#60 Training (Coaching) College Peer Tutors

Are you a parent of a child with a disability who is planning college?  Are you a Special Ed teacher who has students heading to college?  Are you a college tutor looking for strategies and tips to make your tutoring stronger and more effective?  Are you a homeschooling parent wondering how to help your child with a disability retain and recall information at college?  Many college students with disabilities use the tutoring centers at college for support, so today's podcast actually contains the audio for a real peer tutor training, with an accompanying PP video that anyone can use! You will get a free PowerPoint training presentation in video format with the podcast tutor training embedded in the video so that any peer tutor that you choose can access the training.   

FREE PowerPoint "Coaching College Peer Tutors" training video

FREE short ebook "Insights from a Disability Specialist" with over 30 questions to ask your college advisor

Course link for College & Disabilities: 9 Changes from High School That Every Parent Should Know 

Transcript

Mickie  0:00  
Does your child with a disability get tutored? Have you wondered about hiring a tutor or finding a tutor that could help your child? Or are you a homeschool mom who's looking for resources that will help your child with a disability? Are you a teacher in a classroom where you actually arrange tutors for your students? today's podcast will help all of you today's training is specifically for peer tutors and a peer tutor is often hired in a college tutoring center and a peer tutor works alongside other college students. In many cases, peer tutors are generally not trained. They have a lot of knowledge in their academic subject, but they're not necessarily trained in the finer art of teaching in tutoring, and specifically tutoring students with disabilities. And many students with disabilities use the tutoring centers for extra help. So this training today is for peer tutors. These are not professional teachers, but these are peer tutors who are there to help others learn the material some of the peer tutors are paid. Some of the peer tutors are volunteers it depends on the situation. Sometimes, a parent may hire a peer to do tutoring for their child. So the peer tutors can be used in any situation. You have peer tutors in high schools, other high school students who help out students that are behind or confused or missing information. So when you hear me use the word tutor, I'm actually referring to peer tutors only. Today you're going to hear an actual training for individuals who are tutoring students with disabilities, your child or your student will be much more successful to work with a tutor who actually has a little bit of knowledge and insight about what they should and shouldn't do when they tutor a student with a disability and what they can and cannot ask when they tutor a student with a disability. So that's what today's podcast will cover. And it will also cover topics like how a student learns input, short term memory, long term memory storage, retrieval output, and it will also give you some visual, auditory and tactile strategies to use during the tutoring process. And then the last part of it will give you some insight about certain disabilities and unique characteristics of those disabilities that your tutors should be aware of. So there's quite a bit packed into this half hour training and a half hour training is available for anybody who wants it. There's no charge for any of the training, the audio part is built into the podcast and the audio part will be built into the visuals and the visuals will be available to you for no charge. The visuals that I put together are a group of 19 slides with specific information on the slides. The slide program is automated completely and it is integrated with the audio that you will listen to today in the podcast. So all of that is together in one free resource with the length that you can download and access immediately. The materials that I'm giving you today are the exact same resources that I would use if I were doing this presentation in public. And all you have to do is take the link and share it with your tutor that you're hiring or the tutor that you're using. So they get a little bit of insight into how to support a student with a disability. The whole training only takes about a half an hour. So it's not a long period of time. I think it offers a lot of value to you. I hope so after the music, I'm going to go straight into the training. So sit back and relax and listen to College, Disabilities, and Success Episode 60 "Coaching Peer Tutors" with Mickie Hayes. The opinions in this podcast are my own, please reach out to your college physician or legal services for additional information. 

Mickie  3:51  
Thank you tutors for joining me today. And congratulations on your new opportunity to make a difference in someone's life.

