My first experience tutoring

As confident as i was a week before I began tutoring, I couldn't deny the rush of nerves that I felt on the way to the Writing Center. When my tuttee walked into the room with a wide smile, I was consoled. The first thing she asked me is, "so, what do I do?" My nerves were gone at this point, knowing that I had to get my mind focused. I explained that we are working on ACT and she replied, "Oh yeah, that's right" and began shuffling through her binder.

I used the talk aloud strategy as soon as her paper hit the table. My first question was regarding the proposals in the opening paragraph. Having read the intro silently, I noticed the word "whether" and not two different proposals. Not being accustomed to "yes" or "no" ACT questions, I asked her to show me the ACT question. The question was worded the same way so i proceeded to the body paragraphs.

In each of the body paragraphs I first read silently and then picked out her opening sentence and supporting reason and read them to her aloud. I asked her if the sentence i had picked was the reason she was using to support her examples. She responded with a yes and even elaborated a bit on each of the reasons.

I was on the lookout for common patterns and key words within her body paragraphs. A few times i had to pause and ask her what exactly she meant when she said such and such. Overall, my tuttee wrote logically, structured and developed. I went over a few grammatical and spelling errors with her, making sure she understood each one. There were a few sentences where the articles were missing. I read over a few words, that were missing a connecting word, to see if she knew what she had forgotten. In all the sentences she was able to tell me exactly what word was missing, which made me happy. She told me that, "they only give you an hour to write these things." I responded, "I know, I just want to make sure you know what was missing." I noticed also that she was unsure about when and where to pluralize words which I explained and helped her correct, but I intend to run it by her again to make sure she understands. We left off at the end of the second body paragraph.

I realized from my first tutoring experience that sitting in on other tutors and being a critic is easier than actually being in the tutors seat. I know that I have criticized tutors for not focusing on the higher order concerns first and yet I found myself helping my tuttee with her lower order concerns. I am not particularly happy about that. I do think my first experience went well but I know the second will be better.

Reflection on "Understanding Composing"

Sondra Perl’s insightful work on “Understanding Composing” was a pleasure to read. Perl takes the research result of composing aloud (that was intended to provide teachers with the opportunity to see their own composing processes at work) and realizes the flow of composing was captured. Detecting certain basic patterns through this research study, Perl goes on to ask and answer the questions of: “what basic patterns seem to occur during composing?” and “what does this type of research have to tell us about the nature of composing aloud?”

Perl describes how writing appears to be recursive even though the parts that recur seem to vary between different people. I had to laugh when I was reading the recursive processes in detail and writing an essay because I noticed how I had been unconsciously doing everything that Perl said writers do. I reread little bits of discourse, returned to my notion of the essay topic, changed what I wrote to better comply with the notion I have of the topic and then I paused, using what Perl refers to as “felt-sense”, to listen and react to what my words already on the page were saying to me.

Tutoring "Do's" and "Dont's"

There are certain things that should be done as a tutor and certain things that should not. Here are a few that I find most important:

"Do's"
Listen intentively, act interested, become involved in the writing.
Be an empathetic respondent while remaining detached (focused on the writing and not the writer.)
Pay attention to your body language, gestures and posture.
Give honest feedback, encouragement and deserved praise.
Encourage collaboration, getting the writer to talk while welcoming them to explore/express their own idea's.

"Don't"
Use praise to sugarcoat the truth (stating its perfect when there are obvious problem areas.)
Use aggressive gestures or words.
Interrupt, speak over and above the tutee or slouch and nod (acting authorative and/or disinterested.)
Be overly critical or picky (zeroing in on the Low Order Concerns.)
Disrespect the writers work by inserting, what you may think is, "better" language, information or style.
Act as a therapist by getting too personal and attempting to counsel the writer.