First tutoring session!!

In my first tutoring session I've worked with two students in a ENG099 class. The students are practicing a sample CATW test. I began to read the first tutee's paper and told the second tutee to go over his paper and have questions on his paper ready. According to the professors comments the first tutee needed examples from the text to support her thesis and to clarify his arguments. I began to read her paper aloud which was a challenge due to the vast amount of grammatical errors, she is constantly quick to correct me and repeatedly says "oh, I meant to say..." I am approaching the last paragraph and she finally says that she has a disorder called dyslexia and it is hard for her to get down her thoughts on to a paper. I found it to be very challenging working with two tutee because I find myself assisting with the student with the most consistent errors. As I finished reading her paper I've noticed that her paper do not correlate to the article. As a task I asked her to re-read the article, carefully and jot down ideas the writer is trying to convey and whether or not if you agree or disagree with the author. I move on to tutee #2 and begin to read his paper aloud, overall it was a great piece the only thing was that the student sidetracked and went off topic on a paragraph that the professor also pointed out in her comments. We begin to brainstorm different ideas and topics that can expand on his idea instead of going the wrong path. After finding great informationto add on to his idea, as a task I asked him to rewrite that paragraph and to include the new ideas without going off topic. I go back to tutee #1 and she has written down an idea, "undocumented immigrants contribute greatly to the states and should eventually become citizens" and she writes that she agrees with this. We begin to write an outline for her paper, then professor comes around to give us a 5min warning. I start to give goals to each tutee to do when they reach home so they can receive a successful grade. We say our good byes and begin to head out. Although this first time experience was nerve wracking in the end it felt great helping a fellow student.

The Keys to A Successful Tutoring Session!

I believe there is many keys to a successful tutoring session starting off by introducing yourself and welcoming the tutee. As a tutor, you should always start with an introduction because it makes the student feel welcomed. I think the tutoring session goes well when a tutor introduces herself to the tutee, it makes the tutee feel comfortable. Making your student feel comfortable is another important key. When you are starting off your session, it is always important to give off a good vibe to the tutee. Good vibes consist of having good body language, being friendly and overall making your tutee feel comfortable enough around you. In Melissa's blog she states, "...he read only the first paragraph of the student's paper...then the tutor sort of caught himself just focusing on the LOCs and not talking to the student, therefore he changed up his technique and got the student involved". It is very important to involve the student as much as possible. Reading out loud can be very useful and can lead to a collaborative tutoring session. By doing this you give time to think about what is read and then you can take that time to formulate questions. The tutee is obviously not an expert at writing. I think its best when the tutor focuses more on Hoc than the Loc's . The tutor shouldn't tell the tutee what to write, let them think, don't make them feel low. I think its best when the tutee know how to explain what their paper is about. The more that a student comes to the writing center and get feedback on their work is the better their paper will. All of these strategies are the keys to having an ideal tutoring session.