final reflection 12/4

My experiences working at FSU’s Reading and Writing Center have been both challenging and rewarding. I have had many different kinds of students come in with all different writing styles and talents. It is so cool to see such a diversity of people here at Florida State. And it so cool that we can all help each other in some way.

This week was one of those weeks that was both challenging and rewarding at the writing center. The first student I tutored this week was a junior majoring in social work, so naturally, her paper dealt with social work. She was most concerned with grammar and APA formatting. I asked her if there was anything besides that (e.g. organization, formatting paragraphs, etc.) that she would also like to discuss, but she kept on insisting on grammar. So, we ended up reading over her paper and talking about various areas of concern. She mostly had questions for me, rather than me asking her questions about the paper. At that point, it was kind of like she knew what she wanted and did not want to do much else. When the appointment was over, we got through six of the twelve pages and she immediately made another appointment at the writing center. Although I was happy she was utilizing the RWC, I still felt unaccomplished. We both knew thirty minutes was not enough time to go through a twelve-page paper. And in addition, I’m not 100% familiar with APA formatting, so that was difficult too. I felt like she didn’t trust me as a tutor. Is there something I can do next time that happens?

My next appointment was for an hour and it was for a Chinese graduate student. We were going over her paper regarding Chinese and American government. Once again, her paper also required APA formatting, and we had to research what goes into APA. That took up unnecessary time. I think something the Peer Tutoring class can benefit from next semester is going over properly formatting papers, besides just MLA. Especially because the RWC allows any major. Other than that, the appointment went smoothly and we worked on sentence structure. She was an awesome English writer for having Chinese as her native language!

In all, I feel like me working at the RWC has benefitted me in multiple ways. I’ve learned so much by working with all different kinds of students and it is so rewarding, as I had mentioned earlier. I am so thankful for this opportunity and I cannot wait to intern in the spring!

Final response

         I got positive response from everyone that they liked the idea of my mock tutoring session followed by interview questions.  I asked the class if they think this could be done in 30 minutes and most agreed that it could.  A few suggested an hour session.  I ended up doing a 30 minute session and finished with time to spare in all 3 sessions.  One person in the class did question how ESL students worked within my research question of tutoring reading in the RWC.  Because of this, I decided to add one more question to my interview questions.  "What, if anything, would you have done differently in the tutoring session if I were an ESL student?'  In each interview, the tutor had already touched on that subject by the time we actually got to that question, showing that it actually does play a big part in their tutoring for reading, so I am glad I got the advice to add that question.
       Finally, I wanted to add a brief description of my last tutoring session which was, quite simply, the worst session I've ever had.  The student signed up for my last 30 minute slot and took up 90 minutes of my time and would not leave.  The student basically wanted me to write the essay for them and kept bringing out more work that she "needed help with."  This student simply had no respect for my time or what I had to do that day. Yes, I get it, I should have spoken up stating that I had to go and the session was over.  However, I'm a shy person, and confrontation is hard for me.  Maybe if we had actually gone over what to do in a similar situation in class where the student just won't leave, I would have been prepared.  But I was never prepared for this, and therefore had no clue how to handle the situation or how to correctly represent the RWC in the situation.  On top of it all, I basically paid FSU to be disrespected like this.  I am an unpaid tutor who in fact pays to take this class as credit, and I've never felt more used than I do now.  I am very disappointed.

Last Reflection

This is all of the wonderful feedback I received and why I will use it:

“I would personally phrase some questions differently; instead of “frustrations” maybe ‘are your experiences with students who are required to be in the RWC different from the typical student?”

I will absolutely use this advice because frustration definitely adds a negative connotation that I don’t want.

“Focus on how to improve the morale of students rather than why.”

I will use this advice because that is, after all, what tutoring is all about. Following this advice will make my project more helpful for tutors in the future.

“I would do less questions because 20 questions will take a lot of time. You can combine some!”

I will absolutely follow this advice because many of those questions were repetitive.

“Interview was really thorough-would you interview in person or over email?”

As previously mentioned, I will condense the interview, and they will be in person.

“I would define ‘comfortable.’ How exactly do you want these students to feel? I would also narrow down the # of interview questions. The large # might be a little overwhelming. “

I will follow this advice because comfortable is a very important, and vague word that must be defined in my project.

“I would break down my paper the same way your power point was organized.”

This is wonderful advice because that will help me immensely with the structure of my paper.

“If it were mine I’d be cautious of subjective evidence. Stick to your data and 1^st hand experience.”

This advice is fantastic and I will keep it in mind.

“Maybe include a question about how often tutors actually see required students. “

I will include this question.

“You have a lot of questions…how long are your interviews going to be? Maybe consider condensing the questions?”

As mentioned earlier, the interview will definitely be condensed.

“Interview-it’s a lot of questions.”

“I feel as though the interview questions may be a bit much and because there are so many they will be too broad.”

I will revise them.

“I feel like a lot of this data relies on feeling-might be hard to quantify.”

“If it were mine, I’d use observations instead of interviews, as tutors might be biased in their responses.”

Thank you everyone for all the great feedback!