Well, it's been a fun semester. I've learned a lot as both a mentor and a tutor. Today, as a mentor, I had one of the best sessions I've ever had. Tim and I talked a lot about how to tackle difficult sessions. He had a student who came in at the request of her professor because she was told that she basically had to rewrite her entire paper. Not an uncommon thing. However, she came in completely clueless because her professor gave her no suggestions as to what his expectations were other than that he wanted her to see a tutor. Her paper merely had about half of it crossed out. I know. No markings, just huge slashes through paragraphs and even entire pages. So, his session consisted of the two of them trying to make some sense out of this. He did the best he could and told her that she was lacking in transitions between paragraphs. Then he asked how a few paragraphs related to the thesis. When they found that they didn't, he had her explain to him what her intent was with the paragraph. Now, I agree with how he handled this. I even looked at the paper and saw that most of it was completely disjointed. However, after talking about that paper for about thirty or so minutes, we finally came to the conclusion that the problem was the ambiguity of her thesis itself. We did this because he asked specifically how I would've handled the session. So, it was a comparison in style. This was beneficial to both him and me. Also, the other lesson to be learned from this little exercise, it's alright to ask the teacher questions or tell them that they need to be more clear in their criticism. If the teacher thinks that it's alright to just send their students off to work without guidance, the students will rarely ever learn how to improve.
Now, after that whole huge rant, the rest of the session was spent talking about how this mentoring program has benefited him as a tutor (something you should all ask your mentees before you fill out the survey that was sent out). I was pleased to hear that after his initial skepticism wore off, he found it very helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off of and answer questions. It was a reassuring statement for this program. With that said, it was nice to be a part of this and I hope that you all have a wonderful summer. See you in the fall, or Summer depending on if you are working then.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Semester Survey!
Mentors,
Please check your emails for the attached survey. This is extremely important to the program so please complete this and send it back as an e-mail attachment. Yes, this is the same one sent out some time ago only nobody replied!
Steve
Please check your emails for the attached survey. This is extremely important to the program so please complete this and send it back as an e-mail attachment. Yes, this is the same one sent out some time ago only nobody replied!
Steve
End of Semester Thoughts
Hey mentors,
I just want to take this opportunity to thank each and every mentor for doing a splendid job this semester, even though things were slow and you guys always couldn't observe as much as you needed to. As the program continues and becomes more refined, it is your efforts that assure this continuation. I look forward to seeing all of you in the fall for some more mentoring!
Steve
I just want to take this opportunity to thank each and every mentor for doing a splendid job this semester, even though things were slow and you guys always couldn't observe as much as you needed to. As the program continues and becomes more refined, it is your efforts that assure this continuation. I look forward to seeing all of you in the fall for some more mentoring!
Steve
Monday, May 10, 2010
The Final Showdown: Coco and Colin
Bawww, Colin had his last mentor meeting today! And it's his last week working at the Learning Studio...ever! Because he's graduating! That said, he's gotten a lot of last minute drop-ins with final papers over the course of the week. He recounted those for me, and it seems like they all went pretty smoothly. I asked if there was anything that stuck out for him, successes, difficulties, questions, epiphanies, etc. but he just kind of shrugged. That's finals week for ya, I guess.
Since we lacked subject matter, I brought up for him an issue to discuss. I had a student, a drop-in, last week who brought a paper she was not confident about. She went on and on about how her conclusion was "bad" and asked me how she should re-write it, what to take out/put in/change. I thought her conclusion was just fine. I struggled to find any problems with it, as it was well-written, successfully re-capped her points and summed up her paper in a comprehensible manner. I didn't want to try and find something for her to change about it that wasn't there, so I told her I honestly thought it sounded fine the way it was.
I asked Colin how he felt about this, and if he'd ever experienced a session wherein his opinion of the paper's quality greatly differed from the student. He said he hadn't, but that it seemed to him that students who do this do it simply because they don't feel confident about their work. My opinion of her conclusion made her sort of realize that it did do all the things a conclusion is supposed to do. I offered that maybe if she was unhappy with it she should continue to tinker with it until she's satisfied, but that was all I could come up with. Colin pretty much hit the nail on the head when he said it seemed as if she was just looking for re-assurance and a little confidence, like she just needed someone else to tell her it sounded fine.
Anyway, that was what our last meeting was primarily about. Colin mused a little about how he'll miss the Learning Studio and how he was just getting to know it C: If you run into him over the next week, shoot him a quick "Congrats!"
Since we lacked subject matter, I brought up for him an issue to discuss. I had a student, a drop-in, last week who brought a paper she was not confident about. She went on and on about how her conclusion was "bad" and asked me how she should re-write it, what to take out/put in/change. I thought her conclusion was just fine. I struggled to find any problems with it, as it was well-written, successfully re-capped her points and summed up her paper in a comprehensible manner. I didn't want to try and find something for her to change about it that wasn't there, so I told her I honestly thought it sounded fine the way it was.
I asked Colin how he felt about this, and if he'd ever experienced a session wherein his opinion of the paper's quality greatly differed from the student. He said he hadn't, but that it seemed to him that students who do this do it simply because they don't feel confident about their work. My opinion of her conclusion made her sort of realize that it did do all the things a conclusion is supposed to do. I offered that maybe if she was unhappy with it she should continue to tinker with it until she's satisfied, but that was all I could come up with. Colin pretty much hit the nail on the head when he said it seemed as if she was just looking for re-assurance and a little confidence, like she just needed someone else to tell her it sounded fine.
Anyway, that was what our last meeting was primarily about. Colin mused a little about how he'll miss the Learning Studio and how he was just getting to know it C: If you run into him over the next week, shoot him a quick "Congrats!"
Friday, May 7, 2010
The Adventures of Alex and Stephen
Heyyy kids!
Stephen and I had our last mentor meeting of the year since I won't be at work next Friday afternoon because I'm in a dance show.
This week Stephen had a number of drop ins that came in to simply meet their class requirements. We talked about how frustarating it can be to have students who come in at the last minute to make their class requirements. Stephen tries to make the best out of these sessions. He tells his students that there is always something that can be improved with papers. He said most of the papers were sound, he just tried to help the student fine tune small things in the structure.
Since it was our last session we reflected on this semester's mentoring.
He thinks that mentoring sessions are a great way to create a bond with a coworker. He really enjoyed being able to discuss his sessions and hear about my tutor stories and discuss what each of us would do in different situations. We created a list of his weaknesses and strengths. He is a very strong communicator and very good at making students feel comfortable. Sometimes he feels he can be too directive when students seem to not want to participate. I told him that that is very normal and it's sometimes ok and necessary to be directive.
To finish up the session I gave him a tutorial on inspiration 8. I had him help me create a teaching philosphy. He understands why inspiration 8 would be beneficial to some students.
Ok well that's all folks!!!
Stephen and I had our last mentor meeting of the year since I won't be at work next Friday afternoon because I'm in a dance show.
This week Stephen had a number of drop ins that came in to simply meet their class requirements. We talked about how frustarating it can be to have students who come in at the last minute to make their class requirements. Stephen tries to make the best out of these sessions. He tells his students that there is always something that can be improved with papers. He said most of the papers were sound, he just tried to help the student fine tune small things in the structure.
Since it was our last session we reflected on this semester's mentoring.
He thinks that mentoring sessions are a great way to create a bond with a coworker. He really enjoyed being able to discuss his sessions and hear about my tutor stories and discuss what each of us would do in different situations. We created a list of his weaknesses and strengths. He is a very strong communicator and very good at making students feel comfortable. Sometimes he feels he can be too directive when students seem to not want to participate. I told him that that is very normal and it's sometimes ok and necessary to be directive.
To finish up the session I gave him a tutorial on inspiration 8. I had him help me create a teaching philosphy. He understands why inspiration 8 would be beneficial to some students.
Ok well that's all folks!!!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Alex R.'s latest update
Hi all, it's been a few weeks since I've posted anything (Tim has been a little unwell). Today's session went rather well. He had two students today that he was able to tell me about. While doing so, we touched upon the issue of confidence. By this I mean, we as tutors should give our students confidence during a session. Tim was saying that his students kept saying that they were bad writers. I feel that it is our duty as tutors to dissuade them from thinking in this manner. If we let students keep thinking in this manner, they will be hesitant to write later on. Even if they are not ideal writers, we should help them to feel like they should keep writing. After all, the only way to get better is to practice.
The other topic that we talked about was MLA formatting. He and I have had a lot of students coming in with questions about works cited pages and in-text quotations. When in doubt, both of us usually turn to the Owl website or some other publication like it. Although I'm sure that we all do this quite a bit, it is very important to keep in mind that it is okay to seek help from outside sources. I know that I am not the best at explaining every aspect of writing and that I usually refer to the Owl or other tutors around if I am unsure of something. There's nothing wrong with that. I urge everyone to tell their mentees that it is okay to look for help if they are unsure of something. After all, isn't our duty as tutors to help inform our students? How can we do this if we don't even know how to do or explain something?
Well, that's the gist of our session today. As our semester winds down, I hope that all of you are doing fine and not stressing out too much. Keep on doing the great work that I'm sure you are doing, and I'll give one final post next week.
The other topic that we talked about was MLA formatting. He and I have had a lot of students coming in with questions about works cited pages and in-text quotations. When in doubt, both of us usually turn to the Owl website or some other publication like it. Although I'm sure that we all do this quite a bit, it is very important to keep in mind that it is okay to seek help from outside sources. I know that I am not the best at explaining every aspect of writing and that I usually refer to the Owl or other tutors around if I am unsure of something. There's nothing wrong with that. I urge everyone to tell their mentees that it is okay to look for help if they are unsure of something. After all, isn't our duty as tutors to help inform our students? How can we do this if we don't even know how to do or explain something?
Well, that's the gist of our session today. As our semester winds down, I hope that all of you are doing fine and not stressing out too much. Keep on doing the great work that I'm sure you are doing, and I'll give one final post next week.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Alexxx and Stephennnn
Hey guys!
We are soooo incredibly slow this week. The only student Stephen had was his usual weekly. The student brought in the prompt for his compelling question paper for enhanced writing and rhetoric 1. Stephen made the decision that brainstorming/freewriting would be the best option for the student. Here's where the genious part came in. Instead of just walking away and giving the student 15 minutes to write while Stephen sat on the couch Stephen handled it in a different way. He took his phone out and brought up the stopwatch and had the student and himself freewrite questions for 5 minutes. Since this isn't Stephen's paper, he just spent the 5 minutes thinking of questions relating to his student's topic. I thought this was really interesting. I generally let one of my student's freewrite in order to think of ideas but I usually just walk away because my student has expressed that he can't write if I'm just at my computer. I think it would be interesting to try freewriting some questions as well. It definitely adds an interesting layer to this idea of collaboration. However, I think that tutors should be cautioned to not let their own ideas sway the student's paper too much. I brought that up to Stephen and he said that he didn't just give the student his ideas, but rather asked the questions he wrote down.
What do y'all think?
We are soooo incredibly slow this week. The only student Stephen had was his usual weekly. The student brought in the prompt for his compelling question paper for enhanced writing and rhetoric 1. Stephen made the decision that brainstorming/freewriting would be the best option for the student. Here's where the genious part came in. Instead of just walking away and giving the student 15 minutes to write while Stephen sat on the couch Stephen handled it in a different way. He took his phone out and brought up the stopwatch and had the student and himself freewrite questions for 5 minutes. Since this isn't Stephen's paper, he just spent the 5 minutes thinking of questions relating to his student's topic. I thought this was really interesting. I generally let one of my student's freewrite in order to think of ideas but I usually just walk away because my student has expressed that he can't write if I'm just at my computer. I think it would be interesting to try freewriting some questions as well. It definitely adds an interesting layer to this idea of collaboration. However, I think that tutors should be cautioned to not let their own ideas sway the student's paper too much. I brought that up to Stephen and he said that he didn't just give the student his ideas, but rather asked the questions he wrote down.
What do y'all think?
Kendra&Kathryn
Hey all,
Today is Kathryn's last mentor meeting :( She has taken the next two weeks off for her sister’s graduation and for a convention. We first talked about Kathryn’s appointment this week; it was a two-hour session. She was another ESL student, who wanted to work on grammar (focusing on articles). Kathryn said that it went okay, but she was worried that she was focusing too much on grammar. I explained to her that you need to find a balance between the content and the grammar, but if the student wanted to work on grammar, then that’s their decision. Kathryn also noticed a lot of repetition and restating. This could be difficult to explain to students, but if you put it in a simple sentence like, “There are two modes of play, practice and story. The two modes practice and story…” Kathryn explained to her that she didn’t need to inform the readers of the two modes again, since she did it in the previous sentence. I thought this was a good way of handling and explaining this – Bravo!
So, the rest of the time we just talked about the semester and how the meetings have benefited her tutoring, etc. Kathryn feels as though mentor meetings have helped her become more at ease with social interaction, since she is a very shy person. She also feels more confident since she was able to ask questions, advice, etc. Overall, we both enjoyed being able to express concerns to each other about our students.
I’m glad I was able to mentor Kathryn this semester. I wish I could have observed her at least once, but with our schedules we were unable to.
-KC
Today is Kathryn's last mentor meeting :( She has taken the next two weeks off for her sister’s graduation and for a convention. We first talked about Kathryn’s appointment this week; it was a two-hour session. She was another ESL student, who wanted to work on grammar (focusing on articles). Kathryn said that it went okay, but she was worried that she was focusing too much on grammar. I explained to her that you need to find a balance between the content and the grammar, but if the student wanted to work on grammar, then that’s their decision. Kathryn also noticed a lot of repetition and restating. This could be difficult to explain to students, but if you put it in a simple sentence like, “There are two modes of play, practice and story. The two modes practice and story…” Kathryn explained to her that she didn’t need to inform the readers of the two modes again, since she did it in the previous sentence. I thought this was a good way of handling and explaining this – Bravo!
So, the rest of the time we just talked about the semester and how the meetings have benefited her tutoring, etc. Kathryn feels as though mentor meetings have helped her become more at ease with social interaction, since she is a very shy person. She also feels more confident since she was able to ask questions, advice, etc. Overall, we both enjoyed being able to express concerns to each other about our students.
I’m glad I was able to mentor Kathryn this semester. I wish I could have observed her at least once, but with our schedules we were unable to.
