Mentee Activity Report 2015-2016 Academic Year: Fill & Download for Free

Here is an example i recently completed. Action based researchAction Research Mentoring ProjectIntroductionMentorship involves the guidance and direction of a person, showing them the best way through which they can achieve certain milestones. The mentorship process is very different from a teaching process since it does not involve the giving of outright instructions about what needs to be one but rather focuses on guiding a person and taking the journey together. The current situation involves the mentoring of a lady who is in her 50’s, in a class environment which has 12 other students of different ages and backgrounds. The mentorship process will attempt to ensure that the mentee gets to obtain the maximum information and retain it, as well as ensuring that they get the best out of the education system. This report is based on the mentorship of the lady, and the lessons obtained from the process.Literature ReviewMentors are the people who are looked upon by others to help in the achievement of certain milestones (Earley and Porritt 2014, p. 113). The mentorship process is a professional activity, which showcases a trusted relationship and commitment which should be meaningful(Deiorio et al. 2016, p. 33480). The mentor is supposed to give one direction and options, and at the end leave the mentee to make their own decisions regarding how they will proceed after a particular period (Feeney and Collins 2015, p. 114). In the mentoring process, the mentor is supposed to show the student that they can achieve a certain milestone, and guide them effectively. A student joins an education program with the aim of accomplishing something in life. The mentors help such students’ kick-start their path to accomplishment (Mtika and Payne 2014, p. 437). Worth noting is that one of the determining factors of the perceived success is how well weaknesses can be eliminated. As a mentor, one is supposed to help the mentee find her weaknesses and identify all the challenges that they are undergoing, then help the mentees deal with it effectively (Van Epps 2016, p.25977).According to Mountford et al., (2015), mentorship is not all about showing the mentees that you know everything, but rather the assurance that their needs are understood. With such assurance, the two parties are better suited to find the appropriate remedies. A 50-year-old woman who is attempting to learn a new language and incorporate it in the accompanying lessons may have a number of challenges, all of which can be solved systematically (Rost and Candlin 2014, n.p). A mentor displays faith and patience and prepares the mentee to prepare for success effectively (Barrett et al. 2017, p. 154). Once all the needs have been handled, the mentorship process is considered to have been successful.Alexandra K Trenfor asserts that the best mentors are those who show you where to look but do not tell you what to see (Arroyo 2014, p.79). One of the biggest challenges that a mentor can face is the ability to have a learner achieve maximum attention while conveying the ideas effectively to create a lasting impression. Innovation is always the key to ensure that the students’ concerns are addressed in the best ways possible, which ultimately enables them to succeed in their lessons. When a classroom experience is loveable and more inspirational, the students are able to relate promptly. Ultimately, they can be able to achieve their learning goals.The current times are also subjected to technology greatly, making the developments pivotal in the mentoring processes. As a substitute for the lessons given by the mentors in a classroom setting, the mentees can also greatly benefit from listening to visual and audio files found on the internet (Beghetto and Kaufman 2014, p. 54). As a mentor, one is charged with the responsibility of guiding the students towards the best sites for the materials, so that they can benefit accordingly. Further, the mentors can also learn from such materials, by gaining ideas which can help them guide the students effectively. Language learning can be facilitated through the videos, particularly when one watched the repetition videos. The videos should pinpoint visual items, and stating the names in the desired language. When the names have been understood, the mentees should be required to make sentences using the words, to ensure that they fully understand what they are talking about.Mentors also know the importance of using the real-life experience as part of the mentoring process. In addition to making the lessons interesting, the mentees can be able to relate to the lessons as they talk about what they know (Yuan and Lee 2014, p. 3). For instance, in a class that has different people of different ages and background/ethnic affiliations, there is the need to handle each and every one of them as an individual. The young mentees resonate to different things than the older generation. Therefore, using distinct examples is important to ensure that each and