Mentoring Philosophy of Lisa Little

Slavic Languages & Literatures

“Rules are rules,”

said the mosquito.

“Climb into my boat.”

“Your boat is too small for me,”

said Grasshopper.

“Rules are rules,”

said the mosquito.

“You must

get into my boat!”

“I can't fit

into your boat,”

said Grasshopper.

“Rules are still rules!”

shouted the mosquito….

Grasshopper on the Road ,

an I CAN READ book

by Arnold Lobel

I have to admit that when I came to Berkeley to coordinate the Russian program, I did not have a specific “mentoring philosophy.” But after I met the graduate students I would be supervising and saw how smart and dedicated they were, there was one thing I knew for sure: I did not want to stifle their creativity and enthusiasm with a set of rules about teaching – like a bad editor who ruins a lively and original text by overcorrecting or insisting on a certain rigid structure.

One of the most important things we did as a group that first semester was to modify the observation form that had been used in previous semesters. Linda von Hoene of the GSI Center supplied me with samples from other departments, and we used those and others I had collected to write our own. The graduate students seemed much happier with the new form (which no longer had a number scale), but I was still bothered by the reductiveness of the “observable traits.” I had always believed that teaching was more an art than a science and that there were many different ways to be a good teacher. I also felt that it was important for the graduate students to be able to question what we were doing in the classroom. So, after another talk with Linda, I decided to get rid of the form and start writing a detailed narrative that would help us think out loud together about what had been more or less successful and what might be done differently. I have found this to be one of the most rewarding things I do each semester – because I always learn something for my own teaching (even after all these years) and because I believe this to be the most effective way of helping graduate students develop as creative and independent teachers.

Since that first semester, I have tried to provide structure and support (and the benefit of greater experience), while leaving room for GSIs to pursue their own ideas. With time, they become colleagues in our common effort to improve the program. Each new generation of teachers benefits from the materials created by the previous one and leaves behind its own for the incoming group (in binders we call “papki” and now in electronic form on our bSpace site). Since the author's name is always listed, former GSIs become part of the program's history (oral as well as written since I often refer to their materials as examples in our pedagogy meetings). They also share their experiences as Berkeley Language Center (BLC) Fellows, summer teachers at Middlebury College, and Ph.D. students on the job market. Thus, the “mentees” become mentors -- although there is so much back and forth in this relationship that it is sometimes hard to tell who is doing the “mentoring.” What I can say for certain is that I have been extremely lucky to be able to work with such graduate students.