Live Session, take deux

Monday's tutoring session went a lot better than expected. The student was a former law school student in Brazil, his country of origin. He was extremely nice, completely eager to be guided, and was totally receptive. He and I discussed things that were mentioned in class before we went in to tutor. He had brought up that he was stuck in a legal mindset. Back in Brazil, he was taught to write essays/papers in a certain format and he stuck with that format until he got here. He said he was surprised to learn that it was alright for him to give his opinion about a certain matter. He also brought up how he feels the need to go with the tide when writing about a topic, even if he disagrees. I told him that his opinion definitely matters and that he should almost always include it in his essay, it's his argument, his point of view and also it's what he will be trying to prove throughout his piece.

He was prepared, he had the assignment, the article, the professor's comments and rubric, and an almost completed essay. Right after introducing ourselves, he handed me all these items and gave me a moment to read over it all. His professor had commented on his summary being longer than necessary. The student and I then went over how to make it shorter, we spoke about paraphrasing. He had quoted an opening quote in the article and spread it out through the entire summary. He brought in examples of how his friend and his wife share domestic responsibility and were happy. That was compared to his childhood and how domestic responsibility solely belonged to the mother. I asked him about his life now (he had mentioned that he was married) and how that compared to his upbringing. He was enthusiastic about being able to make the comparison. After we decided what his last body paragraph would say, we went back and worked on the thesis. I basically told him that his thesis for this essay was his stand on the situation, did he or did he not agree with what the author of the article was saying. He said he did and within a few minutes had an idea of what his thesis would be.

It was a rather enjoyable session and I am glad to have met the student. He was intelligent and open to the session which made everything easier.

I guess they usually save the best for last

This past Monday, the 28th of April, I went to observe my final tutoring session at the Writing Center. This one was by far the best session I have witnessed since I began observing back in March(?). This specific tutor was very friendly and seemed as if she wanted to be there. She was given two students who were taking the same course with different professors. One of the students had her essay already written, she claimed to only want help with grammar since English wasn't her first language. The other student had come in almost completely unprepared. The assignments were completely different and that's why she couldn't help the unprepared student as much as she helped the student who was doing last minute revisions on an already completed paper.

When the tutor was working with the student who had her essay completed, she went over the entire essay with her and suggested certain thoughts to be further developed and encouraged the student to read her work aloud so that she would be able to catch her own grammatical errors. The tutor however did not solely focus on what the student thought was problematic, she complimented her writing and how well the essay was structured. While the student thought of things to add or say in her essay and read certain sentences aloud, the tutor focused on the other student who was struggling with the reading required for her assignment. The student made comments about how she felt the assignment was unnecessary but the tutor helped her overcome the boredom of reading by telling her to relate it to something current. She was reading Oedipus The King and the tutor mentioned some currently famous actors and told the tutee to imagine them playing the story out in her head. This seemed to have an immediate effect on her because she seemed to only stop reading in order to define words she did not understand. Every so often, she would switch between the students, never leaving them without anything to do. I thought this was both professional and effective.

It was only toward the end that the student with the reading assignment had pulled out the second part of the assignment and both her and the tutor realized that they were focusing on the wrong things. She was supposed to make a small bibliography for herself and she didn't understand what the meant or even entailed. The tutor then explained what a bibliography was and what it used for. The student still somewhat confused had asked the tutor if she was available during the next session in order to further explain the assignment because time was running out. The tutor gave both students her schedule and both had made plans on returning to be tutored by this specific tutor.

In conclusion, I found this session to be productive. I'm not sure if this was the first time that they had all met one another but it didn't seem like it. The tutor was incredibly friendly and even made me feel comfortable. Although the second student seemed to have been focusing on the wrong things, she left in confidence because she knew she was able to come back and seek help with the second part of the assignment.

Good stuff.