My second live tutoring session was simply amazing! I had to deal with the scary balanced dual session and as scared as i was, i knew deep down I can handle it.
I had to lovely students who were working on their sample CATW. They both had the assignment as well as the drafts on them so i asked them to hand it to me so i can read it over. I noticed that one had more writing than the other but then one with more writing was about the same thing just phrased differently.
I then asked them if they wanted it to be a group session or if they would like for me to alternate. One of my students gave me a little bit of an issue because when i asked they said they did not care so i decided to work with the other student first while i assigned student #1 something. S1 did not seem to happy about it so without freaking out (although i was an the inside) I said ok we are going to try this.
I decided to make the session a mix of group and solo discussion. I asked them both how did they feel toward the piece. I then asked them both to summarize their drafts for me. They both had a hard time in doing so and taking a mental note of it i asked them each to re-read the story and underline what they felt was important.
once they were done with that i asked them why they felt it was important. I then asked them to look over their draft and see if they wrote anything that related to those facts. They did. Then i alternated and asked one student to find anything else in the story they could write about that connects to their "thesis". In this case it was okay for me to work with Student #2 alone because S1 was occupied and understood why i needed to alternate at that point. I told S2 to name other reasons that she personally felt goes along with her thesis. Ex: S2 agreed and said that Dads helping in the house more makes them happier. S2 then mentioned that it makes the relationship more healthy. I asked why and she could not figure out why so i told S2 to look through the article and find a passage that will support their claim. They did and found it. I then asked what other reasons make you believe that your thesis is true. S2 gave me two more reasons but again had trouble in supporting. I simply guided the student to look through the article again to see if anything there supports the claim and if not they can also tie in personal experience.
I left S2 with that assignment and switched over to S1 who was struggling to find anything else. So i thought back to the Tutoring Writing book in which it talks about having a conversation with the student. I decided this would be the best tactic because S1 seemed to get anxious having to look through the article to find ideas. I simply had a conversation with the student and asked why they felt that dads were happier helping more in the house. The student based their opinion on personal experience and how their relationship with their dad was better because of it. I told them ok there you go there is one reason which is that it makes the dad closer to the child and your support is your experience. I remembered also reading in the article a passage that went with that so I pointed it out to the student and told them they could use that as well to make their claim stronger. I then asked the student what other reasons supports their thesis. They had a had time thinking of others so i assisted by asking questions like "Do you think it helps in the relationship in the sense that it helps a dad understand what a mom goes through?" The student replied yes and I said there is your second reason. Then I assigned him to look through the article and find the support for it.
I continued with the tactic going back and forth between both students. They came up with the other reasons on their own and the support for it all on their own. I was so proud and I told the both of them together that they both know what they are doing. It is in them they just have to not doubt themselves. I related it to myself and told them that I always used to doubt myself and once in a while I still do. But when I am confident and allow myself to be free with my opinions and writing that is when I do great work. I told them to have more confidence in themselves because they are smart and know what they are doing because they did.
I then suggested a bubble map or a tree diagram to help them visually see what they are going to write and this also helps them in how they are going to connect the reason to their support. They both asked me if they can work on re-writing their draft and of course I said yes.
I can honestly say that this session is what reminded me that this is what I want to do in life. That i am choosing the right career. Thank you to the professor that let us tutor his class and thank you Dr. JRC for helping us in preparing ourselves and giving us the confidence we needed. :-)
Friday, May 16, 2014
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
First live tutoring sessiom
Let me start off by saying that it was both nerve wrecking and exciting! I was extremely nervous but as I was tutoring the student, the nerves started to disappear. I am so happy to have had my first experience in tutoring a student.
Impression:
My overall impression of the student's paper was that he had some sort of idea of his opinion on gentrification but he lacked structure and research and various arguments against gentrification. I was a little concerned on how I was going to help the student since he did not have much I could work with but I remembered that in our Tutoring Writing book they express the importance of conversation as one of the strategies if the student does not have a draft.
Suggestions:
I decided to use the technique of having a conversation although he had some kind of draft. I used that because his draft lacked a lot of stuff that was needed. So I asked him to first choose a side. If he was for or against gentrification. In the second paragraph he mentioned that he says that it is good and bad but due to the essay he needed to pick a side. He had a hard time choosing and so I suggested that maybe he would want to say that he was against the topic because most of his draft was focusing on the negatives of gentrification. I asked if he agreed or felt that he was more on the side of the negative effects than the positive effects of gentrification. He said that he leaned more towards the side of gentrification being a cancer.