-KC
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Kendra&Keenan
Keenan and I are both surprised that it has been quite slow at the WC, especially since it’s the end of the semester – so it’s been pretty relaxed. Remember that drop-in student he had who wasn’t prepared for her session and just didn’t want to be there? Well, she has become a weekly! Keenan said that she came in on Monday, not prepared and he warned her that if she didn’t bring anything to work on next week, he was going to have her free write for an hour and/or work on grammar sheets! Bravo! I was really pleased with the way he handled this. I think confirming with the student what to bring next session is a really great idea and useful tool. I usually confirm with my students at the end of the session what they plan on bringing in the following week. We also talked about his one weekly that I observed last week, Ryan; I asked Keenan how his paper turned out. He said that Ryan only wrote about Karma and didn’t include the fact and faith part. I asked him what his advice/tips were to help Ryan tie in the connection of F&F. He said that a student, who also is a weekly and working on the same paper, was told by a peer to write the definition of faith at the beginning of the introduction, sort of as a “what’s to come.” So, he suggested this to Ryan. I thought that this was a great tip to pass along, especially since everyone has a different definition of Faith. So even though he mostly wrote about Karma, Keenan and Ryan collaborated on ways to bring it back to Fact & Faith (Karma that is).
For the rest of our meeting, we talked about student horror stories and how I handled them. Of course, I had to tell him about the student who wrote a very inappropriate paper. Keenan has yet to have a student horror story…any other mentors have some good scenarios that I can tell my mentees (to see how they would have handled them)?
-KC
For the rest of our meeting, we talked about student horror stories and how I handled them. Of course, I had to tell him about the student who wrote a very inappropriate paper. Keenan has yet to have a student horror story…any other mentors have some good scenarios that I can tell my mentees (to see how they would have handled them)?
-KC
Gannon Ments
Jo and I had a pretty neat session last week. I got to observe Jo tutor a student. It was somewhat of a unique session which Jo handled admirably.
The studnet was a music major like Jo, and brought in a rather difficult, confusing paper. Although I wasn't sure exactly what the paper was about, Jo had taken this class and was very familiar with the coursework. From what I understood, the student had to analyze a song, but she was more focused on writing a paper about the composer. This was not the assignment, and I could tell this was bothering Jo.
After reading the paper, Jo struggled for a moment asking a lot of skirting questions about the paper. Eventually, she got to the problem, at first using a minimalist approach. She started by asking questions on how the student was planing to write the paper without getting too broad or straying too far from what she was supposed to write about. The student still was sticking to her idea, but was starting to realize that what she had before her was going to make her paper more difficult than it needed to be.
Jo started addressing the subject more directly, voicing her concern that writing about the composer would draw attention away from the purpose of the paper, to focus on the song. The paper could have some information about the composer, Jo noted, but too much could make the paper too long. Around this moment, the student realized that Jo's argument had lot of merit, and changed her thesis so that it was more in-line with the statement.
The student was really great in the session. It's a difficult thing to realize that one's approach to a paper is wrong, as is the thought of having to start over, but the student listened to Jo carefully and was very engaged. At the end of the session, she asked me what I was taking notes on and I told her I was here to give feedback to Jo's performance. She laughed and said, "She's good, but she's a hard one."
Looking back at my notes, I was concerned that Jo was being too hard, but looking back now, I don't think she was. Jo saw a problem that needed fixing fast, so she did what she could to get the paper more focused. This required her to be hard - if she went at the session too softly, the student might not have realized how important this change was.
The studnet was a music major like Jo, and brought in a rather difficult, confusing paper. Although I wasn't sure exactly what the paper was about, Jo had taken this class and was very familiar with the coursework. From what I understood, the student had to analyze a song, but she was more focused on writing a paper about the composer. This was not the assignment, and I could tell this was bothering Jo.
After reading the paper, Jo struggled for a moment asking a lot of skirting questions about the paper. Eventually, she got to the problem, at first using a minimalist approach. She started by asking questions on how the student was planing to write the paper without getting too broad or straying too far from what she was supposed to write about. The student still was sticking to her idea, but was starting to realize that what she had before her was going to make her paper more difficult than it needed to be.
Jo started addressing the subject more directly, voicing her concern that writing about the composer would draw attention away from the purpose of the paper, to focus on the song. The paper could have some information about the composer, Jo noted, but too much could make the paper too long. Around this moment, the student realized that Jo's argument had lot of merit, and changed her thesis so that it was more in-line with the statement.
The student was really great in the session. It's a difficult thing to realize that one's approach to a paper is wrong, as is the thought of having to start over, but the student listened to Jo carefully and was very engaged. At the end of the session, she asked me what I was taking notes on and I told her I was here to give feedback to Jo's performance. She laughed and said, "She's good, but she's a hard one."
Looking back at my notes, I was concerned that Jo was being too hard, but looking back now, I don't think she was. Jo saw a problem that needed fixing fast, so she did what she could to get the paper more focused. This required her to be hard - if she went at the session too softly, the student might not have realized how important this change was.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Week 12 and 13 Combo: Colin and Coco
Hey all,
I missed my blogging last week so I'll catch you up on this week and last week's sessions with Colin.
Last week we spent a lot of time talking about payroll and fixing a discrepancy we'd both had with the most recent three-week pay period. So that ate up a lot of time, but luckily we got it all sorted out. We didn't have a lot of specific sessions to talk about, but I noticed that I had a drop-in student Colin has had before who was ESL so he shared some things he found helpful when working with her. It's really nice how the mentor-mentee thing can be a two-way street, because I've found my talks with Colin to be really helpful to my own performance as a tutor.
This week we jumped in right off the bat talking about the students we've had for the past week. Colin had a drop-in who had picked a really difficult topic to research for a Marketing paper, and he talked about the troubles they'd had trying to find sources. Her teacher was a really difficult grader and she'd almost failed the last few papers. When she left, his student was very happy and even made a comment about what a big help he'd been. It seems that he restored her confidence a little bit, and made her more motivated to try harder on this paper. We spent a little while dissecting the session and discussing what had been so successful about it.
I had a session last week I brought up as well that I feel was really important. A drop-in came to me with a paper I just saw as "needing a little tweaking". She, however, saw it as a total disaster paper that needed to be completely re-written. After talking through the organization and formatting briefly, we discussed the content of her paper and I commended her for a lot of the ways she'd interpreted her sources and drawn conclusions. She had been focusing so hard on the faults in her paper that she hadn't stopped to notice what she'd done well. I feel like the compliments I'd given her made her realize that her paper wasn't as bad as she'd initially thought, and she thanked me profusely. Colin and I discussed this and talked about how sometimes restoring somebody's confidence in their writing can be just as helpful, if not more, than fixing grammar or working on the actual writing itself.
I guess that sort of goes hand-in-hand with the goal of helping our students become better writers.
I missed my blogging last week so I'll catch you up on this week and last week's sessions with Colin.
Last week we spent a lot of time talking about payroll and fixing a discrepancy we'd both had with the most recent three-week pay period. So that ate up a lot of time, but luckily we got it all sorted out. We didn't have a lot of specific sessions to talk about, but I noticed that I had a drop-in student Colin has had before who was ESL so he shared some things he found helpful when working with her. It's really nice how the mentor-mentee thing can be a two-way street, because I've found my talks with Colin to be really helpful to my own performance as a tutor.
This week we jumped in right off the bat talking about the students we've had for the past week. Colin had a drop-in who had picked a really difficult topic to research for a Marketing paper, and he talked about the troubles they'd had trying to find sources. Her teacher was a really difficult grader and she'd almost failed the last few papers. When she left, his student was very happy and even made a comment about what a big help he'd been. It seems that he restored her confidence a little bit, and made her more motivated to try harder on this paper. We spent a little while dissecting the session and discussing what had been so successful about it.
I had a session last week I brought up as well that I feel was really important. A drop-in came to me with a paper I just saw as "needing a little tweaking". She, however, saw it as a total disaster paper that needed to be completely re-written. After talking through the organization and formatting briefly, we discussed the content of her paper and I commended her for a lot of the ways she'd interpreted her sources and drawn conclusions. She had been focusing so hard on the faults in her paper that she hadn't stopped to notice what she'd done well. I feel like the compliments I'd given her made her realize that her paper wasn't as bad as she'd initially thought, and she thanked me profusely. Colin and I discussed this and talked about how sometimes restoring somebody's confidence in their writing can be just as helpful, if not more, than fixing grammar or working on the actual writing itself.
I guess that sort of goes hand-in-hand with the goal of helping our students become better writers.
Friday, April 23, 2010
The Adventures of Alex and Stephen week 12
Hey guys!
So on Tuesday I finally got to observe Mr. Villatoro in action. I was pretty pleased. He was very conversational with this student. He had the student alternate reading out loud with him. So each of them would read a paragraph at a time. I asked stephen why he did it that way and he said that sometimes for longer papers he feels the student will stop paying attention if he reads it out loud or he himself may zone out. Alternating readers seemed to really work for this student. He then used the student's paper as a launching point to create ideas of how the student can research. He used word to create an outline. During our discussion afterwards I told him he should try using inpspiration 8 next time because it allows for a little bit more student tutor interaction. He told me he isn't very familiar with inspiration 8 so in a future session I'm going to actually go through a mock tutorial with him using inspiration 8. Another admirable thing about Stephen's session was the fact that he did not let his opinions sway the session. The student was writing a paper about catholicism and had some pretty outlandish claims. Stephen kept telling the student to back it up with research instead of telling him he was flat out wrong.
Today during our mentor hour Stephen, Kendra and I talked about the difficult student that Kendra mentioned in her pervious post. He said he would have done the same thing and not let the student stay more than an hour. He is hoping he gets a difficult student before the semester is over so that he can learn how to adapt his style of tutoring to less than ideal situations.
So on Tuesday I finally got to observe Mr. Villatoro in action. I was pretty pleased. He was very conversational with this student. He had the student alternate reading out loud with him. So each of them would read a paragraph at a time. I asked stephen why he did it that way and he said that sometimes for longer papers he feels the student will stop paying attention if he reads it out loud or he himself may zone out. Alternating readers seemed to really work for this student. He then used the student's paper as a launching point to create ideas of how the student can research. He used word to create an outline. During our discussion afterwards I told him he should try using inpspiration 8 next time because it allows for a little bit more student tutor interaction. He told me he isn't very familiar with inspiration 8 so in a future session I'm going to actually go through a mock tutorial with him using inspiration 8. Another admirable thing about Stephen's session was the fact that he did not let his opinions sway the session. The student was writing a paper about catholicism and had some pretty outlandish claims. Stephen kept telling the student to back it up with research instead of telling him he was flat out wrong.
Today during our mentor hour Stephen, Kendra and I talked about the difficult student that Kendra mentioned in her pervious post. He said he would have done the same thing and not let the student stay more than an hour. He is hoping he gets a difficult student before the semester is over so that he can learn how to adapt his style of tutoring to less than ideal situations.
Kendra and Kathryn
Hey all,
Kathryn and I had another mentor meeting today. She was a little concerned because she has had a weekly student that hasn’t come into the LS all semester – but don’t we all have that one student! I suggested that next time, she go to the front desk and tell them she can take a drop-in student, but mention that she has had a weekly student that hasn’t come in. We talked about the whole “pen in hand” issue again. She had an ESL student that wanted her to check her grammar and make sure that the sentence flowed. The student wanted Kathryn to read her paper aloud (the student was worried about her English). They went through it once, and then they went back over it. I explained to her that this is a great technique because it doesn’t make the student as nervous – we talked about this last week. We both sort of do the same thing, go through the paper once, making notes and then going back to revise it with the student.
We also talked about uncomfortable sessions. I shared my story to Kathryn about the student that we had last summer. He would come in and go from female tutor to tutor without letting the front desk know. Well, he wrote a very graphic and inappropriate paper on Gladiator. Needless to say, these “scenes” were not in the movie, but were graphic enough to make me extremely uncomfortable. When the session was over, two hours later, all the other female tutors said that he was inappropriate to them and was very aggressive. Well, he is here sometimes, so I asked Kathryn what she would have done in that situation. How would she handle a two hour session with a student who seemed like he had a LD? Kathryn said that she wouldn’t have let the student stay for two hours in the first place. I always advise by this, but I did think that he had a LD because he wasn’t focused but was really motivated to write and seemed like he appreciated the time that I was giving him. Kathryn did laugh because if he was part of the Fiction Department, he would have just fit in just fine. I guess they like when people are graphic…it expresses their personality through their writing, and they don’t want censorship. But anyway, she says it’s hard to say because it’s one of those “In the moment situations,” which it was. I told Kathryn that if this ever happens again, excuse yourself saying you’re going to the bathroom, or message the front desk on MSN. Too bad we didn’t have that in the summer. But hey, lesson learned.
So there hasn’t been much going on, it’s been pretty slow. I hope you all have a good weekend!
-KC
Kathryn and I had another mentor meeting today. She was a little concerned because she has had a weekly student that hasn’t come into the LS all semester – but don’t we all have that one student! I suggested that next time, she go to the front desk and tell them she can take a drop-in student, but mention that she has had a weekly student that hasn’t come in. We talked about the whole “pen in hand” issue again. She had an ESL student that wanted her to check her grammar and make sure that the sentence flowed. The student wanted Kathryn to read her paper aloud (the student was worried about her English). They went through it once, and then they went back over it. I explained to her that this is a great technique because it doesn’t make the student as nervous – we talked about this last week. We both sort of do the same thing, go through the paper once, making notes and then going back to revise it with the student.
We also talked about uncomfortable sessions. I shared my story to Kathryn about the student that we had last summer. He would come in and go from female tutor to tutor without letting the front desk know. Well, he wrote a very graphic and inappropriate paper on Gladiator. Needless to say, these “scenes” were not in the movie, but were graphic enough to make me extremely uncomfortable. When the session was over, two hours later, all the other female tutors said that he was inappropriate to them and was very aggressive. Well, he is here sometimes, so I asked Kathryn what she would have done in that situation. How would she handle a two hour session with a student who seemed like he had a LD? Kathryn said that she wouldn’t have let the student stay for two hours in the first place. I always advise by this, but I did think that he had a LD because he wasn’t focused but was really motivated to write and seemed like he appreciated the time that I was giving him. Kathryn did laugh because if he was part of the Fiction Department, he would have just fit in just fine. I guess they like when people are graphic…it expresses their personality through their writing, and they don’t want censorship. But anyway, she says it’s hard to say because it’s one of those “In the moment situations,” which it was. I told Kathryn that if this ever happens again, excuse yourself saying you’re going to the bathroom, or message the front desk on MSN. Too bad we didn’t have that in the summer. But hey, lesson learned.
