Context:

Establishing a good working relationship between a tutoring program and a school requires sensitivity to students, school culture, and the expectations of volunteers. This training session allows volunteer tutors to share their own experiences and perspectives about schools and students, consider the varying experiences of students and teachers, and look at ways to work through these differences to build harmonious and productive relationships. This activity is best used as an orientation to prepare volunteers for work in a school setting.

Goals:

To explore the unexpressed attitudes and perspectives that individual groups (volunteers, students, and teachers) hold toward the tutoring program and school

To reflect on the implications of the differences between groups

To consider actions that programs can take to address these differences

To identify strategies for sensitive interactions

Activity:

Ask participants: Are you willing to take on the role of one of the people directly involved in a tutoring program? Allow participants to self-select into three groups—students, classroom teachers, and volunteer tutors–and gather in a specific area of the room. Provide the following information to each group:

Students: You are on the playground at recess. Some of you (but not all) have had your first tutoring session. Other kids are wondering about it. What conversation occurs?

Teachers: You are in the staff room on a lunch break and the subject of volunteer tutors comes up. What do you say about this new program to your fellow teachers?

Volunteers: You are carpooling home from your first day of tutoring in the school. What do you share with each other about the experience?

Ask each group to gather informally in groups of three or four people to role play what might be said. After a brief rehearsal (three-five minutes), each group shares its conversation with everyone. As the whole group listens to each conversation, ask participants to identify common attitudes, perspectives, or feelings. List responses on flipcharts headed: StudentsTeachers, and Volunteers. Ask for reflections on any similarities and differences. Work with participants to identify practice or policies that the program can establish to diminish potential friction caused by these differences. Then, ask the group to write suggestions for things they can do, as individuals, to interact sensitively (three minutes). Share suggestions and collect papers to create a master list.

Key Questions and Points to Remember:

What attitudes and voices emerge from each peer group (students, teachers, volunteers) concerning the tutor program?

What practices or policies can tutoring programs adopt to minimize the frictions inherent in differing perspectives?

What can individuals do to create harmony and promote productive working relationships with students and teachers?