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.