Tutoria Starter Pack

by Meixi

A resource for educators, youth, families, and anybody else who believesthat we all can teach and learn.

fiftyfold.org

CONTENTS

Forward by Dr Gabriel Cámara 02

What is Tutorial Relationships or Tutoría? 03

Why Tutoría? 05

1. INTRODUCTION

2. ORGANIZEHow are Tutorial Relationships organized? 06

How to set up a Tutorial Relationshipsnetwork

07

3. TEMASWhat's a Tema? 09

Tema Ideas 10

5. TESTIMONIOS 14

4. POTENTIAL CHALLENGESSolution Ideas and Tips 13

Acknowledgements 01

Sample Tema: Cardboard 11

Characteristics of Great Tutors 08

My deepest thanks to Dr Gabriel Cámara for his guidance and insight into thecreation of this starter pack. The FiftyFold team, Sukanda Kongkaew, PanthiwaTheechumpa, Pam Chirativat, Ajarn Anusron, Alison Ling, John Ng, and SurajUpadhiah. This also would not have been possible without the experience andcontinued communication with the Mexican team with Aprender con Interés,especially Dalila López, Álvaro de Aguilar, Juan Pedro Rosete, and teachers,Maestro Gabriel de León Sanchez, Maestro Rito Longoria, Maestra MagdalenaAguirre Benítez, students Osvaldo Garcia Gutiérrez and Maximiliano Alfaro delRío along with the others I continue to learn from. I am also incredibly grateful tothe teachers and students in Singapore and Thailand, at Padoongrasdra School,Ajarn Tam, Ajarn Fang, and Ajarn Ton, teachers and leadership at Chiang RaiVittayakhome school, Sahasatsuka School and Shuqun Secondary.

I also want to remember my family in Singapore and Zacatecas - mom, dad, Shunand Meizhi, Godpa, the Eagles community, Yina, Xiris, Carlos, Dalia, Orlando, andXimena for all the support you have been.

Finally, I dedicate this starter pack in loving memory of la Maestra Sara Moránwhose dream and legacy of la relación tutora lives on in me and in what I have triedto capture in this document today.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

01

Meixi November 2016

Aprender Con Interés A.C.

FORWARD

by Dr Gabriel Cámara

Five years ago Meixi, the author of this Starter Pack, immersed herself in aMexican village for several months, where she knew people learned in asimple but powerful way: forming a community where the one who knewsomething offered to teach it to whoever in the group was interested, andconversely, received help from others to learn what she/he wanted to knowand was available. Learning was the defining nature of the community, but thereal achievement, over and beyond learning to learn and to teach, waslearning to share the innermost gift of affection. For only in an interpersonalatmosphere of trust and affection learning becomes transformative, makes usgrow and cements community.

Meixi became part of that learning-and-affection-sharing community to thepoint of acquiring a new family, a new scope in her professional life and adecision to transform conventional schooling into lively learning communitieswherever she goes. Since then she has been helping transform regular schoolsinto learning communities, through direct tutoring, learned discussions, study,presentations, articles and incessant, loving, engaging conversations. Thisbrief text is one of the various means she has figured out to make that learningcommunities multiply without losing any of their sound simplicity.

02

Founder of Tutorial Relationships, México

Aprender Con Interés A.C.

INTRODUCTION

• Learning through collaboration and dialogue – the very things that make ushuman• Learning relationships that match one’s capacity to teach with another’s interestto master it• A learning community where everyone teaches and learns• A community of practice where learning is continuous

03

1:

What is Tutorial Relationships?

Tutors and learners work in one-on-one pairs to share knowledge and grow acommunity of learners, because every one of us has the capacity to teach and learn.

Tutoría is about going back to personalized relationships and dialogue asfundamental to learning and recognizing the humanity in the other. It is building anetwork of learning in the classroom and community, and even across learninginstitutions and countries. It's a movement that keeps getting stronger as it isshared.

Before we Begin... Quick note about the starter pack:

It must be noted that this starter pack in no way replaces living out the process ofTutoría and experiencing it for yourself. This pack alone is no substitute for actuallygiving and receiving Tutoría and joining a network of teachers and learners from Méxicoto Thailand.

This starter pack however, does hope to outline some of the common ideas in Tutoría orTutorial Relationships and serve as a practical guide based on the principals and spirit ofthe work of learning based in collaboration and dialogue (ABCD in its Spanishabbreviation). So, welcome!

“Love is at the same time thefoundation of dialogue anddialogue itself… If I do not lovethe world—if I do not love life—ifI do not love people—I cannotenter into dialogue.”

