Senior Tutor Jounal Response Guidelines

• General
• Entry 1
• Entry 2
• Entry 3 - coming soon
• Entry 4 - coming soon

General Journal Response Guidelines ​

Here is some general advice for responding to your new tutors' e-mailed journals.

• Please respond via e-mail to the tutor, and copy your response to Diana (or your supervisor if Diana is on leave).
• Please respond to tutors no later than the Thursday following the Friday the journal is due.
• In your responses,
  • Bracket < > specific parts of the journal , then respond in ALL CAPS or, better yet, in bold or another color in the middle of the text. (This substitutes for the writing that would be in the margin or a printed page.)
  • Then write a general paragraph at the end of the journal Sign your name.
  • Spend about ten minutes on each entry (unless you feel particularly inspired!)
  Don't correct grammar, spelling, or punctuation. Just be sure you understand the ideas the tutor is trying to express.
  • Give suggestions from your own experience and the tutor training materials. ("Did you try to set the agenda?" "When I had a student like that, I made him promise that he would come prepared next time" "Try some of the tricks in the Team Building Techniques handout" "Try to be patient and relax")
  • Encourage them to apply techniques from the class handouts.
  • Be positive and empathetic, always, and especially when a tutor expresses insecurity ("You're off to a good start!" "Wow! sounds tough." "Sounds like you did a great job!" "Good going!" "That part is always hard.")

Good luck, and please let us know if you have any problems or read anything in a journal that you think deserves a personal response from Diana or a supervisor.

 

Response Guidelines for Journal Entry #1​

Journal Entry #1 (E-mail to Sr. Tutor and Diana/Supervisor by Class Session #1)

Write about your first tutoring session(s). You may choose to focus on one student or several. Some questions to consider:

• What were your first impressions of your student(s)?
• How did you establish trust with your student(s)?
• What did you learn about your student(s) strengths and weakness?
• What are your expectations for future sessions?

When responding to this journal entry, follow all the General Journal Response Guidelines. Try to be especially positive and encouraging, but also challenge tutors to be more specific. Since they wrote this journal before the class started, they were not expected to refer to any specific class material. That will come in subsequent journal assignments.

Many tutors are late with this journal entry, often because they have not been assigned any tutors yet. These tutors will cathc up during the next few weeks.

Response Guidelines for Journal Entry #2​

Journal Entry #2 (E-mail by class session #2)

Describe the "cycle" of one of your tutoring sessions (Use a specific session with a specific student.)

• How did you begin and set the agenda for the session?
• What techniques did you use during the middle of the session?
• How did you end the session and evaluate progress?
• What was successful about the session and what was not?

Please refer to the Tutoring Cycle Self-Assessment sheet handout, and the suggestions below when responding this week.

Videotaping begins next week. Please remind tutors to sign up, and to schedule an appointment with you to watch the selected segment. The Videotape Self Assessment sheet is due (should be e-mailed) by class session #5. Also, the Instructor Visit sheet is due (should be e-mailed) by class session #3.

• Follow the same General Journal Response Guidelines as last week: Be positive and encouraging and relate your own experience.
• Refer to the Tutoring Cycle handout to remember the specifid steps tutors are asked to follow. Pay particular attention to whether the tutor tries to set an agenda and leaves time for wrap-up at the end.
• If the tutor has not addressed he questions gently prompt him or her to reflect on the tutoring cycle: did s/he try to follow the steps discussed in class? Try to set an agenda? Evaluate the session with the tutee at the end of the session?
• Be reassuring for those tutors who still seem insecure.
• If a tutor is being simplistic or does not provide details ("Everything went great" or "I always start the same way" or " I didn't need to set an agenda because the student just wanted to work on homework"), challenge him or her to think more deeply about the questions by asking for examples of what worked and what didn't
• If journals are skimpy, ask lots of questions and encourage to write more next time. Express your curiosity.
• Encourage all tutors to talk to instructors.
• Encourage group tutors to play games such as jeopardy or quiz shows and try new techniques.

Response Guidelines for Journal Entry #3​

Coming soon.

Response Guidelines for Journal Entry #4 ​

Coming soon.