9/9 Response

Point of Departure: Knowing where a student is coming from in their writing can be very informative when it comes to tutoring them. If a tutor can gain an understanding of a student's past writing experiences and what they know in terms of writing, the tutor can then find a good starting point for their tutoring experience. In other words, if a particular student hasn't had much experience with writing in high school, or doesn't feel confident about their own writing skills, the tutor can start by explaining some of the fundamentals of college writing and what professors expect. On the other hand, if a student has had a good amount of writing practice in high school and feels very confident about their writing abilities, the tutor can then go deeper into the student's writing and go over more specific details of writing.

Remix: For example, if a student's prior understanding of writing mainly stems from the standardized five-paragraph essay structure, then the tutor may have to incorporate some new ideas into the student's thinking and in a way change the way they think about writing. If successful in doing so, the student will then begin to value the difference in perspective on writing and in turn will begin to revise their own method of writing.

Critical Incident: This is very similar to the concept of remix, in that it involves a student changing their viewpoints and practices of writing into something new. As for the tutor, it is very important for a tutor to recognize if a particular student has reached a critical incident. Back to the five-paragraph example, if a student comes to the realization that this model of writing isn't cutting it on the college level, and the tutor recognizes this, the tutor can then begin work on reshaping the student's views on writing.

Revision: After a student has completed a draft for a writing assignment, the tutor can go through it and use end points in their draft and make suggestions for revision. This process can be done with subsequent drafts of the assignment and the tutor can point out, to the student, the improvements that have been made on each.

Reflection: Gaining insight in a student's writing not only helps in terms of remix and critical incident, but it also helps give the student a better understanding of their own end goals in writing. When a tutor asks a student to reflect upon their own writing, it will also allow them to see the progress and improvements they have made, and help the student recognize that they have learned something about writing. Once the student has recognized their own growth of consciousness, the tutor can then move on to other areas of the student's writing that may need improvement, while the student can incorporate what they have already learned in their future writing.