Re: Help with paid tutor proposal

[DOSSINMM@splava.cc.plattsburgh.edu]

Date sent:  25-JAN-1996 10:22:54 
On the topic of using experienced tutors to mentor new ones--I build the 
apprenticeship experience right into my training course.  Students spend 
two class hours with me  and spend the third hour as an apprentice to an 
experienced tutor in Writing Walk-in.  They observe sessions (with the 
tutees' permission, of course), discuss the sessions with the tutor as time 
permits, and eventually begin to tutor on their own under the observation 
of the mentor.  Often there is a nice easing into the experience as they 
gradually move from being silent observers of sessions to being 
participants in them.

The mentors love this experience.  It makes them feel very good about their 
skills and knowledge.  It also earns them points toward the Master Level 
Certificate from the College Reading and Learning Association that are 
presented at our spring honors convocation.

Apprentices write about their apprenticeship observations and experiences 
in the weekly academic journals that are part of the course.  They feel 
much more confident when they actually begin working as tutors themselves. 
Once I started doing this, I couldn't figure out why I had never thought of 
it before.  I got the idea from Toni-Lee Capposela of Stonehill College at 
a New England Writing Centers Conference several years ago and continue to 
give her credit in my syllabus.
Mary Dossin