I then took that conversation further and asked him why he felt that it was bad. He expressed his ideas and I jotted them down for him. I then asked if there was anything in the articles that he received from the professor that would back up his ideas. He was not too sure and I could not help out with that because he did not have the articles on him. I made the suggestion that if he wanted to, he could attempt to get and outside research source just to make his ideas more stronger.
We then proceeded to fix his essay outline (structure) since that was missing. I drew out an example outline for him just to give him an idea on how an essay should be structured. I then told him that he does not have to stick with what I have outlined and he could play around with it and decide what ideas are more important to discuss first or last. I then emphasized the importance of having the research to back up his ideas and he needs to cite where those sources came from. I noticed he had no thesis at all and so I explained to him that your thesis is an introduction to your claims (ideas). Like when we watch a movie we are always usually given a preview for that movie. Well in the introductory paragraph and your thesis the same concept applies. Your are giving the reader a sneak peek on what you are going to be discussing.
LOC's:
I asked if he knew MLA formatting and he said that the professor went over it but he didn't sound to sure. I quickly expressed to him the basic MLA format that essay needed to be in. He then asked a question about his first intro paragraph and see if there was anything wrong with his sentences. Talk about hitting a complete panic attack. LOC are my weakness and I honestly have no idea on how to explain why it should be like this or why things are like that. I was freaking out on the inside but remained calm on the outside. I read his paragraph and immediately realized that he had run-on sentences. I then asked him if he has ever read his paper out loud or if he has had someone else read it out loud for him. He answered no and I knew what suggestion to make. I told him in the future always read your paper aloud that way you can catch when you should probably put a period or a comma. I proceeded to read his first paragraph aloud to him and then asked him to tell me where he felt there should be a period or comma. He actually knew exactly where they should have been placed since I read it out loud to him. I then expressed to him that there maybe things that he could add or take out of the paragraph. He had too many unnecessary details that had nothing to do with the paragraph. So i made a suggestion and fixed the first two sentenced and asked if he thought that made the paragraph better or worse. He said it was better and I asked him to find maybe another sentence he could tweak. I told him that everything he writes has to be focused on the meat (idea) of the paragraph and the other sentences should be the fat (claim) of the paragraph.
Overall:
It was great practice and I can't wait to do it again. I believe I helped him out and I did encourage him and told him he had great ideas. After-all he was the one who came up with the ideas I just helped push him and organize it. Every student needs that encouragement! :-)
Impression:
My overall impression of the student's paper was that he had some sort of idea of his opinion on gentrification but he lacked structure and research and various arguments against gentrification. I was a little concerned on how I was going to help the student since he did not have much I could work with but I remembered that in our Tutoring Writing book they express the importance of conversation as one of the strategies if the student does not have a draft.
Suggestions:
I decided to use the technique of having a conversation although he had some kind of draft. I used that because his draft lacked a lot of stuff that was needed. So I asked him to first choose a side. If he was for or against gentrification. In the second paragraph he mentioned that he says that it is good and bad but due to the essay he needed to pick a side. He had a hard time choosing and so I suggested that maybe he would want to say that he was against the topic because most of his draft was focusing on the negatives of gentrification. I asked if he agreed or felt that he was more on the side of the negative effects than the positive effects of gentrification. He said that he leaned more towards the side of gentrification being a cancer.
I then took that conversation further and asked him why he felt that it was bad. He expressed his ideas and I jotted them down for him. I then asked if there was anything in the articles that he received from the professor that would back up his ideas. He was not too sure and I could not help out with that because he did not have the articles on him. I made the suggestion that if he wanted to, he could attempt to get and outside research source just to make his ideas more stronger.
We then proceeded to fix his essay outline (structure) since that was missing. I drew out an example outline for him just to give him an idea on how an essay should be structured. I then told him that he does not have to stick with what I have outlined and he could play around with it and decide what ideas are more important to discuss first or last. I then emphasized the importance of having the research to back up his ideas and he needs to cite where those sources came from. I noticed he had no thesis at all and so I explained to him that your thesis is an introduction to your claims (ideas). Like when we watch a movie we are always usually given a preview for that movie. Well in the introductory paragraph and your thesis the same concept applies. Your are giving the reader a sneak peek on what you are going to be discussing.
