So this week I doubled my solo consultations number, and that was in one day! I really do love doing this tutoring thing. There are parts of it that I think I do great at. Greeting each student and trying to get them to quickly relax and feel comfortable comes naturally to me. And even though I might be nervous about what they might need help with and how/if I am going to be able to help them with it, I don't think it comes across to the student.
The concerns that have come up for me this week is the reading of the paper. For all of my sessions I have read the paper, except for one time this week. I had decided not to let the student have a choice, and just asked her to read the paper out loud. I tried to look at his as best as I could (not a good seating arrangement, my bad) so I found it hard to get a total feel for the paper and the issues that were occurring. The student was concerned with transitions, having been told by her E101 teacher that she had problems with that in an earlier draft. We found one to work on, and then several grammar spots. The biggest help for her she said at the end of the session, was letting her talk about which piece of writing she should include in her paper as a writing sample of the person she was interviewing. And although the session went well, I feel that I could have helped her more if I would have read it out loud.
Another problem I have with reading papers, is knowing how much of the paper to read. So far they have all been fairly short papers, the longest being around 8 pages, so I have been able to get through them. Although one session went 10 minutes over because I did not have another one after her. But I am worried about the time when there will be a longer paper that cannot be read through in 30 minutes. The problem with me is that I am extremely linear, start to finish kind of girl. So I know I am going to have a hard time with this. But I know I will get a feel for it, even though there could be some rough spots along the way.
My favorite session this week was with a non-traditional student working on her E101 interview paper. She was so nervous about the paper and that everything was correct. She had been in the day before and had seen Lizzy. They had worked on her thesis and focus of her paper. She had totally revised it and was wanting to check grammar and punctuation. I read through it and realized that she had interviewed her husband, the wrestling coach. She laughed and said she knew it was probably not right that she used her husband for her subject. I told her that I had just finished a paper where I interviewed my sister. She said that made her feel a lot better. It is a small thing, but it still helped her feel more confident, and that is a HUGE thing when writing!
I want to be better at this, and I know I will continue to the more I tutor. The problem is that I want to do it the right way right now! My confidence keeps waning. But my desire is there, and so I will keep pushing, learning, and doing the best that I can.
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Congrats on doubling your real-time experience in a single day, Val!
ReplyDeleteI hear what you're saying about the paper-length thing. I've actually had a couple of consultations involving papers that were just too lengthy to get through in 30 minutes, so I simply told these students up front that we wouldn't be able to get through their entire papers in the allotted time, and I then asked them which sections of papers they were most concerned about. It one case, the student said that she was concerned about her introduction and conclusion, so I recommended that we read the first few paragraphs and the two closing paragraphs, and then she could summarize the body for me to give me an idea about the paper's overall content. That seemed to work fairly well, and the two of us did a pretty good job in figuring out if there were any weaknesses in the opening and closing that she needed to address. In the other consultation, the student simply suggested that we read a chunk of his paper for 10 or 15 minutes, then talk about what we read. To be honest with you, I can't remember exactly what writing issues we talked about, but I do remember that he went away with some ideas for revision and seemed pretty satisfied. So I guess my real point is this: most of the students with longer papers seem to understand when we tell 'em that it's not possible to read the entire piece in 30 or 60 minutes, especially if we tell 'em this up front, and they seem grateful to get whatever help we can give 'em.
Listen to me ramble like I'm some sort of expert or something. Jeez! Still, I hope this helps.