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 (sedwards@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 student 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 activities) 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 2023 and spring 2024 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 continue to 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.

 

Spring 2024 Seminar Topic and Date
February 6 Class 1	Tutoring and Learning Principles
February 13 Class 2	Multiple Modes of Learning, Mindsets and Mistakes
February 20 Class 3	Digital Connections
February 27 Class 4	Tutoring Reading
March 5 Class 5	Tutoring Writing
March 12 Class 6	Tutoring Math
March 26 Class 7	Universal Design for Learning
April 2 Class 8	Whose History/Whose Science
April 9 Class 9	English Language Learners
April 16 Class 10	Impacts of Poverty on Learning
April 23 Class 11	LGBTQIA+ Histories, Inclusive Language
April 30 Class 12	Diversity and Culturally Relevant Teaching
May 7 Class 13  Envisioning Multicultural Schools

 

ASSESSMENT AND GRADING 

Descriptions below outline our expectations for spring semester 2023.
 

 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.  

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 signed by teacher/supervisor.	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 signed by teacher/supervisor.	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 teacher/supervisor signatures each week.	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 weekly teacher signatures.
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, will change the original grade of the assignment.

Weekly assignment responses reflect and connect 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 connect 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 and connect 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	2

 

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EDUCATION 557 Site Coordinating/Student Leadership

 
Link to Course Syllabus here

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. 

 

• The Body Project: An Intimate History of American Girls. Joan Jacobs Brumberg. Vintage, 1998.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

Overflow

Weekly Tutoring Time Sheet

TEAMS Tutor Sign-In Template Fall 20.docx

 

 

For in person classes only:Attendance at the weekly seminar from 4 to 6:30 and participation in every class is required for successful completion of this course. You are expected at EVERY CLASS. An excused class means letting the instructors know that you will not attend and offering a doctor's note or documentation of why you were absent.

 

TEAMS Tutoring in Schools is a fully online asynchronous class for spring semester 2021.

 

We will NOT MEET WEEKLY as an entire class in a synchronous group on Tuesdays 4-6:30. 

EACH student makes time in their own schedules to complete the weekly workshops and assignments and to participate in one half hour weekly Zoom conversation with a small group every week.

 

TEAMS Tutors are placed in elementary, middle, and high schools as well as in alternative education settings throughout the Connecticut River Valley during the school day and in after-school programs. Tutors work in urban, suburban, and rural communities.

 

SELF-TUTORING LEARNING GOAL:

In addition to tutoring at a school site, you are expected to create a personal/professional learning goal and find someone to tutor/mentor/coach/teach you to achieve that goal during the semester.  In addition to tutoring students yourself, you will be tutored and to achieve a meaningful goal you want. 

WEEKLY WRITING ASSIGNMENT/ TUTORING CONNECTIONS 

 Reflection is an essential aspect of tutoring and of community service. You will be asked to write a weekly assignment in which you express ideas and feelings that are prompted by your tutoring experience, by the weekly course readings, viewings and doings, and by your knowledge of yourself as a learner.

CLASS ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION:

During the Covid 19 online and remote learning conditions, you will be expected to attend and participate in every weekly half hour ZOOM conversation. Conversing, asking questions, offering ideas and reflections are all parts of this small group learning community meeting. If you are absent because of illness or circumstances that you did not expect, please email Sharon or Bob as soon as possible to explain the absence and to converse with the site coordinator at the meeting. 

 

Weekly Tutoring Time Sheet 

TEAMS Tutor Sign-In Template.docx