WIKI HOME PAGE: Education 457 Tutoring in Schools

 

EDUC 457 Undergraduate Students (4 credits) 

 

EDUC 557 Student Coordinators and Graduate Students (3 credits) Link to EDUC 557 Syllabus 

 

Education 457 (TEAMS Tutoring in Schools) is a service learning and community engagement course whose goal is to promote improved learning for students in K-12 schools, alternative education programs, and self-learning settings. TEAMS is designed to provide future teachers with opportunities to become involved with and understand how culturally and linguistically diverse students can learn and succeed in school.

 

Robert Maloy and Sharon Edwards are the Faculty Directors of TEAMS.

 

Robert W. Maloy (rwm@umass.edu)

 

Sharon A. Edwards (sae@umass.edu)

 

The TEAMS office is Room W229, Furcolo Building, College of Education.

 

TEAMS Tutoring in Schools has three course objectives:

 

• Providing academic tutoring and mentoring to elementary, middle, high school and college-age students, friends and family members so they can realize their fullest potentials as learners.

 

• Thinking critically and reflectively about one's own educational experiences while exploring issues of class, race, gender, language, identity, and curriculum and how these impact students' learning in schools.

 

• Envisioning and supporting educational equity and success for culturally and linguistically diverse students, students of low income, students living in poverty, homeless students, and students who have spent part of their lives in foster care situations.

 

Tutors will establish their own tutoring settings and schedules with family, friends, roommates, community organizations or other options.

 

Work Study Students: TEAMS partners with the Five College America Reads/Counts program which utilizes work study funds to connect tutors with elementary and middle schools.

In order to provide meaningful service to the community and to make classroom discussions authentic for college students, each TEAMS tutor engages in three different sets of activities:

 

1) In-Class Attendance and Participation: 

 

Tutors meet every Tuesday afternoon 4 to 6:30 pm in a 2.5 hour workshop to discuss key issues in education, participate in learning experiences that explore topics including identity formation, gender in the classroom, race and racism in schooling, testing and tracking, multicultural schools, effective tutoring strategies and scenarios, and utilizing technology in interesting ways for learning. 

 

2) Online Readings, Viewings, and Doing in Weekly Assignments and Tutoring Connections:

 

 Discussions about topics of class, race, gender, language, abilities, identity, teaching, and learning are integral parts of TEAMS experiences. Tutors access online readings, doings and viewings posted on the course wiki and respond in writing weekly to questions about the learning.

 

 The course has no textbook. It has a tech-book, a free online public wiki with a page of resources for each week's class workshops, assignments, and tutoring reflections. The wiki can be found at http://teamstutoringinschools.pbworks.com/w/page/125897387/FrontPage

 

Tutors complete weekly assignments in a google learning log prior to each class meeting at 4:00 pm Tuesday.

 

3) Tutoring Others and Self Tutoring: 

 

Tutoring totals 40 hours throughout the semester (approximately 3.5 hours/week) in two different formats:

 

• Tutoring someone else (tutoring other learners)
• Work/Study hours completed as part of America Reads/America Counts can be counted as TEAMS tutoring hours.

 

• Community service in Big Brother, Big Sister can be counted toward tutoring hours.

 

• Working in settings w/students - after school programs, daycare programs, tutoring programs in person or online. If you are not receiving credit in another class for this work, these hours could count for the TEAMS tutoring hours.

 

• Students in TEAMS tutor one, two, or three times weekly. A consistent tutoring schedule is essential to building relationships with children or adolescents or whoever you are tutoring and enables you to become a mentor of learning. 

 

• Self-tutoring (self-chosen learning) listening, viewing, doing and face to face experiences being tutored, coached or mentored as you take a course, learn a new skill or engage in doing a new activity during the semester. 

 

During fall 2024 and spring 2025 semesters with COVID still infecting people, online and remote learning conditions may be tutoring options as well as face to face. Tutors set their own tutoring schedules, complete their weekly tutoring sessions, and submit reflections about tutoring someone else and self-tutoring as parts of the weekly assignments.

 

 

SITE COORDINATORS 

The combination of in-class learning, personal reflections about online readings and viewings, tutoring children/adolescents/adults, and self tutoring makes TEAMS a unique experience.

Some students continue to tutor beyond the semester, and/or return to TEAMS as project leaders--site coordinators--in other semesters.

 

We invite former students to become site coordinators assisting the teaching of weekly TEAMS classes.

