Teaching Resources

Any kind of teaching is hard – it demands time, technical knowledge, and emotional labor. These resources are here to make sure you know exactly what to do walking into a mentor session, and have evidence-backed strategies for how to engage with students.

What's on this page?

• Resources for assignment review
• Resources for 1:1 Mentors
• Resources for Group Instructors
• Research-supported tips for effective mentor sessions

You can find additional resources linked in this Mentor Toolkit Google Drive folder!

Resources for Assignment Review

Outline of the Process

1. Student submits a form with their assignment link, questions, and additional details about their lesson/assignment
2. Reviewer receives an automated email with details and their dashboard page is updated with the submission details as well
3. Reviewer checks work and provides feedback
4. Reviewer submits a form that notifies CTD and the student that the assignment has been reviewed

Instructions

1. When a student submits an assignment, you will receive an automated email from Airtable with details and questions about the assignment. You will also have a link in that email to a webform that you will need to complete and submit once you have finished your review. Mary Alice will provide you with an Airtable dashboard that shows you all of your outstanding and completed reviews.
2. Click on the link in your email or on the dashboard to be directed to the student’s pull request in their GitHub repository (or their Replit if you are in the early Intro lessons).
3. Look over the code, compare it with the rubrics listed on the Curriculum page, provide feedback (tips listed below!).
4. Once you are done, use the form link provided in your email (also listed as “Pre-fill Link for Reviewers” in your dashboard) to indicate that you have reviewed the work and left a comment/suggested changes. Once you submit this form the student will receive an email letting them know if their Assignment was marked successful or needing revisions, and sharing anything you put in the “Comments for Students” section of the form.
5. If needed, repeat the process when students re-submit their assignment with changes based on your feedback.

Intro CILs Tom and Teresa have put suggestions reviewing assignments in both Replit and GitHub here. It's a living document, so feel free to return to it for more tips throughout the class.

Tips for Assignment Review

1. Base your feedback on the learning objectives found on the Curriculum page. Feel free to suggest syntax improvements or best practices, but focus on whether the student met the learning objective.
2. Provide feedback on strengths and areas of improvement. Instead of just listing areas to fix, tell students what you like!
3. Use tools like ChatGPT to help quickly write feedback for students (obviously, these tools aren’t perfect, but use what you can to speed up the process!).
4. Slack DM the feedback to students to spark a conversation. Suggest a 1:1 meeting with students if it’s clear that they need additional help.

If you have a busy week and might get behind on assignment review, please tell your students and the CIL for your class! Students are very understanding, but like knowing when to expect an assignment review update. CILs can help either organize a temporary shuffle of reviews or help out in a pinch.

Resources for 1:1 Mentors

The most important thing you can do as a 1:1 mentor is make your students feel comfortable. Some students are more social than others, but no students will reach out or ask for help if they don't feel safe and relaxed in your sessions. Be proactive in building relationships with your students – reach out on Slack, check in with them, and remind them that you care about them.

• Check out CTD’s norms for communicating with students, and reach out to Reid if you ever have an interaction with a student that makes you feel uncomfortable.
• Keep a lively DM conversation going on with your regular students. Sometimes, they don't need a session, but will appreciate a check-in from you.

Sample Mentor Session Outline

1. Check in personally with the student. What’s going on in their life? How are they feeling about the class?
2. Try to assess the student’s level of understanding of this week’s material.
3. Ask students how much they have completed of (1) the online learning materials and (2) the assignment.
4. Use the learning objectives to determine how close the student is to understanding the week’s material.
5. Address specific questions from the student. Remember to let the student lead the thinking here, even if they are reluctant to do so.
6. Help the student set a specific goal about when they will work on this week’s assignment and when they expect to turn it in.
7. Complete the Mentor Session Report Form and let the CILs or CTD staff know if there are any areas your or the student need additional support.

Resources for Group Instructors

The most important thing you can do as a Group Instructor is make your students feel comfortable sharing, asking questions, and discussing. In the most effective mentor sessions, you may only do 20% of the talking because students are active and leading conversations of their own. Creating an environment that feels safe, friendly, and open to questions is key in getting to this type of mentor session.

Check out CTD’s norms for communicating with students, and reach out to Reid if you ever have an interaction with a student that makes you feel uncomfortable.

Sample Mentor Session Outline

1. Welcome students to the session and take attendance. You may want to ask an icebreaker question to get students talking. Building trust and creating an environment where students feel comfortable is essential to learning. Make sure you have heard from each student before you start, even if it’s a simple “hi” in the Zoom chat.
2. Assess students’ progress. Students may be on different levels of understanding with the material. Ask, “On a scale of 1-5, rate where your progress on the assignments: (1) Haven’t started (2) Just started (3) About halfway (4) Almost done (5) Done.” You may need to pivot based on students’ responses.
3. Review the main concepts from the week. Check the learning objectives for an overview of what students are learning each week.
4. Address questions from the videos or assignments. Screen sharing, “think-alouds,” and pair programming are highly effective methods of responding to student questions. Don’t be afraid to admit you don’t know the answer – instead, screen share as you try to conduct research to answer student questions.
5. Close out the session. Recap what you have discussed and ask a student to share something new that they learned during this session.
6. Complete the Mentor Session Report Form (even if no one attends your session) and post a recap of what you discussed in your mentor session in the #[class name]-announcements channel. Please avoid canceling mentor sessions – this creates instability for students. You can ask if another mentor will substitute for you that week. If you have to cancel or reschedule your mentor session, please message students in #[class name]-announcements channel and update the mentor sessions spreadsheet.

Teaching Tips for Group Mentors

Some research-supported strategies to use in your sessions are:

1. Wait time. Research shows that students need 5 to 15 seconds to (a) formulate questions when asked if they have any questions or (b) respond to your question. This sometimes feels awkward on a Zoom call, but make sure to allow for 10 seconds of silence for students to respond to you.
2. Think aloud. Narrating your thinking allows students to learn how developers approach problems. For example, you could say something like, “When I saw this problem, I decided to approach it by…”
3. Positive narration. If a student does something you like, tell them! This can be as simple as “I appreciate that Raheem has his camera on today” or “That was an excellent question.”
4. Anonymous Surveys. Sometimes, students are more comfortable sharing their questions anonymously. You can create a quick Google Form that allows students to submit questions.
5. “Warm call” on students. Cold-calling students can be intimidating, so you can check in with quiet students by saying something like: “Christine, I haven’t heard from you today, so I’m going to ask you about [topic] next.”
6. Repeat/Reframe. Remember that many students are not native English speakers. It’s always helpful to repeat or reframe questions/answers if you feel like students don’t understand, or incorporate visuals.