So there hasn’t been much going on, it’s been pretty slow. I hope you all have a good weekend!
-KC
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Kendra - Keenan
Hey all,
For today’s mentor meeting, I observed Keenan during one of his sessions with his weekly student, Ryan DeLuca (this was my first time observing him)!! Ryan and Keenan started off the sessions by asking how his week was going. Keenan then subtly brought their conversation back to writing, and asked him what he had to work on. He came in to the session with a new prompt for his final paper: Fact & Faith. So, this session was just brainstorming. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Keenan and Ryan interact with each other. He sat across from Ryan and kept great eye contact -they were both really engaged in the session. Keenan started off the brainstorming by asking Ryan if he was religious; getting him to expand on his thoughts that could be narrowed down to a more focused topic. Ryan decided to go towards the religious aspect, and settled on the word Karma. Since he chose a topic, Keenan asked if he wanted to free-write for about 10-15 minutes. During that time, Keenan searched for an article that had to do with fact and faith. I thought that this was a great move on Keenan’s part - he thought that this could help Ryan inspired - which it did! (I actually plan on doing this in my future sessions-if it helps of course). When Ryan was done writing, Keenan asked him if he felt comfortable reading it, or if he wanted him to read it aloud. When he was done, Keenan and Ryan went back and forth on how to format it. For example, he could do the intro, then have concrete evidence about Karma, then maybe end with the narrative about giving a bum a cigarette or money (which Ryan wrote about). Keenan asked questions that could benefit to the paper and suggested that he find a middle ground between Karma - the good vs. evil. After this conversation, Ryan said, “The middle ground will really help me out; can I start to write now?” So he did, while Keenan and I discussed the session. He thought that it went really well, and so do I. I don’t have any concerns with Keenan’s tutoring. His students really seem to have a connection with him and are comfortable. I told him that this was key to a successful session - or at least important.
Sorry if this is really unorganized! If you have any questions...I do have a my written notes!!
He did express one concern to me that didn’t have to do with the session. On Monday, he was given a student half past the hour. Everyone else left, and he was the only tutor. I guess the front desk person said that he only needed a half hour, or that he only needed a few minutes. I guess this upsets me, because he had a student that hour; but left early. I mean, I asked Keenan if he got anything done or if he had to stay late and he said that it was difficult because he had to fill out this long grammar sheet. Can we take students half past the hour? I always thought that we weren’t suppose to because it’s not enough time.
Have a good rest of the week,
-KC
For today’s mentor meeting, I observed Keenan during one of his sessions with his weekly student, Ryan DeLuca (this was my first time observing him)!! Ryan and Keenan started off the sessions by asking how his week was going. Keenan then subtly brought their conversation back to writing, and asked him what he had to work on. He came in to the session with a new prompt for his final paper: Fact & Faith. So, this session was just brainstorming. I thoroughly enjoyed watching Keenan and Ryan interact with each other. He sat across from Ryan and kept great eye contact -they were both really engaged in the session. Keenan started off the brainstorming by asking Ryan if he was religious; getting him to expand on his thoughts that could be narrowed down to a more focused topic. Ryan decided to go towards the religious aspect, and settled on the word Karma. Since he chose a topic, Keenan asked if he wanted to free-write for about 10-15 minutes. During that time, Keenan searched for an article that had to do with fact and faith. I thought that this was a great move on Keenan’s part - he thought that this could help Ryan inspired - which it did! (I actually plan on doing this in my future sessions-if it helps of course). When Ryan was done writing, Keenan asked him if he felt comfortable reading it, or if he wanted him to read it aloud. When he was done, Keenan and Ryan went back and forth on how to format it. For example, he could do the intro, then have concrete evidence about Karma, then maybe end with the narrative about giving a bum a cigarette or money (which Ryan wrote about). Keenan asked questions that could benefit to the paper and suggested that he find a middle ground between Karma - the good vs. evil. After this conversation, Ryan said, “The middle ground will really help me out; can I start to write now?” So he did, while Keenan and I discussed the session. He thought that it went really well, and so do I. I don’t have any concerns with Keenan’s tutoring. His students really seem to have a connection with him and are comfortable. I told him that this was key to a successful session - or at least important.
Sorry if this is really unorganized! If you have any questions...I do have a my written notes!!
He did express one concern to me that didn’t have to do with the session. On Monday, he was given a student half past the hour. Everyone else left, and he was the only tutor. I guess the front desk person said that he only needed a half hour, or that he only needed a few minutes. I guess this upsets me, because he had a student that hour; but left early. I mean, I asked Keenan if he got anything done or if he had to stay late and he said that it was difficult because he had to fill out this long grammar sheet. Can we take students half past the hour? I always thought that we weren’t suppose to because it’s not enough time.
Have a good rest of the week,
-KC
Gannon Blogs
Hey all,
I haven't talked about my time with Jo in quite some time! Let's talk about Jo.
Last Thursday, Jo and I discussed a session she felt had not been successful. Apparently he'd come in with a close-to final draft of his paper, and they ended up spending most of the session talking about his ideas rather than his paper. She felt as though she had given her student too much guidance - she worried that her advice might have put too much of what she wanted in the paper. She also felt as though perhaps they should have spent less time on the ideas and more time on the paper itself.
I told Jo that I didn't think that the session sounded so bad. In fact, I thought it sounded like a pretty successful session. Even though she felt uneasy, it sounds like she stuck to her guns and asked though-provoking questions with the occasional bit of advice thrown in. I imagine the session helped the student improve the content of his paper, and thus would do more good than if the tutor spent more time working on paper-based concerns.
I haven't talked about my time with Jo in quite some time! Let's talk about Jo.
Last Thursday, Jo and I discussed a session she felt had not been successful. Apparently he'd come in with a close-to final draft of his paper, and they ended up spending most of the session talking about his ideas rather than his paper. She felt as though she had given her student too much guidance - she worried that her advice might have put too much of what she wanted in the paper. She also felt as though perhaps they should have spent less time on the ideas and more time on the paper itself.
I told Jo that I didn't think that the session sounded so bad. In fact, I thought it sounded like a pretty successful session. Even though she felt uneasy, it sounds like she stuck to her guns and asked though-provoking questions with the occasional bit of advice thrown in. I imagine the session helped the student improve the content of his paper, and thus would do more good than if the tutor spent more time working on paper-based concerns.
Friday, April 16, 2010
The Adventures of Alex and Stephen
Hey guys!!!
Stephen and I started our meeting off with discussing the mentor meeting last week. We talked about the minimalist versus directive approach and whether or not a tutor should use a pen. We both agreed that one must use a mix of both approaches in order to be successful. Stephen said he always makes copies of his students papers. That way he can write on his own copy and the student does not feel as "invaded".
He only has one weekly student now. This week's session was a bit difficult. His student wrote a paper on why cars should be considered art. He had his student just discuss why he felt that way. He encouraged his student to back his claim up by adding more personal details about why he feels cars are art.
He also had a student from the legal aspects class. I've had two students from the same class this week. We discussed the difficulties with these students because they do not listen to their teacher's advice as far as looking at the turabian book on their own. I told Stephen that it isn't our job to teach them this style of citation. They need to put the effort into it first. This actually seems to a problem with this class in general. So we are wondering how we handle this when we aren't familiar with this style of citation and students expect us to teach it to them.
Stephen and I started our meeting off with discussing the mentor meeting last week. We talked about the minimalist versus directive approach and whether or not a tutor should use a pen. We both agreed that one must use a mix of both approaches in order to be successful. Stephen said he always makes copies of his students papers. That way he can write on his own copy and the student does not feel as "invaded".
He only has one weekly student now. This week's session was a bit difficult. His student wrote a paper on why cars should be considered art. He had his student just discuss why he felt that way. He encouraged his student to back his claim up by adding more personal details about why he feels cars are art.
He also had a student from the legal aspects class. I've had two students from the same class this week. We discussed the difficulties with these students because they do not listen to their teacher's advice as far as looking at the turabian book on their own. I told Stephen that it isn't our job to teach them this style of citation. They need to put the effort into it first. This actually seems to a problem with this class in general. So we are wondering how we handle this when we aren't familiar with this style of citation and students expect us to teach it to them.
Kendra
Kathryn and I started off by discussing last week’s mentor meeting. We collaborated on how the meeting went and conversed about the subtopics that came up. We then talked about Kathryn’s sessions this week and how they went. She has also encountered the Writing & Rhetoric II group (working on their creativity papers). This week, Kathryn had a student that wanted to do a “silent” brainstorming. For example, she would ask a question for them to talk about, however, he would just write down what she asked (he was planning on answering when he got home). She figured that this was his learning style – although she was concerned that he was going to get home and not have the right length (4 pages) or not know the answers to the questions. I assured Kathryn that these were good concerns; however, she could have collaborated with him on each question or asked him to give a brief answer and write down ideas to expand on later. Kathryn did say that she tried to get him to talk, but he just kept saying “No, I think I got enough material to go on.” I think Kathryn handled this well – every student has a different learning style and this was his. She did very well!
I observed Kathryn a few times last semester, so I know her tutoring style – I do plan on doing an end of the semester observation, just to see how she has improved.
-KC
I observed Kathryn a few times last semester, so I know her tutoring style – I do plan on doing an end of the semester observation, just to see how she has improved.
-KC
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Kendra
Hey All,
Since Keenan was not at the mentor meeting on Friday, I filled him on what we talked about. I focused on the discussion about using a pen/pencil during the session. I wanted to get his input on this point and if he always directs to this. He said that at the beginning, when he first tutored, that he never used a pencil (they were taught in class not to use one), but would get lost while the student read the paper. Now, he usually puts a mark or a star where he needs to go back and collaborate with the student. I encouraged him to use a pencil, not necessarily to critique their work, but to just stay focused and make side notes. I explained to him that I use to not use a pencil either, but I always felt lost or felt as though I would ask the same questions twice. I also touched base on grammar during a session. Keenan said that he usually just sticks to the content, however, will go through grammar if the student/teacher asks.
During the second part of our meeting, we talked about his sessions that he had this week. Keenan explained to me that he had his first “difficult” session. The student came in for the first time (for all of you who do not know, Writing & Rhetoric II students are coming in needing to fit six sessions in before the end of the semester). His student came in with just a free write that took up just half a page. With that, he tried to collaborate with her and brainstorm. Keenan said that she wouldn’t talk back and said, “I don’t talk about my writing.” Well then. He let her leave a ½ hour early because she didn’t want to be there. In some way I agree, I mean we are here for them and if they don’t want to be here then that’s their choice. However, he could have taken two different routes. He could have let her leave, or he could have had her work on Inspiration 8 – with the outline or the web. He also didn’t let the teacher know that she left early, so I advised him to just tell the teacher next time that she was here only for half the time and that it’s up to her whether or not she gets credit. I told him an experience that I had -the student said she didn’t want to stay the whole time so, I told her that she wouldn’t get credit, and badabing!…she opened up and we had the intro and conclusion done by the end of the 50 minute session. Anyone else have advice?
I do plan on observing him during his session next Wednesday (weekly student).
-KC
Since Keenan was not at the mentor meeting on Friday, I filled him on what we talked about. I focused on the discussion about using a pen/pencil during the session. I wanted to get his input on this point and if he always directs to this. He said that at the beginning, when he first tutored, that he never used a pencil (they were taught in class not to use one), but would get lost while the student read the paper. Now, he usually puts a mark or a star where he needs to go back and collaborate with the student. I encouraged him to use a pencil, not necessarily to critique their work, but to just stay focused and make side notes. I explained to him that I use to not use a pencil either, but I always felt lost or felt as though I would ask the same questions twice. I also touched base on grammar during a session. Keenan said that he usually just sticks to the content, however, will go through grammar if the student/teacher asks.
During the second part of our meeting, we talked about his sessions that he had this week. Keenan explained to me that he had his first “difficult” session. The student came in for the first time (for all of you who do not know, Writing & Rhetoric II students are coming in needing to fit six sessions in before the end of the semester). His student came in with just a free write that took up just half a page. With that, he tried to collaborate with her and brainstorm. Keenan said that she wouldn’t talk back and said, “I don’t talk about my writing.” Well then. He let her leave a ½ hour early because she didn’t want to be there. In some way I agree, I mean we are here for them and if they don’t want to be here then that’s their choice. However, he could have taken two different routes. He could have let her leave, or he could have had her work on Inspiration 8 – with the outline or the web. He also didn’t let the teacher know that she left early, so I advised him to just tell the teacher next time that she was here only for half the time and that it’s up to her whether or not she gets credit. I told him an experience that I had -the student said she didn’t want to stay the whole time so, I told her that she wouldn’t get credit, and badabing!…she opened up and we had the intro and conclusion done by the end of the 50 minute session. Anyone else have advice?
I do plan on observing him during his session next Wednesday (weekly student).
-KC
Inspiration 8 and Patience(not the Guns and Roses Song): By Alex Rosales
Hey all. Today was a rather good mentoring session with Tim. The first part of it was a tutorial for Inspiration 8 (at his request). He was telling me that he had a session earlier today that was a brainstorming one. Inspiration 8 was something that he had wanted to use, to get the student to really think about the assignment, but didn't feel comfortable enough to do so. He still had a "good" session. He talked about the main idea of the paper with his student for about 15 minutes before having a nice discussion about the prompt questions. Getting the student into the right frame of mind for a paper is something that we as tutors should always try to do, and that was one of the lessons that Tim went away with today.
The next lesson that we talked about was patience. I had regaled him with a session that I had right before our mentor meeting. My student is always a little bit reluctant to throw out his own ideas. When I encounter this problem with him, I always try to ask him thought-provoking questions. I won't continue with the session until he gives me a response. This means that there are awkward gaps where the session is just silent. That awkwardness is kind of an incentive for the student to respond and continue to have a conversation throughout the session. I know that we as tutors sometimes want to just tell the student to do something in a particular way when they don't want to cooperate, but it takes restraint to fight this urge. It also takes patience to get the student to do work in the session, sometimes. I believe that this is an important message to relay to our mentees because they need to learn early on how to make a difficult (define that how you will) student do work. This is also a lesson that one of the tutor training courses taught.