 

 

COURSE SCHEDULE: Tuesday classes meet 4 to 6:30 pm in Integrated Learning Center N111.

Access weekly assignments at the wiki homepage.

 

Fall 2024 Seminar Topic and Date
September 3 Class 1	Tutoring and Learning Principles
September 10 Class 2	Multiple Modes of Learning, Mindsets, and Mistakes
September 17 Class 3	Digital Connections to Montessori Principles for Learning
September 24 Class 4	Tutoring Reading
October 1 Class 5	Tutoring Writing
October 8 Class 6	Tutoring Math
October 22 Class 7	Universal Design for Learning
October 29 Class 8	Whose History/Whose Science
November 12 Class 9	English Language Learners
November 19 Class 10	Impacts of Poverty on Learning
November 26 Class 11	LGBTQIA+ Histories, Inclusive Language
December 3 Class 12	Diversity and Culturally Relevant Teaching
December 10 Class 13  Envisioning Multicultural Schools

 

ASSESSMENT AND GRADING 

Descriptions outline our expectations for fall semester 2024:
 

 TEAMS is a community service-learning course, therefore much of the learning comes from experiences outside as well as within the University classroom.

 

In TEAMS, students:

• Tutor others 20 hours throughout the semester on a consistent weekly schedule. 

 

• Choose a Personal/Professional Self-Tutoring Goal and spend 20 hours during the semester. At the end of the semester, write about what you did, what you learned and HOW you learned (online tutoring, in-person tutoring, combination of the two, reading and practicing). Asses how this tutoring has affected your ideas and beliefs about how you will teach others.

 

• Attend in-class meetings from beginning to the end
• In-class meetings, activities, and conversations connect ideas from each class with tutoring experiences and plans for next tutoring sessions. Participate by asking questions, stating ideas and opinions, and readily joining discussions without the distraction of checking a smartphone or texting during the meeting.

 

• Submit a weekly assignment to the Google form every Tuesday by 4 pm.
• Submitting weekly assignments to the Google Learning Log initiates the process of receiving assignment grades and comments and revising assignments.

  

Site coordinators and course instructors assess student performance in the course using assessment criteria measured by the TEAMS Tutor Performance Rubrics.

Robert W. Maloy and Sharon A. Edwards are responsible for students' final grades.

COLLEGE OF EDUCATION CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK: Education 497I/597R incorporate the five elements of the School of Education’s Conceptual Framework:

• Collaboration -- Educators recognize the imperative of collaboration - that we cannot achieve our vision for student learning as independent actors working in isolation. Educators exhibit attitudes, dispositions, and behaviors consistent with a collaborative approach to professional practice, as opposed to an individualistic or competitive approach to professional practice. 

 

• Reflective Practice -- Educators recognize the imperative of reflective practice – that to transform the status quo we must be willing to consistently examine and transform assumptions about professional practice. Educators exhibit attitudes, dispositions, and behaviors consistent with a reflective approach to professional practice that allows them to adapt practices based on considered reflection.

 

• Multiple Ways of Knowing -- Educators recognize the imperative of multiple ways of knowing – that to create communities of practice, we must respect the perspectives of different stakeholders. In a spirit of inquiry, educators reflect on and challenge their own perspectives and beliefs and maintain a professional awareness of the influences that their perspectives may have in educational settings.

 

• Social Justice -- Educators recognize the imperative of social justice – that we cannot achieve our vision of excellence and equity in education for all students without knowledge of and attention to the student’s social, cultural, developmental, and personal context. Educators exhibit attitudes, dispositions, and behaviors consistent with promoting social justice that allow them to adopt practices that create and advance equitable conditions in which all students can learn.

 

• Evidence-Based Practice -- Educators recognize the imperative of evidence-based practices that promote student engagement, achievement and performance. In so doing the candidate will be able to: 1) gather and/or examine multiple sources of evidence, 2) determine the credibility, reliability and validity of the evidence, 3) synthesize and draw conclusions from evidence, and 4) use the evidence to modify professional practices that result in increased PK12 student learning outcomes.

DISABILITY ACCOMMODATIONS. The University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to providing an equal educational opportunity for all students. If you have a documented physical, psychological, or learning disability on file with Disability Services (DS), Learning Disabilities Support Services (LDSS), or Psychological Disabilities Services (PDS), you may be eligible for reasonable academic accommodations to help you succeed in this course. If you have a documented disability that requires an accommodation, please notify Robert and Sharon within the first two weeks of the semester so that we may make appropriate arrangements.

