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.
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Nice Blog Coco,
ReplyDeleteIt seems like your meetings w/Colin continue to be productive and beneficial to his growth as a tutor. I completely agree w/you that the closing "takeaway" (very neat word) that Colin has been using, helps the student "become a better writer" and take responsibility for his own writing. I do something like this as well but not exactly in the same manner--of course, there's no right or wrong in this it just depends on what the student needs and if the tactics used result in better writing. As much as I can, I prioritize what the student needs to do that was not covered in the session then try to connect all this to the class assignment. Now this can include anything that will help with revision including (further) outlining, changing sections of the draft (eg. conclusions, introductions etc.)--all with the intended goal of preserving as much of the triangle (instructor-student-tutor) as possible.
Finally,'nuts and bolts' stuff like TimeTrade, Timesheets, Being on Time, etc. is very important in maintaining professionalism in the WC.
Steve