student.
Based on initial assessments, a tentative instructional
plan for individual students must be designed. Ideally,
this plan should include:
- The tutee’s areas of strength (what he/she is
able to do)
- Areas of need (what they have to work on)
- Objectives (specific skills, language, attitudes)
- An action plan (specific activities that will lead to
measurable outcomes).
For instance, suppose a student had the ability to
hold a pencil, write his/her name and had some concepts
of print. In addition, the student had some basic survival
vocabulary in English and was extremely motivated and
enthusiastic to learn the language. With this type of
student, tutors and teachers needed to begin literacy
at the preschool level. This means assessing if he knows
classroom vocabulary, colors or numbers among other
topics. Assessment should also have measured if the
student could maintain a basic conversation and speak
descriptively by using verbs and adjectives in the present
tense.
As a result of using the assessment data well, in this
scenario, the tutor was able to target specific areas
to focus on that would be the building blocks for future
English language development. The tutor focused on developing
oral language that incorporated more complex syntactic,
semantic and socio-linguistic features (such as more tenses),
more abstract vocabulary and the use of different contexts
in which language is used.
Once the tutee acquired sufficient vocabulary to begin
phonemic awareness, the tutor used picture books, patterned
books, and books which contained high frequency words
to help the student read. Again, what made this tutoring
experience so successful was that the tutor developed
a concrete action plan based on the findings on the initial
assessments.
Tutors’ Preparation on Instructional
Planning
One key element for the effectiveness of
a tutoring program is the development of an individual
instructional plan for the tutee. Based on initial assessments
and with the help of the agency’s staff, the tutor
should design a tentative plan that should include: a)
the tutee’s areas of strength (what he/she is able
to do); b) areas of need (what they have to work on);
c) objectives (specific skills, language, attitudes);
and, d) action plan (specific activities that will lead
to measurable outcomes). If possible, the agency staff
should provide input or at least be aware of the plan.
Moreover, tutors and facilitators should discuss the challenges,
successes, and progress that emerge in the process of
accomplishing individual instructional objectives. Tutors
should understand that instructional plans are dynamic
in nature and can change as new knowledge about the tutees’
abilities and needs is gained through informal assessments
or tutoring activities. For example, learning how to fill
forms may have not been an initial objective for the tutee,
but later emerged as a critical need for the tutee and
his/her family to obtain welfare assistance.
Many of the activities for instruction and development
of literacy in English may be the same as those used for
assessment. For example, tutors may use the pictures and
questions about the pictures they utilized for assessment,
to teach the language the tutee did not know in the first
place. The instructors should provide or guide tutors
in finding many ideas for literacy development that are
appropriate for different stages of language proficiency.
In addition, part of the discussion should be devoted
to exchanging ideas and resources on games; basic skills
exercises; oral, reading and writing activity templates;
and on literature. If possible, the instructor may help
tutors on an individual basis to brainstorm and design
activities for their action plan. It is also important
to encourage the agency staff to provide additional ideas,
activities, and resources they are using, or they know
are effective so they would like the tutor to try.
Tutors must be encouraged to check out children’s
literature from their city, college, or K-12 school libraries
and be shown how to use these books to capitalize on their
tutees’ particular interests. Ideally, theory (i.e.
key readings on second language acquisition), practical
ideas, and key points covered during the preparation sessions,
should be incorporated or summarized in handouts or a
packet of resources for the tutors.
Instructional Strategies
When you begin designing instruction, there
are several guiding principles that are key to student
success. The following list is taken from the "Checklist
for Effective Practice with English Learners" written
by David and Yvonne Freeman in TESOL Matters
Vol. 9 No. 6, December 1999/January 2000. Full text of
the article is available by clicking the link below. http://www.tesol.org/isaffil/intsec/columns/199912-be.html