Paulo Freire, In Pedagogy of the Oppressed

04

Why Tutoría?: Loving to Learn and Learning to Love

• Sustain passion for learning and teaching • Ask better questions that provoke thethinking of the students• Foster creativity in the process throughdialogue

• Invest relationally in their class andconnect personally to each person in theirclass • Believe and stretch potential of everystudent • Build a community of solidarity withintheir classrooms

• Learn how to learn and ask questionsto provoke thinking • Allow fellow students to own anddrive the learning process• Enjoy learning and mastering contentand the practice of teaching

• Improve learning for the community • Strengthen relationships in learningspace • Learn to love through dialogue

Educators Learners

Learn to Love Learn to Love

Love to Learn Love to Learn

05

“In Tutoría, knowledge ceases to be the solepreserve of teachers, learning becomes a

collaborative practice among tutors and students…students become creators of knowledge as well as

consumers of it.”

Santiago Rincón- Gallardo

How are Tutorial Relationships organized?

06

2:ORGANIZE

1. Choose Tema: Learners selecting a topic called “Tema” from the tutor’scatalogue. These are similar to “provokations” or problems linked to adiscipline.

2. Dialogue: Tutor and learner engage in individualized dialogue.

3. Reflect: Tutor and learner reflect on their respective process.

4. Research: Learners research (a) tangential lines of inquiry based ontheir interest

5. Demonstrate: Learners demonstrate publicly their learning to thegroup and to the larger community

6. Convert into Tutor: Learners convert into a tutor and adding that verysame lesson into the learner’s own personalized catalogue of lessons. Andthe cycle continues at 1 again with others in the network.

How to set up the Tutoría Learning Network?

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1. Be an initial tutor on topics that you know well.

2. Design Temas on these topics, specifying learning challenges andparticular competencies that would be practiced.

3. Offer your Temas (at least two, so the tutee has some opportunity tochoose) to a person or to an initial small group

4. Let them work on your Tema, do research and reflect on the learningprocess

5. Organize a demonstration of learning for the group and the community

6. Let learners become tutors to others, while you develop new Temasthat can be injected and shared with the rest of the class.

7. After time, students can be part of designing Temas to offer to the restof the community too!

For inspiration, watch documentalmaravillas.com/home

Characteristics of Great Tutors

08

A good tutor never stops learning – or rather is constantly learning even whiletutoring. To tutor is to learn. In the network of Tutoría, we live and are part of acircle of learning that keeps going. In this way, we are always improving ourpractice and deepening our mastery of the content that we are offering to thecommunity. To be patient, with empathy, solidarity, creativity and honesty.

Collected reflections from Dalila López, Rito Longoria and Meixi

1. Be convinced to the abilities and capacities of their tutee to learn

2. Focus on the person, not the program

3. Have content mastery

4. Focus on the importance of the dialogue as a fundamental tool to generatediscoveries

5. Never stop learning and growing with the community

“The tutor’s job is to do everything he can to come up with the examples, thequestions, the conditions, and the analogies that will aid their tutees indiscovering the answer on their own.” Dalila López. It is to determine the type ofhelp that is needed for the tutor to overcome their challenges in learning. Thisalso means respecting the time and rhythm of the learner and being attentive totheir needs. It is to want your learner to succeed and be satisfied with theirlearning and mastery. Especially for learners who might need more time – it’sbelieving in them and keeping high expectations of what the learner can do. It isto be wowed by them.

This is not saying that we leave any sort of plan or objective behind. Instead it isrecognizing the unique pathways to get to the same goal. Tutoring is an art anda science. A tutor’s job is to make the learning be visible and felt by the learner– in their body that learning is lived and is happening for themselves and thelarger community.

While mastery is never-ending, tutors should only teach what they have basicmastery of.

A great tutor has the ability to put themselves in the intimacy of the thinking ofthe other. They adapt their strategies to their learner at that moment and havearray of strategies to work with. It’s to guide and to follow.

Desafío (Challenge). Discovery. Dialogue. Dominio (Mastery)

Temas encourage deep and long dialogue rather than easy answers. Temas set up acentral challenge to provoke learners to begin trying to discover solutions on theirown, dialoguing with their tutor, mastering the content, and awakening theirconsciousness to the world and people around them.

They often start off with a problem or provocation like “Why do people cry?” andthis is related to a Tema about the human tear duct system and the types of tearshumans produce.

After mastering the content that the Tema holds, learners should be provoked andinspired to research another tangential line of inquiry to make the Tema their own.

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3:TEMAS

What is a Tema?

What would happen tothe world if we had nomore insects?

How are flowers relatedto math?

Why do people cry?

