In the CLP, we spend a great deal of time throughout the school year monitoring how the mentoring groups are going. Our two main strategies are team consultation and session-by-session tracking.

The short-term goal of team consultation is for mentors to receive support and guidance for their mentoring interactions from both their supervisors and from other mentors. It is a time when the entire mentoring team can work together to collaboratively solve mentoring problems. In fact, team consultation is participatory co-learning and involves open communication, critical discussion, problem posing, and critical problem solving, described earlier. Indeed, the long-term goal of team consultation is the same as in mentoring: to support mentors in learning how to solve their own mentoring problems so that they develop into competent and confident helping professionals (i.e., positive identity development; Meca et al., 2022).

In a team consultation meeting, we start by sitting in a circle. Sometimes the circle will include the entire team. Sometimes, depending on the size of the team and the issues we are dealing with, I will break the team up into smaller circles of about five to eight mentors. Often (but not always), these small circles are mentoring site teams so that circle members have some shared experiences of the mentoring context. In both large and small consultation circles, all group members are required to share about at least one mentoring recent issue about which they want feedback. Group members take turns sharing.

As noted earlier, by “work together” I mean something specific. I mean that all consultation circle members must have equal opportunity to participate in all dialogue roles, and no one is pressured or coerced to think in a particular way. All circle members must be open-minded about what the issue is, honestly consider and weigh everyone’s ideas about what to do about it, and not impose their own ideas on the group. It will then be up to the mentor who raised the issue to implement (or not implement) the ideas that came up in the dialogue.

If the consultation circle includes the entire team, we will probably spend the entire class time in this arrangement. On the other hand, if we break up into small consultation circles, then I will give the small circles about 40 minutes to work together. I will visit each circle for a few minutes and participate in each conversation as a group member. I will attempt to rotate through all the groups within the 40-minute period.

At the end of the 40-minute small group meeting, I convene a consultation circle of the entire mentoring team present that day. In the large circle, a representative of each small circle summarizes the group’s conversation and asks for input and ideas from the team. If there are particularly important issues to discuss, I will call them to the team’s attention. The large consultation circle will typically last for the rest of the class period, which is about 40 minutes.

Session-By-Session Tracking: Session Reports
We use several tools to track session quality. The Attendance Sheet tracks attendance and level of participation for each mentoring group. The Activity Log tracks the implementation of the CLP planned structure (Table 2), as well as conversation topics and activities. The Mentoring Note asks for the mentor's perspective on the session, while the Session Evaluation Form asks for the mentee’s perspective. Mentors complete one Attendance Sheet and one Activity Log per group session and one Mentoring Note per mentee per group session. Each mentee fills out one Session Evaluation Form after each session (Table 8). For example, for a group of three mentees, the mentor would fill out one Attendance Sheet, one Activity Log, and three Mentoring Notes, and collect three Session Evaluation Forms. Collectively, these documents comprise the Session Report. Procedures for these forms are described below.

Attendance Sheets: Instructions to Mentors
After the end of each mentoring session, fill out attendance information for each group on the Attendance Sheet. First, fill in the location, date, and time for the session. Or, if the scheduled session was canceled, mark that option. Then, next to the name and participant ID number of each group member, put a check mark to indicate attendance and use the participation rating scale to rate their level of participation in the session. The rating options are: 0 = Absent, 1 = Disruptive, 2 = Distracted, 3 = Withdrawn, 4 = Participative, and 5 = Constructive. The rating scale is included on the form.

Activity Logs: Instructions to Mentors
After the end of each mentoring session, fill out one Activity Log for the group. First, fill in the date, session length, locator information, and each mentee’s Participant ID. Do not include any names or other identifying information on the form. Then, fill out both parts of the Activity Log. 

*The Implementation Evaluation section is based on recommendations by Student Affairs Assessment Support Services at James Madison University, specifically the guidelines on this page: https://www.jmu.edu/assessment/sass/ac-step-four.shtml. The Focus Code section is based on the activity log reported in Karcher et al. (2010).

The first part is an implementation evaluation consists of a table with rows for several components of our program. Each program component is followed by empty columns to be filled in for Adherence, Exposure, Quality, and Responsiveness. These are the implementation variables that we are tracking. For the purpose of this form, Adherence corresponds to the question, “Did you implement this component of the CLP?” Exposure corresponds to the question, “How much time did you spend on this component?” Quality corresponds to the question, “How well did you facilitate the component?” Responsiveness corresponds to the question, “How engaged were the mentees?”

It is important that you have a plan for the session before you start. It is also important that you are not rigid about carrying out your plan. In my experience, having a plan is important for the mentor’s mental preparation. You will probably feel more prepared and less anxious if you have an idea about what to do in the session. However, it is even more important to be ready to give up a plan to meet the mentees where they are at that week. It is a sign of respect that an adult would prioritize what a young person wants to do or discuss over their own plan.

The second part of the Activity Log is documentation of what topics or activities the mentoring session focused on. There are 12 focus codes that can be used. Immediately after the session ends, think about what was talked about in the session and about how much time was spent talking about it. Estimate the time spent on a topic using 15-minute intervals. Do NOT use a more precise time measurement. You are just estimating approximately how much time was spent on a topic. Use a check mark to indicate how much time was spent on the topics covered.

