Mentoring Guidelines - Mentees (the Working Interpreter)
NY State Education Department, Preparation of Educational Interpreters

Under the direction of the NYSED Grant, Preparation of Educational Interpreters, this brief document, Mentoring Guidelines-Mentees, has been developed to expand interpreter training and provide a broader range of interpreting tools.  The following is a description of mentoring opportunities available to interpreters working in the NY State Pre-K-12 settings.

Short Term/Long Term Mentoring - These two types of mentoring are similarly designed.  One may be as short as a few hours or one day and the other may last several months.  The focus is to provide direct tutelage to interpreters in need of developing specified and agreed-upon interpreting skill goals.  The goals are limited to two-three, and are to be specific, realistic, and attainable (see examples below).

The goals may be determined from

a) Individualized Prescriptive Plan;
b) diagnostic assessment of the EIPA videotape;
c) recommendation from a workshop trainer; and/or
d) recommendation from a qualified colleague.
Examples of realistic, attainable, and specific goals:
- To produce clear and accurate fingerspelling most of the time
- To voice English words that match the educational level of the students
- To select signs that are meaning-based (mean the same as the English words)
- To accurately use ASL classifiers for people, animals, and things
- To clearly project my voice over the noises in the classroom when voice interpreting
How to get mentoring and what to expect:
- Mark the box on registration form indicating the desire for mentoring; send to your Regional Site Coordinator (RSC);
- Upon receipt, the Regional Site Coordinator will contact you to discuss details (desired mentor, goals, length of mentorship, etc.);
- You may want a diagnostic assessment using the EIPA videotape or that assessment might be recommended to you by the RSC;
- A mentor will be selected to match your needs;
- You and your mentor will meet to decide procedure and discuss your goals;
- Mentorship begins and at specific times, evaluations will be completed by you and your mentor and submitted to RSC;
- At the end the Interpreter Diagnostic Assessment Rubric will be competed by the mentor, with a copy to you and one to the RSC.
Ad Hoc Mentoring - Sometimes a scheduled skill workshop has low registration.  This workshop can be converted to an improvised or "ad hoc" training opportunity if the participants and trainer agree.  Using the module materials required for that workshop, the trainer will adapt the content to a more individualized session.  The presentation will more specifically address the needs of each individual participant as opposed to the formal and broader needs of a larger group.


Page created and maintained by Peter Brown 8/23/2002