Is There Room For One More?
When you hear the term small group tutoring have you wondered if this would benefit our students? Literacy DuPage believes the answer to that question is "Yes!" However, small group tutoring is less common in the Literacy DuPage Volunteer Tutor program. Last fiscal year just 22% of our students were tutored in small group settings of 2-5 students. Small group tutoring can be very rewarding for both the tutor and students. One-to-one tutoring is self-centered on the learner by nature while small group tutoring provides natural opportunities to develop cooperative attitudes and work skills.
The benefits of small group tutoring to adult learners can be many. Among them are a reduction in the feelings of isolation, increased self-esteem, accessibility to a peer-based support system, increased sense of belonging to a community, and growing feelings of ownership of the learning process. Learners experience an increased sense of responsibility and respect for diversity of thought and action. All of these benefits tend to result in greater enthusiasm for learning and can greatly influence the rate of language development.
Small group tutoring provides many different methods and techniques to develop the learner's communicative skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) that aren't possible with one-to-one tutoring. Adult students learn many things best when they can interact with and learn from their peers. Small groups are natural settings for adult learners to exercise and expand their communicative skills. The small-group learning format accommodates and supports a variety of learning paces, needs and styles. The small-group tutor's role is different from a one-to-one tutor. Many times the small-group tutor acts as facilitator of learning and other times the tutor enables the learners to be teachers, and the tutor becomes a recipient of their teaching.
Once compatible student and tutor availability are confirmed small group matches are made by considering each student's level of English language proficiency, their primary language and culture, their level of education in their primary language, their need to use English, their age and length of time in the United States, and other commonalities such as number and age of children and type of employment.
For tutors, small group tutoring offers an alternative to the one-to-one tutoring format and positively expands their realm of experiences.
If you still need more convincing about the many benefits of small-group tutoring, please see the tutor testimonials below.
Linda Lewandowski, a longtime LDP tutor had this to say: "In my fifteen years as a Literacy Du Page tutor, I have worked with students one-to-one, and with small and large groups composed of unrelated students. I also have had the pleasure of tutoring two married couples.
I'm currently working with a married couple from Mexico. They are required, as a term of their employment, to take English classes. We meet once a week, the morning after their only night off work. They both share the goals of improving their workplace and community English and working toward citizenship.
The couple's shared experiences - both good and bad, at work and at home - provide a broad base for meaningful conversation at our weekly meetings, and aid me in choosing future topics to design lessons from. I believe they benefit from their shared lesson by being able to talk about what new English they've learned in day to day context.
As with any small group, a tutor may be presented students with different educational levels and life experience where slight adaptations in curriculum or presentation may need to be made. And, as their tutor, you may have to accept and respect the hierarchy in the marriage that may not be similar to your own. This has been the case with both the married couples I've worked with. Despite these differences, their immediate familiarity with one another created more laughter and joking during awkward moments in our early sessions.
I've been fortunate to observe close friendships develop over time in some of the small groups I have taught composed of unrelated students. Two women from one of my classes formed a bond so strong that they began sharing childcare duties with one another to aid each other with work scheduling. In another class, two men met and formed a friendship that extended to playing soccer together on a weekly basis. As happy as I am personally to form a friendship with each student, I've been doubly happy to see them make connections with others in their community who are also new to this country and share the experience of being new to the USA.
Literacy Du Page nudged me out of my one to one tutoring 'comfort zone' about six years ago, and I've never looked back. I like the idea of helping many more students, and know LDP is always there for me if I need help."
Courtney Jordan, a recently-trained tutor shared this feedback: "Working with a small group can be extremely beneficial to both the tutor and students! In my experience, I have found that a small group allows for natural, everyday conversation rather than role-play or text book conversation. We are able to use language that students would hear in everyday situations (slang, phrases, local language) and make it fun yet, informative and very real. Eventually, the students each learn their strengths. One could be strong at reading, while another is strong at speaking/listening. You will see them start to assist each other during the tutoring session by using their strengths! As a tutor, I feel that my students and I were able to bond quickly because we were a small group.
I know that I was a little nervous when I got assigned two students as a brand new tutor but, honestly now I would totally recommend it to anyone. I think that a small group makes it much less of a formal teacher/student setting, where the student might be nervous."