Mickie  3:59  
It's very important when you're doing this training that you do not take on an ableist point of view that you do not give the student with the disability the impression that they can't survive without you. You are there as a guide and a helper and you're there to clarify information and teach information but you need to always get the student's point of view and listen to what the student has to say and to tell you that is of the utmost importance throughout this training. In today's tutoring lesson you are going to get a little information about disabilities but please please please do not make grand assumptions about those disabilities based on the tiny little bit of information I give you today. My purpose in setting this up so that you had some knowledge is to give you a little bit of background but be careful not to diagnose there is a temptation to assume that you really need to watch out for just remember the student you're tutoring is more than a disability. The disability is just one part of that and you need to remember that the individual is not defined by their disability and they are not less than or inferior to you, because they need your help, it's very unlikely that you will know their diagnosis. So don't make assumptions. If while you're tutoring a student with a disability, you have any questions at all about some concern that is bothering you or worrying you about the student, talk to your supervisor who's ever hired you to do the tutoring, because they can tell you what is acceptable and what is not acceptable and they'll be able to run interference on your behalf if they need to. So that's a real important thing for you to know to starting this training with the right attitude is extremely important. You're there as a support and a help. And a friend just like any other friend would help another friend, not because you're better not because they're less but because you're there to teach. Thank you for joining me today at coaching peer tutors training on college disabilities and success by Mickie Hayes M Ed learning disability specialist. The number one rule when you are tutoring a student with a disability is confidentiality you need to remember always that the student's disability is personal and private. Don't ask the student to divulge any disability related information if the student offers it. That's a different story. Any disability related information that the student chooses to share with you though, is to be protected, you really need to pay attention to their confidentiality. So please respect the student's privacy and confidentiality regarding anything in particular about their disability that they may share with you unless obviously, for some reason, if it means it may be life threatening to them or somebody else. So what personal information may I ask as a tutor? What can you ask? Well, you can ask any student? How do you learn best? What is your strongest or weakest learning style? do you learn best by seeing the information or by hearing the information? Or by reading the information down? Which is your best way to learn it as your tutor? How would you like me? To help you learn the material? Would you prefer? I spoke it all to you would you prefer that I wrote it down? Do you have a preference as to how I'm going to teach you the information? It's okay to ask if they need a break any student with a disability or not can get fatigued. So asking about a break is a reasonable question but ask them to do you need me to go back over it again. Especially if you are noticing signs of confusion on the part of the student trying to learn you may need to go back and revisit a topic and maybe rework it and reword it. But you need to remember that the individual with a disability is just like any other student that you tutor, some learn quickly, and others do not. Some get frustrated easily. And others do not some need things repeated and others do not. And some need the material approached from another teaching strategy, while others do not. So an individual with a disability is really just like any other student in that approach.

Mickie  8:21  
So you don't want to make big grand assumptions until you know that student better. So one of the things that you should do as a peer tutor is understand the learning process. Now I'm going to go over the quick version of the learning process with you a basically it comes down to inputting information using your short term memory or working memory to digest the information, your long term memory to store the information and to retrieve the information, and then the output. So we're going to talk about each of those steps. And what they mean by input is the student's ability to receive your message a student who is dyslexic or has auditory processing problems will have some sort of a disruption in this area, either through the visual or through the auditory. So they may see letters and words getting mixed up. The reading could be slower spelling could be difficult math calculations can be challenging, and if the individual with a learning disability has an auditory processing problem, then sometimes the information that you are saying is not necessarily the message that is getting in that they heard. So it's very important during the input stage that you have the information repeated back to you to verify they understood what you just said.

Mickie  9:43  
Now short term memory is often called working memory and I compare it to chewing on something thinking about it for a minute trying to digest it. But short term memory lasts for a very short time. It's one of those deals like when somebody says here let me tell you my phone number but you Have nothing to write it down and you have to remember it until you can write it down, that can be a little bit tricky. That's short term memory. So you have to figure out a way to get it from short term memory into long term memory. And some students with disabilities have a problem with short term memory. So they may need to hear it again. And again, they may need to hear it the next day again, and the following day again, but the student is processing your information and trying to understand what the tutor is saying. Now long term memory is where the student has stored, the memory is the student's ability to recall that information. So the trick there is remembering where you stored it. That's where different strategies and techniques come into play to help the student retrieve the information so that they can show they know it. And storage and retrieval are very, very important parts of this process. So tutoring is not just telling, there has to be some technique with it. And then output output is the student's ability to repeat or explaining information back to you. Now, sometimes they can repeat it orally, sometimes they may have to write it down. But if the student can give you back the information clearly, and without hesitancy, then they have learned it. But if you have a student who is struggling and attempting to get the information out, but it's sounding garbled, or mixed up or confused, that means they still don't have the information as solid as they should. And if that becomes the case, then you want to have the student go back to the beginning and start again with the memory strategies and techniques that I'm going to talk about next. So when you are teaching information as a tutor, your visual and auditory and tactile kinesthetic strategies are very, very important. And those strategies will help enhance the student's ability to learn and your ability to teach. So let's talk about some visual techniques. First, use lots of colors, colored paper, markers, index cards, sticky notes, but try to keep some consistency with the color. So for example, if you're using colored paper, you might choose to use yellow paper with chapter one and green paper with chapter two and pink paper with chapter three, and then match the sticky notes to the paper. And that way, the student will be able to sort them out again, in that filing system in the brain in the long term memory, am I pulling something that's from the green chapter, or the pink chapter, or the blue chapter, whatever, highlight students class notes, text and study materials that you may be preparing as a tutor. Now highlighting is important, but there is a technique to it. When you highlight, you don't highlight pretty stripes everywhere. Because pretty stripes do nothing, you need to highlight one or two words at a time to make those words stand out so that when an individual looks at a document, they can scan it very quickly for those highlighted terms, and whatever key words go with the term. So highlighting comes with its own technique. If you have a student doing math problems, be sure especially with math, but actually in any subject, but especially with math, keep whitespace in between the problems. What happens there is that when a student does writing, or when a student is working the math problems is real easy to have those math problems run together. So you need to find some way to separate one problem from the next problem. And that method that you use for separating can be a line that you draw between them. But it could also just be whitespace enough whitespace from one problem to the next that you can actually see and the student can actually see where the ending of the problem is. Use easy to read pens and pencils. Sometimes colored ink in particular can be difficult to read. So be very careful if you're using an orange pen or a yellow pen, because that is sometimes very difficult for an individual to remember. If you have terrible handwriting print, make your notes legible, doesn't do the student any good if they take your paperwork home and can't read it. And then sometimes you can use silly pictures or symbols next to the problem as reminders a star here or a smiley face sometimes makes a big difference in zeroing in on a particular piece of information.