LOC's:
I asked if he knew MLA formatting and he said that the professor went over it but he didn't sound to sure. I quickly expressed to him the basic MLA format that essay needed to be in. He then asked a question about his first intro paragraph and see if there was anything wrong with his sentences. Talk about hitting a complete panic attack. LOC are my weakness and I honestly have no idea on how to explain why it should be like this or why things are like that. I was freaking out on the inside but remained calm on the outside. I read his paragraph and immediately realized that he had run-on sentences. I then asked him if he has ever read his paper out loud or if he has had someone else read it out loud for him. He answered no and I knew what suggestion to make. I told him in the future always read your paper aloud that way you can catch when you should probably put a period or a comma. I proceeded to read his first paragraph aloud to him and then asked him to tell me where he felt there should be a period or comma. He actually knew exactly where they should have been placed since I read it out loud to him. I then expressed to him that there maybe things that he could add or take out of the paragraph. He had too many unnecessary details that had nothing to do with the paragraph. So i made a suggestion and fixed the first two sentenced and asked if he thought that made the paragraph better or worse. He said it was better and I asked him to find maybe another sentence he could tweak. I told him that everything he writes has to be focused on the meat (idea) of the paragraph and the other sentences should be the fat (claim) of the paragraph.
Overall:
It was great practice and I can't wait to do it again. I believe I helped him out and I did encourage him and told him he had great ideas. After-all he was the one who came up with the ideas I just helped push him and organize it. Every student needs that encouragement! :-)
Saturday, April 5, 2014
Is it ok that I'm freaking out??
EXPECTATIONS AND QUESTIONS FOR MONDAY!
Oh my goodness! I can not believe that my class will be tutoring on monday 4/7/14. I am extremely nervous. I am scared to say the wrong things or give the wrong advice simply because I am too nervous. I am also excited to finally work with students and tutor them. It is something I have been looking forward to.
Expectations:
I'm not too sure what to expect to be honest. I would hope that I would get along great with the students and that we would get a lot of work done. That is probably the only thing I expect.
Questions:
A lot of my questions were answered during fridays class. The one thing I am curious about is what do I do if a student refuses to do any work? If the student does not care about the paper? Or if the student does not listen to my suggestions or does not care that I am there to help them?
I guess that is not one question.
I know everyone is going to do great and I am happy to be in this class with such amazing people. :-)
Oh my goodness! I can not believe that my class will be tutoring on monday 4/7/14. I am extremely nervous. I am scared to say the wrong things or give the wrong advice simply because I am too nervous. I am also excited to finally work with students and tutor them. It is something I have been looking forward to.
Expectations:
I'm not too sure what to expect to be honest. I would hope that I would get along great with the students and that we would get a lot of work done. That is probably the only thing I expect.
Questions:
A lot of my questions were answered during fridays class. The one thing I am curious about is what do I do if a student refuses to do any work? If the student does not care about the paper? Or if the student does not listen to my suggestions or does not care that I am there to help them?
I guess that is not one question.
I know everyone is going to do great and I am happy to be in this class with such amazing people. :-)
Friday, April 4, 2014
Awesome Tutoring Session 4/2/14
This by far was the best tutoring observation I've experienced hands down. He faced the conflict of having to work with two students at once. In my opinion he is a perfect tutor example. Instead of me blabbing on let me break down exactly what he did and how he did it.
Greeting:
The greeting was great. He introduced himself to both students and introduced me as well to inform them that I was just observing. He then sat in between both students so that that the transition between the two would be smoother.
Body Language:
I am not sure if the students were able to notice but I noticed that he was a bit nervous. I think that was simply because I was there not only observing him tutor but observing him tutor two students at the same time which is understandable.
Student#1 and Student #2:
He asked the both of them to take out there assignments. S1 did not have his assignment on him at all or anything that was on the paper. He just wanted to know the difference between MLA and APA formatting. S2 had his first draft and was confused by the professors comments and what he should add to his paper. The tutor seeing that S1 has absolutely nothing to work on decided to work on him first and had S2 read over his paper to see if he had any more questions or comments that he probably did not think of before.
