Course Credit Tutoring
English 393 and Honors 290 are restricted to second-semester freshmen, and all sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The only pre-requisite is successful completion of UCWR 110. In addition to the orientation and the tutoring, these students meet twice a month at 5:45 p.m. for about 50-60 minutes for a total of 5 class meetings (an additional 6th session for those students registering for 3 credit hours). These meetings give tutors a chance to ask questions, compare experiences, and discuss assigned readings and research articles. There are also presentations of topics which are of interest and concern to the students. The students write journals and other assignments, all of which are to assist their tutoring experience.
Students taking the course for 3 credit hours and the Core Engaged Learning-Service Learning Internship requirement will have one more assignment, a book review.
These courses are self–managed; a student has some flexibility in deciding which meeting to attend, because each meeting takes place twice, and other arrangements can be made if a student has a conflict with the scheduled dates.
Course Description
English 393 – Teaching English to Adults: Internship – Field Studies
1, 2, or 3 credit hours – Core credit when taken for 3 credit hours
Engage with Jesuit values and meet our adult neighbors who come from many cultures. This course offers an excellent opportunity for service learning and practical experience in tutoring adults in written and spoken English with the Loyola Community Literacy Center. We are located in Loyola Hall, 1110 W. Loyola Avenue, when teaching in person but we have been fully online during the pandemic.
While the Literacy Center offers community adults an opportunity to improve their skills, it also gives student-tutors the chance to serve their community and to engage with their Jesuit education. One student tutor said, “The Literacy Center has taught me the true value of giving, and this is perhaps the most valuable lesson I’ve learned at Loyola.”
No previous tutoring experience is necessary. When taken for 3 credit hours, this course satisfies the Core Engaged Learning-Service Learning Internship requirement. The course is open to second-semester freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Incoming freshmen are always welcome to tutor as volunteers and take the course at a later date.
Students tutor adult learners, most of whom are immigrants, refugees, or international visitors whose skills in their native language range from their being highly educated professionals to being perhaps illiterate, even in their own language, and who may know some English or no English. Students also tutor some native English speakers preparing for the GED or improving their literacy skills.
The Center is open for tutoring M-Th evenings during the fall and spring semesters from 7-9:30 pm when the university is in session. 1 credit hour students tutor one evening per week; 2 and 3 credit hour students tutor two evenings a week. In addition, there are 5 class meetings scheduled at 5:45 pm, just before tutoring hours; 3 credit/Core students meet for a 6th session.
If students have never tutored at the Center, they must attend one evening of an online orientation. Students keep a weekly journal to reflect on their experiences and respond to assigned readings; examine a textbook and journal articles concerned with literacy, language, and adult education; submit ten of their journals and five short papers throughout the semester; prepare a final paper or project; and, for 3 credit hour students, read and report on one additional text of their choice related to the work of the Center, to adult literacy, to the culture of their learners, or to any topic suggested by their tutoring experience.
Students who have taken this course have found it to be a challenging and exciting experience, even life changing as they help neighborhood adults improve their skills. Another student-tutor wrote,
"Tutoring at the Loyola University Community Literacy Center was easily one of the best experiences I have ever been granted at Loyola University. That is coming from a student who has studied abroad three times, has volunteered elsewhere, and has had a number of internships. Never have I felt so connected t my own values. Tutoring at the center reminded me of my passions and allowed me to help others and make friends in the process… I am truly privileged to have learned about my learners’ cultures and personal experiences. They’ve taught me to not judge cultures from an American standpoint and to instead take every culture at face value."
More information can be found at www.luc.edu/literacy. Follow the links to "tutoring" and then "course credit tutoring" for a complete description of English 393/Honors 290.
Honors 290 – Literacy Center: Seminar
3 credit hours – Core credit
Engage with Jesuit values and meet our adult neighbors who come from many cultures. This course offers an excellent opportunity for service learning and practical experience in tutoring adults in written and spoken English at the Loyola Community Literacy Center. We were located in Loyola Hall, 1110 W. Loyola Avenue, but we have been fully online since Fall 2020.
While the Literacy Center offers community adults an opportunity to improve their skills, it also gives student-tutors the chance to serve their community and to engage with their Jesuit education. One student tutor said, “The Literacy Center has taught me the true value of giving, and this is perhaps the most valuable lesson I’ve learned at Loyola.”
No previous tutoring experience is necessary. This course satisfies the Core Engaged Learning-Service Learning Internship requirement. It is open to second-semester freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Incoming freshmen are always welcome to tutor as volunteers and take the course at a later date.
Students tutor adult learners, most of whom are immigrants, refugees, or international visitors whose skills in their native language range from their being highly educated professionals to being perhaps illiterate, even in their own language, and who may know some English or no English. Students also tutor some native English speakers preparing for the GED or improving their literacy skills.