The next lesson that we talked about was patience. I had regaled him with a session that I had right before our mentor meeting. My student is always a little bit reluctant to throw out his own ideas. When I encounter this problem with him, I always try to ask him thought-provoking questions. I won't continue with the session until he gives me a response. This means that there are awkward gaps where the session is just silent. That awkwardness is kind of an incentive for the student to respond and continue to have a conversation throughout the session. I know that we as tutors sometimes want to just tell the student to do something in a particular way when they don't want to cooperate, but it takes restraint to fight this urge. It also takes patience to get the student to do work in the session, sometimes. I believe that this is an important message to relay to our mentees because they need to learn early on how to make a difficult (define that how you will) student do work. This is also a lesson that one of the tutor training courses taught.
Gannon
Hello, hello!
Last week you may recall me saying I would reflect on Mike's tutoring of me and share my findings with y'all this week. Well, it was a wee bit inconclusive, so I ended being tutored by him again this week. I came to him with three short essays, all about comedy. Although this is a subject Mike isn't so familiar with, he was able to ask a lot of excellent questions and would offer direct advice when I asked for it. He did a great job working with what he was given and going great spans of distances. For example, I had to write about what comedians or shows made me laugh, and I was encouraged to be specific- thus as I had to describe to him very specific comedy bits he wasn't familiar with. Still, he was still able to talk to me about it and help me word my wordless thoughts into hard ideas. By the end of the session, I had a strong outline for these three essays a head of me. This session shows me that Mike can handle sessions involving subjects he knows nothing about pretty admirably.
Last week you may recall me saying I would reflect on Mike's tutoring of me and share my findings with y'all this week. Well, it was a wee bit inconclusive, so I ended being tutored by him again this week. I came to him with three short essays, all about comedy. Although this is a subject Mike isn't so familiar with, he was able to ask a lot of excellent questions and would offer direct advice when I asked for it. He did a great job working with what he was given and going great spans of distances. For example, I had to write about what comedians or shows made me laugh, and I was encouraged to be specific- thus as I had to describe to him very specific comedy bits he wasn't familiar with. Still, he was still able to talk to me about it and help me word my wordless thoughts into hard ideas. By the end of the session, I had a strong outline for these three essays a head of me. This session shows me that Mike can handle sessions involving subjects he knows nothing about pretty admirably.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Coco and Colin
Hey all,
Colin and I started off our session today by discussing last week's mentor meeting a bit. He found it helpful and interesting to get so much input from everyone else on things we've been discussing for the past few weeks. Today we talked a little about Colin's sessions with his weekly student, which are going well.
He asked about how my sessions have been and it segued into a sort of discussion about what methods we think work best for what students, as well as our strengths and weaknesses as both writers and tutors. We shared some little hints that we often give our students and things we do to tailor our tutoring style depending on the student. The example I gave was a weekly of mine who has a lot of trouble with organization and staying on topic. We discussed things I already do in our sessions to help him teach himself organization in his writing (like making a backwards outline, which is something I do with a lot of drop-ins as well that really seems to be helpful), and Colin gave me some suggestions as well. We also discussed the sort of "stigma" associated with seeing a tutor, and why so many students seem reluctant to ask for help with their writing.
After a while, our conversation started to run out of steam so we just chatted for a bit until his weekly student showed up.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Kendra
Hey all,
Kathryn and I had another mentoring meeting today. We started off the session talking about an article that I was given: “What’s really in Red Bull.” After about 10 minutes of laughing and being grossed out, we began talking about her one student that she had this week. The student was a Drop-In, wanting to brainstorm for her creativity paper for Writing & Rhetoric I. Kathryn said that she had a hard time getting the student to collaborate and open up. For example, she would just write down what Kathryn said without talking about it. Kathryn handled this by trying to get the student thinking and asking questions such as, “What about this makes you creative?” or “How does this inspire you?” I was really happy to hear how she handled this. I encouraged her to ask questions to get the student thinking, because talking about the topic, especially in brainstorm sessions, can help the student jog a memory, etc. Kathryn and I collaborated, agreeing that if this student was a weekly, she would have been more open and Kathryn would have been able to know what questions to ask, and what ways to go about asking them (as well as her writing style, learning, etc.). That was her only student this week, and I am very pleased with her tutoring.
See ya’ll today!
KC
Kathryn and I had another mentoring meeting today. We started off the session talking about an article that I was given: “What’s really in Red Bull.” After about 10 minutes of laughing and being grossed out, we began talking about her one student that she had this week. The student was a Drop-In, wanting to brainstorm for her creativity paper for Writing & Rhetoric I. Kathryn said that she had a hard time getting the student to collaborate and open up. For example, she would just write down what Kathryn said without talking about it. Kathryn handled this by trying to get the student thinking and asking questions such as, “What about this makes you creative?” or “How does this inspire you?” I was really happy to hear how she handled this. I encouraged her to ask questions to get the student thinking, because talking about the topic, especially in brainstorm sessions, can help the student jog a memory, etc. Kathryn and I collaborated, agreeing that if this student was a weekly, she would have been more open and Kathryn would have been able to know what questions to ask, and what ways to go about asking them (as well as her writing style, learning, etc.). That was her only student this week, and I am very pleased with her tutoring.
See ya’ll today!
KC
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
KC
Hey all,
Today Keenan and I talked about his sessions that he had this past week. We started off by talking about his two weekly students. He said that Monday was rough; they were both tired and slogging through the session, however, she told Keenan that she was pretty confident in her W&R class, and he agreed. I encouraged him on the fact that he didn’t just let the student go because she didn’t have anything to work on, but suggested she stay and work on other material. His other weekly student wrote his 2nd draft for his class, but didn’t have it or anything concrete to work on. Instead, Keenan had him write out a moment in his 2nd draft that wasn’t as strong as the others. They collaborated on this and had him write it up. Once again, I praised him for working with his students and using the session wisely. He had one drop-in student this week who worked on a W&R paper that Keenan had written before – so he said that went well. Overall, he said that this has been a pretty easy semester for tutoring. Since he will not be at the meeting on Friday, I asked him if he had any ideas to contribute about session dynamics – he did not.
That’s it for now, see you all on Friday!
KC
Today Keenan and I talked about his sessions that he had this past week. We started off by talking about his two weekly students. He said that Monday was rough; they were both tired and slogging through the session, however, she told Keenan that she was pretty confident in her W&R class, and he agreed. I encouraged him on the fact that he didn’t just let the student go because she didn’t have anything to work on, but suggested she stay and work on other material. His other weekly student wrote his 2nd draft for his class, but didn’t have it or anything concrete to work on. Instead, Keenan had him write out a moment in his 2nd draft that wasn’t as strong as the others. They collaborated on this and had him write it up. Once again, I praised him for working with his students and using the session wisely. He had one drop-in student this week who worked on a W&R paper that Keenan had written before – so he said that went well. Overall, he said that this has been a pretty easy semester for tutoring. Since he will not be at the meeting on Friday, I asked him if he had any ideas to contribute about session dynamics – he did not.
That’s it for now, see you all on Friday!
KC
Alex R.'s mentor session for this week
Today Tim and I had a session about patience. We started off the session as we normally do, talking about the sessions that we have had since our last meeting. This week we both had ESL sessions and I had a student with disabilities session. ESL students were the topic of our first discussion.
Tim's student was more of a regular session than an ESL session because his student had a rather good grasp of the English language. Mine, however, took a little bit of patience to get through. Both of our students had come in for help with grammar. Now, this was where our conversation got rather interesting. We talked about how good ESL students are at getting their ideas on a page. His student had a better grasp of English, as I stated before, so he was able to get through their papers (she had two) rather quickly. My student took a little longer, though. He had a seven page paper with lots of grammatical errors. Most of the time, by reading his paper out loud, he was able to hear the mistakes that he had made. The rest of the time, though, took a little longer because I had to explain why some of the mistakes were wrong. On occasion, I had to explain things a few times before my student really understood what was being said to him. This was an important lesson, I thought, to impart on Tim. It takes patience to work with ESL students because of the language barrier. However, with perseverance, the session runs a lot smoother.
The next topic was about students with disabilities. I had my first session with one of these students last Friday. It was interesting because I found that it was a lot easier to work with this kind of student than I had thought. He was very aware of what was going on and grasped the concepts and ideas that I had thrown out quite easily. There were a few times where I had to repeat myself, but overall it was a rather smooth session. Yet another lesson, don't judge a book by its cover (I know it's cliche, but it's true). We talked about how preconceived notions about people and sessions should be disregarded. All sessions are to be taken and handled on a case-by-case basis. Different types of students are very useful to us as tutors because we learn different methods of tutoring when in sessions with them. That was the main lesson of this week's mentor session.
Tim's student was more of a regular session than an ESL session because his student had a rather good grasp of the English language. Mine, however, took a little bit of patience to get through. Both of our students had come in for help with grammar. Now, this was where our conversation got rather interesting. We talked about how good ESL students are at getting their ideas on a page. His student had a better grasp of English, as I stated before, so he was able to get through their papers (she had two) rather quickly. My student took a little longer, though. He had a seven page paper with lots of grammatical errors. Most of the time, by reading his paper out loud, he was able to hear the mistakes that he had made. The rest of the time, though, took a little longer because I had to explain why some of the mistakes were wrong. On occasion, I had to explain things a few times before my student really understood what was being said to him. This was an important lesson, I thought, to impart on Tim. It takes patience to work with ESL students because of the language barrier. However, with perseverance, the session runs a lot smoother.
The next topic was about students with disabilities. I had my first session with one of these students last Friday. It was interesting because I found that it was a lot easier to work with this kind of student than I had thought. He was very aware of what was going on and grasped the concepts and ideas that I had thrown out quite easily. There were a few times where I had to repeat myself, but overall it was a rather smooth session. Yet another lesson, don't judge a book by its cover (I know it's cliche, but it's true). We talked about how preconceived notions about people and sessions should be disregarded. All sessions are to be taken and handled on a case-by-case basis. Different types of students are very useful to us as tutors because we learn different methods of tutoring when in sessions with them. That was the main lesson of this week's mentor session.
Monday, April 5, 2010
Gannon
Hello all,
Today I had a different sort of mentoring session with Mike. I tried instead of mulling over his week of tutoring actually having him tutoring me - thus, I am able to see firsthand how his tutoring style works and at the same time I'll be able to improve my own writing. Overall, Mike did a pretty good job asking thought provoking questions while at the same time offering plainspoken advice. However, at times it felt like he was giving too much information, so that I'd still be thinking over something he'd said, just as he moved onto another point. I'm going to think this session over a little more and then I'll present my findings to him next week.
Today I had a different sort of mentoring session with Mike. I tried instead of mulling over his week of tutoring actually having him tutoring me - thus, I am able to see firsthand how his tutoring style works and at the same time I'll be able to improve my own writing. Overall, Mike did a pretty good job asking thought provoking questions while at the same time offering plainspoken advice. However, at times it felt like he was giving too much information, so that I'd still be thinking over something he'd said, just as he moved onto another point. I'm going to think this session over a little more and then I'll present my findings to him next week.
Coco and Colin
Greetings, greetings fellow mentors!
Colin and I had a pretty quick meeting today. He's gotten to the point where he feels comfortable and confident as a tutor, with no real problems to bring up. He's still getting the occasional drop-in, and saw today in Time Trade that he has a new weekly student. He's adjusted well, so we spent a while discussing various experiences with sessions we've had in the past week. There was no real discussion on any specific issue or topic, other than the fact that he's doing well and enjoying the momentary lull that comes about before the inevitable explosion of finals week students.
Colin and I had a pretty quick meeting today. He's gotten to the point where he feels comfortable and confident as a tutor, with no real problems to bring up. He's still getting the occasional drop-in, and saw today in Time Trade that he has a new weekly student. He's adjusted well, so we spent a while discussing various experiences with sessions we've had in the past week. There was no real discussion on any specific issue or topic, other than the fact that he's doing well and enjoying the momentary lull that comes about before the inevitable explosion of finals week students.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Alex and Stephen
Heyrow everyone!
It was a slow week for Stephen. None of his weeklys showed up and he didn't get a drop in! He did tell me that one of his weeklys added him on facebook. I asked him how he handled it and he said that he accepted the request because he is afterall a student too. I thought that was interesting. I'm not friends with any of my students on facebook unless they are dance majors so I don't really know how I would handle the sitatuion. Stephen went on to talk about how he thinks that a major component of being a tutor is the ability to be social in order to draw the students in. I asked him to clarify what he meant by being "social". He said he didn't think that a tutor should be neccesarily outgoing. However, he thinks that tutors should have a way of engaging the students. He also went on to say that he sometimes tries to make the students feel like they aren't in the "learning studio". He tries to make it as casual as possible, and most like a conversation.
Food for thought?
It was a slow week for Stephen. None of his weeklys showed up and he didn't get a drop in! He did tell me that one of his weeklys added him on facebook. I asked him how he handled it and he said that he accepted the request because he is afterall a student too. I thought that was interesting. I'm not friends with any of my students on facebook unless they are dance majors so I don't really know how I would handle the sitatuion. Stephen went on to talk about how he thinks that a major component of being a tutor is the ability to be social in order to draw the students in. I asked him to clarify what he meant by being "social". He said he didn't think that a tutor should be neccesarily outgoing. However, he thinks that tutors should have a way of engaging the students. He also went on to say that he sometimes tries to make the students feel like they aren't in the "learning studio". He tries to make it as casual as possible, and most like a conversation.
Food for thought?
Kendra (Kathryn)
Before our session even started, Nita came over to gather tutors that hadn’t gone to the Grammar Workshop. I attended on Tuesday, however Kathryn didn’t, so during our scheduled time to meet she participated in the Grammar Workshop. After it was done, we were able to talk a bit about her tutoring as well as any concerns that she has. Kathryn said that she had been getting many ESL students. Two weeks ago (when I wasn’t here), she tutored Chikara, the Japanese tutor. He had a lot of trouble with placing articles in front of a noun. For example, he wrote “He ate sandwich,” instead of “He at a sandwich.” She had trouble with balancing grammar and content, meaning she didn’t want to be a grammar teacher, but also didn’t want to abandon the grammatical errors in his paper. I explained to her that students come in to work on different things; however, asking them why they specifically came to the WC in the beginning of the session will only benefit the session. I do know that Kathryn does ask this in the beginning of the session, so I encouraged her to keep doing this technique. Overall, things have been going great with Kathryn and her tutoring. She does get nervous working with ESL students, but I explained that the first couple of sessions are nerve-racking but they get easier the more you do them.
Have a good weekend all!
Kendra Callari
Have a good weekend all!
