More Tips & Tools

Volunteer tutors can use some or all of the following strategies to incorporate informal, ongoing assessment into learning activities.

Watch and listen
Can a preferred learning style (visual, auditory, tactile) be identified? What does the learner do to help herself learn (repeats things out loud, rereads the same passage, asks questions)? Are some skills easier than others for her to learn?

Tutors should keep an eye out for ways the learner is using her new skills in everyday situations. Perhaps she will bring in a list she wrote at home or she will read a notice on the bulletin board. She might also talk about things she has done or things her family has noticed.

Talk about how the learner learns
Who better to ask than the learner himself? Ask him what makes learning easier or harder, how he likes to learn, what strategies he uses. Talk about how he learned things in the past, what worked and what didn’t.

Make notes
Both the learner and the tutor can keep “learning diaries” that describe the lessons they are working on and the progress the learner is making. It is especially important to take note of how the learner is using her new skills in both her learning and everyday life.

If she is just learning to write, she can dictate to the tutor. Note taking also makes an excellent writing activity for the beginning writer. These notes will come in handy for filling in reports or for ongoing assessment meetings with program staff. Written records can help keep track of resources used and activities completed. Diaries can also be used to list things like spelling words or new vocabulary.