So...it happened today.....I tutored my first graduate student. I have faced many challenges in my first couple of months as a tutor. Whether it was an dealing with ESOL students (finding the correct balance of helpful versus being flat-out directive) or students who just wanted me to fast forward through a session because it was mandatory for their class, but this graduate student was on a whole other level.
From the moment she walked in I was nervous because I knew she was a graduate student, all-be-it I am not very far from her position and she wasn't an English focused grad student, I was still nervous about how the session was going to go. She came in with 5 versions of a paper that she had been writing over the course of the semester each COVERED in red-ink, marked up to the point that it made them difficult to read. (Not to judge a professor's grading style, but I have never even met the lady and she scares me). At the end of the semester this (soul crushing) professor left my tutee with very low writing self-esteem, not knowing what other direction to take her (analytic art) paper in or what changes to make. She brought in a fresh copy of her last revised draft and we went through it. There were a couple mistakes, but really nothing major enough that I would have spilled any ink over them. I was astounded...and at a loss for how to really help her. I offered what little criticism I could, explained which parts I thought were just terrific, and stressed to her how I really didn't know much about what the paper was discussing, but that it flowed, was cohesive, I understood her points and found them valid, without being knowledgeable in the field. We talked and talked, discussed her ideas, I asked her questions, she thoughtfully answered them, and she made a few changes as we talked. Through all this however, no major changes were made.
When we were wrapping up the session, out of nowhere she asked if she could make another appointment with me in the future to discuss other papers......................................................... << these dots are what my face said back, it was mystified and blank. I quickly recovered, however, and enthusiastically exclaimed, "Sure, I would love that!"
Although I am still not sure how much I really helped her and am still kind of confused about how what little help I gave had her wanting to come back to me, I am thrilled! Graduate students aren't sooooo scary after all! :)
Monday, December 3, 2012
Plans After Tutoring?
I can't believe this semester is almost over - I feel like I just got the hang of peer tutoring and now I'm graduating in two weeks and seeing my last students this Thursday!
Originally, I took this course so I could peer tutor in a graduate school writing center, but now that I've pushed graduate school aside for a year or two, I'll be using my skills to critique my own stories before I send them out for publications, and hopefully I can use my experience to land a job in meantime. Maybe I can even write a story about my peer tutoring experiences and get it published (with names changed, of course).
I also read in Tashawn's post that she plans to be a teacher, and I'm glad she's able to get some experience peer tutoring before teaching in the classroom. I know some of us are going on to ENG 4905, but I was curious to see what everyone's goals are for tutoring. So now I'm curious to see what everyone's goals are for the end of the semester and beyond. I know some of us are going on to ENG 4905, but I was curious to see what everyone's goals are for tutoring - what drove you to peer tutoring and what will peer tutoring help you accomplish in future?
Originally, I took this course so I could peer tutor in a graduate school writing center, but now that I've pushed graduate school aside for a year or two, I'll be using my skills to critique my own stories before I send them out for publications, and hopefully I can use my experience to land a job in meantime. Maybe I can even write a story about my peer tutoring experiences and get it published (with names changed, of course).
I also read in Tashawn's post that she plans to be a teacher, and I'm glad she's able to get some experience peer tutoring before teaching in the classroom. I know some of us are going on to ENG 4905, but I was curious to see what everyone's goals are for tutoring. So now I'm curious to see what everyone's goals are for the end of the semester and beyond. I know some of us are going on to ENG 4905, but I was curious to see what everyone's goals are for tutoring - what drove you to peer tutoring and what will peer tutoring help you accomplish in future?
Feigning Confidence in the Wake of Intimidation
"Is this in your area of expertise?" That's the first question I was asked when my tutee last week presented me with her personal statement for grad school. I wasn't really sure how to respond, but I smiled politely and said I could definitely look it over and go from there.
Okay well, number one, reading personal statements out loud kind of sucks. Not only do you encounter personal bits and pieces of someone's life that you're dishing out to the whole writing center within the first few minutes of making an acquaintance, but there are a lot of long lists, technical terms, and names of organizations that are really hard to pronounce. Secondly, it's hard to address issues in a personal statement because there's a lot of information to be included that doesn't necessarily flow together, not to mention the fact that people are usually right around their character limit and don't have much wiggle room to work with.