What is the history ofcarpentry? Design twodifferent kinds of tablesand decide on one (andwhy!) that you'll actuallymake.

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Temas Ideas

Question Topics Covered Tangential Inquiry Idea

Topic of the ecosystemsand the role of insects inthe world

Geometry of triangles,hexagons and circles

Human tear duct system,crystal structures of tearsand types of tears

Basic woodworking skills,understanding texturesof wood

Human’s relationship toinsects or What’s the useof mosquitoes?

Relation of area ofhexagons to circles;Huichol beaded art andsimilar hexagonal patterns,their history and history oftheir art

Salts and chemicals of ourbody

Species of bamboo asspecial kinds of wood andits uses

For more resources in Spanish, visit aprenderconinteres.org

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Cardboardby Alfian Bin Sa'at

Trembling, as if drenched in blood,Her fingers slide acrossThe whispering surfaces of cardboard.

She folds them, as if they were her mother's bridalgowns.With the tenderness of a storyteller after the finalchapterAnd the final truth.

Curiously crooked,She could live in a box,Crouched like a foetus.

Aching with ancient painsIn old jointsWind dribbles through one fistHope dribbles through the otherAnother box collapses...

On the day she folds her own coffinOut of cardboard, from a boxLabelled "Fragile handle with care"I only pray that "This side up"Points heavenwards.

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Cardboard

1. Give each one a piece of cardboard. a. T: Using a mindmap, describe your piece of cardboard. E.g. Looking at its appearance: how it looks, feels,smells, what it’s used for, and what do you associate with cardboard?

2. Give out the piece of paper. a. T: Read this poem, titled “Cardboard” and write down your first interpretation of the poem with some ofthe first big ideas or themes that stand out for you.

3. Are there any words that you don’t know? Write them down and look for their definition in the dictionary.

4. What do you think of the old lady? How is she described? After writing your ideas down, draw your mentalimage of her.

5. What is imagery? (Look it up) and write this down.

6. Let’s read through the poem again, one stanza at a time. What images stand out to you? Write down themost prominent ones and what they mean and the effect they have.

a. Stanza 1i. Why blood?ii. Why describe her actions? b. Stanza 2i. Why Bridal gowns? her prized possession.ii. Storyteller – life is a story? She has an untold storyiii. Final truth – that she’s unnoticed, forgotten.c. Stanza 3i. Alliteration of the C ii. What do we put in boxes?iii. Foetus, why foetus? Not baby/ infant, child. What’s the difference between foetus, baby/ infant- She does even seem alive. d. Stanza 4i. Alliteration A in pains. Long vowels, tiring, ii. Dribble: What does this remind you of? Repetition of movement, saliva, despite the effort, it seaps through her hands. iii. Another box collapses. Eclipse. e. Stanza 4i. Coffin – death, what other ceremony do we see here? Works till dealth, funeral wedding, the cardboard is her life! The major events of life. ii. Dies aloneiii. What do we put in boxes? She’s a thing, she doesn’t even have a name, She’s unnoticed and unnamed. iv. Helplessness v. Why does the poet’s voice come only here? vi. Why the box terminology? vii. We fling cardboard. 7. What is cardboard to her? a. Her existence, marriage, death, story vs We fling cardboard.

8. What is the mood of this poem? How does the poet bring out the mood?

9. Write down 3 main ideas or themes in this poem.

10. What is his main message to us?

11. What is something you don’t take notice of? How would you describe it so that people take notice of it?

• Identify main themes in the poem through attention to language and literary devices of the woman in the poem.• Research the context and autobiography of the poet to understand the purpose of the poem• Connect the poem to learner’s own life in “seeing the unseen” in society

Learning Objectives

Possible Tutoring GuideNot a fixed recipe, but an example of in depth anticipation of a possible tutorial dialogue, recall that strategies, prompts and timingin the moment change with each person.

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4:POTENTIALCHALLENGES

My class size has like 40 people. Howdo I start the network?

How big can groups be when workingin Tutoría?

Temas are not linked to the syllabus,it’s like double the work!

A student doesn’t want to tutor.

How to I keep track of all the Temasgoing on in the class at the same time?

Starting the network is possibility the hardest part of thisprocess. Ask: Are there after-school or free times that asmaller group should start working with you? Is thereanother teacher or assistant or helper that could help yoututor with?

We suggest a group not be larger than 5. Remember thatat the core, a personalized dialogue is key to a goodTutoría and if that can happen in a group of 5, go for it!

Temas definitely start about the interest in that topic, butthey can and should be linked to the existing curricularmaterials that you use already. So use your textbooks tocreate Temas!

