Last Monday, my class and I had the opportunity to do our second tutoring session. I want to say that I wasn't nervous because it was already the second time, but... that was about 3 weeks ago! So, going into this I did feel a bit more comfortable. What really helps is knowing what the class' assignment will be ahead of time so we all aren't going in there clueless... which is technically what the tutors in the Writing Center do, props to them. So I had a ton of questions as we were going over the assignment in our class, but I felt ready. So, we walked over to the C building and Professor JRC introduced us to the class we would be tutoring today, and explained the objectives of our class. He then partnered us up in one-on-one or two-on-one sessions. This time around I had 2 people I was working with from the start, so I introduced myself and they did as well, then I asked if I can see what they had so far. During the last session I felt as if I had to rush through the students' paper because I didn't want to keep them waiting too long, but this time I read through it calmly so I could really understand what I was reading.
The first young man I was tutoring had only his introduction done, which was pretty good, he had a thesis formed and introduced it well. He just didn't know what to write next to support it. Now, an issue I came across was that the assignment we went over in class was direct instructions from an official CATW test, this professor sort of had his own instructions for what he wanted the class to do. So, I was a little confused and asked the professor and he cleared it up for me. So the objective was that the students needed to find 3 examples to prove their thesis. The piece of writing the students had was pretty short and didn't have too many varied ideas. Whatever the young man's thesis was, I asked him what made him think that way, and with the answer he gave me I said there goes your first example.
He then used personal experience to prove his thesis, he told me without hesitation what the example was, so I told him to write it down as his first paragraph. Then, I went to help the second student.
This young man had his paper nearly done. He was on the right track and only seemed to need help figuring out a last example. I noticed he had put quotes into his essay so I recommended that he paraphrase instead, since I think the CATW wants it in the students own words. I whipped out my They Say, I Say yet again, because it always comes in handy as a guidebook. I showed the student different ways he can introduce something an author has said, but into his own words. So as he was doing that, I went to see how the first young man was doing.
He seemed to have only written 1-2 words. So I asked him what was wrong, and to tell me again what the example was. As he told me I said there you go! Just write exactly that. That's when I realized that sometimes it is better for the tutor to hold the pen and write what the tutee is saying because sometimes they freeze with the pen in their hand.
So, I found this session very very successful. I really learned a lot from it, and gained more confidence in tutoring students. The key seems to be to get on their level so they don't feel intimidated by someone around their age telling them what to do. I simply shared the knowledge I knew to assist them to write what they knew.
The first young man I was tutoring had only his introduction done, which was pretty good, he had a thesis formed and introduced it well. He just didn't know what to write next to support it. Now, an issue I came across was that the assignment we went over in class was direct instructions from an official CATW test, this professor sort of had his own instructions for what he wanted the class to do. So, I was a little confused and asked the professor and he cleared it up for me. So the objective was that the students needed to find 3 examples to prove their thesis. The piece of writing the students had was pretty short and didn't have too many varied ideas. Whatever the young man's thesis was, I asked him what made him think that way, and with the answer he gave me I said there goes your first example.
He then used personal experience to prove his thesis, he told me without hesitation what the example was, so I told him to write it down as his first paragraph. Then, I went to help the second student.
This young man had his paper nearly done. He was on the right track and only seemed to need help figuring out a last example. I noticed he had put quotes into his essay so I recommended that he paraphrase instead, since I think the CATW wants it in the students own words. I whipped out my They Say, I Say yet again, because it always comes in handy as a guidebook. I showed the student different ways he can introduce something an author has said, but into his own words. So as he was doing that, I went to see how the first young man was doing.
He seemed to have only written 1-2 words. So I asked him what was wrong, and to tell me again what the example was. As he told me I said there you go! Just write exactly that. That's when I realized that sometimes it is better for the tutor to hold the pen and write what the tutee is saying because sometimes they freeze with the pen in their hand.
So, I found this session very very successful. I really learned a lot from it, and gained more confidence in tutoring students. The key seems to be to get on their level so they don't feel intimidated by someone around their age telling them what to do. I simply shared the knowledge I knew to assist them to write what they knew.
No comments:
Post a Comment