MENTORING IN READING AND WRITING

A PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGY TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE AND PREVENT DROPOUT IN ONLINE UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS

Abstract

Given the gap in reading and writing skills, which begins in elementary school and sometimes extends into higher education as students enter university, it has been observed that this gap has the potential to harm both students' academic performance and their retention. The objective of this article is to report the results of pedagogical interventions during academic mentoring sessions aimed at improving the reading and writing skills of distance learning Language and Literature students as a pedagogical strategy to improve performance and reduce potential academic dropout rates. To this end, a program of synchronous online classes was developed, with proposed pedagogical activities aimed at learning proficient reading and writing skills among students who volunteered to participate in this experiment, since these skills are fundamental to good intellectual performance and the retention of students in higher education courses. The pedagogical interventions enabled participants to make significant progress in these skills, demonstrating that providing students with guidance, resources, and strategic educational methodologies can alleviate their difficulties in understanding and producing texts, and improve their expectations for retention and graduation.