Do not try to account for every second of the conversation on the Activity Log, and do not use the mentoring session to try to touch on each listed focus area. For example, touching on a topic such as the future for five minutes is not substantial enough to be included as a focus. In the past many mentors (despite these instructions) have indicated that they have spent two or three minutes on 10 or 12 different topics. There are many problems with this. For one thing, it is unlikely that such a surface level conversation is very helpful. For another, the purpose of the Activity Log is to capture what was the focus of the mentoring session. Consequently, I want you to follow two simple rules in estimating time for the Activity Log:

For example, if a mentoring session is 60 minutes long, then check no more than four 15-minute intervals (or two 30-minute intervals or any other combination that adds up to 60 minutes). If a mentoring session is 45 minutes long, then check no more than three 15-minute intervals. For topics or activities that did not come up in the mentoring session, simply leavethem blank. Again, the point is NOT to try to talk a little bit about every topic.

Often, activities and conversations happen at the same time. In that situation, you must decide how to count the focus time. For example, if you met with your mentoring group for 60 minutes and played a board game for the entire session while the group talked about family and school, then you could put check marks under 30 minutes for Indoor games, 15 minutes for Relationships, and 15 minutes for Academics. Or, if you met with your group for 30 minutes and played a card game while talking about what the mentees did over the weekend, then you could put check marks under 15 minutes for Indoor games and 15 minutes for Casual conversation. On the other hand, if your 30-minute mentoring session consisted only of playing a game without any substantial conversation, then you should put a check mark under 30 minutes for Indoor games (and, in the next supervision, ask for help facilitating more substantial conversation).

Finally, indicate whose idea it was to talk about the topic or do the activity by circling one of the following for each topic with a check mark: 1 = mentor, 2 = mentee, or 3 = both.

Mentoring Notes: Instructions to Mentors
After the end of each mentoring session, complete a Mentoring Note (Figure 2) for each mentee who attended the session. Mentoring Notes should be written directly in the Session Record Database for your group. If you want to write the notes after the mentoring, you can use a hard copy of the Mentoring Note and then transfer the notes to the spreadsheet later. If you use a hard copy, do not include any names or other identifying information on the form.

*The Mentoring Note is based on the SOAP note format that many therapists use (Cameron & turtle-song, 2002). CLP facilitators submit one digital Mentoring Note per mentee per session.

The questions on the Mentoring Note are relatively straightforward. You should address each question as concisely as possible. The difference between the first two questions is that the first is about what the mentee talked about in the session, whereas the second is about how they presented themselves, including in terms of their body language. Sometimes how people present themselves fits with what they say, and sometimes it does not.

The third question asks for your perspective on the interaction with the mentee. It does not matter if what you think was meaningful or significant was the same as what the mentee thought. In fact, you should fill out the Mentoring Note before looking at the Session Evaluation Form so that you can keep your answer to this question from being influenced by their answer.

You should be careful about what you include in the Mentoring Note. Do not include information about illegal activities (e.g., drug use) or anything else that could be used against the mentee or any other individual. These details should only be discussed in the consultation process. In the Mentoring Note do not include any names or identifying information about the mentee or any other person. Be vague and general. Provide just enough information to keep track of what the mentee talked about in the mentoring session. Then, review these notes prior to your next session.

Session Evaluation Forms: Instructions to Mentors
Before each session begins, make sure to have a blank Session Evaluation Form (Figure 1) for each mentee in your group. Fill out the information at the top of the form (Participant ID and date). Do not include any names or other identifying information on the form. Bring pencils or pens so that mentees have something with which to write.

Administration on the First Day. During the last 10 minutes of the first mentoring session, tell the mentees that we would like to check with them each week to see how they are doing in their personal lives and get their feedback about each mentoring session. This helps us improve mentoring for them and for future mentees. We take their point of view seriously.

Give mentees the prepared Session Evaluation Form with their Participant ID number. Explain that some items ask them to rate their actions over the past week, some ask them to rate their experience in today’s session, and some ask them to rate their understanding after today's session. For each of these items, they should use a check mark to select the number that best fits their experience. Make sure to read through the items so that they become familiar with them. Then, read the next question and explain that they can write anything they want about what was meaningful or significant about the today’s session. Read the last question and explain that we would like to know what they want to talk about in future mentoring sessions. Finally, answer any questions they have and clarify anything that needs clarification.

Tell the mentees that this is voluntary and that they do not have to fill out the form. But the information they give us will help us make our program better. Also tell them that you will read their responses before the next session and that you will take what they say seriously. Tell them that you will not take personally anything they say even if it is critical. Rather, you want to know if something is not working so that you can make adjustments. Give them the remainder of the time to fill out the form. Make sure they have enough privacy that other mentees see their answers. Then, collect the forms.

Administration After the First Day. During the last 5 minutes of the session, ask the mentees to fill out the Session Evaluation Form, and hand them the prepared form with their Participant ID number. Give them enough time so that they are not rushed and remind them to pay close attention to what the questions are asking so that they can give thoughtful answers. Remind the mentees that we use this form because we want their honest feedback.