grutoringtips cs60 5 and 42 fall2011 - cs.hmc.edudodds/grutoringtips_cs60_5... · –...
TRANSCRIPT
Tutoring Dos and Donts
Unofficial alien of CS 5 Gold
Unofficial alien of CS 5 Black
Unofficial turtle of CS 5 Green
Unofficial alien of CS 42
Official sponsor of this presenta>on
u
Thank you!
Gracias! Merci!
Danke!
Grutoring Overview
• Black and Gold have shared labs, some shared assignments, and shared tutoring hours
• Green has its own labs, few shared assignments, and some dedicated tutoring hours
• CS 42 and CS 60 have tutoring >mes, but no scheduled labs
• but… we’re all in this together!
Grading: Thursday nights at 10pm
We’ll start on 9/8!
½ -‐ please bring
laptops!
Show submissions…
• Please “make the rounds” • Ask “how are you doing?” • Try to avoid “camping out” at your own computer
• Try to avoid being “taken hostage”
In lab/tutoring hours…
Help students help themselves • Don’t...
– Say “Oh, I see your problem! Just change this here…” • Do…
– Ask “What kind of error are you ge\ng?” – Help explain the error message and how it might be helpful – Suggest debugging strategies (more on this on this in a moment)
– Ask “Do these strategies sound good to you? Let me let you work on this a bit and I’ll come back in a few minutes to see how you’re doing.”
– In some (rare) cases is it good to reveal the problem directly • Student is very frustrated aaer repeated efforts • You are very frustrated aaer repeated efforts • You are besieged with ques>ons and need to do triage
Some debugging strategies
• Look at the error messages and try to explain what they are saying
• Test each func>on independently before moving on – Test on small values that can be “hand verified” – Test on “edge cases”
• Use print statements • Use the interpreter
If the problem is conceptual…
• Back away from the keyboard
• If you don’t feel comfortable explaining the concept, see if you can switch places with another grutor – or send the student to one of the profs
If you don’t know the answer…
It’s OK!
Admit it -‐-‐ a great thing to say: I don’t know…but let’s figure it out!
Model problem-‐solving and debugging skills.
Wild guesses can do more harm than good.
S9ll don’t know?
Never leave students hanging… • It’s your responsibility to get the
ques>on to someone who can answer it.
Do • Find someone else who can answer the ques>on. • Or, help them send clear, complete email to the help
alias/Piazza site. • Or, compose the email yourself and cc the students –
be sure that the file in ques9on has been submi:ed!
Don’t • Shrug, and walk away. • Say “I don’t know. Find the prof,” and walk away. • Say “I don’t know. Send an email,” and walk away.
What if you DO know?
Be Respecmul! Beware The Curse of Knowledge
“Lots of research in economics and psychology shows that when we know something, it
becomes hard to imagine not knowing it. As a result, we become lousy communicators.”
Prepara>on
Before you show up to lab/office hours: • Read the assignment carefully!
• Think how you’d approach the problems…
• Op>onally, review solu>ons But -‐-‐ there are o@en many ways to solve a problem!
These count as paid work
Other thoughts/>ps?
Any strategies that you find par>cularly effec>ve or ineffec>ve?
A Case Study: Monte Carlo Pi
The idea Buggy code!