The Center is open online for tutoring M-Th evenings during the fall and spring semesters from 7-9:30 pm when the university is in session. Honors 290 students tutor two evenings a week. In addition, there are 5 class meetings and a 6th session scheduled at 5:45 pm, just before tutoring hours.
If students have never tutored at the Center, they must attend one evening of an online orientation. Students keep a weekly journal to reflect on their experiences and respond to assigned readings; examine a textbook and journal articles concerned with literacy, language, and adult education; submit ten of their journals and five short papers throughout the semester; prepare a final paper or project; and read and report on one additional text of their choice related to the work of the Center, to adult literacy, to the culture of their learners, or to any topic suggested by their tutoring experience.
Students who have taken this course have found it to be a challenging and exciting experience, even life changing as they help neighborhood adults improve their skills. Another student-tutor wrote,
"Tutoring at the Loyola University Community Literacy Center was easily one of the best experiences I have ever been granted at Loyola University. That is coming from a student who has studied abroad three times, has volunteered elsewhere, and has had a number of internships. Never have I felt so connected to my own values. Tutoring at the center reminded me of my passions and allowed me to help others and make friends in the process… I am truly privileged to have learned about my learners’ cultures and personal experiences. They’ve taught me to not judge cultures from an American standpoint and to instead take every culture at face value."
More information can be found at www.luc.edu/literacy. Follow the links to "tutoring" and then "course credit tutoring" for a complete description of English 393/Honors 290.
Class meetings - Please see the Syllabus on Sakai for specific dates
Note: All activities, including class meetings, used to take place in the classroom assigned in LOCUS. They will be conducted online in September 2020 and Spring 2021. In Fall 2021, the students will discuss what they prefer because we are still tutoring online. Please note that the FIRST REQUIREMENT is the orientation session a student must attend if he or she has never tutored at the Literacy Center before. Please check the website for the orientation schedule. Each class meeting is offered on two separate evenings. A student chooses one of the two. If a student has an evening class and cannot attend the required scheduled class meetings, she or he should contact the instructor in order to arrange another time to meet. The course is taught by Jacqueline Heckman, Department of English, Director, Loyola Community Literacy Center. The class meetings and the tutoring sessions are all required and must be made up if any session or meeting is missed. If a student misses a meeting or tutoring session without making up the absence, the final grade will be lowered (see the grading requirements on the syllabus).
Course Requirements
For 1 hour of credit (Engl 393 only) you agree to:
(1). Attend the orientation program if you are a learner new to the Center. Tutor one night each week for the semester. You agree to sign on to the meeting before 7 p.m. one night each week and to tutor, to observe and report, or to undertake other volunteer duties for the evening as needed (this may be working on lesson plans) as requested by the managers. You agree to make up any evening of tutoring that you miss because of your absence.
(2). Attend the five bimonthly 5:45 class meetings and complete all the reading assignments in the textbook as well as the assigned research articles.
(3). Have one required conference with the instructor beginning around midterm.
(4). Submit a contribution to Learning at Loyola, the Literacy Center book distributed at the end of the semester.
(5). Write all the papers outlined on the syllabus (10 journals and 5 writing assignments). Your final assignment will be either a project description or a paper. If you are doing a project with the Director’s permission, your final Writing Assignment (# 5) will be a one page report on the project’s completion. If you are doing a paper, your final Writing Assignment (# 5) will be a paper approximately 3-4 pages long exclusive of the bibliography, will include some research, and will be submitted on Sakai and posted to Turnitin through Sakai.
For 2 hours of credit (Engl 393 only) you agree to:
(1). Attend the orientation program if you are a learner new to the Center. Tutor two nights each week for the semester. You agree to sign on to the meeting before 7 p.m. two nights each week and to tutor, to observe and report, or to undertake other volunteer duties for the evening as needed (this may be working on lesson plans) as requested by the managers. You agree to make up any evening of tutoring that you miss because of your absence.
(2). Attend the five bimonthly 5:45 class meetings and complete all the reading assignments in the textbook as well as the assigned research articles.
(3). Have one required conference with the instructor beginning around midterm.
(4). Submit a contribution to Learning at Loyola, the Literacy Center book distributed at the end of the semester.
(5). Write all the papers outlined on the syllabus (10 journals and 5 writing assignments). Your final assignment will be either a project description or a paper. If you are doing a project with the Director’s permission, your final Writing Assignment (# 5) will be a one page report on the project’s completion. If you are doing a paper, your final Writing Assignment (# 5) will be approximately 5-6 pages long exclusive of the bibliography, will include some research, and will be submitted on Sakai and posted to Turnitin through Sakai.
For 3 hours of credit and to satisfy the Core Engaged Learning-Service Learning Internship requirement, you agree to:
(1). Attend the orientation program if you are a learner new to the Center. Tutor two nights each week for the semester. You agree to sign in to the meeting before 7 p.m. two nights each week and to tutor, to observe and report, or to undertake other volunteer duties for the evening as needed (this may be making lesson plans) as requested by the managers. You agree to make up any evening of tutoring that you miss because of your absence.
