Tutor Training Training lessons for ASC tutors |
The Academic Support Center coordinates and facilitates campus-wide tutoring services. Tutorial services are available for all students free of charge. Call 233-4080, email your request to tutoring@berry.edu, or come by Krannert 326 if you need a tutor.
We will do our best to locate a tutor to fulfill a request; however, we cannot guarantee that a student tutor can be located and hired for a specific course. The earlier in the semester the request is received, the better the chance of finding a tutor. Requests at the end of the semester or a day or two before a test are virtually impossible to satisfy if a tutor has not already been hired for a course.
How the Tutorial Program Works
- Student in need of tutorial assistance contacts the professor who teaches the course and/or Ms. Van Cise in the Academic Support Center to request tutorial assistance.
- If a tutor has not been identified for the course, the professor will recommend students as tutors, who will then be hired to tutor for the course. Please note that sometimes it is extremely difficult to find tutors for some courses. We will do our best to find a tutor in a timely manner, but there are no guarantees.
- Tutors may be students who have had the particular course and done well, majors in the discipline, and/or students who may have a particular expertise in the field (i.e. native speakers of a language).
- Ms. Van Cise will notify the student seeking tutorial assistance by phone, email, or in person of the name and number of a tutor for the course. (If more than one tutor is available, several names and numbers will be given.)
- It is the requesting student’s responsibility then to contact a tutor and make arrangements with the tutor for a mutually agreeable place and time to meet for a session. Be persistent. Tutors have busy schedules too and may on occasion be hard to locate.
- Tutors are paid through the Student Work Program for the hours tutored, as well as preparation time for the session(s). Tutoring is usually a second, or sometimes third, job for some of these students. It is the tutor’s responsibility to report his/her hours to Ms. Van Cise weekly.
Suggestions for making your session with a tutor productive:
· Be persistent in phoning the tutor. Tutors also have classes to attend, papers to write, and campus jobs to perform in addition to their tutoring. You may need to call several tutors before you find one who has the time to work with you. Don’t wait until two days before an exam to start looking for a tutor.
Tutorial help is best when done frequently. Find a tutor who will work with you once a week at least. It is unrealistic to think that a tutor can cover seven weeks of work in one session. Develop a learning partnership with your tutor.
· Provide the tutor with a copy of any information you need explained—i.e. an assigned reading you don’t understand, problems you can’t solve—BEFORE you meet for your session. This will allow the tutor time to prepare and review the material so that your actual session can be more productive.
- Tutors are not miracle workers. You are responsible for your own learning—going to class, taking good notes, reading the assignments doing the homework, and writing the papers. Tutors can assist you in your learning with particular problems you may need clarifying.
· If you don’t think the tutor who worked with you was helpful or was not knowledgeable enough about the
subject: Call another tutor on the list; consider what you can do to make the next session more productive (Get materials to the tutor before the session so he/she can prepare.). Discuss with the tutor why you didn’t think the session was helpful. Call Ms. Van Cise and discuss your concerns with her.
What a tutor can not do for you:
- Do your work for you.
- Review you for a test the night before an exam.
- A better approach to reviewing for an exam is to form a study group composed of members of your class. Class study groups have the advantage over a tutor in that the group members have attended the class, taken notes, and read all the assignments. They are much more prepared to discuss possible test questions and answers, propose possible essay questions and answers, and study with you for several hours. Again, meeting weekly with a class study group is the best way to study for a course.
- Do your homework for you.
- Read your assignments for you.
- Write a paper for you.
- Visit the Writing Center in Evans 233B (Call EXT 5903 for an appointment).
- Guess what you need help with. You need to be able to explain to the tutor what you need help with. Realize that the tutor has not been sitting in your class, has not read the assignments, and may not have had the same professor you have for the course. In addition, you need to provide the tutor with the materials he/she will need to help you.
What a tutor can do for you:
- Help you with study skills for a particular discipline
- Give you some advice and pointers about reading the text more effectively
- Look at your notes and offer advice on improving your note taking in the course
- Offer suggestions for studying material for a discipline (memory triggers)
- Offer strategies for answering particular types of questions for this discipline
- Help you solve a problem (math, chemistry, physics, etc.) you have already worked on yourself but have been unable to solve on your own. It is important for you to have attempted to do the work yourself so that you can explain to the tutor the difficulty you have encountered. Always bring to the session your book, your notes, your syllabus, and your work.
- Help you understand a difficult concept. Answer questions you might have about some difficult material.
- Discuss with you a reading assignment you have found difficult to understand. Be certain to give the tutor a copy of the reading before your session.
- Language tutors can help you with conversation and grammar skills.
- Help you help yourself.