The tutors that I observed were really great, but they had their own strategies for dealing with the "two tutee" policy. The first tutor dealt with each tutee individually, spending about twenty-five minutes with each one. He would ask questions about what the student's paper was about and were there any special requests from the professor. He then read the paper aloud with the student and had his own pen handy (but he said he doesn't use it, which wasn't 100% true). He didn't write whole sentences on the tutee's paper, but would occasionally scratch out a word or circle something and put a question mark next to a word or idea that he didn't understand. He gave the tutee some great suggestions but I somewhat felt as though he was rewriting the paper for her. For example, he would say a certain word or idea and tell her to write it down. What I liked was that he noticed that she was having trouble creating a strong intro paragraph, and her let her know that in order to have a good intro you need to have a purpose. He said, "What do you want the reader to know that they don't already know?" and that really seemed to help her out. The other tutee needed help creating an APA style paper, so he told her to follow the format exactly the way it is. It helped that he was already familiar with writing in APA style. The paper required her to do some research so he also gave her some really helpful ways to do research. I enjoyed the second tutor's approach a lot more. He actually alternates back and forth between both students, and he does it very quickly without it feeling rushed, and very efficiently.
Some of the do's and don'ts I noticed were:
Do's
- Having a great personality! It made the tutees feel comfortable.
- It helps when the tutor is knowledgeable on what the tutees are writing about. I'm not saying that a tutor is supposed to know everything but it makes the session that much more effective when it is a topic that the tutor is familiar with.
- Being patient. A student is not always going to understand a point the tutor is trying to make, but the tutor has to be patient and allow the tutee to grasp the concept.
- Bringing a pen to the session! It makes the tutor automatically want to use it and they're not supposed to.
- Giving the tutee the answers instead of letting them figure it out for themselves.
- Being rude about not understanding something that the tutee wrote or said. For example, after the tutor read over the tutee's paper, he didn't understand a certain sentence and just blurted out, "what??!!" The tutee looked so uncomfortable.
I really liked the first paragraph. It was very informative and it also painted a picture of what the sessions look like. The descriptions of the tutors were also very well. It honestly did get a little confusing in the paragraph because it wasn't so clear when you decided to switch from the first session over to the second one, so maybe that's something you should look over. Also i really think you could've put a little more details into the do's and dont's of tutoring. There really isn't much there to go off of. But I really did like your paragraph describing the sessions and the tutors.
ReplyDeleteSorry, it wasn't finished martinique!
DeleteMartinique has given you some good advice here. Any time a reader tells you she got confused, go back and look over that area and figure out how to clarify, fill out detail, employ transitional phrasings, etc, to help walk your reader through what she's reading.
ReplyDeleteI would also add that your lists are too short! These were supposed to be extensive lists, including ALL that we have learned so far from our observations in the Writing Center, our readings, and the videos we watched. So I ask that you produce a new, more extensive/complete list of Dos and Dont. Put it in a NEW POST, titled "Dos and Donts (Revision)."