Mickie  14:41  
So auditory strategies, auditory strategies start with using various tones. When you are tutoring you want to provide some variation in your voice. This is one of the things I always have to be careful with because my voice is deep. And if I'm not careful, I can put people to sleep in a heartbeat. And when I was a high school teacher, I had to be especially aware of what I was saying and how I was saying it so that I didn't lose my students to other things. Sometimes silly rhymes creating silly rhymes will help a student to remember, anagrams help students to remember. Now something else that's very important is to make sure when you are working with a student, especially who has to learn vocabulary words, that you dole those out three, or four or five at a time, no more than that, because the human brain, any human brain can only memorize up to seven pieces of information at a time, it just can't, can't go beyond that. And if you think about it, think about your phone number, your phone number is three digits, three digits, and four digits, your social security number three digits, two digits, and four digits, your zip code, five digits in four digits, any time you have to commit something to memory, you should be doing it in small batches, and then go back and review them and blend them together. But memorize them initially in small batches. So don't sit with a student and try to have them learn all 10 words at once. Because it's a lost cause, make certain that the student is looking at you when you speak. Now, there may be times when the student looks to the side because they are actually leaning their ear in towards you. So that may be the case. But the point of this statement is make sure the student is consciously hearing you and not distracted by 10. Other things, you can record information, you can record it on the student's phone, and they can go back then and listen to it later on their own or a tape recorder the old fashioned way, some way that they can go back and listen to it later. When you're done teaching a concept make sure as I said earlier, to have the student repeat it back to you. Because if they stumble and tumble and can't get it out, they still don't know it. It's like smoke, they can see it, they can smell it, but they can't grab it. And that's where it is if they're not able to repeat it back to you thoroughly. There are also tactile kinesthetic strategies. One of the most effective things you could do is have the student do the work on a whiteboard or a chalkboard or some sort of a large paper chart that's hung on the wall, something where they can stand and write and talk and think all at the same time. So they are actively participating in the learning and not passively sitting there waiting for information to be taught to them. Plus, it helps you as a tutor be a better tutor, because you're standing right up there with them and guiding them through the steps of what they're doing or what they're writing. If you are writing something down on the paper, you may have the student make that same note on their paper, if it is something that the student is able to do with relative ease that will help them to remember as well, clipboards are a wonderful thing. If you're tutoring a student in a particular subject, and then you're going to help them in a second subject or a different subject keep all of the information for one subject on one clipboard, and all of the information for the next object on another clipboard. And that way, when the student needs that information, it's in their hands, they have it right away, they grab the clipboard and they know everything on that clipboard belongs with that particular topic. clipboards can be a very inexpensive and effective way to organize. Sometimes students need to have something in their hands while they're listening. So playing with a paper clip or eating a piece of candy, like a sucker or a lollipop that they can eat while they're listening. Sometimes chewing gum, these activities with your hands and with your mouth also help to input the information. It really does help them to retain it. What's happens with that if sometimes when the student is at the test, and they're trying to retrieve back some information, I say wait a minute, I was eating that really sour apple piece of candy at the time. Now I remember