Kendra Callari
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Kendra Continue...
Hey, it's me again.
I forgot to mention that I talked to Keenan about tutoring with friends. I also shared some of the examples that Steve as well as Alex gave. I'm hoping it gave Keenan a better understanding of what to do in that situation.
I forgot to mention that I talked to Keenan about tutoring with friends. I also shared some of the examples that Steve as well as Alex gave. I'm hoping it gave Keenan a better understanding of what to do in that situation.
Kendra
Hey All,
I had another meeting with Keenan today. He has been sick (he lives in Michigan) and returned today. He hasn't had any students since our last meeting, so things have been quite slow. I asked if he had any concerns and he had none.
I also talked to him about the upcoming meeting - and how he should make an effort to go; especially since we will be talking about our ideas, sessions and goals. Keenan doesn't think he will make it, so I plan on taking notes to give him! Sorry for such a short post. Hope to see you all on the 9th.
Kendra
I had another meeting with Keenan today. He has been sick (he lives in Michigan) and returned today. He hasn't had any students since our last meeting, so things have been quite slow. I asked if he had any concerns and he had none.
I also talked to him about the upcoming meeting - and how he should make an effort to go; especially since we will be talking about our ideas, sessions and goals. Keenan doesn't think he will make it, so I plan on taking notes to give him! Sorry for such a short post. Hope to see you all on the 9th.
Kendra
Alex R.
Today was only a semi-productive day because Nita cut my meeting with Tim short. Half way through the session, she came up and told us that we needed to go to the grammar workshop. So we did. Before that, however, we were talking about our past sessions. He had one that I thought, from hearing what he told me, he performed very well on. His student came in and needed help with content more than anything, but was also needing help with grammar. So, instead of trying to divide his time between the two, he focused on the overlying issue (the content). I thought that it was great that he already knows how to focus on the main issues at hand rather than trying to do everything at once.
Then, we talked about one of my sessions because it's always helpful to talk about ESL students. I have one weekly ESL student who needs lots of help with grammar, sentence structure, and content. How I usually handle that session is we will spend about half of it working on grammar and sentence structure and the rest of the time on content. It is a little frustrating that this student doesn't actually show up every week, but what can you do?
That's about all we had time to do before the workshop.
Then, we talked about one of my sessions because it's always helpful to talk about ESL students. I have one weekly ESL student who needs lots of help with grammar, sentence structure, and content. How I usually handle that session is we will spend about half of it working on grammar and sentence structure and the rest of the time on content. It is a little frustrating that this student doesn't actually show up every week, but what can you do?
That's about all we had time to do before the workshop.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Coco
Hey,
I met with Colin the week prior to spring break but we didn't have much to talk about. For the week or two leading up to the break we both had a lot of no-shows, but he had an appointment later in the week with somebody who had neglected to show up for both of us on multiple occasions. I guess she did end up showing, because when I spoke to Colin this week he had a lot to say about their session. This is his third ESL session since he started, and as a result we had a very valuable discussion on techniques he's discovered that really help make working with ESL students easier. It's always something that I, myself, have struggled with.
Firstly, we talked a little about "letting things slide" in an ESL session. Colin said that he was a little frustrated because if he had focused on correcting every single language issue in the paper, he would've been there for hours. I've always tried to focus more on improving communication in ESL sessions rather than grammar. What I pay most attention to with these students is what point they're getting across and whether or not their idea is understood, not whether every single grammar issue is resolved.
The biggest technique we discussed was trying to find a visual idea to represent a grammatical idea that we weren't sure how to describe. The example he gave was his student using the phrase "by my opinion". He tried to explain to her that in English it's proper to say "in my opinion", but when she asked why he wasn't exactly sure what to tell her. Instead, he made up a visual idea to help her remember. He told her to imagine that her "opinion" is a big bucket and in order to give her argument, she has to reach into it and pull out her ideas. He said using little things like this really helped her improve her writing as well as her grasp on the language. We discussed our own experiences with speaking foreign languages, and how we came up with similar techniques, ideas, illustrations, etc. to help us learn all the little minute details. This is something I will definitely apply to future work with ESL students.
After we talked about ESL, our discussion sort of slid into Learning Disabilities. I think a lot of the things we discussed about ESL students would apply to helping students with disabilities as well. I have a student who has identified as dyslexic, and we talked about how similar the difficulties are with ESL and LD students. I feel as if I really struggle every week to help my student improve his writing, but despite this he seems to keep wanting to work with me. I often use the same technique of "letting things slide" with him, trying to get his point across and not focus so much on his spelling errors. I think the visual illustration idea would be a big help and I might try it next time.
I met with Colin the week prior to spring break but we didn't have much to talk about. For the week or two leading up to the break we both had a lot of no-shows, but he had an appointment later in the week with somebody who had neglected to show up for both of us on multiple occasions. I guess she did end up showing, because when I spoke to Colin this week he had a lot to say about their session. This is his third ESL session since he started, and as a result we had a very valuable discussion on techniques he's discovered that really help make working with ESL students easier. It's always something that I, myself, have struggled with.
Firstly, we talked a little about "letting things slide" in an ESL session. Colin said that he was a little frustrated because if he had focused on correcting every single language issue in the paper, he would've been there for hours. I've always tried to focus more on improving communication in ESL sessions rather than grammar. What I pay most attention to with these students is what point they're getting across and whether or not their idea is understood, not whether every single grammar issue is resolved.
The biggest technique we discussed was trying to find a visual idea to represent a grammatical idea that we weren't sure how to describe. The example he gave was his student using the phrase "by my opinion". He tried to explain to her that in English it's proper to say "in my opinion", but when she asked why he wasn't exactly sure what to tell her. Instead, he made up a visual idea to help her remember. He told her to imagine that her "opinion" is a big bucket and in order to give her argument, she has to reach into it and pull out her ideas. He said using little things like this really helped her improve her writing as well as her grasp on the language. We discussed our own experiences with speaking foreign languages, and how we came up with similar techniques, ideas, illustrations, etc. to help us learn all the little minute details. This is something I will definitely apply to future work with ESL students.
After we talked about ESL, our discussion sort of slid into Learning Disabilities. I think a lot of the things we discussed about ESL students would apply to helping students with disabilities as well. I have a student who has identified as dyslexic, and we talked about how similar the difficulties are with ESL and LD students. I feel as if I really struggle every week to help my student improve his writing, but despite this he seems to keep wanting to work with me. I often use the same technique of "letting things slide" with him, trying to get his point across and not focus so much on his spelling errors. I think the visual illustration idea would be a big help and I might try it next time.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Alex time
Hey everyone!
So I met with Stephen this week. I was unable to observe him since his Friday weekly didn't show up and the one drop in he had was during a time that I had a drop in. I was pretty bummed because I'm looking forward to seeing his work as a tutor.
He told me about his Monday weekly. He said that he is starting to see habits in his student's writing. He has a tenency to ignore basic grammar such as capitalization and mixes up words such as whole or hole. Stephen used the whiteboard approach that I told him about and he said it was very effective for his student. We discussed the capitalization issue and Stephen came to the conclusion that his student just relies too much on microsoft word to do the correcting for him. This is a common problem I think because we all tend to think word can do no wrong. I told him he may want to tell his student to proofread his papers before he comes in for tutoring. That way the session can be focused on the big picture issues and not the minor details.
So I met with Stephen this week. I was unable to observe him since his Friday weekly didn't show up and the one drop in he had was during a time that I had a drop in. I was pretty bummed because I'm looking forward to seeing his work as a tutor.
He told me about his Monday weekly. He said that he is starting to see habits in his student's writing. He has a tenency to ignore basic grammar such as capitalization and mixes up words such as whole or hole. Stephen used the whiteboard approach that I told him about and he said it was very effective for his student. We discussed the capitalization issue and Stephen came to the conclusion that his student just relies too much on microsoft word to do the correcting for him. This is a common problem I think because we all tend to think word can do no wrong. I told him he may want to tell his student to proofread his papers before he comes in for tutoring. That way the session can be focused on the big picture issues and not the minor details.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Kendra - (Keenan)
HAPPY ST. PADDY’S DAY!
So, I had another meeting with Keenan today. I was unable to observe him this past Monday because I had to study for midterms – however, he does have a weekly student Wednesday’s @ 4, so I do plan on observing him after break.
During our meeting, we talked about his two weekly students, Rachel & Ryan, who are doing great. He says that everything goes really good – but I would like to observe just kicks and giggles (also to get a feel for his tutoring style). He did express a concern to me: A student from one of his own classes (also a friend) made an appointment with him and he is worried that it will be uncomfortable. The student is coming to the WC for help on an essay that he didn’t do well on (teacher recommended students come to the LS if they did poorly on the mechanics). Keenan fears that he may come off as, “Oh, I’m better than you, because I’m helping you on a paper.” I explained to him that it’s okay to be nervous, but he can’t make the session feel uncomfortable or awkward for the student. I have never experienced this, but I did give him my two cents. I advised him to just take it like a normal session, but make sure to not get off topic by talking about kids in the class, the teacher, etc. – keep it to the writing aspect. If the student feels that uncomfortable with him, he should see the front desk and ask for another tutor to work with the student. Has this happened to anyone? I will let you all know the outcome in my next blog.
-Kendra
PS. I will not be here this Friday, and I believe Kathryn will be. So any mentor working on Friday, feel free to check with Kathryn to see how things are going with her!
So, I had another meeting with Keenan today. I was unable to observe him this past Monday because I had to study for midterms – however, he does have a weekly student Wednesday’s @ 4, so I do plan on observing him after break.
During our meeting, we talked about his two weekly students, Rachel & Ryan, who are doing great. He says that everything goes really good – but I would like to observe just kicks and giggles (also to get a feel for his tutoring style). He did express a concern to me: A student from one of his own classes (also a friend) made an appointment with him and he is worried that it will be uncomfortable. The student is coming to the WC for help on an essay that he didn’t do well on (teacher recommended students come to the LS if they did poorly on the mechanics). Keenan fears that he may come off as, “Oh, I’m better than you, because I’m helping you on a paper.” I explained to him that it’s okay to be nervous, but he can’t make the session feel uncomfortable or awkward for the student. I have never experienced this, but I did give him my two cents. I advised him to just take it like a normal session, but make sure to not get off topic by talking about kids in the class, the teacher, etc. – keep it to the writing aspect. If the student feels that uncomfortable with him, he should see the front desk and ask for another tutor to work with the student. Has this happened to anyone? I will let you all know the outcome in my next blog.
-Kendra
PS. I will not be here this Friday, and I believe Kathryn will be. So any mentor working on Friday, feel free to check with Kathryn to see how things are going with her!
Gannon
Hey all,
We spent the rest of the session talking about what one can do when a student comes in with a paper that is states their argument very clearly, but doesn't state it very well. I know that I get caught up with tutoring students with papers that need an awful lot of help that when a student comes along with a paper that is passing but not fantastic, it can be a little bit difficult figuring out what to work on. She agreed that she had had this problem as well, and that she felt as though she was better suited to work in extremes (either an excellent paper or a problematic paper) than with paper that or just OK. In these cases, we decided, all anybody can really do is to try and find the root of the persons argument and find a way for them to expand it.
Today I met with Mike. He feels as though his tutoring sessions are going well. When I asked him how he know the sessions are going well, he says that he can tell from the communication between himself and the student. He sees the student's learning through the conversation - instead of the student simply saying, "Oh, I understand. Yes, yes, yes.", the student show progress through discussion with the tutor.
We also talked about Steve's comments on one of my previous post about how one should be careful not to judge a session from the final moments, and that sometimes the shyness of a student is not a sign of failure. Mike agreed and said that he'd had a few very quiet students come in as one-timers, and then return a few weeks later. I suppose that just goes to show sometimes a good session can be hard to determine.
Monday, March 15, 2010
Gannon
Hey all,
I mentored Jo last Thursday, and she seemed unhappy about her current tutoring situation. In her entire time as a tutor she has only tutored three students. I imagine this must be pretty frustrating because she works Thursday for eight hours, and thus very rarely sees even one student for that whole period of time. Is there anything that can be done about this? I worry that she might feel disconnected from the Writing Center since she isn't (and can't be) doing much tutoring. Also, I should note she didn't want me to mention her discontent to y'all through the blog. I suspect she would like to be more involved but she doesn't want to ask for help. I'd like to help, but I don't know how. Any suggestions as to what can be done?
I mentored Jo last Thursday, and she seemed unhappy about her current tutoring situation. In her entire time as a tutor she has only tutored three students. I imagine this must be pretty frustrating because she works Thursday for eight hours, and thus very rarely sees even one student for that whole period of time. Is there anything that can be done about this? I worry that she might feel disconnected from the Writing Center since she isn't (and can't be) doing much tutoring. Also, I should note she didn't want me to mention her discontent to y'all through the blog. I suspect she would like to be more involved but she doesn't want to ask for help. I'd like to help, but I don't know how. Any suggestions as to what can be done?
Friday, March 12, 2010
Alex time!
Stephen got a new weekly this week! He is pretty excited becase he has alot in common with his weekly. The student had to do a personal discovery essay on wrestling so they spent the session brainstorming. Stephen once again used his approach of taking the paper away and having the student just talk about wrestling. This really seems to be a great process for him.
We discussed how as tutors we need to use different approaches with each and every student. With his shy weekly student he sits across from her, and tends to act more like a cheerleader since she still is complaining about her teacher. He will high five her if she does well on papers and such. With his new weekly he sits right next to them and there is a constant dialogue happening. I told him it's really great that he can use different techniques with students.
He had a weekly student who brought in a cover letter. The student said that they had to hurry the session so she could finish the letter before class. Stephen felt panicked at first because he felt rushed. However, he realized that she actually did not need make a lot of corrections. we discussed the whole students telling us we need to hurry a session along. Personally I feel that the student can feel rushed but I as a tutor should not have to over look errors or emit dialogue because a student chooses to wait until the last minute to do their work. Stephen more or less agreed with me. What do you all think?
Stephen hasn't had any difficult sessions or students so we discussed a new weekly I have who gives me a run for my money. I told him that my student tends to get confrontational, defensive, and lacks focus or clarity in his writing. I asked him how he would handle a student like this. He told me he would try to not be aggressive back but encourage the student to really back up the points they are trying to make in their essay. We talked about what to do when it's obvious the student is just going to get defensive when you help them with their writing. We did not really come to a conclusion about what to do. So once again what do you guys think?
