SP 2011 – Embedding a Tutor
This semester, I had some time to focus on a new project: How does embedding a tutor, and differentiating instruction at the lowest level of the course sequence, impact student success?
Teaching the 026 level (entry level) of students has been challenging. Because it is the entry level, we get a great range of student skills. It is at this level that those students with lower literacy or academic preparation, or students from language backgrounds vastly different from English can really struggle. We have been really worried about those students who just can’t seem to stay with the rest of the group… and with the pressure of readiness for 027 and beyond, teachers can’t stop to make sure that all students keep up.
The college has tutors (especially for ESL) and other resources, but not all students can get to campus out of class time. So we discussed the possibility of embedding a tutor into this lower level class to see if differentiating instruction could really make a difference.
Here is what is happening so far. The tutor is a second-year bi-lingual student, very accomplished academically and interested in helping. I’ve started planning lessons with sections that have us all working together and then breaking out into sub-groups to either extend or review concepts. We have several students who are repeating the level so we can compare their progress to that of last semester. I also plan to use similar tests so that we can compare scores last semester and now with the embedded tutor in place. Below is the first differentiated plan and accompanying handouts
| ALL Book & CD CheckLesson: How to Use your Textbook/ CDs – http://eslyork.wordpress.com/026-2/lesson-2-how-to-use-your-textbooks-present-tense/ How to Learn Vocabulary + word lists Every Word has a Job to do! – http://eslyork.wordpress.com/026-2/lesson-2-part-two-present-tense/ |
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| PracticeIdentify subjects & verbsWord Order – re-order | Practice with TutorIdentify nouns (pronouns) and verbs handoutSentence strip activity (word order review) |
| ALLLesson – Present Tense – WHEN to use & HOW to use it | |
| PracticeCorrectly forming the present tense with nouns and pronounsWorksheet on Present Tense | Practice with TutorCorrectly forming the present tense with nouns and pronounsWorksheet on Present TenseGet them to NOTICE facts/information and routines… that’s why we are using present tense
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| ALLPronunciationVowel Supplements 12 – 14 – pages 187 – 194 as time permitsHomework overview | |
Handouts
TUtorEmbedGroupActivityIDNounsProVerbsWordOrder
EmbedGroupActivityIDNounsProVerbsWordOrder
Debrief of first differentiated session
Our tutor is a dream! He is helping in 2 ways – 1) during the break-out sessions with differentiated instruction – he worked with a group of 3 (mixed ability levels) on a sentence strip activity and categorizations to identify nouns, pronouns, verbs and eventually subjects of sentences. I worked with the other group on the same goals, just a more challenging delivery and activities. We switched groups half way through the activity. Our tutor was invaluable – He jumped right in and it worked out great – 2) during in-class activities, we can both get around the room and check student work.
Immediately I see one benefit – More one-on-one feedback more often during the lesson. We were able to catch a lot of misunderstandings (especially about process). This class size is perfect. There were 8 students there and they all got a lot of individual attention as needed. Another benefit – they are getting to know the tutor which might perhaps make them more apt to work with him at other times. When he told them about his tutoring hours before class, they were very interested!
We used the extra 2 tables in the back of the room during the breakout session.
I think the mixed ability groups might be the way to go in the beginning so that people don’t feel labeled as “slower”. I don’t want them to lose confidence about themselves! Also, the fact that he and I switched groups also helped them to think that the groups were separate but equal (maybe). We are monitoring this as we go along – VERY interesting process and I am grateful to our tutor – a super partner in the classroom!
Let’s see how they do on the quiz next week. Present Tense (we didn’t tackle “be” yet) and identifying subjects/verbs. Last semester it was clear that many didn’t understand conjugation, even after many repetitions – that was the thing I wanted to tackle in this lesson – to set the stage for later work with tenses.
FOLLOW UP – May 2011
We discovered lots of benefits – not just for struggling students –
1) a surprise happened for the high achievers – they were able to really get a strong foundation – because I had TIME to do many more extensions of each topic – almost double the practice/application opportunities – instead of having to move along whether that got it or not.
2) Importance of students understanding process as much as product – foe every exam, we did a practice exam that had the same question TYPES as on the actual exam (one of each type) – in the same order – We did a whole class review of how to do each question type – then they got the practice exam and the tutor and I could go around to see how they were doing… More times than not, we caught errors in their understanding what was expected in the question – not the actual grammar point.
So this was a real eye-opener! We also had time to coach them more often about how to take a test – like writing the grammar pattern at the top of the paper befoer they begin the test and to CHECK it for every answer – they caught so many silly mistakes – but I had to remind them every time!! So it is a discipline that I still hadn’t gotten them to fully incorporate into their own practice by the end of the class.
