Important points about communicating when tutoring :No5

Here are some of the points from the Delaware County Community College Website I think should be taken particular notice of:

Always allow at least 5 seconds of wait time after asking a question. Do not become the answer giver.

If there is no response after five to ten seconds of wait-time, you might want to do one or more of the following:

* repeat the question;
* rephrase the question;
* simplify the question;
* break the question down into its component parts;
* make your question more specific;

After each of the above alternatives, it is recommended that you allow another 5-10 seconds wait- time.

Other important things to remember are not to interrupt others or finish their sentences (don’t we all do that!)

This website also has this to say about listening:

Active listening is a method of responding to another that encourages communication.

Listening is a very important skill, especially for tutors. Many tutors tend to talk too much during a tutorial session. This defeats the purpose of tutoring, which is to allow students to learn by discussion. Rather than turning the session into a mini-lecture, tutors must actively listen and encourage their students to become active learners. Giving a student your full attention is sometimes difficult because you start to run out of time, or you find yourself thinking about your next question; however, the time you spend actively listening to your student will result in a quality tutoring session.

Here is another self quiz on your listening skills. The list of questions gives you an excellent guide to how to be a very good listener. If you can answer ‘always’ to every question you are a great listener.

Watch this short video of a student describing his Peer Tutor from last year. What important qualities did he have and what did he do to aid his relationship with this student?

Add any further thoughts or suggestions about communication to the comments for this posting.

Assignment no.4: Communicating

Hello again, Hope you are all fit and well and not too overworked. Here is the link to your next assignment. The focus of these tasks are to do with interacting and communicating with your tutees. There is also another quiz for you to try – a further chance to get to know yourselves even better.

I look forward to reading your postings in your Blogs. Also if you are not in the habit of visiting other people’s Blogs you can post comments to this one for other’s and myself to read.

Also let me know if any of you need help with RSS feeds etc. Mark has offered to do the tutoring for this for any of you who need it.

All the best,

Helen

Confused??

If the last post was a bit confusing – try following the link given in Leigh’s comment (to the post ‘Instructions for setting up Bloglines’). Leigh has already created some screencasts (videos) of setting up and using Bloglines. I will make my own version and post it here soon. Thanks to Leigh for pointing us to his earlier work!

Assignment no.3 Learning Styles

OK, I think we have all commented on the LNA analysis. There didn’t seem to be too much wrong with it and I think we all agreed it is a useful tool. I hope you have all visited each other’s blogs to see what others had to say about it. I have made some changes to the original template on the wiki as a result. Once you have tried it with your students you might have more comments, so post them here if you do.

For instructions on assignment no.3 follow this link to your next activity. You will need a little more time for this activity. I have given you two links – one for the VARK learning styles questionnaire and one for the Felder-Silverman model (click on the blue [1] and [2]. You need to visit both these links and write in your blogs about one preferred style from each. Then, find out what your preferred learning style is from one or both models and comment on the results in your blog. Is it what you expected? How much weight would you place on these results? How would you use these results to improve your study techniques?

First Discussion Thread – Learner Needs Analysis

Hi Everyone,

Well Mark deserves another chocolate fish as he is the first to look at the LNA template on the wiki and comment on it in his Blog. So…, as well as posting to your own Blogs,  could each of you visit Marks Blog and read what he had to say about the template and add your comments to his question on his Blog. Then we might do a bit of Blog hopping as each of you make your own Blog posts. We will hop to your sites and add our comments there too. Hope this all makes sense! At the end I will try to summarise our main ideas around Learner Needs Analysis Forms.

How Your Blogs Work and Assignment no.2: The LNA

Hello everybody! welcome back, I hope you have all had a good break. I just want to explain what your individual Blogs are to be used for. They are a place for you to publish your responses to the tasks I will be setting for you from this blog. For instance, your next “assignment” (after setting up your Blog) is to go to this link and look at the Learner Needs Analysis (LNA) template. This is my first attempt at a LNA template and it is untested at present. In your Blogs I would like you to comment on the appropriateness of these questions and how, when and if you would ask them. Do you have any suggestions as to how this questionnaire could be improved. Post your ideas in your Blog and we can all look and comment. When you next meet your student (or meet for the first time) I would like you to use this LNA template (or a better one that you have adapted) and send me an electronic or hard copy. Also post to your Blog any feedback from your students about how they felt about all or any of these questions.

Looking forward to seeing all your Blogs!

Helen

Assignment no.1b: Links to Student Blogs.

Please give me the link to your individual Blogs in a comment to this post. Thanks

Hello all new peer tutor trainees. Assignment no.1 Create your own student blog.

Welcome to ‘Students Tutoring Students’ !

Your first task as a peer tutor trainee is to create your own Blog for this course. Your blog will be the place you post your ‘assignments’ for this course. The assignments will be things like your responses to readings, video’s, quizzes, tutoring sessions, etc. I will not be expecting lengthly essay’s and will prefer to see lists of ideas, suggestions and comments to show you have done the activities and thought about them with respect to your work as a Peer Tutor. To create a blog go to http://wordpress.com (see Link on the right of this page) and follow their simple instructions to create your blog. If you need help to do this make an appointment with me at the Learning Centre. Once your personal course Blog is created post a link to it here in comments for “Student Blogs”. We will set up RSS feeds to everyones blogs later.

The purpose of these individual blogs is so we can all network with each other and learn from each other as we go. Just a note of caution however, I do not want you using names of any of the students you may be tutoring in your Blogs, as it is a privacy issue.