Student#1:
Now I am going to explain how he helped this particular student. The tutor got the Works Cited Manual and briefly went over the minor differences. He told the student that worrying about the differences between MLA and APA are minor. He then asked if the student had any concerns particularly about writing that may confuse him. The student then took out a previous assignment he had in that class and asked the tutor what was wrong about the writing. He saw that the professor wrote down comments but he did not understand them. The tutor quickly read it over and discovered that the students main issue was sentence fragments. The tutor told the student that the ideas are awesome but what would make it even better is if he fixed those fragments so that his ideas are made clear. He printed out some handouts that talked about the rules of a proper sentence and the rules of using transition words. He broke each one down and wrote down some of the corrections for the sentences on a sheet of paper. He then asked the student to go through the rest of the assignment and to see if he was able to find sentence fragments on his own while he worked with Student #2.
Student#2:
The tutor thanked this student for being patient and waiting. He asked the student what questions or concerns he had. S2 responded stating that he had issues with sentence structure and more issues with LOC's. The tutor focused on the students LOC's and broke down each error with him just like he did with S1. He printed out a separate handout for this student which focused more on his issues. He gave many examples to the student until he understood. What I really liked particularly about this tutor was that he was very intuitive to the students body language. The student will say he understood but his body language and tone of voice said otherwise. It was awesome that the tutor was able to pick up on that and not give up on explaining the rules until the student actually understood. Even though he focused on grammar and so on he also focused on some HOC's and added sentences to make the students ideas more powerful. He was asking the student what he meant when he wrote a certain paragraph or sentence.
Student#1 and Student#2:
For both students he alternated the work and made sure the other student was always busy doing something so that the student was not simply sitting there waiting. He used collaborative learning and student-centered as his technique which was a nice change from my prior observation experiences. He made it about them but also took over when it was necessary to break things down. One thing he did that I thought tutors were not allowed to do was that he wrote on their actual paper for certain things. That was my only criticism about his session.
Overall:
It was simply amazing. It has been an honor to witness these sessions and take notes on what I should or should not do. In the future I hope to go to this tutor for any help with my papers or if I have any questions about tutoring.
Greeting:
The greeting was great. He introduced himself to both students and introduced me as well to inform them that I was just observing. He then sat in between both students so that that the transition between the two would be smoother.
Body Language:
I am not sure if the students were able to notice but I noticed that he was a bit nervous. I think that was simply because I was there not only observing him tutor but observing him tutor two students at the same time which is understandable.
Student#1 and Student #2:
He asked the both of them to take out there assignments. S1 did not have his assignment on him at all or anything that was on the paper. He just wanted to know the difference between MLA and APA formatting. S2 had his first draft and was confused by the professors comments and what he should add to his paper. The tutor seeing that S1 has absolutely nothing to work on decided to work on him first and had S2 read over his paper to see if he had any more questions or comments that he probably did not think of before.
Student#1:
Now I am going to explain how he helped this particular student. The tutor got the Works Cited Manual and briefly went over the minor differences. He told the student that worrying about the differences between MLA and APA are minor. He then asked if the student had any concerns particularly about writing that may confuse him. The student then took out a previous assignment he had in that class and asked the tutor what was wrong about the writing. He saw that the professor wrote down comments but he did not understand them. The tutor quickly read it over and discovered that the students main issue was sentence fragments. The tutor told the student that the ideas are awesome but what would make it even better is if he fixed those fragments so that his ideas are made clear. He printed out some handouts that talked about the rules of a proper sentence and the rules of using transition words. He broke each one down and wrote down some of the corrections for the sentences on a sheet of paper. He then asked the student to go through the rest of the assignment and to see if he was able to find sentence fragments on his own while he worked with Student #2.
Student#2:
The tutor thanked this student for being patient and waiting. He asked the student what questions or concerns he had. S2 responded stating that he had issues with sentence structure and more issues with LOC's. The tutor focused on the students LOC's and broke down each error with him just like he did with S1. He printed out a separate handout for this student which focused more on his issues. He gave many examples to the student until he understood. What I really liked particularly about this tutor was that he was very intuitive to the students body language. The student will say he understood but his body language and tone of voice said otherwise. It was awesome that the tutor was able to pick up on that and not give up on explaining the rules until the student actually understood. Even though he focused on grammar and so on he also focused on some HOC's and added sentences to make the students ideas more powerful. He was asking the student what he meant when he wrote a certain paragraph or sentence.