Mickie  19:07  
if your student that you're tutoring has a learning disability SLD or LD like dyslexia, dysgraphia or dyscalculia, there are certain things you should know first of all LD or learning disability. Dyslexia does not mean low IQ, you can actually be gifted and have a learning disability. So don't assume that because your student can't spell or because your student can't read or because your student struggles in these areas that that means they have a low IQ because that is not the case. Something is interfering with their ability to learn, but do be mindful that the student is going to have an average or above average IQ in order to get that diagnosis. That's part of it. Ask the students to explain their own preferences for learning. How do they learn best, you should always speak and write down the information at same time whenever you're doing this, because, again, some people like the auditory Some people like the visual. So you're you're kind of covering both bases at that point, use those colors and notations that I mentioned earlier, visual techniques make a big difference for someone with a learning disability. And if the student can write their information down, let them make notes as well, they don't necessarily have to be perfect. And you can give them your notes to go along with their notes. But if they can write something down or jot some key words down, that may help them later. And as I said earlier, use the board because really using the board and standing at the board really does make a big difference if you can get that kind of a situation to tutor in autism spectrum disorder, Autism Spectrum Disorder is named such because students with autism are on a spectrum, which means that individual diagnoses will vary from one person to another, there is a statement in the autism community that if you've met one person with autism, then you've met one person with autism. And that statement is very important to understand. Because that's the reality of autism, you should not make any generalized assumptions about a student based on that diagnosis. And again, you shouldn't be told the diagnosis upfront anyway. So it's best not to even worry about that. But students that are on the autism spectrum, do you struggle with several things, and you may notice some variations in abilities from the very high to the very low in abilities. And you may also notice some variations in sensitivity, sensitivity to light to noise, those kinds of distractions become a real problem when you're trying to tutor so in general, if you have a student who struggles with a bright room or a noisy room don't make the assumption they're on the autism spectrum, just simply realize that they may need a different environment to do their tutoring in when an individual has been diagnosed with autism, they may have variations in their ability to focus, to stay engaged to be socially chatty with you, and you may notice some high degrees of anxiety. Now when you look at the list that I just gave you, you may also realize that those behaviors may be found in other disabilities. So again, be very cautious of making assumptions. The bottom line is that a student with autism who needs help and support should be getting the same help and support from you that you would give to any other student who needs specialized tutoring because of a disability. If you have a student who is blind or has low vision, there are some strategies that you should know some students are completely blind, others have partial vision, and that will vary a great deal from one individual to another. Sometimes students that are blind have Braille writers that they can use right at their computer. So they may be able to take their own notes in Braille

Mickie  23:04  
while you're talking to them. The schools, the libraries, the colleges should all have Optelec machines CCTV machines, where you can put the paper in and enlarges the print onto a screen that the student can then look at if they have low vision. If you're working on paper, use Sharpies, heavy black markers, when appropriate. When that helps a student. Ask the student if that helps, because they'll let you know if that is a strategy that's important to them and helpful to them. Talk clearly and directly to the student. don't mumble and don't talk hyperfast understand that the student has visual points of reference. And think about this. If a student is born blind or blinded at a very, very young age, they are not going to have visual references. If you say the tree is green, green will mean nothing to them. The idea of what a tree looks like will mean nothing to them. If they don't have that visual point of reference. If they lost their vision later in life, where they were to the point where they already had those points of reference established in their brain, then the points of reference will help so it makes a difference what points of reference that student with a visual disability has. Now if you're tutoring a student who's deaf or hard of hearing, there are several things to remember some students have hearing aids some students use FM systems some students use interpreters and you may be tutoring with an interpreter. You may be tutoring with a someone who's using an FM system or with someone who has hearing aids so you don't know what your situation is. You'll have to ask what is the best way for them to learn what you have to say, always speak directly to the student. If your student is working with an interpreter do not do not, do not say Speak your information to the interpreter, you speak your information directly to the student, the interpreter is in the background, the student is watching that person sign, and they're getting what they need from the interpreter. But for you to talk to the interpreter and not to the student directly is unacceptable. You need to talk to the student directly question the student often and have them repeat back and give you back information. Because you definitely need to make sure that what you are saying is in fact, what that student is hearing. So speak clearly and Repeat as often as you need to to make sure you're driving the point home and always face the student directly. Many students who are hard of hearing will read lips. And if you're not facing the student directly, they're not getting the message. If you are tutoring a student who has emotional or psychological issues or is ADHD, and very distractible, help the students stay focused and on task, the strategies that I mentioned earlier about color highlights and recordings, those will help, those will make a big difference. Do not criticize a student who gets easily frustrated or angry, you have to understand that whatever disability is happening, whatever issues are going on. Number one, it's not your place to ask details about their disability, you can ask if they're okay. And if there's anything you could do, that's not a problem. But number two, we all get frustrated. And sometimes you just have to step back a little bit, take a little break and regroup. And then you can go back to the work, you may find that it benefits the student to change the subject matter if something seems to be bothering the student a little more than usual, and always be supportive and encouraging all the time. Because we all need that any student your tutoring needs that support and encouragement from you.

