We wonder you are painting with too broad a brush in  labeling volunteer 
tutors as "well meaning but incompetent", "not productive",  etc.  Would you 
consider hard data on their  productivity?
 
Literacy Volunteers of America, LVA,  (now a part  of Pro-Literacy 
International) required that all volunteer tutors take 20 hours  of training before 
tutoring a student, and to take follow up in-service  training.  (LVA had well 
over 50,000 volunteer tutors.) Further,  tutors are required to periodically 
measure and report on student  progress.  The data on tens of thousands of 
students: On average, students  progressed two grade levels per year in their reading 
and writing  skills. In addition, students reported huge improvements in 
feelings of  self-worth and empowerment.  Would you want to call all that "not  
productive?"
 
Len and Ceci Doak
(former vol. tutors of reading and  ESL)
 
 
In a message dated 2/8/2008 9:30:42 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,  
robinschwarz1 at aol.com writes:

Jodi-- It is laudable, of  course, that you are attempting to find this out. 
I am sure you will learn  about some very progressive approaches to this 
thorny problem and be able to  make some recommendations to others with evidence to 
show that things CAN be  done differently.    

I believe that just because people are  volunteers does not mean that they 
should be permitted-- expected even- to be  incompetent at what they are 
volunteering for at the expense of the learners  who need the services so badly.   
Tutor attrition is just as bad as  learner attrition in some areas. One way, as 
I suggested in my previous post,  to address that issue is to help tutors be 
more competent so that they are  really able to address their student's needs 
well.  Their success will be  as important to their persistence as success is 
to learners'  persistence.  I believe that was one of the findings in the 
NCSALL  Persistence study, done with volunteer literacy programs.   

Robin  





-----Original Message-----
From: Jodi Crandall  <crandall at umbc.edu>
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development  Discussion List 
<professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>
Sent: Thu, 7 Feb  2008 7:16 pm
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1915] Re: Requesting  Resource Information

Robin,  


I agree that we need to have higher entry requirements for adult ESOL  
teachers and tutors.  If I didn't, I wouldn't have undertake that huge  project to 
try to find out what the states now require and what they are  planning.  I 
would love to see tutors participating in a structured  training program of 
sufficient duration to provide the foundation that you  mention.  I just don't know 
how much we can expect when they are  volunteers.


I would love to hear from various volunteer program administrators about  the 
kinds of pre-service and in-service training they provide and what kind of  
incentives (if necessary) to get volunteers to participate.


Jodi
 
 
On Feb 7, 2008, at 7:22 PM, _robinschwarz1 at aol.com_ 
(mailto:robinschwarz1 at aol.com)  wrote:


Jodi-- Embedded training is  pretty much what I do-- meet with tutor and 
student and try to help the  tutor develop adjusted strategies and techniques for 
working with that  learner and teach the teacher as we go along what works.   

What I am saying is that the foundations skills are so lacking  that the 
"embedded training" is just like putting water color paint on a  house in a rainy 
climate.   I know places like Illinois have made  some good efforts to create 
a more substantial training program for tutors  and require that they complete 
an online portion and a face to face session  or two before tutors can begin. 
 It is a start--but I have worked with  one literacy provider organization 
that admitted in so many words that it  was more important to keep the tutors 
happy than to serve the learners' real  needs-- so that organization would not 
change its highly ineffective method  of assigning tutors to students even 
while recognizing that learners' needs  were not being met.   

I am suggesting that perhaps this  paradigm can be shifted--rather 
dramatically, that learners' needs MUST  drive tutor training and assignments.   What is 
so bad about  setting things up so tutors must EARN the right to work with 
learners just  as teachers must?  I know of at least one program in the West 
that does  that.  Tutors must literally earn the qualification as a tutor through 
 participation in a rigorous training program before they can have the  
privilege of working with a learner.  And they have tutors not only  eager to 
start, but who are competent enough to love what they do and know  they are being 
effective.   Most training programs I am aware of  last from about 6-18 hours 
and are a hodge-podge of information on adult  learning, doing paperwork, 
culture information, ESL general principles (but  few techniques), etc.  Even 
things like learning how to set concrete,  achievable, real goals WITH the learner 
and then measure progress i n clear  terms are elements that I have never seen 
in training. In working with some  professional tutors from one of the large 
literacy organizations a few years  ago, I was told that they were well 
trained in setting up a lesson plan, but  had not the first word of training in how 
to measure whether the lesson was  effective or not.   

What you see when this happens and  learning is vague is the 
blame-the-learner syndrome. EVERY ONE of the tutors  here that I have worked with FIRST blamed 
the learner for not "getting" what  was being offered, and then, later in the 
conversation, began to wonder if  maybe they ( the tutor) could possible 
present the information differently  or wonder if it was even the RIGHT 
information.   One of  these--and his supervisor-- characterized his learner as an 
almost total  beginner in English and the tutor was doing ESOL 101.01--"Hi. My name 
 is___.  What is YOUR name?"  .   FIVE minutes with the  learner told me that 
he was really an intermediate learner-- he had LOTS of  not-so-comprehensible 
English and wanted to learn more vocabulary to be able  to carry on a normal 
conversation.  The tutor, having nothing to  compare it to, nor any rubric or 
anything for gauging it, judged the level  to be zero.  

I agree that SOME tutors COULD learn on the  ground, but unless they have 
more preparation for what they are going to do,  it would take a tremendous 
amount of mentoring and monitoring, which no  literacy program could manage, that I 
know of.  One of the tutors I  have mentored here is a 25-yr. teaching 
veteran. She confessed that NOTHING  in her experience as a teacher prepared her for 
the demands of tutoring a  highly literate adult ESOL learner.  