Student#1 and Student#2:
For both students he alternated the work and made sure the other student was always busy doing something so that the student was not simply sitting there waiting. He used collaborative learning and student-centered as his technique which was a nice change from my prior observation experiences. He made it about them but also took over when it was necessary to break things down. One thing he did that I thought tutors were not allowed to do was that he wrote on their actual paper for certain things. That was my only criticism about his session.
Overall:
It was simply amazing. It has been an honor to witness these sessions and take notes on what I should or should not do. In the future I hope to go to this tutor for any help with my papers or if I have any questions about tutoring.
Tutoring observation 4/1/14
Alright so this time around the tutoring session I observed actually focused on HOC's. I was sp excited to finally see how a tutor deals with fixing a students thesis and structure. She started with a very friendly greeting and had a lot of patience while the student was trying to find his assignment. She read the professors comments which by the way pretty much stated that he wanted the student to re-do his entire paper.
She started with having a discussion with the student about the assignment. She asked what the literature was about and what he thought the professor wanted him to do. She then began to make an outline based on the professors and the students response. I will say that this session was more teacher-centered because those were the only questions she asked about and then she took over the session.
She kept a fair distance from the student. She did not lean in like the other two tutors I had observed prior to this one. She was very authoritative but it ended up working out for the student. He left feeling a lot better about the paper since she had an outline for him and since she had several notes for him. I liked that she broke down all of the professors comments as well as her own so that the student understood.
She ended the session by focusing on how he could integrate the literature into his paper. Overall it was a great tutoring session. :)
She started with having a discussion with the student about the assignment. She asked what the literature was about and what he thought the professor wanted him to do. She then began to make an outline based on the professors and the students response. I will say that this session was more teacher-centered because those were the only questions she asked about and then she took over the session.
She kept a fair distance from the student. She did not lean in like the other two tutors I had observed prior to this one. She was very authoritative but it ended up working out for the student. He left feeling a lot better about the paper since she had an outline for him and since she had several notes for him. I liked that she broke down all of the professors comments as well as her own so that the student understood.
She ended the session by focusing on how he could integrate the literature into his paper. Overall it was a great tutoring session. :)
Thursday, March 27, 2014
Tutoring Session 3/27
In this tutoring session she focused more on LOC's due to the professors strict guidelines. He wanted the students to focus more on their grammar and sentence structures. She spoke a little too low but I was still able to hear what she was saying. I really liked that when the student did not understand something she would use multiple examples so that he understood. It started off as a teacher-centered session and then it turned into collaborative learning. The student came in very frustrated and felt very defeated. He was working on his 4th draft and his professor marked the entire paper with negative comments. She assured him that it was going to be ok and that she had dealt with students who've had that professor and she was confident that she was going to get him through it. She told him that he had great ideas. She joked around with him and explained that even she has had moments where she had multiple drafts and wanted to scream. The tone she used made it more of a joking/easy going matter. To experience that was such an honor; such a moment like that was very encouraging for myself. It gives me inspiration for the future when I tutor students and I make their day better by simply helping them with their paper. I forgot to mention that before I was assigned to her session she sat across from the student (far), instead of beside the student. It was not until I was sent to her session that she moved next to the student. I recall the tutoring writing book that spoke about body language and how important it is. I felt that, that specific detail was key because as a tutor they should be involved.
Tutoring session 3/26
The tutor I observed was very good but he was very authoritative. It was more of a teacher-student session. They focused mainly on the works cited page since that was what the student requested. I guess in that case it is ok for the teacher to take over the session because the student had no idea on how to cite their work. What I really liked was that the tutor had a works cited manual with him for things he was unsure of. He was not afraid to admit that he was unsure of something. Overall the student took a lot out of the session. They did focus a little on the paper and due to the use of terms that he did not understand but overall he got the main idea of what the student was trying to write. They focused on LOC's and they ended the session. It was great because after the session the tutor asked if I had any questions and he helped out a lot with my confusions and curiosities. It was a good session overall. :)
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