Episode 009: DO Talk to Strangers - a podcast by Stephanie Axe and Jean Dempsey

The Minimal Pair: Episode 009

1. Inspired by the article “Minimalist Tutoring: Making Students Do All the Work,” by Jeff Brooks of Seattle Pacific University (https://docs.google.com/document/d/18iposMnhBlTZIKhZ_s2gpgtfnd5-XV_nBRabuv44o3w/edit?hl=en_US)
2. Talking points:

• Teaching students to fish
• Improve the student, not the paper
• Helping vs. editing
• Goal of writing a paper?
• Student ownership (both of their writing and their mistakes)

3. “Basic Minimalist Tutoring” Tips:

• Sit beside the student
• Have the student be closer to the paper than you are
• Position yourself so that it’s not convenient to try to write on the paper; don’t bring a pen
• Have the student read the paper (so they’re not excluded)

4. “Advanced Minimalist Tutoring” Tips:

• Concentrate on the paper’s strengths
• Ask “leading questions”
• Give the student a task, leave him/her alone, come back to check in

5. “Defensive Minimalist Tutoring” Tips:

• Imitate student body language to show deference
• Be honest: “This isyourpaper, not mine!”

• Our experiences…
• Why should we teach it?
• “Making space for English”—shout out to Anna Loseva
• The Fine Art of Small Talkby Debra Fine 
• How can we incorporate it into our classrooms?
• 5 Tips for Students:

1. Dotalk to strangers
2. Keep it light
3. Being engaged
4. Closing the conversation
5. Reflect

• Why group work?
• How do we determine groups? Factors to considerand why: skill level, confidence/personality, age, gender, language background, religious/cultural background…
• The importance of teaching students how to be students in an American classroom

Further episodes of The Minimal Pair

Further podcasts by Stephanie Axe and Jean Dempsey

Website of Stephanie Axe and Jean Dempsey