Tutoring and Active Listening Techniques or "How to Get Your Tutee to Talk More Than You"

TEN SECOND RULE

After asking a question or follow up question, or beginning a problem, allow at least ten seconds for the student to
respond. This may seem like a long time, but if you are patient, often the student will have time to think of a response.
Don't be afraid to allow an awkward silence to occur before you jump in. This will let the student know that you are
listening and expect him or her to participate.
PUTTING DOWN THE PENCIL
As a tutor, try working without a pencil or pen, in order to force the tutee to write and be more active. Make sure the
paper or book is in front of the tutee, not the tutor.
ECHOING
Often a distortion develops between what a speaker intends to say and what a listener actually hears. To improve
communication and help a student clarify what her or she is trying to say, a tutor should reflect or restate what he or she
has just heard.
Examples: "I heard you say...Am I right?" "Are you saying that..." "In other words.."
PROBING
Probing can be useful for helping a student understand reading assignments, prepare to write, review a concept for a test
or quiz, or for conversation in a foreign language or ESL A probing response forces the tutor to listen carefully, and
pushes the student to think and move beyond the first statement.
• Clarifying Asking a student for more information or meaning, restate
Examples: "What do you mean by that?" "Tell me more!" "Be more specific." "Anything else?" "So what's
an example of that?"
• Challenging Asking a student to justify, reflect, or think about answer
Examples: "What are you assuming?" "How can that be?" "How would you do that?" "Are you sure?"
• Refocusing Asking a student to relate answer to another idea or topic
Examples: "How is that related to..." "If this were true, then what would happen if..."
• Prompting Giving a student a hint, or rephrasing a question to help lead to the answer after a student has
tried and failed to understand
Examples: "Let me put it another way..." "Here's a clue..." "So what's the first step?" "Remember when
we talked about..."
• Requesting Summary Asking for a restatement of what has just been said or learned, in terms of content and
process.
Examples: "OK, now you explain back to me what we just said." "Now you teach it to me."
"Summarize the steps for me."
MODELING A THOUGHT PROCESS/BREAKING A TASK INTO PARTS
Modeling can be useful for solving problems in math and science, doing grammar exercises, teaching study skills,
studying for a test, reading a textbook, or revising a paragraph.
1. First, ask the student how he or she would approach the problem. Look in the book and class notes. S/he may not
realize how much s/he already knows.
Examples: “What did you learn in class?" How would you start this?" "Then what would you do?"
2. Next, model your own processes for the task by thinking out loud as you SLOWLY do the task.
Examples: "Hmmm, what do I do now?" "I usually begin by..." "Then I figure out if..."
3. Do another example together slowly, step by step, asking the student what to do for each step.
4. Have the student do the task alone, observing, giving encouragement, and coaching him or her along the way.
Examples: "Good, keep going!" "Remember what you do next..." "Do you want to write down the steps so
you can remember them?"
5. Finally, fade into the background and let the student take on responsibility for the task.
Examples: "Great! Now you can do it on your own!" "Show me how you will do this when you are studying
this by yourself"
 Group Tutoring Techniques

Name Bounce
To help you and the group members know and use each other’s names, conduct informal quizzes and "name games" during the first
meetings. Then, once students have become somewhat familiar with each other’s names, use the "name bounce" game described
below to encourage group-centered, rather than leader-centered discussions and problem solving.
At some point during a session, call out “name bounce” and say the name of a student in the group. That student must then call on
another by name, and that person must call on another, and so on. Repetition is OK, but try to ensure that every one eventually gets
called. Push students to go as fast as they can to create a sense of momentum and fun. Allow students to “cheat” by helping each
other. This activity helps them look to eachother for answers, instead of lalways looking ot the group leader. You might Have students
"name bounce" each other to answer questions, quiz each other, or give opinions during group discussions. Or, crumple up a piece of
paper and have students toss it to one another during a discussion or question-answer session. Whoever catches the wad must ask
or answer a question.

Index Card Questions

At the beginning of the session, hand out index cards to each student and have them write down three questions that they from the
textbook chapter, from lecture notes, or from class handouts. Then have them trade cards and answer each others’ questions as a
whole group. You might breakup the material, and assign each individual or pair a specific topic. You can also make this into a game,
or do it in pairs. This is a good technique to prepare for an exam.

Scribe Notes
At the beginning of each session, appoint (or ask for a volunteer) to take notes on the discussion. The notes can be informal, funny, or
serious, and should include all the information the note-taker thinks is important. At the beginning of the next session, have the note-
taker read his or her notes. This promotes “group memory” and helps connect current topics to previously covered material.

Board Notes
Try to make good use of the chalk board or white board during discussions. Whenever possible, have a group member write or draw
on the board to illustrate concepts. Seeing material displayed on the board helps visual learners, writing or drawing on the board helps
kinesthetic learners, and the process of summarizing information models effective learning strategies.

Team Debate/Quiz
Divide the group into two teams and use a quiz or game show format to have team members ask and answer course-related questions
posed by the opposing team. Have the teams consult for a few minutes to develop their list of questions before playing the game.
Make sure everyone agrees on the rules, then keep score.

Freewriting
Begin a session by having students write for three minutes on a topic related to course material. Potential topics include how they
applied specific learning strategies during the last week, their thoughts on a specific concept covered in lecture and readings, what
questions they have for this session, or any other topic that might help focus their minds on the discussion to follow.Tell them to write
as much as they can, as fast as they can, without worrying about grammar, spelling, or sentence structure. They do not have to share
their writing unless they want to. The goal is to have students focus their energy and clear their minds so that they can concentrate
better during the discussion.

Process Summary
One goal of group tutoring is to provide students with the necessary confidence and skills to eventually initiate and conduct their own
study groups for their other courses. By focusing attention on group process, students can become more conscious of how to lead
these groups. Though it may seem awkward to discuss these question at first, in time group members will become more comfortable
taking risks within the group and taking responsibility for the group’s success.
About five minutes before the end of a session, stop the discussion. Ask the group to summarize the process they just went through.
Use the following questions to get the discussion started:
• How and when did the group begin to discuss the material?
• Who talked and who did not?
• Did the discussion stay on track or did it stray into less important topics?
• Did students refer to and help each other or did they try to get the group leader to answer all the questions?
• Overall, was the discussion productive and fun? If so, why? If not, what can be done next time to improve it? Have someone
write these suggestions down and remind everyone of them at the next group meeting.
If students seem shy about discussing these issues, have everyone in the group to either freewrite about the group or write down
some observations about the group process. You might ask them to write two or three positive observations, and two or three areas
for improvement. At the next meeting, use these comments to lead a more focused discussion.

Rotating Leader
When you begin to know the students in your group, invite one of them to lead the discussion. Point out that the most important role of
a leader lies not in mastery of course content, but in the ability to include the whole group in a focused and productive discussion. You
might want to sit down with the student leader for a few minutes before the session and help him or her think of some questions to
guide the discussion. During the session, resist the urge to jump in; just sit back and let the group take over. A few minutes before
the end of the session, stop the discussion and ask for feedback about how the session went.