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY STATEMENT. Academic dishonesty is prohibited in all programs of the University. Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to: cheating, fabrication, plagiarism, and facilitating dishonesty. Appropriate sanctions may be imposed on any student who has committed an act of academic dishonesty. Since students are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly accepted standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not normally sufficient evidence of lack of intent. For more information log on to: http://www.umass.edu/dean_students/code_conduct/acad_honest.htm

 

Title IX Statement

In accordance with Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 that prohibits gender-based discrimination in educational settings that receive federal funds, the University of Massachusetts Amherst is committed to providing a safe learning environment for all students, free from all forms of discrimination, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, domestic violence, dating violence, stalking, and retaliation. This includes interactions in person or online through digital platforms and social media. Title IX also protects against discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, or related conditions, including recovery. There are resources here on campus to support you. A summary of the available Title IX resources (confidential and non-confidential) can be found at the following link: https://www.umass.edu/titleix/resources. You do not need to make a formal report to access them. If you need immediate support, you are not alone. Free and confidential support is available 24 hours a day / 7 days a week / 365 days a year at the SASA Hotline 413-545-0800.  

 

Academic Alerts

The UMass Amherst Academic Alert system will be used when a student: 

• Misses 2 or more classes.

• Misses 2 or more weeks of workbook activities. 

• Has 3 or more late assignments. 

The Academic Alert system is meant to support students who are experiencing academic difficulties. Each week, Academic Deans and Advisors receive a list of students who have received an academic alert to identify students who are struggling. If an academic alert is sent to you, you will be included in that list. Learn more about the program at the UMass Amherst Student Success website.

Grading in TEAMS is based on individual performance—not a rank-ordered curve. As part of the grading process, Tutor Performance Rubrics are used to evaluate individual work on course assignments and participation and tutoring responsibilities.

• Rubrics are alternative assessment tools that establish known-in-advance criteria to assess student performance, describe the differing degrees of accomplishment needed to meet those criteria, and allow students and teachers to discuss areas where complete reflection has been done or possible improvement is needed.
• Rubrics give tutors a framework for how progress in tutoring and participation in seminars will be evaluated in the course grading process.

 

 

TUTOR PERFORMANCE RUBRICS

Class Attendance and Participation

• Tardy minutes or leaving class early without prior explanation w/instructors add up and are reflected in the final grade.
• Unless excused by a course instructor, a missed class lowers a grade. If a student wishes to make up the class, and the instructor is willing to do so, plans are made for that in a conversation.

Attends every class beginning to end; Participates in all class activities with focus and evidence of a disposition for learning shown by curiosity and open mindedness; Participates in all group discussions and experiences asking questions, stating comments and ideas, taking initiative to do so; Engages in class without consulting a smartphone for texting or checking emails during class; Submits all completed weekly assignments on time.	Attends classes beginning to end with one or two excused absence; Participates in all class activities with focus and evidence of a disposition for learning shown by curiosity and open mindedness; Participates in all group discussions and experiences asking questions, stating comments and ideas and taking initiative to do so;  Engages in class without consulting a smartphone for texting or checking emails during class Submits all completed weekly assignments, either on time or by arrangement w/instructor for extended time;	Attends 10 or fewer classes or attends classes not from beginning to end; Participates in self-selected but not all class activities with minimal focus or no disposition for learning shown by curiosity and open mindedness; Participates minimally in group discussions and experiences, asking questions, stating comments and ideas when called upon to do so; Engages in class while consulting a smartphone for texting or checking emails during class  Submits completed or incomplete weekly assignments not on time; does not revise question responses within a week;	Attends 8 or fewer classes or attends classes not from beginning to end;  Participates in class activities without focus or without evidence of a disposition for learning shown by curiosity and open mindedness; Participates in group discussions only when called upon; Engages in class while consulting a smartphone for texting or checking emails during class  Submits incomplete weekly assignments; does not revise question responses w/in a week; Does not make up missed classes in plans made with the course instructors.
5	4	3	1

 

Tutoring goals and expectations in weekly face to face or remote conversations are explained earlier in the syllabus. 

NO CORI background check is required for tutors fall semester unless a student will be in a school or after school setting.

Tutoring in Schools

• Once a weekly schedule is established, tutors arrive at a weekly tutoring appointments on time and tutor for the entire time.
• When an absence occurs, planned or unavoidable before tutoring hours begin, tutors call the school office to send the message to the teacher/after school director to explain the absence.

