Does anyone dread one-hour sessions as much as I do? I don't know if it's my previous experience with one-hour sessions, my fear of wasting an hour with a student because I don't know how to fill the time, or a combination of both, but I don't necessarily jump for joy when I see one scheduled on the Reading-and-Writing Center website.
The first week I was tutoring, I felt like half-an-hour was way too short for a tutoring session. I had three sessions back to back, and while the first one went well, in the second session my student wanted me to read over a rather long paper for her because she had had problems with her professor on grammar in previous papers. I felt so rushed (mainly because she felt rushed, too, since the paper was due the next day), and even though I tried to help her with her writing by talking to her about how to develop a particular rhetoric for her paper (the tone was a little too colloquial, and it was affecting her grammar), by the time the thirty minutes were up I had only gotten to the second page. She immediately ran off to sign up for another session with a different tutor and I sat there feeling so disappointed with myself because I hadn't accomplished as much as I wanted to in that session.
As I got more comfortable with tutoring, however, I was able to calm down and focus quickly on what needed to be addressed within the time limit, even finishing a few sessions five minutes early. I focused more on creating a discussion about the material or suggesting how to counter a problem like generalization rather than reading every sentence in a paper and suggesting how to improve the rhetoric for each one. I got used to half-hour sessions, so when I received a few one-hour sessions, I wasn't sure how to deal with them. In the first one, I appreciated the time limit because of the length of the student's paper, but I had a hard time talking to the student for that long because he was so flustered about the vague instructions and harsh criticisms his professor had about his paper. I was able to make a few points about organizing a particular paragraph in chronological order to emphasize a point and I tried to interpret his professor's instructions for him, but there were moments where I felt like I was repeating myself or I wasn't sure what else to say.
The second one (I hope) was an exceptional case, but it still rattled me. Like a lot of my students, she was flustered by her professor's instructions, but the difference was her paper was due by 2:00, and she had scheduled an appointment with me from 12:30-1:30. She had gotten little sleep and was running on Starbucks and her nerves, and she needed help organizing what she had written into an argument. I helped her the best I could (and honestly it wasn't that bad of a paper, aside from the organization), but by the end I was watching her hastily type up her footnotes and rush out the door.
Thankfully, the last one-hour session was less painful. The student had come in needing some help brainstorming her paper on The Seven-Year Itch, and we discussed potential scenes she could use to support her argument on gender roles, ending the session in half-an-hour. Still, I think I prefer half-an-hour sessions because not every case is easy to tackle, and not every student is willing to be responsive and engage in discussion. I want to know if anyone has advice for tackling these hour-long sessions, or if anyone has had any similar experiences. Do you prefer half-an-hour or hour-long sessions, and why?
When I first started tutoring, I would agree with you that hour long sessions were intimidating. I got comfortable with 30 min sessions as well and at first I felt like I wouldn't have enough things to talk about with a student for an hour. However, as the weeks went by and I became more comfortable and confident in my tutoring sessions, I began to feel like 30 min sessions were much too short. So I think that's interesting that I once thought an hour was intimidating and too long. I guess it just took my getting comfortable to have plenty to say in an hour long session. And now I find myself trying to manage the time better in either session type.
ReplyDeleteI think it depends. Honestly, I freak out when they're grad students who schedule hour long sessions on materials you haven't even seen before! In that, that's why I'm dreading this hour long appointment I have tomorrow. Unless it were to get cancelled in the middle of the morning. That's often happened with me and another student in a lower level class replaces that appointment in minutes.
ReplyDeleteAs for the half hour sessions, I try to not look at my watch for the sake of being polite, but I tell them in the beginning of the session that I have to check the time in order to be considerate of the person who will be going after them. If the time limit is quickly approaching, I kindly say that I have to gloss over a few things and give the explanations at the end, if the time limit is at a decent distance not, I'll be a bit more chill. I agree with Shea and admit that the one hour sessions sounded intimidating, especially around the first few weeks! But I do have to say that if they did schedule their appointment for that length, then they did it because they need an extra amount of help!
This is an interesting topic, Olivia. I'm actually about to write my second post on this issue. The difference being that I detest 30 minute sessions, as I feel that they force me to be more directive.
ReplyDeleteHowever I do understand that sometimes an hour can be too much, and one loses an idea of what to address and tackle. Perhaps this is all circumstantial, meaning, I think the tutee's I've tutored have really impacted how I view the time constraints. So far, I have encountered many essays and long papers that require 15 to 20 minutes JUST to do a thorough reading of. As you can imagine, the remaining 10 to 15 minutes is hardly long enough to address everything I want to address.
Also, I think tutoring styles have a lot to do with how we view the time. Ill talk about this more in my post, if you are interested.
Good job!