ESL Volunteer Tutor Guidelines and Expectations

A welcome letter to new volunteers!

Hello new Volunteer,

Thank you so much for joining this Pakistan English Initiative. This is an English development program to help teachers in Pakistan improve their English language skills.

Here are 10 basic guidelines and expectations for each volunteer.

Each student should receive one call a week on either a Zoom, Skype or Whatsapp.
The day and time of the call is arranged between you and your student.
The call should be at least 15 minutes, but can last longer if you have time. Best practice would be 20-30 minutes per call.
During this call, you conduct an English conversation with that matches the level of your student.
During this conversation, gently guide them and allow them to express themselves in English.
Only correct major mistakes; no more than one correction per five minutes is a good rule. (Too much correction can actually demotivate a student.) See Yasmine's Typical Call below.
Try to talk about a new topic each week. Feel free to use my teaching database for questions. ( http://englishwithyasmine.helpdocsonline.com/home )
It is not required, but feel free to email or text chat with your students via Whatsapp; this will add to their interest. If you have more than one student, you can create your own chat group on Whatsapp, too.
The goal of this project is to encourage their individual English development. Students are more apt to work harder if they know they will be having an all-English call coming up soon. Imagine yourself as an English cheerleader, giving your student a chance to practice their speaking skills.
Please note that I have all of the teachers at Sitara school enrolled in a Leveled Reading Class on Google Classroom. Tutors are NOT required to do any of the reading assignments that are assigned. Those assignments are for the students only. Having said that, if you would like to see the STUDENTS' VIEW of this class, let me know and I can send you and invitation. It is good for you to know about the class and to encourage your student to read everyday for vocabulary development; so please feel free to ask them about it.

Please make sure that I have added you to our Volunteer chat group on Whatsapp. We are all here to support each other, and if you have a question, or comment, pop it in the chatroom. (Chatroom name is: PK English Initiative.) Also there are some helpful resources below---at the bottom of this page.

Again, thank you so much for offering up your time and knowledge. Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions.

Happy teaching!
Yasmine
PK English Initiative Volunteer Coordinator

STI training Homepage

Yasmine's typical call

1-10 minutes mark, we have small chat about them, their families and their work. (This gives them practice with answering basic everyday questions. I usually ask various things about the people in their home, for example: what ages, what is the matter with them, where do they work...etc. Repetition is key to confidence-building.)

11-20 minutes mark, is the meat of the call. I have usually planned out what we are going to talk about as per the last time we chatted. For example, if we left off working on past tense, then I say, "Okay, Let's continue speaking in past tense. What did you do yesterday?". I try to only correct one mistake every five minutes. But I do take notes of mistakes while they are talking and build a follow up email from my notes.

21-30 minutes mark, I set up for the next class. "Wow! You did great today. I want you to work on ______________. I am going to send you an email with things to work on thru the week, and we will discuss them on our next call." Then after the call, I send them the topic of our next conversation and some questions that I plan to ask so they can start thinking about how to answer. I get these topic questions from my website. ( http://englishwithyasmine.helpdocsonline.com/home )

From the desk of the STI Director

To our Dear Volunteers,

Greetings and Salams. Peace be upon you!

You’ve joined us at a fantastic time! Sitara is celebrating its ten-year anniversary on Feb. 11, 2021. We began ten years ago with just twenty kids in a spare room of our family home. Now we have almost 350 students on two campuses. All praise is to God.

The only place our students really hear English is in their school environment. And the only place most of our teachers speak English is in school, maybe for less than 40 minutes per day. This is why it’s crucial for them to hear English spoken by native speakers with whom they can relax and have a friendly conversation. I am very excited about this program that Yasmine has so expertly set up for us. The teachers are loving the 15-20-minute convos they have with you once a week. I can personally hear the difference in their level on confidence when I ask them how their weekend was or what they cooked or ate for dinner!

If you are a new volunteer, WELCOME! If you have been with us a few weeks now, I can’t thank you enough for the difference you’re making in the lives of our teachers and students. Not only are you building their self confidence in speaking English, you are also opening a whole new world to them by telling them about yourselves and your lives.

Regarding our 10th birthday, it will be a virtual celebration for most of our friends and supporters, but I promise some really great video footage for you to enjoy, Inshallah. Thank you again for all you do! You really can’t imagine how much your care and concern mean to us.

All the best,
Sommieh Flower
Director, Sitara Trust