Welcome to Super Tutor Saturday!
July 21, 2012
Sobrato Center for NonProfits
Milpitas, CA
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Agenda
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10:00AM to 1:00PM
Welcome and Introductions
To Boldly Go Into the Grammatical Realm
Tutor Talk: Share Your Qs, Ideas, Concerns
Motivating Our Learners
Meet Our Social Media Interns
Lunch, Prizes, and More
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Introductions
• Please tell us your name
• Broadly, what are you working on with your
learner(s) in your tutoring sessions?
• What do you hope to get out of today?
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To Boldly Go
(Into the Grammatical Realm)
• Grammar is magic – it turns a jumble of words
into sentences that communicate meaning.
• Grammar is a road map for navigating
language.
• It is okay to learn (or relearn) along with our
learners – you don’t need to be an expert!
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Prepare for the Journey
• What are your learners’ purposes in focusing on
grammar? (test prep, better writing at work, etc.)
• Observe learners’ speech and writings to determine
what they already know.
• Review some grammar resources and pick one or two
approaches that play to your learners’ learning styles.
• Plan to assimilate grammar instruction within the
context of other lesson content – readings, dialogues,
etc.
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Pick a Teaching Path
1. Traditional deductive path
• Tutor presents the rule or concept to be taught
• Learners practice it in drills, worksheets, exercises, etc.
• Learners produce evidence of learning it by independent use
in other, less structured contexts
2. Inductive path (discovery method)
• Tutor gives examples of language using the concept
• Learners study them and discover the concept or rule
operating in the language
• Tutor and learners affirm the concept and create more
examples
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Tips for Navigating the Deductive Path
• Use all 4 language skills – HSRW
• From topical content in your lesson (health
communication, safety, job interviews, etc.):
– Identify a point of grammar to be taught
– Give examples of its use in the topic material
– Have learners practice communicative drills using the
grammar concept
– Invite them to use what they’ve learned in real life and
report back next time
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Communicative Drill – Try It!
Assume your class has read about the Ask 3 questions patients should
use with their doctor. Start this drill, allowing learners to make up
their own content using the present tense and the Ask 3 questions:
Teacher to A: Doctor, what is my main problem?
A to Tchr: You are anemic.
A to B: Doctor, what do I need to do?
B to A: You need to take iron supplements.
B to C: Doctor, why is it important for me to do
this?
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Navigating the Inductive Path
• It is less familiar to both tutor and learners, so
can be scary, fun, engaging, or frustrating.
• Try it and see how it works for your learners.
• Often concepts learned this way are better
retained than those learned in a more traditional
approach.
• Demonstrate going through this process yourself
– think aloud while doing one on the board
before asking learners to do it.
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Using the Inductive Approach
Let’s try a discovery activity to come up with a rule
for when you use who, that, or which.
Look at the sentences on the next slide and notice
how who and that are used.
Do you see a pattern?
Can you make up a rule for when to use each
word?
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Inductive Approach – cont.
• Leticia is the one who shared her story.
• Maria works at the school that just got a
distinguished school award.
• Israel is the man who just moved into the house
on the corner.
• The geologists were excited to find a rock that
didn’t appear to be like the others.
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Let’s Get Going!
• TPR is a great way to teach verbs (imperative
tense), prepositions, adverbs, etc.
• Try idea maps for practicing prefixes/suffixes,
verb endings, and more
• Magnetic poetry kits or flash cards for creating
sentences
• Sentence strips
• Grammar detectives – find errors in magazines
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More Fuel for the Road
• Pictionary for prepositions
• Songs – put lyrics on the board and quiz on
parts of speech or other grammar topics being
learned
• Contests – who can find errors in a text and
correct them first – do in teams if desired
• Tell a story – each learner adds a line – write on
board and correct together at the end
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Keep on Going
• Schoolhouse Rock and other Youtube.com
videos are a fun way to introduce grammar
concepts
• Index cards make for easy practice drills (e.g.,
one set of cards with pronouns and another set
with verb forms – learners match correct
pronoun with correct form of the verb)
• Google “making grammar fun” for more ideas!
• Let’s share your ideas on our website, too!
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Tutor Talk
What are your
• Questions?
• Ideas?
• Concerns?
How can we better share issues and ideas as a
community of tutors?
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Motivating Our Learners
• Teach material relevant to your learners’ daily
lives
• Focus on the practical more than the theoretical
• Partner with learners to plan lessons
• Engage multiple learning styles
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Motivation continued
• Challenge without overwhelming – keep
learners’ self-confidence intact
• Ask your learners for feedback
• Spice things up with humor and games
• Establish/maintain a respectful relationship
with learners – build a learning community
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What’s Next
• Meet Our Social Media Interns
• Lunch, Prizes, and More
Thanks for your participation!
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