So after I stumbled my way through her essay, I found myself feeling intimidated. I had not had a student come to me with a personal statement before, and so from the question she asked when she arrived, to the killer resume I had just read, I kind of felt like I was out of my league. I didn't let it show, however, and maintained a sense of confidence throughout the session. As it turns out, I wasn't out of my league at all. Not only was I able to help her address her main issue of putting personality into her statement, but I also was able to help her with a sense of cohesion by suggesting various ways of transitioning from one topic to the next. The tutee even planned to make another appointment with me next week! From the way I felt at the beginning of the session, I never would have imagined I could feel so confident in myself by the end.
Bonding over Biology
So I had, what I feel, was the best tutoring experience this week. I had a tutee who came in seeking help with a proposal letter for a professor's research project. He felt that all he needed was someone to look at how it was structured and help with little grammatical errors. As a walk-in, what we felt would be a quick 30 minute session, turned into an hour long intense session. He already had the letter written and together we read it aloud and went over it paragraph by paragraph. I was more hands on with him then I'd been in other sessions. We actually discussed what he wanted to say and I helped him word it in a way that his point came across very clear. Through the session we discussed his past, I showed him how he could "show" more (even in a proposal letter), and we shared laughs. I've never been a fan of biology or science, but reading his proposal letter and hearing about the research was exciting. We really had a great time working on his paper, it didn't seem stressful or forced at all; in the end we both ended the seeing feeling positive about the work. Overall, he was a model tutoring session.
Comfortable with tutoring
I'm not sure exactly what made this tutoring experience so much different than all the others, but the two sessions I had last week were awesome. I think the reason things went so smoothly can be partially attributed to the level of comfort I've felt recently in the writing center. Instead of going in and getting asked, "hi, do you have an appointment?", I've been greeted with smiles, friendly greetings, and people who now remember my name.
As I walked into the writing center last Thursday, the girl I was tutoring first had gotten there early and was already waiting for me when I arrived. I usually don't like to be rushed in any situation, so I was surprised with how calm and comfortable I felt jumping right in without getting much of a chance to situate myself. The tutee seemed to be a little all over the place in terms of her writing assignment. She told me that you could pick any movie from the class you wanted and write about it and that was all I had to work with in regards to the prompt. I wasn't familiar with the movie she had seen and well, neither was she. I eventually started reading her essay aloud, though, and as we got to about page 3 (of a 7 page paper), it was apparent that my tutee's attention span was waning. I'm not sure she was listening at all to what I was reading and I think I even saw her texting. Rather than get mad, or tell her to pay attention, I found it pertinent to change my strategy. I recognized her writing style to be similar to mine, circa ENC1101: a decent writer, not too bad with grammar, but a little hasty and unorganized. I can remember writing freshmen papers that amounted to one really long strain of conciseness. The problem was usually rooted in the fact that I didn't have a thesis, and thus, didn't know how to structure my paper.
So okay, rather than pursue with the mundane task of reading through her paper right off the bat, I had her talk to me a little bit more about the direction she wanted this paper to go in. I had noticed a few reoccurring topics, and so that's where we started. We pulled out what she felt were the most important topics or themes of the movie she had chosen to write about and then discussed what made them important in the movie. Before I knew it, we had together composed a short list that would amount to a pretty decent thesis and, subsequently, a good paper if executed properly. I had her put all the ideas together and take a minute to put together a thesis statement. After we had a good idea of how to structure the paper off of the thesis she had composed, we then went through and re-read it. We figured out how to reorganize the paragraphs to make them flow in conjunction with her thesis. This paper that I initially thought was a complete mess of thoughts was really coming together!
This session was really cool. We laughed a few times, I shared a personal story about a similar writing experience, and the tutee left feeling like they had a good grip on their paper. I also feel like I gave her some important tips that she will be able to use in future papers, regarding theses and basic structure.