We discussed how as tutors we need to use different approaches with each and every student. With his shy weekly student he sits across from her, and tends to act more like a cheerleader since she still is complaining about her teacher. He will high five her if she does well on papers and such. With his new weekly he sits right next to them and there is a constant dialogue happening. I told him it's really great that he can use different techniques with students.
He had a weekly student who brought in a cover letter. The student said that they had to hurry the session so she could finish the letter before class. Stephen felt panicked at first because he felt rushed. However, he realized that she actually did not need make a lot of corrections. we discussed the whole students telling us we need to hurry a session along. Personally I feel that the student can feel rushed but I as a tutor should not have to over look errors or emit dialogue because a student chooses to wait until the last minute to do their work. Stephen more or less agreed with me. What do you all think?
Stephen hasn't had any difficult sessions or students so we discussed a new weekly I have who gives me a run for my money. I told him that my student tends to get confrontational, defensive, and lacks focus or clarity in his writing. I asked him how he would handle a student like this. He told me he would try to not be aggressive back but encourage the student to really back up the points they are trying to make in their essay. We talked about what to do when it's obvious the student is just going to get defensive when you help them with their writing. We did not really come to a conclusion about what to do. So once again what do you guys think?
Kendraaaaaa
Hey all!
I had another mentor meeting with Kathryn today. This week, Kathryn was unfortunately very, very ill with food poisoning :(. She asked me in advanced what the protocol was for calling in sick. I explained to her that we just have to let the front desk know so they could let your students know. So, this is what we talked about for a little bit.
During the rest of the session, Kathryn and I talked about a student that we both had (mine on Wednesday). The student came in today for her session with Kathryn. They discussed the paper further in detail, reviewed the notes that Nancy left, and asked questions (what could you add here, details, etc.). We collaborated about the techniques we used such as having the student talk aloud and suggesting she go in more detail about her topic, which was on cereal. In the end, Kathryn and I realized that we had a similar tutoring style.
I think this was a great session for us to talk about because we both dealt with the same draft just in different sessions – we were able to comment on each other’s tutoring skills and collaborate about certain characteristics we noticed.
Have a great weekend!
Kendra
I had another mentor meeting with Kathryn today. This week, Kathryn was unfortunately very, very ill with food poisoning :(. She asked me in advanced what the protocol was for calling in sick. I explained to her that we just have to let the front desk know so they could let your students know. So, this is what we talked about for a little bit.
During the rest of the session, Kathryn and I talked about a student that we both had (mine on Wednesday). The student came in today for her session with Kathryn. They discussed the paper further in detail, reviewed the notes that Nancy left, and asked questions (what could you add here, details, etc.). We collaborated about the techniques we used such as having the student talk aloud and suggesting she go in more detail about her topic, which was on cereal. In the end, Kathryn and I realized that we had a similar tutoring style.
I think this was a great session for us to talk about because we both dealt with the same draft just in different sessions – we were able to comment on each other’s tutoring skills and collaborate about certain characteristics we noticed.
Have a great weekend!
Kendra
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Kendra
Hey all!
Today, I had yet another mentor meeting with Keenan. We collaborated about his weekly students - all which are going well. Like Steve said, I think I may come in on Monday to observe one of his sessions. I have yet to see him tutor, so I would really like to get a feel for his style. He had the same drop-in student as last week (the one that was extremely stressed about one of her papers). Keenan said that the student came in Saturday and didn't get as much help as she would have liked to. He handled this real well by telling the student that we're all different and that each tutor has his/her own style.
Keenan expressed many concerns to me during our sessions.
1) Grammar. He asked if I or any other tutor had encountered a student that just wanted to come in and work on grammar. I explained to him the situation that Kathryn had and how she handled it. I also shared one of my own experiences, where the student wanted to learn about semicolons, colons and commas. I told him that if the student comes in and wants to learn how and when to use these, then it would be beneficial to look up definitions and exercises on a resourceful site such as Owl at Purdue. I also explained that there is a grammar tutor that works with students specifically on grammar (located in the Journalism department).
2) What other concerns mentors had with mentees. I explained to Keenan that we blog about how our mentee sessions go and express/comment on concerns that other mentors have. He asked if mentees are allowed to see the blog. I don’t know the answer to this, so Steve or Brian?
3) Seeing your students at parties. I for one have never seen any of my students at a party. However, Keenan said that one of his friends had a party (he didn’t attend) and that one of his weekly students was there. He asked what to do in that situation. I explained to him that if you see one of your students at the party, you seem them at the party - however, when they come in for their appointment, the session cannot consist of talking about their social life and how spectacular the party was (being all buddy buddyy!!) We as tutors are here to make stronger writers, not gossip about who had sex with who...just an example.
** If anyone else has encountered this, feel free to comment or talk to Keenan.
Thanks all!
Kendra
Today, I had yet another mentor meeting with Keenan. We collaborated about his weekly students - all which are going well. Like Steve said, I think I may come in on Monday to observe one of his sessions. I have yet to see him tutor, so I would really like to get a feel for his style. He had the same drop-in student as last week (the one that was extremely stressed about one of her papers). Keenan said that the student came in Saturday and didn't get as much help as she would have liked to. He handled this real well by telling the student that we're all different and that each tutor has his/her own style.
Keenan expressed many concerns to me during our sessions.
1) Grammar. He asked if I or any other tutor had encountered a student that just wanted to come in and work on grammar. I explained to him the situation that Kathryn had and how she handled it. I also shared one of my own experiences, where the student wanted to learn about semicolons, colons and commas. I told him that if the student comes in and wants to learn how and when to use these, then it would be beneficial to look up definitions and exercises on a resourceful site such as Owl at Purdue. I also explained that there is a grammar tutor that works with students specifically on grammar (located in the Journalism department).
2) What other concerns mentors had with mentees. I explained to Keenan that we blog about how our mentee sessions go and express/comment on concerns that other mentors have. He asked if mentees are allowed to see the blog. I don’t know the answer to this, so Steve or Brian?
3) Seeing your students at parties. I for one have never seen any of my students at a party. However, Keenan said that one of his friends had a party (he didn’t attend) and that one of his weekly students was there. He asked what to do in that situation. I explained to him that if you see one of your students at the party, you seem them at the party - however, when they come in for their appointment, the session cannot consist of talking about their social life and how spectacular the party was (being all buddy buddyy!!) We as tutors are here to make stronger writers, not gossip about who had sex with who...just an example.
** If anyone else has encountered this, feel free to comment or talk to Keenan.
Thanks all!
Kendra
Alex R.
Hey all,
Tim and I had another session today. This one was rather productive. He told me that he was observed today. So, we talked about how that worked out for him. Apparently, he wasn't all that nervous, even though it was during his most difficult session (the student with cerebral-palsy). During his session today, he focused on content with the student rather than grammar and punctuation and things like that and it seemed to work for him. The student was much more involved in the session and willing to do the work. In the end, his observer told him that he did a good job.
The next topic that we tackled was dealing with an unprepared student. He had another student that had to do an essay on a book, but the student didn't bring the book with him. So in this instance, Tim worked with the student just getting his ideas down on a page. He talked with the student and asked him questions using the prompts on the assignment sheet. The student left with ideas for the paper. I think that Tim did a good job in this situation.
Another way to have handled the situation above, which was the next topic in our conversation, was to use Inspiration 8. This resulted in a little tutorial of the program. Just to have a student write something down is important, but I feel that it is also beneficial to have more than one form of brainstorming. That is why I use the program with students who don't bring in their work. Using Inspiration 8 allows them to leave with both a diagram and an outline of the discussion in the session. I'm not saying that Tim did anything wrong, I just wanted to give him another tool that he could use, if he wanted to, in a situation with an unprepared student.
Tim and I had another session today. This one was rather productive. He told me that he was observed today. So, we talked about how that worked out for him. Apparently, he wasn't all that nervous, even though it was during his most difficult session (the student with cerebral-palsy). During his session today, he focused on content with the student rather than grammar and punctuation and things like that and it seemed to work for him. The student was much more involved in the session and willing to do the work. In the end, his observer told him that he did a good job.
The next topic that we tackled was dealing with an unprepared student. He had another student that had to do an essay on a book, but the student didn't bring the book with him. So in this instance, Tim worked with the student just getting his ideas down on a page. He talked with the student and asked him questions using the prompts on the assignment sheet. The student left with ideas for the paper. I think that Tim did a good job in this situation.
Another way to have handled the situation above, which was the next topic in our conversation, was to use Inspiration 8. This resulted in a little tutorial of the program. Just to have a student write something down is important, but I feel that it is also beneficial to have more than one form of brainstorming. That is why I use the program with students who don't bring in their work. Using Inspiration 8 allows them to leave with both a diagram and an outline of the discussion in the session. I'm not saying that Tim did anything wrong, I just wanted to give him another tool that he could use, if he wanted to, in a situation with an unprepared student.
Gannon and also Blog II
Hello all,
On Monday I met with Mike. He had been able to tutor a few more people since we'd last met, and so I decided to spend the session reflecting on his most and least successful sessions.
Although he didn't have a specific "best tutoring session", he said that every successful session he'd had had a similarity. He says that if a student doesn't leave right away once the session has ended, and instead sticks around for a few extra moments exchanging pleasantries, it means the session has gone successfully. Mike said he'd had a session of this sort recently in which a student offered him a Starbucks gift card as thanks for the tutoring. Mike informed the student that the session was already paid for through the student's tuition, and the gift was politely declined.
When I asked Mike about what he thought his least successful session was, he told me that although he'd never had a terrible session, he'd had a session in which he felt as though the student left with little accomplished. Seemingly, the student had brought in this paper not to work on it more, but to have a tutor tell her that it didn't need any more work. Mike tells me that the paper was OK, but lacked focus. However, she didn't want to write much more than she already had - she was set on this paper being her final draft. He felt like there was little he could do to convince her otherwise, so the session ended without much gained. I suggested that for sessions like these, one should try to get the student to realize themselves that their paper needs more work. This can be accomplished through asking the right questions. Does anyone else have any ideas?
On Monday I met with Mike. He had been able to tutor a few more people since we'd last met, and so I decided to spend the session reflecting on his most and least successful sessions.
Although he didn't have a specific "best tutoring session", he said that every successful session he'd had had a similarity. He says that if a student doesn't leave right away once the session has ended, and instead sticks around for a few extra moments exchanging pleasantries, it means the session has gone successfully. Mike said he'd had a session of this sort recently in which a student offered him a Starbucks gift card as thanks for the tutoring. Mike informed the student that the session was already paid for through the student's tuition, and the gift was politely declined.
When I asked Mike about what he thought his least successful session was, he told me that although he'd never had a terrible session, he'd had a session in which he felt as though the student left with little accomplished. Seemingly, the student had brought in this paper not to work on it more, but to have a tutor tell her that it didn't need any more work. Mike tells me that the paper was OK, but lacked focus. However, she didn't want to write much more than she already had - she was set on this paper being her final draft. He felt like there was little he could do to convince her otherwise, so the session ended without much gained. I suggested that for sessions like these, one should try to get the student to realize themselves that their paper needs more work. This can be accomplished through asking the right questions. Does anyone else have any ideas?
Monday, March 8, 2010
Gannon and also Blog
Hello, all!
I met with Jo last week. We talked about her students, work schedule difficulties and how I couldn't remember what we'd gone over the previous week and couldn't think about anything to blog about. She wisely advised that I should take notes. I agreed. I didn't take notes. Whoops!
Anyhow, she told me that although she doesn't really have any questions, she still has some concerns about her tutoring. She worries that her personality might come off too strong or too quirky and her students might not take her seriously because of that. I assured her that that probably would not happen and that in my experience, it's best to create an honest and comfortable environment for the tutee - meaning that being a relaxed version of yourself is important. Most of her concerns have to do with confidence "what-have-yous" and will all solve themselves through seeing more students. She just needs a wee bit more hands-on experience.
I met with Jo last week. We talked about her students, work schedule difficulties and how I couldn't remember what we'd gone over the previous week and couldn't think about anything to blog about. She wisely advised that I should take notes. I agreed. I didn't take notes. Whoops!
Anyhow, she told me that although she doesn't really have any questions, she still has some concerns about her tutoring. She worries that her personality might come off too strong or too quirky and her students might not take her seriously because of that. I assured her that that probably would not happen and that in my experience, it's best to create an honest and comfortable environment for the tutee - meaning that being a relaxed version of yourself is important. Most of her concerns have to do with confidence "what-have-yous" and will all solve themselves through seeing more students. She just needs a wee bit more hands-on experience.
Coco Strikes Again!
Hey all,
Colin and had our third(ish) session today. He doesn't have any weekly students but he's been getting a lot of drop-ins and one-times, especially a lot that haven't been showing up! He did get an ESL student the other day and it sounds like the entire session went really well. He told me that, as things were coming to a close, he asked his student what sorts of things he usually does to revise and edit his papers on his own. Colin gave him some editing tips as a sort of "takeaway" end to the session, mostly things that have helped him in the past that the writer can try to do to improve his own work. He said he's been using this to close out all his sessions and it's sort of become his "signature". I think it's a really great idea, and not only keeps the student thinking outside of the writing center, but helps them learn to improve their personal revision techniques as well and find something that works for them. Has anybody else ever done something like this, or do you have any sort of "signature" tutoring technique that you apply to all your sessions?
Since Colin hasn't been getting a lot of students, we talked about some other general aspects of the Learning Studio, like using Time Trade, the email reminder system, the importance of arriving on time or slightly early (he missed a drop-in session when he arrived late a week ago, which he was pretty bummed about). We spent the rest of the hour getting to know each other a little better, since we sort of skipped all that and dove right into the topic of tutoring styles during our first session.
Colin and had our third(ish) session today. He doesn't have any weekly students but he's been getting a lot of drop-ins and one-times, especially a lot that haven't been showing up! He did get an ESL student the other day and it sounds like the entire session went really well. He told me that, as things were coming to a close, he asked his student what sorts of things he usually does to revise and edit his papers on his own. Colin gave him some editing tips as a sort of "takeaway" end to the session, mostly things that have helped him in the past that the writer can try to do to improve his own work. He said he's been using this to close out all his sessions and it's sort of become his "signature". I think it's a really great idea, and not only keeps the student thinking outside of the writing center, but helps them learn to improve their personal revision techniques as well and find something that works for them. Has anybody else ever done something like this, or do you have any sort of "signature" tutoring technique that you apply to all your sessions?
