RESPONDING TO 9TH-GRADE STUDENTS VIA TELECOMMUNICATIONS - COLLEGE MENTOR STRATEGIES AND DEVELOPMENT OVER TIME

The goal of this study was to expand our understanding of mentoring si tuated within electronic exchanges. Focusing on three graduate and fiv e undergraduate mentors' responses via telecommunications, we explored the strategies mentors used to make their reading and understanding o f the texts explicit to their students, the responses mentors provided to demonstrate how students might revise, and mentors' perceptions to ward mentoring. Mentors responded to eight drafts from 24 ninth-grade students over an eight-week period, generating an average of 20 commen ts per student draft. Data collected included response grids of each m entor's comments to students, interviews with mentors midway and at th e end of the study, and journals kept by the mentors. Results showed t hat mentor pre-project expectations about responses they might make to students did not correspond to their actual responses, and that as th e project progressed, mentor responses formed patterns corresponding t o the draft of the students' writing assignment. Additional difference s were found based on mentors' previous teaching experience, gender, a nd requests for feedback. Mentors expressed as their greatest difficul ty not knowing which comments were perceived by students as most helpf ul.