My First 'Live' Tutoring

I started my first live tutoring with out being nervous or having an anxiety attack as I expected. It started a bit rough because the student could not explain what the essay was about. He proceed to ask his professor who came over to our seat and explained what the assignment was. Once I had an understanding, I read his introduction and started off by asking, "What is the main topic here?", because he did not introduce the article, yet he added quotes. I read the rest of his paper and he had great topic sentences with supporting details. But when I gathered the topic sentences, I realized it did not correspond with what he believed to be the main topic. We engaged in conversation as he tried to explain what he believes to be important in the text. He had good quotes but needed to change his main topic in which he was able to figure out. Overall, the session was productive but could've been improved as far as time management since I only had one student; the other student did  not do the assignment. The student refused to take out a sheet of paper or write notes, despite the numerous attempts I had made. It was difficult not being able to have these notes down because he ended up asking the same questions on sections we already evaluated. I asked him about an outline and encourage that we create one but he insist that he has it already and wanted to move on to the next subject at hand. I believe that we could've had more done if he was not editing on the blog itself. By me concentrating on everything the student was saying to me helped me to give better feedback on his paper. The positive part of the assignment is the communication that I encountered. The student was talkative which led me to figure out what strategy best suits him and it helped. The student improved his fragments into his own words as well as adding relevant thoughts to develop his paper.

Observation Two Assingment

After observing my second tutoring session, I first noticed that the tutor used the 'Read Aloud' strategy. He had two students to tutor within that one-hour time. One of the students he had was a student he tutored several times within that week. The student had to revise an ENG 101 paper in which he did not know what to write after his thesis and one thesis statement. The tutor asked him questions that I read in the book like, "What have you learned about this book and what more do you want to know"? He asked the student to write those ideas down and he will get back to him. The tutor then advised an ENG 102 student who had difficulties linking her thesis statement to her body paragraph. The tutor then asked her what the poem was about and reviewed the lengthy poem and concluded that her opinion about the 'tone' of the poem did not correspond to what was written in the poetry. He explained to her the difference between a summary and an analysis.He also made a list of all her mistakes and then asses them by explaining the steps she needed to take to improve her paper such as "Write as if the reader knows nothing about the poem". He ended the session with a compliment on the ideas that she already had despite the fact that  she wrote a summary rather than an analysis.The tutor goes back to his original student and review what was wrote. He advises the student to put each idea into a few sentences and that will be the details needed to complete his thoughts.

Observation One Assignment

After observing my first tutoring session, I've noticed a lot of strategies that I've read about. The tutor used clarity in her tone and made sure the writer understood everything she was being advised. What I didn't expect was for how prepared and organized the writer came in. Not only did she have the assignment sheet, she had her notes to provide the tutor with in case they wanted a brief understanding of what the text was about. Luckily for the writer, the tutor understood the reading that was assigned and was able to advise the writer "better than what I expected" in her exact quote. What was interesting is the writer explained that she had not written an essay in over five years so its difficult for her to get an understanding. As a result to what the tutor reviewed; the writer was pretty good for ENG 101 and the lack of current experience she had. The tutor was very descriptive yet allowed the writer to create her own version in her very own words.