9/24 Reflection on Observation Week

Yesterday I observed three sessions in the writing center. The tutor was Molly Peel. As soon as I sat down with her, she told me something along the lines of, “I just started tutoring this semester and sometimes it’s awkward because I’m a little shy!” That was comforting. I’m a little shy sometimes. And it was really awkward during some parts of the sessions. For example. The first girl who came in was a freshman and, by freshman, I mean that as soon as I saw her I knew she was a freshman. I’m pretty sure she was hungover, too. Her hair looked really bad. That’s not the awkward part. The awkward part was that she had no idea what she wanted to do with her paper, or what was wrong with it, or what it was really about. Molly was really patient. She asked to identify parts of the paper where she had analysis. The girl couldn’t do it. It was honestly painful to watch. The paper was about how Coachella had changed her life.

               Anyways. The next session was even worse because it was football player. Apparently, student athletes are required to come to the writing center once a week—they take it for credits (!?!). So he had nothing to work on. We talked about the game last Friday and how we should have played better. Even though we won, he said that they should have scored at least 30 points over the other team. He plays defense, though, so I guess he did his job pretty well. Molly seemed to know how to talk about football, so that was good! I was super uncomfortable!

               No one showed up for the third session. That turned out to be a good time for us to talk. I got to ask her what a normal session for her is like, what kind of assignments she most commonly works with, and what kind of weird situations she’s been in. She said once a girl started crying because she wrote an essay about her dead father. Yikes. I hope that never happens to me because I’m one of those people who doesn’t know how comfort people who cry. I should work on that. But Molly was super helpful and I think I learned a lot from her. It helped that I could relate with her as a sort-of shy person. Hopefully I can co-tutor with her next week.

Response 9/16

     I believe that my biggest challenge when I begin tutoring will be figuring out exactly what my tutee needs and finding the best way to reach those needs. I am confident in my communication skills as well as my editing skills as far as writing is concerned, but for tutoring I know that it's all about the individual you are working with. I am hoping that I will be able to execute exactly what is needed to create the most substantial paper in a timely manner, based on my tutee's potential audience and how they feel about what they are writing.
     This challenge can easily be overcome once I get a feel for my tutee's writing style, writing goals, as well as my tutoring style, given that I have not had the opportunity to find it yet. Once I am confident with all of these things, I feel that I will be able to assist my tutee in the most beneficial way. I also want to make sure that I have the ability to make my tutee confident in their writing. Good writing is all about confidence and I think that building your tutee's confidence is crucial because that, in turn, will build their writing skills overall. These are potential challenges I know I will face, but that I also know I will be able to overcome, with the help of my tutee.

Tutoring Challenges

Honestly, my biggest fear about beginning to tutor is that I'll fall into the trap of editing papers, not improving writers. I worry that I won't know the right kinds of questions to ask or that the student won't be receptive to my suggestions, which will make it easy to take on the impersonal role of editor/reviser. I also feel like it might be challenging to not just insert my own voice into the student's paper, thus silencing the student's voice. Throughout my entire academic career, I've simply edited my friends' papers and "fixed" their writing without actually helping them improve their writing process; this is exactly what we've been taught to avoid doing in this class. I will have to consciously remind myself that, as a tutor, my job is not just to help the student with their paper, but to help the student become a better writer. I believe the leading-question approach might be useful to me, so that I can still point out areas that I think need improvement, but in such a way that the student can figure out what needs to be corrected for themselves.
Otherwise, though, I feel relatively prepared to start tutoring my peers. I can't wait to observe my mentor next week so that I can begin to learn first-hand what a tutoring session is like.

Challanges

I believe that there will be a lot of challenges when I begin tutoring in the next couple of weeks just because I have no prior experience with peer to peer tutoring. One of the biggest challenges I think, for me at least, will be getting over the whole awkwardness of the session. I think that people tend to open up to other people that they find relatable and easy to talk to and I’m neither of these things then the session may end up being counterproductive.

I think I can use a lot of what we learned in class to help combat this awkwardness by trying to directly relate to the student. Providing a comfortable environment where the student feels at ease is one of my top goals because only then will they be able to open up and discuss what they have written. Not only that, they will be able to talk to me about how they’re felling and what direction that want to take their writing in. I think that being able to direct a student’s writing in the direction that they want to go is going to be one of the most rewarding things about being a tutor. 

Another challenge I may come across is my lack of knowledge about particular types of writing. Screenplays, poetry, and artistic pieces are all extremely foreign to me. I would really have no idea what is considered a good piece of creative writing and what would need to be altered. That being said, I think that the peer tutoring relationship could be mutually beneficial in this way because not only would I get to learn about creative styles; they would get to learn more of the editorial newsy style that I’m accustomed to. I really can’t wait to begin peer tutoring and meeting my mentor. I think this is going to be a really positive experience despite my biggest challenge and I hope that I can work to overcome all the challenges that I face.

Response 9/16

When I begin to tutor I believe that my biggest challenge will be understanding that sometimes it is better if I go a little easier on the students. My tactic when writing tends to be to just write a list. When I first start writing I just did down everything that is in my head that has to do with what I believe I want to write about. Once that is done then it becomes easier to organize my thoughts. However, if I'm with a student who is having difficulty conjuring up ideas or just random thoughts about their paper, then what I am going to need to do is find a different way to tackle the brainstorming part of the paper. Not only that, but I will have to work on encouraging the student whether they really are accomplishing what they set out to do or not. I don't normally have an issue with showing my pleasure when they do something correctly or grasp a concept, but I need to make sure that I continue to encourage them to do so.

9/16 Response

One of my biggest struggles in the tutoring center will most likely be my tendency to focus on proofreading and editing a paper. Secondly, a student who comes in with no prior brainstorming or ideas. My initial opinions of the RWC were that it was primarily an editing service ,an opinion I'm sure most students share. Now that I have had the opportunity to learn more about the goals of the writing center, I want to change my perspective so when a student comes in for help, my primary goals is to address far more than grammatical mistakes. Also, attempting to pull out information and think of ideas with a student who does not know where to start might be difficult. I think that's when I might utilize the question technique described in the Longman text to probe the student in order to make some sort of progress on the start of their paper.

9/16 Response

When I begin to tutor in the next couple of weeks, I believe I will be facing a lot of challenges along the way. First off, I think tutoring itself is a challenge. I am not going to know the student and I am not going to know how he or she is going to respond to me as a tutor. My hope is that a student will not become upset with what I have to say about his or her paper. I hope he or she will take it as constructive criticism and be able to learn from his or her mistakes and use this new knowledge about writing in the future. I hope I can be more than just a tutor, but a teacher for the students coming into the RWC. I hope I can make a difference in a student’s life! Secondly, as for myself, I think attempting to overcome nervousness and the fear of making a mistake or not knowing how to fix a paper will be a challenge for me. I want to be able to help a student and be able to teach him or her about writing, but I feel like I will not always have the answers, which scares me. However, with the help of my mentor, I believe that overcoming my fears will not be too difficult.