every one of the mentees benefits from the lessons. Mentoring to the elder generation requires one to attempt to find some of the details of their lives, such as the number of children that the people have as well as the activities that appeal to them (Yuan and Lee 2014, p. 3). When obtained, the examples given should be in line with such understandings, so that the mentees can be able to resonate with the mentoring.Johnson (2000) asserts that the communication of new words gives the mentees a hint about how to use such words in a sentence and a conversation. A mentor can help in the availing of communication topics, where the incorporation of words is facilitated, ultimately helping the mentees to put the words into the actual context of communication.Reinforcement is also very important in the mentoring process, particularly when it comes to working on the weaknesses of the mentee. Dad et al., (2013) asserts that a more positive and achievable learning environment is formed when positive reinforcement is adopted as the strategy for dealing with the weaknesses. Positive reinforcement refers to the addition of a pleasant factor once a person does something that is considered to be commendable. The additional stimulus is meant to ensure that the positive activity is strengthened, through motivating the doers that in fact, they have done the right thing.An example of positive reinforcement is giving an achiever a prize such as a badge when they perform exemplary well. The recognition and admiration that some a person witnesses, when they are given such a gift, is a motivator that drives them to continue with the good performances. Finally, it is worth understanding that a typical human being may always want to be in a position where they feel valued and confident. The empowering of the mentor and the mentees is a major factor in ensuring that all parties feel valued (Twenge 2014, n.p). Where the two parties show mutual respect and understanding of each other, learning is facilitated. Dealing with elderly students is particularly sensitive since there is some level of respect that must be accorded to such mentees. In as much as they are students, such mentees cannot be pushed as much as children in elementary schools are, and simple details such as the tone used must be seriously considered. Patience is particularly a key factor, as the cognitive function of such mentees can be a bit slowed down due to their age. When understanding is availed, success can be easily facilitated.Action Research ProjectThe first step was the planning of each of the sessions, taking into consideration the previous knowledge of the learner and the weaknesses that they had. When a mentor knows the level of knowledge and expertise that a student has, it becomes considerably easier to be able to guide them into the right path. The previous knowledge of the mentees can be gauged through the evaluation of their performances in previous studies. Also, there is always the need for everyone to take an entry exam so that the tutor can be able to gauge where each and every one of the mentees lies. Focusing on the weaknesses of the mentees is important since it is the only way through which the tutors can be able to know the amount of help needed.Amongst the initial interventions was also the relation of objects to sentences, where the mentees were supposed to make sentences in regards to various identified objects. Through the making of the sentences, it was easy to see the ease and the difficulty with which the mentees were able to make references to the objects. Sentence structure is an important component to the total learning of a language, and the ease of making a sentence illustrates the ability to make a good sentence structure.The National Reading Panel Report (2019) also stipulates that the vocabulary instructions are imperative to the mentees. With regards to this, the asking of the mentees to make a sentence with a newly learned vocabulary was imperative to the determination of the progress made in learning. As is expected, some of the students displayed great progress while some of the students did not meet the required threshold. For the former, it is important to keep encouraging them to improve their grammar. For the latter, there was a need to give them further lessons and attempt to find out where the actual problem was in the learning process. When weaknesses are solved, improvements can be done.Working as a mentor is significantly different to just being a mentor. A mentor is concerned with the personal lives of the mentee, and always desires to help them grow all round. Therefore, the interaction is not only based on education, but rather on the overall development of the mentee. The learning process is subject to a number of things, some of which are personal. For instance, some of the mentees had a relatively difficult time studying and attending to school work while at home, due to their kids and other house commitments. In as much as it may not be evident, some of the distractions took a heavy toll on