Initially students might be shy to tutor and that’s okay.Give them the time they need and nudge them to at leastprepare to be a tutor, even though they might not engagein it. Another thing to be aware of is the social dynamics inthe classroom, perhaps there are histories of gangs orstudent tension in the classroom. Pay attention to thoseand allow students to choose or explain their partnerchoices when pairing.

We suggest putting a list up of all the Temas available inyour learning space. Another strategy has been to set atarget of Temas for students to work on in two months,e.g. each student must work and present on 5 differentTemas within this cycle, so that as a facilitator, you cankeep track of the work of each student.

Challenge Solution Idea

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5:TESTIMONIOSIn this mutual understanding, the hardest part of learning, such as academic knowledge—fractions,the Pythagorean theorem—mixes with the most subjective and sensitive part of learning, which isthe excitement that learning provokes, or the anxiety provoked by not understanding something.Or the happiness that the freedom to express what you feel produces. In this type of dialogue, youcan combine those two things. In other forms of educational relationships it’s not possible to bringthem together… Imagine a country where the entire population has, as a shared heritage, the skillsand the confidence that allow them to learn independently, on their own. And on top of that, thepersonal confidence that they’re capable of doing it. Well, we’d have a country with citizens who areactive, engaged, responsible, satisfied, and so on. - Dalila López, Head of CONAFE Project on ABCD

Students can apply what they have learned to benefit their lives. They are ready to share this toother learners so that they benefit as well. I think this is a really true learning.- Ajarn Danai Sukjit, Padoongrasdra School

It caught my attention how they began to not only think of their well-being, whichbefore was very common. I believe it happens to everybody. We think only inourselves, that we are the beneficiaries, that I have the benefits, that I’m fine, in me,me, me. And I note now that they begin to think in the other. If I do something, yesthat I’ll be good but also because my friends are going to be well. I imagine it’s this,that we see a community. Imagine it, to think no just in my well-being, but the wellbeingof the other, like a community. So I feel too that the collaboration of theparents is more now. They are closer to the school and its necessities.- Maestra Sara Morán, San Ramón, Zacatecas, México

Since I participated in the FiftyFold team, I too have developed in the ways that I analyze my workand the ways that I think. I have also been able to share this skill with my students so that they drawout the best capacities of themselves to learn, and to think in the deepest ways that they can”. - Ajarn Panumas Sangkate, Padoongrasdra School

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5:TESTIMONIOS

Tutoria has given us the chance to express our opinions, open our heart to dialogue, shareknowledge among us, and lead us to closer relationships with one another. I like the dialoguebetween us. I have more passion to learn and to search for more knowledge that adds to mylearning.- Ajarn Tharathep, Sahasartsuksa School

My students are enthusiastic and more interested in studying, especially the tutors, they are moreconfident after they teach their friends”. - Ajarn Sophaluck Sanmongkon, Chiangrai Vittayakhome School

Working in Tutoria makes the relationship between teacher and student even closer. Studentslearn freely in natural ways and we make sure that each step of the process is closely looked at andtaken care of. Surely when students really learn, they will be able to achieve at even higher levelsthan learning in a conventional classroom. - Ajarn Porntewa Nonebuadang, Padoongrasdra School

Tutoría is the way that learning can happen with enthusiasm. We actively search for moreknowledge and learn more than we ever could as compared to working in a normal classroom.Sharing of learning is not restricted to only teachers and students, anybody can be a part of it. Thisresults in personalized relationships and friendship among everyone involved. It truly is more thanwhat the eye can see, it is lived out in what we acquire, since the moment we begin working inTutoría. - Supachai Onnu, a student at Padoongrasdra School

Tutoría is the way that tutor and tutee can understand one another better. Whatever question wehave, we dare to ask. Whatever information we acquire, we even dare to share. Not only that,Tutoría makes us have more friends. We know many people, so we have been developed in manyaspects. - Thananut Mata, a student at Padoongrasdra School

Thank you for teaching me a lot of skills for math and teach me how to (be an) example toothers when I was teaching and for letting me join a lot of activities teaching Students,Teachers and Principals. THANK YOU for all the help to let me love math sooooo muchand that I even dare to teach friends, teachers and other people.- Wen Fong, Sec 1NT, Shuqun Secondary Singapore

“To learn is totransformyourself, it is tobe differentfrom before, itis to grow.”

We hope this starter pack has helped you in your journeyfor educational change. Join the movement.Watch how it works at documentalmaravillas.com/home

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Dr Gabriel Cámara

For more details and resources, go tofiftyfold.org or aprenderconinteres.org

© 2016