Since Colin hasn't been getting a lot of students, we talked about some other general aspects of the Learning Studio, like using Time Trade, the email reminder system, the importance of arriving on time or slightly early (he missed a drop-in session when he arrived late a week ago, which he was pretty bummed about). We spent the rest of the hour getting to know each other a little better, since we sort of skipped all that and dove right into the topic of tutoring styles during our first session.
Friday, March 5, 2010
A-game
Hey guys! Today was my third session with Stephen
This week he encountered some minor difficulties with his student. Apparently she likes to complain about the teacher and the class alot. I asked him how he dealt with this and he said he continues to just ask her why she doesn't like the teacher since she's doing well in the class. This lead to a discussion about how we as tutors should handle students who use us as their means to vent about teacher issues. We both decided that it's best try and change the subject as quickly as possible. I told him that you can always tell your student to make their opinions known during the end of semester evaluations because then something may be done about a teacher.
Stephen's student had to write a paper describing an object, more specifically her folder. She claimed to be stuck. After she read her paper out loud, Stephen took the paper from her and asked her to just talk about the folder. He kept asking her questions and the student discovered that she could discuss in her paper how folder matches alot of her other belongings and is meaningful. Stephen said that some students just can't think how they write. By taking the papers away and having them speak, students may realize they know more than what they think. I was pretty happy to hear Stephen say that. We discussed how some students really can't think and write at the same time, especially during brainstorming sessions. Which lead us to the question , Is it ok for the tutor to take notes as the student talksa about their topic? I have found myself doing it in some sessions and Stephen has as well. Something to think about I guess.
This week he encountered some minor difficulties with his student. Apparently she likes to complain about the teacher and the class alot. I asked him how he dealt with this and he said he continues to just ask her why she doesn't like the teacher since she's doing well in the class. This lead to a discussion about how we as tutors should handle students who use us as their means to vent about teacher issues. We both decided that it's best try and change the subject as quickly as possible. I told him that you can always tell your student to make their opinions known during the end of semester evaluations because then something may be done about a teacher.
Stephen's student had to write a paper describing an object, more specifically her folder. She claimed to be stuck. After she read her paper out loud, Stephen took the paper from her and asked her to just talk about the folder. He kept asking her questions and the student discovered that she could discuss in her paper how folder matches alot of her other belongings and is meaningful. Stephen said that some students just can't think how they write. By taking the papers away and having them speak, students may realize they know more than what they think. I was pretty happy to hear Stephen say that. We discussed how some students really can't think and write at the same time, especially during brainstorming sessions. Which lead us to the question , Is it ok for the tutor to take notes as the student talksa about their topic? I have found myself doing it in some sessions and Stephen has as well. Something to think about I guess.
K-Dizzle
Hey Everyone,
I had my third mentor meeting with Kathryn today. We sat on the orange couches and collaborated on her sessions. This week, Kathryn had her first ESL session!! She was nervous, but handled it great. She did express a concern to me - when they were in the tutor training class, they watched videos that encouraged them to overlook sentance structure (if it made sense then it was OK). So, she was a bit confused, however, talked it over with the student to see what she wanted to accomplish during the session. Her student had problems with tenses along with metaphores vs. similies, so they worked on that. I was really happy how Kathryn handled this, and I definately re-enforced her! When I asked her what she could have done differently, she said that looking back at the session, she wishes she had confirmed that using similies were okay to use instead of metaphores.
Other than that, we just talked about tutor training - she was confused about the times, dates, etc.
Have a good weekend,
Kendra
I had my third mentor meeting with Kathryn today. We sat on the orange couches and collaborated on her sessions. This week, Kathryn had her first ESL session!! She was nervous, but handled it great. She did express a concern to me - when they were in the tutor training class, they watched videos that encouraged them to overlook sentance structure (if it made sense then it was OK). So, she was a bit confused, however, talked it over with the student to see what she wanted to accomplish during the session. Her student had problems with tenses along with metaphores vs. similies, so they worked on that. I was really happy how Kathryn handled this, and I definately re-enforced her! When I asked her what she could have done differently, she said that looking back at the session, she wishes she had confirmed that using similies were okay to use instead of metaphores.
Other than that, we just talked about tutor training - she was confused about the times, dates, etc.
Have a good weekend,
Kendra
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Kendra Callari
Today, I had my second mentor meeting with Keenan. We started off by talking about his two weekly sessions – both are going very well. He said that his students are really engaged throughout the whole session. I was really happy to hear how he handled his one weekly student. She comes to the LS after her Monday class. Since most of the assignments are due that day, Keenan goes through the final draft and collaborates with her. I think that this is really beneficial to the student because she is able to hear feedback about her final draft for future essays (where she could add things, etc).
Keenan also had a drop-in this week. She was extremely stressed and didn’t know what the teacher wanted, and didn’t know the topic. Keenan handled this extremely well. He told her to just take a breath and that they will figure it out. They started collaborating and Keenan got her thinking and by the end of the session, she knew her topic. I thought he handled this in a great manner by re-assuring the student and having her think aloud. However, he did share with me a worry. He was afraid that he told her the wrong thing and misguided her. He knows that he is not responsible for the grade, but he couldn’t help but feel guilt. I explained to him that we all sometimes have that – I shared my experiences with him and how I handled it.
Even though Tim is not my mentee, he expressed a concern about how a student came in and just wanted him to revise a paper. I think that Tim handled it as best he could – he told the student that he would be more than happy to sit and collaborate about the paper with him, but explained that we are not here to just revise papers.
Lastly, Keenan is really worried about the tutor training times (he is either working or not here). I told him to talk to Nita. We all remember what happened last semester with tutor training. I’m pretty sure most of us came in on our own, yes that means we didn’t get paid.
Nita said not to do that this semester – your students come first.
That’s all for now!
Kendra
Keenan also had a drop-in this week. She was extremely stressed and didn’t know what the teacher wanted, and didn’t know the topic. Keenan handled this extremely well. He told her to just take a breath and that they will figure it out. They started collaborating and Keenan got her thinking and by the end of the session, she knew her topic. I thought he handled this in a great manner by re-assuring the student and having her think aloud. However, he did share with me a worry. He was afraid that he told her the wrong thing and misguided her. He knows that he is not responsible for the grade, but he couldn’t help but feel guilt. I explained to him that we all sometimes have that – I shared my experiences with him and how I handled it.
Even though Tim is not my mentee, he expressed a concern about how a student came in and just wanted him to revise a paper. I think that Tim handled it as best he could – he told the student that he would be more than happy to sit and collaborate about the paper with him, but explained that we are not here to just revise papers.
Lastly, Keenan is really worried about the tutor training times (he is either working or not here). I told him to talk to Nita. We all remember what happened last semester with tutor training. I’m pretty sure most of us came in on our own, yes that means we didn’t get paid.
Nita said not to do that this semester – your students come first.
That’s all for now!
Kendra
Alex R's latest report
I had another mentor session with Tim today. We talked mostly about what to do when you encounter a difficult student. I used an example of a weekly student that I have. She always comes in and is reluctant to work. The start of every session is her saying, "I'm so tired." Now, I know that it is 9 in the morning and I sympathize. However, I show up in order to help her become a better writer. She shows up too, which would indicate to me that she either cares about improving or getting the grade. So, we work. If she doesn't feel like it, well that's just a shame because I can always find something for her to do. Anyway, now that that rant is over, I told Tim about how I like to try to then create a little bit less than academic feel to the session. It is okay to joke around with students as long as the work gets done. I find that this can sometimes result in a better session with a reluctant student.
Other than that, we didn't really have much to talk about this week. This is due to the fact that rarely any of our students show up. But, because of this we did have a little conversation about how to utilize free time here. We talked about the literature in the back room that can be read for the development of us tutors. There are, when available, also the tutor training sessions that can be attended. That's all for today folks. Perhaps next week will result in more conversations and concerns (and a better blog entry from me).
Other than that, we didn't really have much to talk about this week. This is due to the fact that rarely any of our students show up. But, because of this we did have a little conversation about how to utilize free time here. We talked about the literature in the back room that can be read for the development of us tutors. There are, when available, also the tutor training sessions that can be attended. That's all for today folks. Perhaps next week will result in more conversations and concerns (and a better blog entry from me).
Gannon et Blog
Hello all,
I met with Mike on Monday. We spent the time talking about a few sessions he had recently , one of which he felt had gone very well (the details escape me; I'll write more on his tutoring next week). We also talked about what one should do for a weekly's first session if the weekly is already familiar with the Writing Center. We decided that it would be best to go over the tutor/tutee agreement paper, but also to be careful to not go over too much of what the student already knows about the center.
We also spent a bit of time discussing a problem I'm having with one of my students. The student is ESL and is very aggressive in what he wants to work on to the point where I feel uncomfortable. Mike wisely suggested that if one is faced with a forceful student, one should be direct with displeasure rather than skating around the problem for the sake of politeness.
I have the student today - we shall see how Michael's advice works out.
I met with Mike on Monday. We spent the time talking about a few sessions he had recently , one of which he felt had gone very well (the details escape me; I'll write more on his tutoring next week). We also talked about what one should do for a weekly's first session if the weekly is already familiar with the Writing Center. We decided that it would be best to go over the tutor/tutee agreement paper, but also to be careful to not go over too much of what the student already knows about the center.
We also spent a bit of time discussing a problem I'm having with one of my students. The student is ESL and is very aggressive in what he wants to work on to the point where I feel uncomfortable. Mike wisely suggested that if one is faced with a forceful student, one should be direct with displeasure rather than skating around the problem for the sake of politeness.
I have the student today - we shall see how Michael's advice works out.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Coco's First Post!
Hey, all! Sorry it's taken me so long to get into this "blogging" thing. I'm mentoring Colin this semester and we met up a little later than expected our first week (thus, our discussion went through my blogging hour), then he wasn't able to be here this week.
I'll talk about our first week, though, because our discussion got pretty interesting. Colin was just recently entered into Time Trade and he's pretty eager to start tutoring, but he's barely gotten any students yet. Of course, right after we finished our mentoring hour he got a drop-in, which was pretty exciting! I overheard them from my pod and things seem to be going really well. Sadly, I had to leave for class before their session ended so we didn't get much time to discuss it afterward.
The majority of our mentoring hour was spent talking about his expectations of tutoring. Colin is very motivated to make the minimalist style work for him. After all, it seems minimalist tutoring is (arguably) how students get the most hands-on experience with writing and seem to learn the most. He laid out a couple things that he's trying to do in his sessions so far to help set this mood and contribute to the hands-off tutoring approach. He said he makes a point of not holding a pencil, and tries to use questions and examples to lead his students into discovering their own mistakes. Man, that seemed like such a dream to me!
This is where the interesting part of our discussion came in, because in my experiences with students the past few semesters, I have to be extremely directive (which often goes against my own personal style of tutoring). I find this to be true with drop-ins, one time appointments, and a small handful of my regular students. I have only had about six students (of all types) since I started here who were actually eager to work on their writing with me. They come in with something they want to work on, they correct their own mistakes (with or without me leading and identifying them), and they actively participate with me in a discussion that helps them work through problems or expand their ideas for content.
The rest of the students I've had to work with are significantly less enthusiastic. They want to read through the paper, get my "corrections", and then leave. The majority of them tell me, specifically, that they only want to focus on grammar. I always make sure to spend as much time on grammar as I do on things like content, voice, organization, etc. but so many of them seem very cold to my input on any of those other things. They seem to want me to flat-out tell them what to do, which is the main issue here. I find that when I try to be minimalist with them, they get frustrated and participate significantly less in the session, which just leads to me awkwardly babbling at them for another half an hour.
Colin and I discussed these issues, as well as how important it is to try and adjust your tutoring style for every student's unique needs. I guess that's sort of the conclusion we came to on this issue, that some students learn better when they're instructed, and some learn better when they're gently nudged in the right direction. You really do have to find the correct balance between your own tutoring style and your student's particular learning style.
So what do you guys think? Do you agree/disagree? Can anyone relate to my experiences with apathetic students who come in expecting a teacher instead of a peer tutor, or have I just been getting all the difficult ones? :)
Friday, February 26, 2010
Here's Alexxxxxxx
Hey kids!
This week Stephen and I went into a little more detail about his sessions. I asked him how he handled his introverted weekly student. He told me that he got her to open up by becoming more conversational with her. He would start the sessions just by getting her to talk about random things. He also continues to stress that he is also a student. Once she realized this she started to open up more. He told me he generally tries to begin his sessions with a little bit of small talk to get the students more comfortable with him. I told him as long as this small talk doesn't eat up most of the session it can be a useful tactic to make students feel more comfortable in a session.
He is a little bit intimidated because a new weekly student has signed up with him. She apparently has caused a few tutors some troubles in the past. I showed him how to look up students in time trade and how to look at notes from past sessions. He also may talk to a few of the tutors that have worked with this student so he can gain a true sense of what it may be like. From what I understand this student just seems to be very stubborn and I told him maybe by using his opening up tactics he may be a bit more successful with this student.
Also he expressed concern because he had a drop in student who only had grammar issues. I told him that it's ok to help a student with comma, and punctuation issues. I encouraged him to try to hone in on the consistant grammar issues within a paper and make it a "teaching moment". Use the white board, create examples, make them think. Sometimes if the student's thoughts and ideas are sound one needs to look to grammar if that's the only thing bringing the writer down.
Alrighty catch y'all on the flip side!!
Alex
This week Stephen and I went into a little more detail about his sessions. I asked him how he handled his introverted weekly student. He told me that he got her to open up by becoming more conversational with her. He would start the sessions just by getting her to talk about random things. He also continues to stress that he is also a student. Once she realized this she started to open up more. He told me he generally tries to begin his sessions with a little bit of small talk to get the students more comfortable with him. I told him as long as this small talk doesn't eat up most of the session it can be a useful tactic to make students feel more comfortable in a session.
He is a little bit intimidated because a new weekly student has signed up with him. She apparently has caused a few tutors some troubles in the past. I showed him how to look up students in time trade and how to look at notes from past sessions. He also may talk to a few of the tutors that have worked with this student so he can gain a true sense of what it may be like. From what I understand this student just seems to be very stubborn and I told him maybe by using his opening up tactics he may be a bit more successful with this student.
Also he expressed concern because he had a drop in student who only had grammar issues. I told him that it's ok to help a student with comma, and punctuation issues. I encouraged him to try to hone in on the consistant grammar issues within a paper and make it a "teaching moment". Use the white board, create examples, make them think. Sometimes if the student's thoughts and ideas are sound one needs to look to grammar if that's the only thing bringing the writer down.