the mentees and affected their capabilities of learning. Being a mentor involves being totally understanding of the situation, and offering advice concerning how they can overcome such situations.In the case of my mentee, she had a lot of household responsibility that needed to be done and had a relatively hard time concentrating on the course work. There was a need for us to work out a timetable, which gave her ample time to attend to her household duties as well as leaving ample time for her to perform her studies. When we came up with the timetable, it was evident that the mentee was benefitting considerably, based on the significant improvement of her grades. Basically, the mentee did all the work, which was very commendable and I only helped with the devising of a timetable that was working.The mentorship process is a very definitive moment in any career, as it enables the mentors to have a positive impact on the lives of their mentees. Mentees need a person they can look up to and trust with their weaknesses, trusting that they will get the help that they need. There was numerous feedback from the staff, as well as my mentee.The mentee was very happy with my help, and she attributed her understanding of the coursework to the help that she had received while learning. Amongst the initial things that I told my mentee was that I did not want to just become a tutor, but that I wanted to ensure that I left a positive mark into her life. Positivity was undoubtedly achieved, with the mentee becoming very confident and showing improvement in her overall studies. The rest of the staff also commended my work, as most of the mentees gave very positive feedback pertaining to their experience so far. The institution always values the opinions of all the mentees, and thus requires them to give periodic feedback regarding how they regard the tutors and the level of help obtained from the same. The students always have varying experiences as a factor of their individual experiences.. in my case, the majority of the students gave very positive feedback, which in return earned me admiration from the other staff members.ConclusionAs a foreign learner, I was able to use my experienced in learning a different language to be able to tell what the students needed to be able to successfully complete the course. Amongst the major challenges are the effective construction of a sentence that is sensible, a factor which can be achieved by encouraging conversation and asking the mentees to make sentences with new words. There are many tools which can be used to help the mentees synthesize their work. In this case, I used information technology through videos and films, to enable the students to learn effectively. Films and videos are amongst the resources that the students can be able to resonate with successfully, thus making them imperative in the mentoring process. YouTube is a particularly good source of the videos, and it ensures diversity since millions of videos are uploaded every day. Comprehension and understanding were evaluated by how well the students could express themselves, in line with using vocabularies and the words which they had been taught. With regards to reinforcement, positive reinforcement was the most effective as it helped the students to find fulfilment in being awarded as well as looking forward to improving themselves.Reference ListArroyo, I., Muldner, K., Burleson, W. and Woolf, B.P., 2014. ‒Adaptive Interventions to Address Students’ Negative Activating and Deactivating Emotions during Learning Activities. Design recommendations for intelligent tutoring systems, p.79.Barrett, J.L., Mazerolle, S.M. and Nottingham, S.L., 2017. Attributes of effective mentoring relationships for novice faculty members: perspectives of mentors and mentees. Athletic Training Education Journal, 12(2), pp.152-162.Beghetto, R.A., and Kaufman, J.C., 2014. Classroom contexts for creativity. High Ability Studies, 25(1), pp.53-69.Bloomington, I., Bloomington, I., Bloomington, I. and University, I. (2019). Reinforcement in the Classroom. [online] IIDC - Indiana Institute on Disability and Community. Available at: Reinforcement in the Classroom [Accessed 18 Feb. 2019].Dad, H., Ali, R., Janjua, M., Shahzad, S. and Khan, M. (2010). Comparison Of The Frequency And Effectiveness Of Positive And Negative Reinforcement Practices In Schools. Contemporary Issues in Education Research (CIER), 3(1), p.127.Deiorio, N.M., Carney, P.A., Kahl, L.E., Bonura, E.M. and Juve, A.M., 2016. Coaching: a new model for academic and career achievement. Medical education online, 21(1), p.33480.Ditrini, R., Brucki, S., Smid, J., Carthery-Goulart, M., Anghinah, R., Areza-Fegyveres, R., Bahia, V., Damin, A., Formigoni, A., Frota, N., Guariglia, C., Jacinto, A., Kato, E., Lima, E., Moreira, D., Nóbrega, A., Porto, C., Senaha, M., Silva, M., Souza-Talarico, J., Radanovic, M. and Mansur, L. (2008). Influence of age, gender and educational level on performance in the Brief Cognitive Battery-Edu. Dementia & Neuropsychologia, 2(2), pp.114-118.Earley, P. and Porritt, V., 2014. Evaluating the impact of professional development: the need for a student-focused approach. Professional development in education, 40(1), pp.112-129.Feeney, B.C., and Collins, N.L., 2015. A new look at social support: A theoretical perspective on thriving through relationships. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 19(2), pp.113-147.Gee, J. (2019). Importance of Prior Knowledge to Learning - News - Illinois State. [online] News - Illinois State. Available at: Importance of Prior Knowledge to Learning - News - Illinois State [Accessed 16 Feb. 2019].Johnson, K. (2002). Understanding communication in second language classrooms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.2 to 11.Mountford-Zimdars, A.K., Sanders, J., Jones, S., Sabri, D. and Moore, J., 2015. Causes of differences in student outcomes, the Higher Education Funding Council for England.Mtika, P. and Payne, F., 2014. Student-adult mentoring relationships: experiences from a Scottish school-based programme. Educational Research, 56(4), pp.436-452.Rost, M. and Candlin, C.N., 2014. Listening to language learning. Routledge.The National Reading Panel Report (NICHD, 2000) and the RAND Reading Study Group (2002) (2002). THE NATIONAL READING PANEL REPORT: Practical Advice for Mentors. [online] Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED489535.pdf [Accessed 16 Feb. 2019].Twenge, J.M., 2014. Generation me-revised and updated: Why today's young Americans are more confident, assertive, entitled--and more miserable than ever before. Simon and Schuster.Van Epps, A.S., Ashby, I., Gray, C.M. and Exter, M., 2016. Supporting Student Attainment and Management of Competencies in a Trans-disciplinary Degree Program. In 123rd ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana (p. 25977).Watson, M. and Ecken, L. (n.d.). Learning to trust.Yuan, R. and Lee, I., 2014. Pre-service mentors' changing beliefs in the mentoring practicum: Three cases in an EFL context. System, 44, pp.1-12.AppendixReflection EssayMy experience as a mentor was very insightful and taught me a number of things which I did not know about myself. First, working with an elderly woman made me realize how much patience I have as an individual. In as much as the mentee was very co-operative and did everything that I guided her to do, I had to showcase a high level of patience particularly when it involved the correcting of any issue that I discovered. Some of the mistakes made in grammar are unsettling and requires a lot of patience and dedication for them to be solved. The fact that I never tired correcting the mentee was an illustration of my increased patience, which I am happy was developed.In the course of the mentoring process, I realized that the mentee looked up to me, and her progress highly depended on my interactions with her. Being a mentor does not amount to being a critique, and care must be taken to ensure that the mentee feels appreciated and motivated. In our mentorship meetings, I realized that the mentee was highly concerned with what I said about her, and any forms of criticism made her pull back. Positive reinforcement was the most effective method of getting her motivation up, and I witnessed great progress whenever she was rewarded for a task well accomplished. Positive reinforcement is a psychological aspect, which is meant to inspire people to continue doing a certain thing to get rewards. Amongst the reward techniques that were employed was giving her a certificate after every milestone, and she always strived to get more certificates in her other tasks. The fact that the mentee was elderly meant that negative reinforcement would not be appropriate since subjecting her to punishments would have been de-humanizing.I also realized the importance of leading by example as a mentor. There were numerous occasions where I had to meet the mentee on a one to one basis, and ensuring that I was always there on time enabled the development of trust and commitment among us. The fact that we stuck to all commitments extended to the classroom, where the mentee was always applauded for always submitting her work and commitments on time. The mentee was also known for her humility and respect, a factor that we cultivated in the course of our mentorship sessions.At first, I thought that being a mentor was all about leading the mentees to do what I wanted them to. Being a mentor enabled me to realize that the whole aspect of mentorship was listening to the mentees, and helping them deal with issues that even extended the class sessions. Mentees do not only look up to their mentors for one dimension of life but are most likely to be interested in the overall life of the mentor. In the course of our talking about the different aspects of life, I realized that being a mentor was wholesome, as a person cannot concentrate on education while other aspects of their lives such as family are in chaos. For that reason, I tried as much as possible to be there for the mentee and helped her deal with multiple issues in her life.