With all types of learners, it can be difficult to pinpoint progress towards their goals. How can a tutor keep close tabs on exactly what a learner knows without constantly quizzing them? One method tutors at Washtenaw Literacy have utilized are Skills Surveys. A Skills Survey is a rubric with simple and straightforward benchmarks to help guide your tutoring with a learner and help them progress towards their goals in a more quantifiable way. While we are working to update our full library of Skills Surveys, check out these documents from on speaking English provided by Senior Program Coordinator Neal Steichen.
First up, we have the Skills Survey itself. The Skills Survey is clearly organized into just a few columns. The first defines the benchmark that helps describe the level of proficiency the learner is hoping to achieve. Next, there are several plain language examples of how a tutor and learner can measure against these benchmarks. Following that, there are three columns where tutors can check or describe where their learner currently is, “I do it well enough,” “I want to work on it,” or “I do not need to work on this now.”
Next is a set of General Instructions for Building All Speaking Skills. Regardless of skill level, this document provides some really helpful Do’s and Don’t’s to help guide your session planning and activities. Check it out and you might even find a new idea to try out this week!
Finally, one of the most helpful aspects of the Skills Surveys are the benchmark specific session ideas. Each benchmark from each Skills Surveys has a paired document that denotes a handful of activities to try with a learner to work on that specific idea. The one featured here is for Speaking Benchmark 1.2.5, Communicate with Correct Word Choice.
Stay tuned and explore the other Skills Surveys to bring your tutoring and learner to the next level!