Robin   





-----Original Message-----
From: Jodi Crandall <_crandall at umbc.edu_ (mailto:crandall at umbc.edu) >
To: The Adult  Literacy Professional Development Discussion List 
<_professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov_ (mailto:professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov) >
Sent:  Thu, 7 Feb 2008 2:59 pm
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1912] Re:  Requesting Resource Information

I think Robin has  shared what are very important concerns.  


I also know how hard it is to expect volunteer tutors to  have  substantial 
training in teaching ESL/ESOL.  I'd really like to know how  various programs 
structure professional development for  volunteers/tutors?  In a recent brief I 
 co-authored, with Genesis  Ingersoll and Jacqueline Lopez at CAL,  "Adult 
ESL Teacher  Credentialing and Certification" we tried to identify what the 
states are  requiring in terms of initial hiring and professional development.   
Because it was a "Brief," we could not go into much detail on various ways  in 
which individual programs are training or what their initial hiring  
expectations are.  You can access the Brief at:
_www.cal.org/caela_ (http://www.cal.org/caela) 


Be sure to click on the large table which provides information on each  of 
the states and the District of Columbia.


Since we know that most adult ESL/ESOL practitioners gain much of their  
knowledge and skill on the job (see Marilyn Gillespie and Cristine Smith on  this 
at NCSALL), we really need to figure out the best ways in which we can  
support tutors and help them to gain skills while they are tutoring.


Is there a way to "embed" training in the volunteers' tutoring  experiences.  
I'm thinking of something similar to ways in which ESL  and work-related 
training is provided to workers on the job.  "Embedded  training"  -- the same as 
ESL and skills instruction embedded in work  -- is something that has great 
potential, I think.  Has anyone tried  this?  How?


Jodi Crandall








On Feb 7, 2008, at 1:15 PM, _robinschwarz1 at aol.com_ 
(mailto:robinschwarz1 at aol.com)   wrote:


I hate to be a wet blanket  here, but this just caught my eye.  Why don't you 
recommend that this  person advertise at a local college for someone to tutor 
him.  He  needs someone who will work with him on his assignments who is able 
to  meet him at the level of English he already has.   I say this  having 
just worked with one on one with the FOURTH tutor from the local  library 
Literacy Services assigned to an ESOL learner with fairly strong  English skills.  I 
have also worked with numerous literacy service  providers in several states 
and regularly provide PD sessions for literacy  tutors in the state where I 
live.   

These tutors mean so well  but know so very little about working with ESOL 
learners that frankly, it  is not a productive match.   Since the tutors do not 
know ESOL  issues well, they tend to grab at some generic book in hopes that 
will  appease the learner-- when usually the learner has very specific needs 
and  goals, as does this learner, which do not get met or addressed at  all.   

I am so disheartened by the gap between what ESOL  learners need and what 
their literacy tutors are providing that I have  decided to speak more frankly 
about it.  I have adjusted my sessions  with tutors to help them start with the 
very basics: let's find out just  what English your learner actually knows and 
then what he or she really  came to you to learn.  



Robin Lovrien Schwarz  

-----Original Message-----
From: Sandy Phillips <_SPhillips at ci.oceanside.ca.us_ 
(mailto:SPhillips at ci.oceanside.ca.us) >
To:  _lbedford at rushmore.com_ (mailto:lbedford at rushmore.com) ; The Adult  
Literacy Professional Development Discussion List 
<_professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov_ (mailto:professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov) >
Sent:  Thu, 7 Feb 2008 10:37 am
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1910] Re:  Requesting Resource Information


Laurie,
 
Have him call the Literacy Coordinator at the  Stockton Public Library 
Peaches Ehrich at (209) 937-8261.  I am sure  she can help him locate the help he 
needs.
 
 
Sandy Phillips 
Literacy Coordinator 
Volunteer  Coordinator 
(760) 435-5683  
(760) 435-5681 FAX# 
_sphillips at ci.oceanside.ca.us_ (mailto:sphillips at ci.oceanside.ca.us)   


 
____________________________________
 From: _professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov_ 
(mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov)   [_mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov_ 
(mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov?) ]  On Behalf Of Laurie Bedford
Sent: Thursday, February 07,  2008 7:38 AM
To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development  Discussion List
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1909]  Requesting Resource Information



All,
I am an adjunct faculty member at an online unversity teaching  graduate 
courses.   I have a student who is struggling with his  writing.   He is an 
english languague learner and Spanish is his  first language.   He lives in 
Stockton, CA.   Does  anyone know of any resources in that area that he might draw 
upon?   Thanks.
Laurie


Laurie Bedford, Ph.D. 
Adjunct Faculty/Instructional  Development Consultant
_lbedford at rushmore.com_ (mailto:lbedford at rushmore.com)   
605-720-7881 





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JoAnn (Jodi) Crandall
Professor and Director
Language, Literacy and Culture Ph.D. Program
Director, Peace Corps Master's Intl Program in ESOL/Bilingual  Education
University of Maryland Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250
tel:  410-455-2313
fax: 410-455-8947
eml: _crandall at umbc.edu_ (mailto:crandall at umbc.edu) 








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JoAnn (Jodi) Crandall
Professor and Director
Language, Literacy and Culture Ph.D. Program
Director, Peace Corps Master's Intl Program in ESOL/Bilingual  Education
University of Maryland Baltimore County
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, MD 21250
tel:  410-455-2313
fax: 410-455-8947
eml: _crandall at umbc.edu_ (mailto:crandall at umbc.edu) 








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