Some Thoughts on My First Two Tutoring Sessions

I have to admit the first two tutoring sessions I've had have been fairly successful in so much that I felt comfortable in my role as a peer tutor and I honestly believe that my tutee benefited from the session. I wasn't really nervous or aprehensive going into the sessions. I've tutored in the past, although never in a school sponsored tutoring center. So while there were definitely lots of thoughts and concerns running through my mind, none were so intimidating that they would have any effect on my tutoring. My tutee seems open to the process and genuinely wants to improve as a writer and of course pass the ACT exam. This put me at ease, since I was a bit worried I would get someone who didn't have any real interest in being there, because if the student is disinterested, it makes my job that much harder. I'm all for a challenge, but let's face facts. You can't help someone until they decide they want to help themselves. Tutoring is a two way street. I can show up all excited to work but it could all be for not if the tutee has no real desire to learn anything.
Anyway, I feel that the last two remaining sessions will continue with the trend of these first two sessions. My tutee has emailed me some sample essays she's completed on her own at home, so I'm glad to see that she is taking this as seriously as I am. I've critiqued her work, but I was a bit worried that I may be too hard on her so I mailed my comments to the professor first to see what she thinks. Once I get a response I'll forward it on to my tutee and hopefully she'll take it as the constructive criticism I intended it to be. For now, I'm looking forward to the next session.

Thoughts on the Perl Guidelines

For me, Sondra Perl's article "Understanding Composition" was a fascinating read and it reinforced some of my own personal beliefs and strategies for writing. A lot of the concepts introduced by Perl such as "felt sense" are the type of things I have always tried to do in my own work. Having a set of guidelines such as Perl’s creates a virtual checklist for a writer, aloowing them to be creative while still keeping their focus and staying on topic. Much like Perl suggests, in my own writing process I tend to do a lot of pausing and revision as I go along, reading my work over and over, in an effort to make my writing sound like my inner voice. I constantly ask myself "How does this line sound or feel to me?", "Where is this leading?", or "Am I getting my message across?”. Adapting the Perl guidelines to my writing process is definitely something I will do because for me writing is an art, individualistic and expressive, and from a creative standpoint, it is all about baring your innermost thoughts and ideas on any subject for the world to see. By always questioning myself ala the Perl guidelines and checking in on the direction and flow of my writing, it will allow me to write clearer, more focused pieces without losing my creative voice as a writer.

Tutoring Do's and Don'ts

The following is a list of some simple do's and don'ts for tutoring in general, with some specifics relating to tutoring writing:

Don't:
-Discuss personal matters.
-Check the time or your cellphone.
-Make corrections to the writing, without explaining them first.
-Use poor body language eg. yawning, rubbing your eyes, stretching.
-Waste time with pleasantries and catching up on what's new in the tutee's life.
-Confuse student with too many questions. Take it slow and focus on one issue at a time.

Do:
-Ask if there is anything specific the tutee is having trouble with.
-Let the student read their writing aloud to see if it sounds right to them.
-Go over the criteria for the assignment to make sure you focus on the task.
-Let the student explain in their own words what the main point or thesis of their piece is.
-Be patient and understand you may have to go over the same issue a few times before the student is comfortable with it.
-Ask open-ended questions, not just yes or no questions.

If we follow these tips and more, then we can became better tutors and also make the most of the tutoring session. This will not only help the student improve, but will instill confidence in their abilities and make it so they are more likely to return in the future if they need our help again.

How I Feel About Becoming a Writing Tutor

As someone who truly enjoys writing, I am looking forward to becoming a writing tutor this session. While I have tutored in the past, my tutoring has never been at the college level and has never had such importance attached to it. I feel confident that I can serve as a great resource to my fellow students and help them to realize their potential and become improved writers. My career goal is to become a creative writing professor at the undergraduate level so I am definitely psyched about learning about tutoring writing, even though we won't be doing much, if any work in the creative writing realm. My personal experience of having had difficulty with the ACT exam and having taken ENC101 which included ACT preparation allows me to relate to the struggles of the tutees and will further serve in my future tutoring sessions.

After having observed an actual tutoring session last night, I feel even more excited about becoming a tutor. I feel like it is something that is well within my abilities and will be a rewarding part of my growth as both a student and future professor. I can only hope that I can live up to the expectations of the tutees and truly help them not only pass the ACT but also to have them feel confident about their writing, not only when it comes to English but all courses.

What I Have Learned About Being a Writing Tutor

What I have learned thus far about being a writing tutor is that a tutor is not an editor. It's simply not a matter of "correcting" or "fixing" the errors of grammar, syntax, etc. You are more of a guide, someone whose job is to guide the student through the revision process. There are three main approaches for tutoring writing: student-centered, teacher-centered and collaborative. As a tutor you have to decide which approach best suits the the situation at hand, but as a general rule of thumb, the teacher-centered approach should rarely if ever be used in peer tutoring. the student-centered and collaborative approaches tend to work best since the tuttee is treated as an equal instead of the power dynamic favoring the tutor such as in the authorative teacher-centered approach.

There are also some basic theories on tutoring such as the social constructionist theory, reader response, talk and writing, collaborative learning and feminism. These theories when applied in tutoring writing help to foster improvement and instill confidence in the student while at the same time providing a framework for how the tutor should should approach their sessions.

Additionally, I've also learned that to be a successful tutor one needs to concentrate on what are known as higher order concerns (HOCs) such as thesis, structure, organization, and tone. If the emphasis is placed on HOCs instead of lower order concerns (LOCs) such as grammar, spelling, and punctuation, the tutor can help the student focus in on the greater problems in their writing instead of losing time on minor errors. Since most tutoring sessions are time based, you want to make the most out of each session by addressing the HOCs in an effort to help the student improve their writing in a more efficient manner.

While I still have much to learn about the tutoring process, I believe that what I have learned so far will serve me well and provide a solid foundation for my future tutoring experiences.

Why I said what I said to Melissa

After reading both Melissa's Essay and the poem she read, I felt that she missed the overall purpose of the essay. According to the guidelines set forth by Prof.Smith the students had to not only define symbolism and cite examples of it in their chosen poem, but also had to explain how the use of symbolism helped to further clarify the meaning of the piece. Also, I felt that maybe Melissa got lost in abstractions about the 7 deadly sins and lost her train of thought, which caused her to lose focus on the criteria in question.

Why I said what I said to Stephanie

The reason I asked Stephanie to give a personal reaction to the tone of the poem she had read is that since tone has to deal with how the writing affects the reader, I felt it need to have Stephanie's own reaction to the piece and not just an objective view of the author's use of tone. I saw this as a higher order concern because from reading the whole piece over twice, I felt it was a bit dry and academic. It lacked a personal element that defined Stephanie's point of view. I felt she had a good command of the language and the format, so I tried to find a place where I could have her develop her own ideas further and probed her with questions in an effort to get her to reexamine her work.