Tutoring/Teaching/Coaching Journal and Report

1. Select a beginning or intermediate ESL student who will agree to be your tutee for 20 hours of instruction. To determine what content to cover, elicit ideas from the student/instructor. Also analyze taped conversation to identify frequent or pervasive errors.

2. Based on an analysis of a taped conversation and a reading passage (see readings), establish the pronunciation/oral needs of your tutee, and select several pronunciation/oral skills points that you will treat during your tutoring session. Sequence these points if possible.

3. For each tutoring/teaching session review previous pronunciation/oral skills points and plan a variety of oral exercises for the present session. These exercises can be original or taken or adapted from textbooks.

4. Keep a careful audio-recorded log of what happens during each tutoring/teaching session, e.g., your preparation, exercises, reactions, comments from the tutee, etc. These will be the data from which you will write your report. Audio logs will not be collected, but failing to keep one will probably make writing your report and journal more difficult.

5. Keep a written journal or log of your tutoring/teaching/coaching activities. This will make it easier to write your final report. Keep it current-do not attempt to reconstruct activities near the end of the semester. Write at least one entry for each meeting with your tutee(s). In it, address points such "bigger picture" issues such as what your tutee(s) or student(s) are gaining from the experience, what you are gaining from the experience, or any insights you are gaining into language teaching and/or acquisition. Also, include all lesson plans and copies of any written activities or materials you use. This journal will constitute a source of documentation for your work. It should also help you to get more out of the experience. Therefore, although I will not read all of your journal, I will glance through it to make sure it is all there. It will be worth 10% of the grade on your tutoring report-include a complete journal, and you get the 10%. Leave it out, and you lose 10%. Include a semi-complete one, and get partial credit for 10% of the report.

6. Your report should be a maximum length of eight (8) double-spaced pages, and should include the following parts:

1. An introduction (1/3 page)
2. A summary of your needs assessment (1/3 page)
3. A summary of how your contact hours were organized, i.e., what you did during a typical lesson (1 page)
4. A description of what speaking and/or listening points were covered over the course of the project (1 page)
5. Your interactions with the student(s), and student responses (in terms of improvement, affect, acculturation, etc.) to the lessons and to the overall experience (2 pages)
6. Suggestions for how you could improve your teaching/tutoring/coaching in the future (1/2 page)
7. A conclusion (1/3 page).