As I walked into the writing center last Thursday, the girl I was tutoring first had gotten there early and was already waiting for me when I arrived. I usually don't like to be rushed in any situation, so I was surprised with how calm and comfortable I felt jumping right in without getting much of a chance to situate myself. The tutee seemed to be a little all over the place in terms of her writing assignment. She told me that you could pick any movie from the class you wanted and write about it and that was all I had to work with in regards to the prompt. I wasn't familiar with the movie she had seen and well, neither was she. I eventually started reading her essay aloud, though, and as we got to about page 3 (of a 7 page paper), it was apparent that my tutee's attention span was waning. I'm not sure she was listening at all to what I was reading and I think I even saw her texting. Rather than get mad, or tell her to pay attention, I found it pertinent to change my strategy. I recognized her writing style to be similar to mine, circa ENC1101: a decent writer, not too bad with grammar, but a little hasty and unorganized. I can remember writing freshmen papers that amounted to one really long strain of conciseness. The problem was usually rooted in the fact that I didn't have a thesis, and thus, didn't know how to structure my paper.
So okay, rather than pursue with the mundane task of reading through her paper right off the bat, I had her talk to me a little bit more about the direction she wanted this paper to go in. I had noticed a few reoccurring topics, and so that's where we started. We pulled out what she felt were the most important topics or themes of the movie she had chosen to write about and then discussed what made them important in the movie. Before I knew it, we had together composed a short list that would amount to a pretty decent thesis and, subsequently, a good paper if executed properly. I had her put all the ideas together and take a minute to put together a thesis statement. After we had a good idea of how to structure the paper off of the thesis she had composed, we then went through and re-read it. We figured out how to reorganize the paragraphs to make them flow in conjunction with her thesis. This paper that I initially thought was a complete mess of thoughts was really coming together!
This session was really cool. We laughed a few times, I shared a personal story about a similar writing experience, and the tutee left feeling like they had a good grip on their paper. I also feel like I gave her some important tips that she will be able to use in future papers, regarding theses and basic structure.
Met a dragon, had a fiery conversation.
A few Tuesdays ago I had the best tutoring session yet, not because it went well but because it was a total mess and I still managed to keep it together. I had a very attractive client (this is important) who was leaving for Thanksgiving and had a stack of essays that would be due for each of her classes right after the vacation so she made an appointment at the Johnston center with the intention to hand them to me and browse Facebook on her cellphone until I was done marking all the errors.
The first was an ENC1101 paper that required her to interview an instrumental member of her community and write about their passion for public service. I asked the student what she'd written and she was resistant to saying anything more than that the paper was about a girl scout leader in her Miami neighborhood. She totally ignored me and continued to point at the paper when I asked her to elaborate on this. This seemed weird since it seemed like a very personal paper; thinking of the situation now, I feel like someone else wrote this paper for her. However, she was hot and I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.
I tried to get her to read her own work out loud and she refused, so I began to read it out loud. This is where I began to get annoyed since it was obvious that I was reading the paper to myself. It was poorly developed and obviously written towards the word count, so I stopped to ask her about Mrs Johnson-- the topic of the paper-- in hopes that the conversation would spark something that she felt would make this paper stronger. I asked "How would you ideally want Mrs Johnson to feel when she reads this? If you had to write a recommendation or a eulogy (God forbid) for her, does this do her justice?" The client had no answers, she had checked out and wanted to be done. The few times she said something, it was along the lines of "I just came to get my grammar checked". She also wanted my signature on the draft to show that she had taken the draft to the writing center. I continued to let her know that her punctuation and grammar were secondary issues in this paper and I could not ignore the bigger issues for the sake of her writing and my reputation.
Eventually she snatched her papers off the table and began to yell about how she was going to ACE to find a better tutor because she had to get home for Thanksgiving. I lol'd. I was never that aggressive but can remember having so little invested in my writing that I could've had a similar attitude back in my freshman year, I wonder how she'll turn out in the next 4 years.
The first was an ENC1101 paper that required her to interview an instrumental member of her community and write about their passion for public service. I asked the student what she'd written and she was resistant to saying anything more than that the paper was about a girl scout leader in her Miami neighborhood. She totally ignored me and continued to point at the paper when I asked her to elaborate on this. This seemed weird since it seemed like a very personal paper; thinking of the situation now, I feel like someone else wrote this paper for her. However, she was hot and I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.
I tried to get her to read her own work out loud and she refused, so I began to read it out loud. This is where I began to get annoyed since it was obvious that I was reading the paper to myself. It was poorly developed and obviously written towards the word count, so I stopped to ask her about Mrs Johnson-- the topic of the paper-- in hopes that the conversation would spark something that she felt would make this paper stronger. I asked "How would you ideally want Mrs Johnson to feel when she reads this? If you had to write a recommendation or a eulogy (God forbid) for her, does this do her justice?" The client had no answers, she had checked out and wanted to be done. The few times she said something, it was along the lines of "I just came to get my grammar checked". She also wanted my signature on the draft to show that she had taken the draft to the writing center. I continued to let her know that her punctuation and grammar were secondary issues in this paper and I could not ignore the bigger issues for the sake of her writing and my reputation.