CORI process completed within two weeks of first class attended; tutoring begun immediately; tutors 35-40 hours on a regular consistent tutoring schedule; notifies teachers ahead of time re: absences or changes to schedule; Attends to the students by talking, utilizing multiple intelligence strategies for learning, supporting success by pointing out effort and mistakes as teaching tools to create a growth mindset; Tutoring hours recorded weekly in logs with descriptions of what was tutored and resources used.	CORI process not completed within two weeks of first class attended; does not begin tutoring right away; tutors 35-40 hours on a regular consistent tutoring schedule; notifies teachers ahead of time re: absences or changes to schedule; Attends to the students by talking, utilizing multiple intelligence strategies for learning, supporting success by pointing out effort and mistakes as teaching tools to create a growth mindset; Tutoring hours recorded weekly in logs  with descriptions of what was tutored and resources used.	CORI process completed as assigned or not; tutoring begun right away or not; 35-40 tutoring hours not done on a regular and consistent tutoring schedule; teachers not notified ahead of time re: absences or changes to schedule; Inconsistently attends to the students by talking, utilizing multiple intelligence strategies for learning, supporting success by pointing out effort and mistakes as teaching tools to create a growth mindset to the students; Tutoring hours recorded weekly logs without descriptions of what was tutored and resources used or with scant descriptions of the tutoring.	CORI process not completed within two weeks of first class attended; tutoring not begun immediately; 35-40 tutoring hours not done on a regular and consistent tutoring schedule; teachers not notified about absences or changes to schedule; Inconsistently attends to students through talking, utilizing multiple intelligence strategies for learning, supporting success by pointing out effort and mistakes as teaching tools to create a growth mindset; Tutoring hours unrecorded or sporadically recorded on weekly logs without descriptions of what was tutored and resources used or with scant descriptions of the tutoring.
5	4	3	1

Weekly assignment and reflections for tutoring are the same for fall semester as described in this rubric. 

 
Weekly Assignments/ Reflection Papers

• Students earning below 5 on assignments and/or requests for revisions are not completed, are not achieving a level of learning consistent with the expectations of TEAMS participants to achieve an A or A- as a final grade.
• Revisions are requested and if submitted within a week with further reflection and learning demonstrated, the original grade of the assignment will change.

Weekly assignment responses reflect connecting workshop topics with tutoring experiences. All questions are fully answered; all parts of the assignment are complete. Assignments submitted on time weekly. Revision requests done within a week and submitted before or w/the next assignment due.	Weekly assignment responses reflect and connecting some of the workshop topics with tutoring experiences.  All questions are not fully answered; all parts of the assignment are not complete. Assignments submitted later than expected weekly. Revision requests not done within a week and and not submitted before or w/the next assignment due.	Weekly assignment responses reflect and connect a few but not all workshop topics with tutoring experiences.  All questions are not answered; all parts of the assignment are not complete. Assignments are not submitted on time weekly. Revision requests are not completed and submitted within one week of due date or by alternately planned dates.	Weekly assignment responses do not reflect connecting workshop topics with tutoring experiences.  All questions are not answered; all parts of the assignment are not complete. Assignments are not submitted on time weekly. Revision requests are not completed and submitted within one week of due date or by alternately planned dates.
5	4	3	1

 

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GenAI Use in Education 457

 

Unless otherwise noted during class activities, you may only use ChatGPT or any other GenAI technologies to aid or nuance your thinking, communication, and learning; but not to replace it. 

 

GenAI can serve as an information gathering aide, an idea generating catalyst, a learning coach and explainer of terms and concepts, and an digital accessibility provider of transcripts of recorded audio, closed captions for videos, and alt text to describe images for blind/visually impaired individuals as well as interpretations of complex visual data.

 

GenAI cannot be used in the following ways:

 

