Aaron Chetram                                                                                                                       April 18^th 2012

Tutoring Writing                                                                                                        Blog spot Assignment

1.        The best tutoring experience that I had in the writing center was with a woman named Louis. This woman was so polite in inviting me into the tutoring session by introducing me to the other students and making sure they were comfortable with my observation.  As I studied her methods of teaching she also brought many thoughts into my head because this was my first tutoring session I was very curious. She taught the students about structure and even opened my eyes to how important the structure needed to be. By watching and taking notes I enjoyed the tutoring session and it was very pleasant.

2.        The strategy that was most used in the tutoring session was known as Collaborative learning. According to the book collaborative learning was used in an essence to promote the well connection between the teacher and the student.  Tutoring Writing states “The tutor encourages the writer, often with open-ended and probe-and-prompt questions, to engage in off the-paper, exploratory talk and to expand upon undeveloped themes in the paper” (McAndrew 26).  By working together and finding the problem they were able to formulate a guideline that the student would remember and expand upon.

3.        What makes it evident that this strategy worked was based upon a student listen and then respond. I could tell the clear distinction in her voice by just noticing how nervous she was when she entered the session. Eventually she began speaking more and she had a pleasant taste on her face of satisfaction knowing that it wasn’t so difficult if you take it step by step.

Part B

4.        The biggest problem that I witnessed during the tutoring session was the amount of pressure put on the tutor to make the students paper better. The student would come into the tutoring session expecting the tutor to give him or her all the answers which obviously is not the case. The student keeps pushing the tutor to help with specific things like grammar and constantly asks what do I write until the tutor decides to give in. By giving in the tutor is not doing his or her job and at the end of the day does not play a role in helping the student.

5.        The biggest tutoring don’t would have to be the lower order concerns. As I mentioned would have to be the Lower Order Concerns. The student would come in with questions about his or her paper and end up falling into something completely different. The tutor would point out things that are important, but aren’t the main point of the essay such as Commas, Spelling and Fragments when the time was split between two students. This had such a negative impact on the students because the connection between both tutor and student subsided. The teacher was doing most of the talking and just marking the paper while the student looked very scared and confused. According to tutoring writing “ Thus, if a tutor zeroes in only on surface errors- what we refer to as Lower Order Concerns (LOCs)- the effect on the writer may be harmful and adverse to the goals of tutoring” (McAndrew 17).

6.        What I observed when this correction was going on was a very boring tutoring session mainly the tutor in control. The student had barely any time to ask questions or talk about the structure of his essay, but watch as his paper was marked with a red pen. The tutor seemed only focused about killing time as she avoided the major issues and cut the students opinion off multiple times. Considering this was my second session I was not very concerned because I still had a positive attitude about the first session, but still it showed me what not to do.

7.        To remedy this problem the tutor would probably have to surrender his or her control about the paper. Tutoring is not about the power or about exerting it its surrender his or her control about the paper. Tutoring is not about the power or about exerting it it’s about working together in a synergistic bond to figure out the problem and approach it in a variety of ways. I also think the student should have spoken up because it’s not all the tutor fault they just want to help the best way they think possible. Collaborative learning would be a wonderful aspect to their tutoring session and it helps the assignment in so many ways.