About Us: Reading Tutorials and Learning to Teach
There is a rich tradition in reading education for the use of tutorials to support student literacy growth. This tradition has found ample support in the research literature.
There is also a rich tradition in reading education for the importance of tutorial experiences to support preservice teachers as they are coming into "learning to teach" and tutorial experiences to support inservice teachers as they continue to expand their expertise. The research literature in this area is substantial and growing.
Reading Tutorials
We are a group of faculty committed to improving the quality of tutorial experiences that support teacher development. We have created this website as a place for university faculty, practicing teachers and preservice teachers to come together to learn and grow.
We offer a description of a tutoring plan with accompanying lesson routines or frameworks. We offer a set of video clips that illustrate elements of these tutorial routines. Finally, we offer interactive capability for the user to interact with others regarding effective tutoring strategies. The lesson routines and the videos are in a constant state of development and revision.
We invite you to participate with us in the development of the content of the website, in the use of the website to support your teacher education efforts, and in research into tutoring and teacher development. We encourage the participation of our colleagues working in schools that support students of diversity. We also encourage the participation of colleagues working outside of the United States. Please use the "contact us" tab on the left side of the page to begin a conversation.
For those of you coming to this website for the first time, we invite you to explore the links across the top of the page. The Tutorial Guides will take you to descriptions of the framework with further links to the tutorial components. The Tutorial Video link will take you to videos for each of the components and actual examples of teaching. It is within the Tutorial Videos that you will observe the interactive features of the website. Once you have logged on to the site, you will be able to observe the videos, respond to the videos and view the responses of others.
Finally, we acknowledge the support of the creative and skilled staff at the IDEA studio at The University of Texas at Austin in the design of this website. We thank, as well, the many teachers and students who have participated in the creation of the videos.