Tutoring Observation Reflection

           This week, in my tutoring session with Sean, I was fortunate enough to observe two students from both ends of the academic spectrum. Our first tutee was a student athlete, and he very clearly did not have an interest in being at the RWC. When he spied me sitting with Sean, his first words were, “Is my session cancelled?!” Immediately, the tone of the session was set. Sean did his best to converse with the student, asking him how football was going and making small talk, eventually inquiring about the schoolwork the student had brought in. The student claimed he really didn’t have much to work on, explaining that, as it was Friday, all of his assignments had already been turned in earlier in the week. Sean kept probing him, though, questioning him about how the ENC1101 class was going and asking what they’d been doing in class and what they were doing next class. The student revealed that his class would be workshopping a poem on Monday, which led Sean to ask if we could see the poem the student planned on using. We moved to the computers, because the poem was on Blackboard, and read through the student’s chosen poem, a love poem which was actually quite charming, after which Sean asked some questions and found quite a few good things to say. There was a bit of a lull, and then Sean asked about other poems the student had written recently, so he showed us another piece. This one was very touching, clearly closer to the student’s heart, so after Sean tried subtly suggesting that the student use this poem for workshop instead, I asked him which poem felt closer to him. He responded that this second poem was, and decided to submit it in for workshopping. Once we’d discussed both poems and settled upon the second, Sean asked if the student had any other questions or assignments he wanted help with. The student said no, quite obviously itching to leave, so Sean let him go 15 minutes early. This tutoring experience was actually very educational for me, as I greatly fear having a student come in with nothing to work on and being at a loss for what to do. After this session, I have a better idea of how to approach a situation like that: asking a lot of questions and being persistent.

            Sean’s second student was essentially the complete opposite of his first. She came in with her paper fully written for her ENC2135 course, only needing help with her citations. She was unfamiliar with MLA format, so she asked Sean to take a look at her in-text citations and works cited page. He went through her citations, letting her know how to correct them and explaining the purpose of MLA in-text citations. The student was very willing to accept and apply the corrections, and once they had gone through her works cited page and fixed some small errors, she said she had no other questions. Sean did ask her if she wanted to read the paper aloud or have him read through it and see if there was anything that could be revised, but she said she felt that would be unnecessary so the session ended a bit early. This session was extremely clear-cut and simple, providing a great example of an ideal tutoring scenario. I can only hope that I get plenty of students like her, who know exactly what they need before they come in!