Key concepts that proved helpful

I feel as though I have had an interesting array of students so far, so each session was different than the last. However, I found that I was not working with many freshman students as proposed at the start of class. In this way, the key concepts that we've learned in class that have been most helpful to me were ones that didn't have to do with the transferring and remixing of old ideas. Many of the students that I worked with had a good grasp on collegiate level writing. I found that I was revising more paper than I was brainstorming. I believe that I enjoyed this more because it allowed the student and I to go further in depth with their paper. With that being said, perhaps the key concept/s that I found the most helpful were the ones that talked about looking at the bigger picture of the paper rather than the little things.
What I found myself doing with a couple of my students was starting broadly and then narrowing it in as the session went on. What I mean by this is that we would first read the paper in its entirety and discuss what was being said, and in some cases what was not being said. We would then go through the paper and see where the message was clear and where it was not so clear. Then we would work on ways to strengthen the message. Once we got all the main things done, then we would narrow it in a little. We would look at sentence arrangement, fluidity, and overall structure. Finally, if we had time, then we would look at word choice and grammar.
This key concept of focusing on the general bigger picture first is something that I utilized in every one of my sessions. I also noticed that the session was the most productive when we tackled the bigger issues first because it then allows for an easier transition and a clear view on the smaller issues.