Alrighty catch y'all on the flip side!!
Alex
Kendraaaaa
I had my second mentor meeting with Kathryn today. She informed me that she has her first weekly student on Mondays!! So, with that being said, we collaborated on how the session went. Kathryn stated that it didn’t go well because her student had the sense of not wanting to be there. This student had already had two classes where she was required to attend sessions at the WC. Her student left early because she didn’t want to brainstorm for her new assignment because she had just received it. With that assignment she had to find a source, so Kathryn did everything from going online and using resources to advising her to talk to a librarian. Kathryn felt that she was resistant. When the session ended and Kathryn filled out the session report, she heard back from the teacher saying that this particular student was behind in class and should have had writing assignments to work on. I handled this by telling Kathryn that it was not her responsibility to have already known that. She did everything she could to make the session “happen.”
Kathryn had a second session with a student who had a onetime appointment. The student wanted to work on her grammar (because she was never taught in school), so Kathryn went online and researched definitions, etc. She asked on how to handle this because she never had a student come in who just wants to work on grammar. I suggested to her that when students want to come in to work on grammar that you do research online or go to the reference room. I encouraged her to print out worksheets and work on them in a collaborative way.
Overall, Kathryn is doing great and seems to feel really comfortable in the space. She still gets nervous at times, but she is doing well!
Thanks Ya’ll!
Kendra
Kathryn had a second session with a student who had a onetime appointment. The student wanted to work on her grammar (because she was never taught in school), so Kathryn went online and researched definitions, etc. She asked on how to handle this because she never had a student come in who just wants to work on grammar. I suggested to her that when students want to come in to work on grammar that you do research online or go to the reference room. I encouraged her to print out worksheets and work on them in a collaborative way.
Overall, Kathryn is doing great and seems to feel really comfortable in the space. She still gets nervous at times, but she is doing well!
Thanks Ya’ll!
Kendra
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Kendra's 2nd post
Hey all!
Today, I met with my new mentee Keenan. I have never met him before,(I KNOW!) so I took this time to get to know one another. After discussing biographies of each other, I asked him how his sessions are going. Keenan has two weekly students, both of which are older than him. He was worried that they would look at him differently since he is younger than them (almost as if they had seniority over him). I explained that we are students as well, we may be called consultants, but we are here to learn too. After that discussion, I asked how the sessions were overall - he said that they were good and he felt comfortable tutoring. Since his previous mentor was Brian, I plan on sitting in on one of his sessions (most likely his weekly apt. on Wed. @ 4)just to get a feel for his style.
After collaborating over sessions, etc., I encouraged him to ask questions or express his concerns to me or any other mentor/tutor.
Murrr,
Kendra
Today, I met with my new mentee Keenan. I have never met him before,(I KNOW!) so I took this time to get to know one another. After discussing biographies of each other, I asked him how his sessions are going. Keenan has two weekly students, both of which are older than him. He was worried that they would look at him differently since he is younger than them (almost as if they had seniority over him). I explained that we are students as well, we may be called consultants, but we are here to learn too. After that discussion, I asked how the sessions were overall - he said that they were good and he felt comfortable tutoring. Since his previous mentor was Brian, I plan on sitting in on one of his sessions (most likely his weekly apt. on Wed. @ 4)just to get a feel for his style.
After collaborating over sessions, etc., I encouraged him to ask questions or express his concerns to me or any other mentor/tutor.
Murrr,
Kendra
Second Session
Hey all,
Because I am terrible with computers, the first post that I wrote went to the wrong blog (sorry). Anyway, I just had my second mentor session with Tim. It went rather well, in my humble opinion. We talked for a little while about one of his students that has cerebral palsy. For that session he said that the student needs to do everything on a laptop because he cannot write things down on paper. My suggestion for that was to tell the student that he should bring in a flash drive for the remainder of the session. The reason for this would be so that Tim could write comments on the student's paper in the notes section of Word. That way, the student would be able to take the comments and edits with him and work with a more manageable medium.
After talking about that situation, we got to talking, at length, about ESL students and how to handle a session with them. We talked about how it is no different from a regular session in that every single ESL session will go differently based on the student's grasp of the English language. I used an example from one of my recent sessions to illustrate the points and techniques that I told him about. (If anyone disagrees with me, let me know) When I approach an ESL session, I generally give the student more than I would an English speaker (just for reference). I then go through the rest of the mistakes (grammatical or otherwise) and have them figure out how to fix them based on the rules we just discussed or had previously discussed in past sessions.
This was really all we talked about this session. Little by little, we will tackle issues, questions, or situations as they arise until we have covered a wide variety of topics. (I know this is in the wrong spot, but deal with it) Usually (by that I mean the two sessions we've had) when we start the session, we talk about sessions we have had recently and what went well, or didn't, and why we thought so. That's it for now.
Because I am terrible with computers, the first post that I wrote went to the wrong blog (sorry). Anyway, I just had my second mentor session with Tim. It went rather well, in my humble opinion. We talked for a little while about one of his students that has cerebral palsy. For that session he said that the student needs to do everything on a laptop because he cannot write things down on paper. My suggestion for that was to tell the student that he should bring in a flash drive for the remainder of the session. The reason for this would be so that Tim could write comments on the student's paper in the notes section of Word. That way, the student would be able to take the comments and edits with him and work with a more manageable medium.
After talking about that situation, we got to talking, at length, about ESL students and how to handle a session with them. We talked about how it is no different from a regular session in that every single ESL session will go differently based on the student's grasp of the English language. I used an example from one of my recent sessions to illustrate the points and techniques that I told him about. (If anyone disagrees with me, let me know) When I approach an ESL session, I generally give the student more than I would an English speaker (just for reference). I then go through the rest of the mistakes (grammatical or otherwise) and have them figure out how to fix them based on the rules we just discussed or had previously discussed in past sessions.
This was really all we talked about this session. Little by little, we will tackle issues, questions, or situations as they arise until we have covered a wide variety of topics. (I know this is in the wrong spot, but deal with it) Usually (by that I mean the two sessions we've had) when we start the session, we talk about sessions we have had recently and what went well, or didn't, and why we thought so. That's it for now.
Gannon and Blog
Last Monday, I mentored Mike, my old protege. Since I've been his mentor for the past semester, we lept right in to his experiences thus far as a tutor.
I feel as though he could use some work in appearing confident and in control around tutees. I had observed him asking a student's name in order to find out if she was his tutee. The encounter felt awkward - it went something like this:
Mike: Hey, what's your name?
Tutee: Jane Smith.
Mike then turned away from her without explaining why he'd asked her name, while the student looked on confusedly. I feel that little courtesy things are really important in giving the Learning Studio an accessible, non-threatening feel. I suggested to him a different way of encountering potential tutees:
Mike: Hello, are you here for the writing center?
Tutee: Yes.
Mike: Do you know who you're meeting with? Would you happen to be with a "Michael"?
Tutee: No, I think I'm with someone named "Gannon."
Mike: Oh! I see. Well, I am not Gannon, but I'm sure the brilliant and prolific Gannon Reedy will be out in one moment to fill your brain with glorious tutoring.
Something like that. To his credit, that had been the first time he'd ever asked a student on the orange couch, so naturally he was a bit rusty.
And so we spent some time going over these important wee details, which I think don't necessarily need to be taught in classrooms and theory books, but are great for mentor-mentee conferencing.
We also discussed what one should do if a student comes in with an paper that is only OK but is so riddled with grammar errors that it is very difficult to understand. I run into this problem a bit myself and often wonder what I should do. We decided that it is more important for the paper to be understood, so focusing on grammar would be the most important thing to do in this circumstance.
I feel as though he could use some work in appearing confident and in control around tutees. I had observed him asking a student's name in order to find out if she was his tutee. The encounter felt awkward - it went something like this:
Mike: Hey, what's your name?
Tutee: Jane Smith.
Mike then turned away from her without explaining why he'd asked her name, while the student looked on confusedly. I feel that little courtesy things are really important in giving the Learning Studio an accessible, non-threatening feel. I suggested to him a different way of encountering potential tutees:
Mike: Hello, are you here for the writing center?
Tutee: Yes.
Mike: Do you know who you're meeting with? Would you happen to be with a "Michael"?
Tutee: No, I think I'm with someone named "Gannon."
Mike: Oh! I see. Well, I am not Gannon, but I'm sure the brilliant and prolific Gannon Reedy will be out in one moment to fill your brain with glorious tutoring.
Something like that. To his credit, that had been the first time he'd ever asked a student on the orange couch, so naturally he was a bit rusty.
And so we spent some time going over these important wee details, which I think don't necessarily need to be taught in classrooms and theory books, but are great for mentor-mentee conferencing.
We also discussed what one should do if a student comes in with an paper that is only OK but is so riddled with grammar errors that it is very difficult to understand. I run into this problem a bit myself and often wonder what I should do. We decided that it is more important for the paper to be understood, so focusing on grammar would be the most important thing to do in this circumstance.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Gannon and Blog
Hello, folks!
I mentored Jo last Thursday on the orange couch - I kept everything pretty informal, figuring that I should get to know her better in order for my mentoring to be successful. Although she didn't have to many questions, we spent time reviewing a tutoring session she'd had recently. She was concerned that she might not have given the student enough information in order to keep from over-directing the session. I recommended that if a student truly does not know the correct answer, the best thing to do is to explain very clearly what should be done and why so that nothing is confusing or ambiguous. We spent much of the next hour talking about her major and whatnot.
This week I plan on delving into more tutoring goodness - asking hypothetical questions and the like.
I mentored Jo last Thursday on the orange couch - I kept everything pretty informal, figuring that I should get to know her better in order for my mentoring to be successful. Although she didn't have to many questions, we spent time reviewing a tutoring session she'd had recently. She was concerned that she might not have given the student enough information in order to keep from over-directing the session. I recommended that if a student truly does not know the correct answer, the best thing to do is to explain very clearly what should be done and why so that nothing is confusing or ambiguous. We spent much of the next hour talking about her major and whatnot.
This week I plan on delving into more tutoring goodness - asking hypothetical questions and the like.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
heyrow everybody!!!! It's Alex's first blog post!!!
I met with Stephen for the first time this week. He's been doing a rockstar job of tutoring. He only has one weekly student on Fridays and he is really happy with how he has gotten her to open up tremendously in the first few weeks of the semester. He doesn't seem to be having any problems with Time Trade or anything like that. With the writing center being significantly slower this semester I have been able to get to know many of the new tutors and I think they all are starting to open up about their experiences tutoring.
Wahoo!!!!
Wahoo!!!!
Friday, February 19, 2010
kendra's first blog post...booyah.
Hey Everyone!
Today was the first mentor meeting I had with Kathryn. I've been keeping tabs on her since she began tutoring on her own - she also has come to me with concerns, etc. Since she has been entered in time trade, she has been getting students. We collaborated about the two sessions she had (both drop-ins with scholarship essays). Kathryn said one session went really well, and the other was not so good - however, she does feel more comfortable since she experienced two very different sessions.
I have also talked with other mentees to see how their sessions have been going and all seem to feel comfortable tutoring.
That's all folks - Have a good weekend!
Kendra
Today was the first mentor meeting I had with Kathryn. I've been keeping tabs on her since she began tutoring on her own - she also has come to me with concerns, etc. Since she has been entered in time trade, she has been getting students. We collaborated about the two sessions she had (both drop-ins with scholarship essays). Kathryn said one session went really well, and the other was not so good - however, she does feel more comfortable since she experienced two very different sessions.
I have also talked with other mentees to see how their sessions have been going and all seem to feel comfortable tutoring.
That's all folks - Have a good weekend!
Kendra
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Some Initial Thoughts on Mentoring/Tutoring This Semester
Greetings! Welcome to Spring Semester 2010,
In reviewing the blog from last semester, we have decided to create a new one to start with a clean slate. Of course, if there is any material that you would like to reference on the old blog, feel free to access it at any time.
Our main objective for the Mentoring Program has not really changed--but to reiterate; our goal should be to get more discussion going with ALL TUTORS. This includes blogging, discussions on the orange couch with colleagues, participating in Tutor Training Workshops, and talking to any tutors in the Learning Studio. These discussions should focus on the effectiveness of tutoring strategies in all sessions. Ideally, all of these activities should foster a cohesive sense of community.
On the blog specifically we are looking for your postings to provide information that is honest, candid, and expresses realistic expectations of each mentee's progress as a writing tutor. To facilitate this goal, once again we emphasize that weekly postings/responses are MANDATORY and the content should be substantive, relevant, and of good quality. That said, we would like to offer some potential points to include in your postings:
*Note-Taking While Observing Every Session
--Session Characteristics(Frequency, Length of Sessions, Body language, Demeanor, Interaction between tutor and student, Pace and Tone, Completion of Material,
Overall Structure etc.)
--Session Variables
*Troubleshooting Strategies
*Responses/Reactions to Other Mentors' Blog Posts
*Session Attendance of Mentees
*General Questions/Concerns
Look forward to talking with you and reading your posts.
-Steve B. and Brian W.
In reviewing the blog from last semester, we have decided to create a new one to start with a clean slate. Of course, if there is any material that you would like to reference on the old blog, feel free to access it at any time.
Our main objective for the Mentoring Program has not really changed--but to reiterate; our goal should be to get more discussion going with ALL TUTORS. This includes blogging, discussions on the orange couch with colleagues, participating in Tutor Training Workshops, and talking to any tutors in the Learning Studio. These discussions should focus on the effectiveness of tutoring strategies in all sessions. Ideally, all of these activities should foster a cohesive sense of community.
On the blog specifically we are looking for your postings to provide information that is honest, candid, and expresses realistic expectations of each mentee's progress as a writing tutor. To facilitate this goal, once again we emphasize that weekly postings/responses are MANDATORY and the content should be substantive, relevant, and of good quality. That said, we would like to offer some potential points to include in your postings:
*Note-Taking While Observing Every Session
--Session Characteristics(Frequency, Length of Sessions, Body language, Demeanor, Interaction between tutor and student, Pace and Tone, Completion of Material,
Overall Structure etc.)
--Session Variables
*Troubleshooting Strategies
*Responses/Reactions to Other Mentors' Blog Posts
*Session Attendance of Mentees
*General Questions/Concerns
Look forward to talking with you and reading your posts.
-Steve B. and Brian W.
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