My first tutoring experience

Yesterday around 5:40 pm I experienced my first day of tutoring a college student for an hour. I

was partner up with an ENG 99 student, she was Hispanic , short with honey blonde hair, 
braces and reading glasses. I was kind of nervous since I'm usually the one 
going to the writing center to get help from a tutor now I was in the position 
of tutoring someone. She approached me very nicely, we walked to the writing 
center and sat in a table located near the door. I told her Hi my name is Lizaeny I am your tutor for today what can I help you with ? She told me I am 
having difficulties creating my thesis, I don't have my essay but, I have the 
reading I am suppose to write about. I asked her if she understood the reading 
and she told me yes, I can also summarize the reading so that you can tell me if 
I am on the right track. She wrote the summary, I read it and realized she is 
not organized because her thesis was at the end of her summary and she did not 
summarize the reading enough. I asked her to verbally tell me what the passage 
is about, she spoke more than she wrote. I noticed she understood the passage 
but, had problems writing it down. We read the article and stopped at the end of 
each paragraph so that she can summarize what she understood so far. Everything 
was going pretty well, until she started getting off topic asking me questions 
like " did you take the CATW exam? Was it hard?How long you have in college? Do 
you think my teacher is cute? " I felt awkward and told Her not to get distracted. I waited for her to expand her summary, five minute into writing her summary she asked me if I can tell her what to write since I am smarter than her. I told her that is not true, her summary is good she just has to expand it more. After I was done tutoring she asked me if I can help her throughout the week ? And I told her I will see her next Tuesday. I was very nervous at first but, being my first time tutoring I think I did pretty good. I was able to help my student  with her summary and make sure she understood how to write a thesis and take notes while reading.The only thing that bother me 

was when the student was getting distracted asking me personal questions and talking about random things that didn't relate to the essay, other than that everything went smooth. Next  Tuesday when i meet with the student again i am going to feel more confident and and on track.

Sandra Pearl

Sandra Pearl is an Assistant professor at Herbertt H Lehman college, as a publisher she promised researchers for her studies of the composing processes of under prepared students in two year college. Understanding Composing was writing to understand college composition and communication , Pearl explains her way of thinking when writing about a topic. The aspect of her thinking that seems most important to me is recognition of recursiveness in writing. Pearl explains how recursiveness in writing "implies hat there is a forward-moving action that exists by virtue of a backward-moving action." to me this thinking seems most important to me because it is always important for writers to go back and look at what they are writing. Pearl explains how she has seen writers write for a long time without returning briefly to what they have wrote. It is always good to reread after every few phrase instead of after every paragraph. The second recurring feature Pearl focuses on is "some key words or item called up by the topic."When writers are stuck and run out of ideas they go back and use their topic or key word as a way to get going. Lastly, the third backward is not easy to explain or identified because according to Pearl it has nothing to do with words or the topic. Instead, it is a move that occurs inside the writer "felt sense" which is" the soft underbelly of thought... a kind of bodily awareness that can be used as a tool and encompasses everything you feel and know about a given subject at a given time." Therefore, as a college student this is the aspect of Pearl thinking that seems most important to me when writing.

James Moffet

Active Voice is a a writing program across the curriculum introduce by James Moffet to help "educators deliberate how to initiate a total writing program."Moffet believed that all writing had to be edited and revised version of the inner speech someone produces at a particular moment under the influence of random or controlled circumstances. In his book he explains how talking and writing can be useful to revise our inner speech. Moffet was against free writing because for some people it had a specific meaning "such as open-topic composition or formless final paper" Instead he replaced free writing with what spontaneously comes to mind.His system was divided into two assignments, the first assignment focuses on revising inner speech  which reflects outer material and may be about any subject and can be done by any person or group age. The second group assignment focuses on dialogues and monologues what are known to deal with the composing of vocal speech. Moffet curriculum helps us realize how writing is not all about focusing on basic writing, it is about going deeper and focusing on our thoughts and expanding it in our writing. 

Tutoring Do's

There are certain thing that tutors should do in order to help students overcome their issue.

• The tutor should be punctual and prepared.
• Listening : As a tutor this is a very important strategy because in order to understand how the student needs help, we most listen. 
• Positive Energy/ Body language :  A tutor should always be aware of their tone of voice, and gesture because " it is the first message the tutor sends to the writer" The tutor should make eye contact with the student and smile so that the student can feel the positive energy and feel comfortable.
•  The tutor should ask the student what he/she don't understand.
• should go over the student work and focus on the main issue (not grammar).
•  Ask the student if they understand what went wrong with his/her work.
• Ask questions to the student and answer the student questions.                 
• Give clear directions and explanations. 
• Provide positive feedback to the student.
• Be honest don't lie to the student to make he/she feel better, tell them the truth in a way that they will understand and not feel like a failure.
• Make sure when the student leaves he/she understood what went on.
• Ask the student if you provided them with enough help and if they need help with anything else.
• Dismiss them with the same energy you greet them so that they can feel welcome any other time.

      

Tutoring Don't

• The tutor should never ignore the student.
• Never lose focus
• The tutor should never rush the student.
• The tutor should not have headphones while tutoring a student.
• The tutor should never judge the student they are working with.
• The tutor should never do the student assignment.
• Never grade the student work.
• Do not cheer lead by hunting for grammar.
• Do not become the student therapist.
• Do not tell the student their work is awful.
• No random conversation between the student and the tutor.