(2). Attend the five bimonthly 5:45 class meetings and the additional 6th session held for 3 credit-hour Core students; to complete all the reading assignments in the textbook as well as the assigned research articles.
(3). Have one required conference with the instructor beginning around midterm.
(4). Submit a contribution to Learning at Loyola, the Literacy Center book distributed at the end of the semester.
(5). Write all the papers outlined on the syllabus (10 journals and 5 writing assignments). Your final assignment will be either a project description or a paper. If you are doing a project with the Director’s permission, your final Writing Assignment (# 5) will be a one page report on the project’s completion. If you are doing a paper, your final Writing Assignment (# 5) will be approximately 7-8 pages long exclusive of the bibliography, will include some research, and will be submitted on Sakai and posted to Turnitin through Sakai.
(6). Complete an additional reading assignment, a text chosen from the suggested course supplementary reading list or another text to be approved by the instructor related to any of your experiences at the Center: second language
acquisition, adult education, adult literacy, specific language skill areas (pronunciation, reading, writing, grammar), immigration, refugee issues, sociolinguistics, culture . . . . Prepare a 1 ½ to 2 page review of the book. Your book review will include an objective statement of the purpose/audience/thesis of the book, a very short summary as well as an analysis of the content, and then a subjective section discussing your evaluation of the text as well as an assessment of how it relates to your experience at the Literacy Center and to your special interests.
(7).There will also be a required 6th session for Core students in addition to the five required class meetings for all students so that Core students can discuss their book selection.
All students MUST submit a contribution to the Learning at Loyola book published each semester.
Tutoring Policies: Our tutoring schedule is Monday through Thursday, 7-9:30 pm. You are required to tutor one or two nights a week, depending on the number of credits for which you are registered. If you are ill, you must send an email to locolice@gmail.com or to literacy@luc.edu to report that you will be absent; you must make up the tutoring session at a later date. If your regular learner is ill and notifies you, you must still come to the Center where you will be assigned to tutor a different learner, to perform some other task for the Center (filing, typing, etc.), or to observe another tutor-learner pair. Further instructions concerning communication via Facebook will be given to students on Sakai.
Your tutoring will be assessed on an on-going basis primarily by the Center staff, both as you are tutoring and in terms of the records you create based on your sessions. The staff members observe tutoring, discreetly and unobtrusively, and periodically sit in on the sessions of all of our tutors. From time to time a manager or lead tutor will stop by your table, say hello, and sit in for 10 minutes or so. (If you were taking tennis lessons, you'd want the coach to watch you play, and if the coach watched you play, you'd expect some feedback; friendly and supportive supervision is part of what the Literacy Center offers both learners and tutors.) Other tutors may also observe working pairs in order to gain valuable insight into the tutoring process. This is routine practice. In addition, after each evening of tutoring, you will fill out a session report on the work you and your learner completed and suggestions/lesson plans for the following session. Each session report from all tutoring sessions for all learner/tutor pairs are reviewed by the Center staff and the instructor on an ongoing basis; the reports constitute very important evidence of your tutoring skills, including the regularity and reliability of your attendance; promptness; willingness to adapt to the LCLC's needs; responsiveness to staff suggestions; thoroughness; resourcefulness; and attentiveness to learner's needs.
Attendance Policies – rigid: Because this is an internship/tutorial, not a regular class, you are responsible for meeting deadlines and requirements without reminders from the instructor. You might be interested to know that in the past, students in this internship/tutorial sometimes failed to turn in assignments promptly, forgot that they were due, failed to ask questions about the assignments before they were written, or claimed not to know that this syllabus exists. These are not encouraging signs in students who volunteer for independent learning projects. You will be required to contact the instructor with a statement, an agreement with the LCLC, specifying the credit options you wish to exercise and recognizing that meeting deadlines and course requirements is your responsibility (this email is due before the semester begins; see the note at the top of page two).
Please note that there are no "cuts" in this course. If you miss a tutoring session, you must make it up either by tutoring an extra night or by working for the LCLC in another capacity as our needs require. You must also notify the staff beforehand of your absence. If you know your regularly scheduled learner is not coming, you must still come to the LCLC and be assigned another learner for the evening or be asked to perform other duties; you may be assigned to assist with administrative tasks or to observe a learner-tutor pair and write a short observation report.
Because there are so few class meetings, you must attend ALL class meetings; there are no allowed absences. You can make up a class, of course.
** If a student misses a tutoring session or a class and does not initiate a make-up, the student’s final grade will be lowered by one grade level for each such absence: for example, from an A- to a B+ for one missed tutoring session or class absence not made up.
For additional information and a description of reading and writing assignment requirements, please see the course syllabus on this website.