Mickie  26:58  
Now there are many students there who are other health impaired. And sometimes that comes from a physical illness, it may be something like cancer, it could be some sort of fatigue, some sort of health issue physical health issue that causes pain. So students that are other health impaired and have physical issues may get fatigued and tired very easily. So pay attention to that. And those students may have pain that causes them to lose concentration. So again, be aware of that you may need to arrange for better seating, ask the student if the student is uncomfortable, see what the student needs, ask the student find out if the way that you are working is okay with them. Sometimes medication will slow down processing impact processing one way or another. And so it may take a little bit longer for the information to be effective. So you may have to slow down a little bit and make sure that the student can give the information back to you that they know this information. If your student is in a wheelchair, do not touch or lean on the wheelchair while you're working with or speaking to the student because you are invading their personal space. When you do that you have to think of the wheelchair as an extension of their body. And you wouldn't do that to an arm or a leg while they're working. You should not do it to the wheelchair. So hands off the wheelchairs. In conclusion, the student is depending on you for accurate information. So it's very important to make sure that the information you are giving the student is accurate to the best of your ability and to the best of your knowledge. If you're not sure of an answer or procedure, be honest with the student and find a way to get the information you need. It could be one of those situations where you and the student actually go and sit down with the professor to find out what the professor is looking for. So that you know the best way you can help a student if that happens to become the case, talk to your supervisor, whoever hired you for the tutoring assignment and make sure they're okay with you following through in that way, watch for gaps in the student's knowledge that may need to be retaught or clarified lots of students for lots of reasons, Miss pieces of information, and sometimes key pieces of information build on the following information, you may suddenly realize that oh, this person doesn't understand what I'm saying because they're missing this piece of information. So you may find yourself going back to clarify some old news that you thought they understood, but they really didn't. If you think the student is just not getting it when you're telling them the information, rethink your approach. Make sure that if the student doesn't understand it, the way you're teaching it that you and the student talk about a better way that you can help them think of some of the alternatives that I listed in the strategies about some possible ways that you can make a difference to the student. Ask the student to give you suggestions for making the tutoring more effective. And I'd like to take a moment to reiterate what I've said all along students with disabilities These are just like you and me, they simply have something that is getting in the way of their ability to learn the information. Now, sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. And I gave you a little knowledge about disabilities. So I want you to take that information and realize you have just the tip of the iceberg the very tiny tip of the iceberg with some broad generalizations, every student with a disability no matter what it is, whether it's the autism spectrum, or dyslexia, or ADHD, or another variation of the disabilities that I mentioned today, they all have ranges, and there are certain common characteristics, but they're not all the same. So it's very, very important that you understand that, in reality, what disability is, is really not the issue. The issue is where the student is missing information, and how you can help that student best acquire the information that they need. Be sure to show kindness and patience and understanding and empathy with the struggles that the student is facing. And if you can't find the information, if you don't know the information that you need to talk to your supervisor, or your boss, and they can help you with that as well. I want to thank you very much for taking the time today to do this training. And I hope you found value in it, I hope you'll look forward to becoming a tutor can make a really important difference in an individual's life and future because I know the students appreciate it. And I believe that you will find that it's a good fit for you as well. Thank you very much, and have a great rest of the day. Bye.

Mickie  31:42  
Thank you for joining me today all of the information that I told you earlier, the automated PowerPoint program that is fully integrated with the audio podcast that you just heard. All of that information is available to you in a simple downloadable link and it is all free. All you have to do is check the show notes in today's program for the links that you need to access the material. If you have any questions, please please please don't hesitate to send me an email I am at Mickieteaches@gmail.com. And also let me know what you think of it if you liked it. If you thought something was missing, if you thought I should add something in particular, I'm open to suggestions so please feel free to email me and give me some insight into your thoughts about it all. Once again, my email is Mickieteaches@gmail.com. That's M I C K I E teaches@gmail.com. The information will also be on my website for you to access as well. And that is Mickie teaches.com M IC K I E teaches.com. Thank you for sharing your time with me today. And I hope you got value and felt this was all worthwhile. I'll talk to you again soon. And in the meantime, have a great rest of the day. Bye. Information contained throughout this podcast has been gleaned from my own personal experiences, but to ensure accuracy. Please contact the Disability Services at the college of your choice to have firsthand information and the most up-to-date policies and procedures followed for your particular institution of higher education. The content in any of these podcasts is not intended as a substitute for information from legal, educational or medical professionals. Always seek the advice of your attorney or qualified health care provider with any questions you may have with regards to legal educational or medical concerns.

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