Example of a Non-Allowable Use	Why is this NOT Allowed?
Prompting a GenAI technology to respond to a discussion forum prompt for you.	Discussion prompts are meant to incorporate your voice and your thoughts. Participating in discussions is about building community and relationships as well as actively engaging in your own thinking and learning to communicate with others. Using GenAI technologies for this activity subverts both the social and learning goals of the activity.
Using a GenAI technology (e.g., Slidesgo) to design a class presentation for you.	Designing a presentation requires you to actively engage in thinking and learning about the material and consider how best to communicate that information to an audience. Prompting GenAI technologies to do this work for you subverts your learning and the opportunity to develop your creative communication skills.
Modifying AI-generated work slightly to make it appear as if you created it.	Making minor adjustments to AI-generated work only supports surface-level learning, rather than deep learning (learn more), because the focus is on minor adjustments rather than truly understanding the material.
Prompting a GenAI technology to automatically summarize a complex academic article instead of reading and summarizing it yourself.	Used in this way, you are basically asking a GenAI technology to “read for you.” This offloads your thinking, learning, and the productive struggle of understanding and critically examining the author’s ideas (read: No One is Talking About AI's Impact on Reading).  You are also relying on the GenAI technology to do the work of analyzing and making sense of a text; even though these tools are predictability machines that do not have any real understanding of the text (read “The Fundamental Limitations of LLMs”). Also, consider that uploading a copyrighted academic article to a GenAI technology might be considered copyright infringement since you are giving away copyrighted data to a GenAI technology without permission from the author.

 

Further Examples of a Non-Allowable Use

 

Prompting GenAI technologies to analyze data for you and submitting the data analysis as your own.	Research has shown that using GenAI technologies to provide solutions for you (or in this case, provide data analysis output for you) prevents you from actively engaging with, and learning, the material (read: Generative AI Can Harm Learning). Using GenAI technologies in this way subverts your learning.  Additionally, GenAI tools are not calculators or math machines, they are predictability machines (they guess which words go together to make the most plausible human-sounding response).
Copying AI-generated text word for word into your written work, but citing it as written by AI.	Please read “The Case For Not Citing Chatbots As Information Sources” and “Generative AI Has an Intellectual Property Problem“ and, instead, find an original source to cite. When you put in the effort to find an original source to cite, you are deepening your thinking and learning about that topic and you are giving credit to human authors/artists.  However, if you prompt a GenAI technology to create an original source of text or media – something that cannot be traced back to an original source (e.g., a Taylor Swift rendition of the Declaration of Independence) – you can write “This text was generated by ChatGPT [or insert another GenAI technology] in a footnote.”
Using a GenAI technology to create media (e.g., images, audio, video) for a class project if a similar media exists already (e.g., Creative Commons images, Public Domain audio).	Considering that GenAI technologies that produce images, audio, video, and other forms of media are built on media stolen from artists without their permission AND that generating media with AI is an energy intensive process, which negatively impacts the environment, you are strongly encouraged to look for media that already exists (e.g., Pixabay images/video; YouTube audio library songs and sound effects; OpenVerse for a variety of media) as Creative Commons or in the Public Domain to include in your class projects.

  We greatly acknowledge the work of Dr. Torrey Trust in developing an open source AI Syllabus Policy document that was used to create these guidelines for our course.

 

 

Optional Reading List for Tutors and Student Leaders

 

• Dr. Montessori's Own Handbook: A Short Guide to Her Ideas and Materials. Maria Montessori. Schocken Books, 1968. 

 

• The Book of Learning and Forgetting. Frank Smith. Teachers College Press, 1998.

 

• Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. Carol Dweck. Ballantine Books, 2007.

 

• Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution That's Transforming Education. Sir Ken Robinson. Penguin, 2016

 

• The Freedom Writers Diary: How a Teacher and 150 Teens Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. Zlata Filipovic. Broadway, 1999.

 

• Stupidity and Tears: Teaching and Learning in Troubled Times. Herbert Kohl. The New Press, 2005.

 

• Whatever It Takes: Geoffrey Canada’s Quest to Change Harlem and America. Paul Tough. Mariner Books, 2009.

 

• What Video Games Have To Teach Us about Learning and Literacy. James Paul Gee. Palgrave, 2003.

 

• Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights. Robert P. Moses & Charles E. Cobb, Jr. Beacon Press, 2001.

 

• “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” and Other Conversations about Race. Beverly Daniel Tatum. Basic Books, 1997.

 

• Why Don’t Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions about How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom. Daniel T. Willingham, Jossey-Bass, 2010.  

 

• How to Talk So Kids Will Learn In School and At Home. Adele Faber & Elaine Mazlish, Harper, 1995.

 

•  How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen and Listen So Little Kids Will Talk. Joanna Faber & Julie King, Scribner, 2017. 

 

• Schools Without Failure. William Glasser, M.D., Harper & Row, 1969. 

 

• Between Parent and Child. Dr. Haim Ginott (revised edition), Three Rivers Press, 2003 or Teacher and Child: A Book for Parents and Teachers, Scribner, 1975.

 

• Race in the Schoolyard: Negotiating the Color Line in Classrooms and Communities. Amanda E. Lewis, Rutgers University Press, 2003.