Eventually she snatched her papers off the table and began to yell about how she was going to ACE to find a better tutor because she had to get home for Thanksgiving. I lol'd. I was never that aggressive but can remember having so little invested in my writing that I could've had a similar attitude back in my freshman year, I wonder how she'll turn out in the next 4 years.
It's Over Already?!
Today was my last day of tutoring for this semester. :( I am usually always so thrilled for the semester to be ending but when it comes to this peer tutoring class and the experiences I have had tutoring in William Johnston, I'm sad to see it coming to an end. I truly cannot look back on any of my tutoring sessions with anything but positive thoughts. I know there are things I wish I had said or done while in a session but I think I have learned and am continuing to learn from these instances, so I really could not call them regrets.
Sometimes I think of what we all have been doing at the Reading and Writing Centers as a job, we are all "working" as tutors. However, it's hard for me to label it as work because I have enjoyed it so much. I love talking about writing and I like to encourage students that they do have the ability to write well, especially since so many students who come in to get tutored give off the impression that they are not confident in their writing skills. They may need feedback on their ideas, grammar assistance, a push in the right direction or maybe their whole paper needs to be rerouted. No matter what the issue, I find that I enjoy tackling it because I like to see these students learning. I can't help but get invested in their work particularly because I can relate entirely to the confusion, stress and anxiety felt when working on and submitting an assignment.
On a different but related note, I'd like to bring up one of my tutoring sessions today which turned out to be interesting. It was actually pretty funny to me because I had just read Shea's blog post about her red pen issue when I found myself encountering the same problem. I think I would have been a lot more frazzled and completely thrown off if I had not read that post and the comments, so thank you for that! In my session it happened to be an orange pen, which isn't quite as hostile as red but there was no way I was going to let this student put that pen in my hand, no matter how many times she kept pushing it in my direction. I simply told her it would probably be easier for her to decipher the comments later if she wrote them herself. It worked really well and I think it actually helped her to notice her mistakes a lot quicker since she was taking an active part in our session. She's an ESL student and mainly needed help with grammar. During the session I pointed out a word that she had made singular and explained to her why it should be plural, I was then so pleased to notice that when she made the same mistake again she was able to recognize it on her own without me having to say anything. These small yet gratifying moments are what make tutoring worthwhile for me and, looking at the other posts on our blog, it seems like everyone else can relate.
Sometimes I think of what we all have been doing at the Reading and Writing Centers as a job, we are all "working" as tutors. However, it's hard for me to label it as work because I have enjoyed it so much. I love talking about writing and I like to encourage students that they do have the ability to write well, especially since so many students who come in to get tutored give off the impression that they are not confident in their writing skills. They may need feedback on their ideas, grammar assistance, a push in the right direction or maybe their whole paper needs to be rerouted. No matter what the issue, I find that I enjoy tackling it because I like to see these students learning. I can't help but get invested in their work particularly because I can relate entirely to the confusion, stress and anxiety felt when working on and submitting an assignment.
On a different but related note, I'd like to bring up one of my tutoring sessions today which turned out to be interesting. It was actually pretty funny to me because I had just read Shea's blog post about her red pen issue when I found myself encountering the same problem. I think I would have been a lot more frazzled and completely thrown off if I had not read that post and the comments, so thank you for that! In my session it happened to be an orange pen, which isn't quite as hostile as red but there was no way I was going to let this student put that pen in my hand, no matter how many times she kept pushing it in my direction. I simply told her it would probably be easier for her to decipher the comments later if she wrote them herself. It worked really well and I think it actually helped her to notice her mistakes a lot quicker since she was taking an active part in our session. She's an ESL student and mainly needed help with grammar. During the session I pointed out a word that she had made singular and explained to her why it should be plural, I was then so pleased to notice that when she made the same mistake again she was able to recognize it on her own without me having to say anything. These small yet gratifying moments are what make tutoring worthwhile for me and, looking at the other posts on our blog, it seems like everyone else can relate.
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