ID 201H Fall 2003

As an LS 1 faculty member assigned an LS 1 tutor, you have a special opportunity to enhance the quality of your discussion section because of the unique dynamic having a tutor brings to your seminar. You should clearly negotiate the role your tutor is to take in your discussion section with your LS 1 tutor. I will ask you to evaluate the work of your LS 1 tutor twice during the semester: at mid-term, I will solicit your informal evaluation of your tutor; at the end of the semester, I will ask you to complete a formal evaluation of your tutor and assign a letter grade to his/her work with you, which will count for 20% of his/her grade in ID 201: LS 1 Tutoring Project.

For those of you prefer that your tutor play an active role within your discussion section, here are some suggestions for using your tutor:

Have your tutor serve as a voice of the opposition for a class (or several) to promote discussion and debate among your first-year students.

Divide your class into two groups, with you serving as one group leader and your tutor as the leader of the other small group.

Ask your tutor to assist in conducting an in-class writing workshop or peer critiquing session for your students' working drafts.

If you have an exceptionally passive class, conduct a lively discussion between you and your tutor to model the engaged behavior you desire for the students. Do this unannounced and, initially, to the exclusion of the students in the class. Eventually, they will break in.

Have your tutor coordinate a debate or mock trial related to the day's LS 1 topic.

If an LS 1 topic is related to your tutor's area of academic interest, ask him/her to give a brief report on the relationship between the LS 1 readings and the broader context he/she has encountered in his/her studies.

Have your tutor lead--or assist you in leading--a hands-on art or science activity to help realize the LS 1 topic under consideration.

Ask your tutor to develop an activity that incorporates visual learning as a way of exploring the day's LS 1 topic. Drawing, coloring, cutting and pasting can free the students' minds in exciting and unexpected ways.

Have your tutor promote discussion among the students in your seminar by responding to students by name and asking other students, in turn, their opinion on the remarks.

Ask your tutor to sit with the students from your section during LS 1 lecture and bring up elicited reactions from the students during the next day's discussion.

This list is just a sample of the variety of ways you can take advantage of having a tutor in your LS 1 discussion section. Throughout the semester in ID 201, the tutors will encounter other techniques for promoting active learning in discussion sections. They may, therefore, propose other approaches to you as the semester progresses.

If you have further questions about roles for your LS 1 tutor, or LS 1 tutoring in general, please contact me.