Information about Supplemental Instruction for faculty at Penn State Altoona

Supplemental Instruction (http://www.umkc.edu/cad/SI/overview.htm) is a protocol for peer-led review sessions for high-risk courses. Generally, these are courses where approximately 30% of the students earn a D or an F or drop the course. If you are interested in SI for your students, please contact Paula Ford (5112 or pxf3) to discuss logistics.

The professor will

• identify a current student to serve as the SI leader next semester(s)
• agree to allow that student to sit in on your course next semester(s)
• allow the student to distribute a scheduling form at the beginning of the semester
• allow the student to remind students about the availability of SI several times during the semester
• share your students' grades at the end of the semester (overall number of As, Bs, etc., not individual grades)

The professor will not

• attend SI sessions
• know which students attended until after the semester ends

The SI leader (your current student) must meet the criteria to be a peer tutor:

• at least nine credits completed at Penn State Altoona

• an A or A- in the courses to be tutored

• approval of the LRC coordinator

• approval of the professor who taught the course to be tutored

• a GPA of at least a 3.0 (though the average GPA of peer tutors is usually much higher)

The SI coordinator (Paula)

• trains the SI leader

• supervises the SI leader

• pays the SI leader

• pays for supplies, handouts, etc.

• notifies you of any special issues--successes or problems

• analyzes data and shares them with you after the semester ends

For more information about SI, see this annotated bibliography: http://www.umkc.edu/cad/si/publications.htm The list is 91 pages long; there's a lot of research on SI.

Back to LRC website

updated 02/22/2007