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
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Kendra,
ReplyDeleteI think it is wonderful that you supported Keenan when he was worried about the feedback given to his student. You are right, we are not responsible for the student's grade but we are expected to make a concerted effort to help them succeed. That said, we can only work with what we are given and if the student doesn't have much information then it is time to explore other ways to obtain that info like searching Oasis and emailing the teacher with questions. On occasion students and I have emailed the teacher with questions hoping to receive feedback before the end of the session. While this does not always guarantee timely feedback for the writer it allows the instructor insight into how you and the writer tried to make the best of the information at hand. Now, getting back to Keenan's scenario, the decision to get the writer to think aloud is a great way to stimulate ideas and decompress when stressed. It sounds like his instincts were good there. If Keenan is uneasy about a session I think he should consider inserting those concerns and questions into his session report to the instructor. Like the mid-session email it is a way for the teacher to know how sessions are progressing in the WC and also to hear how their assignments are being interpreted by their students.
When it comes to writers who expect tutors to fix essays for them I think as mentors it is important to encourage a positive approach to this request, as discouraging as it may be at times, and gently let the drop-in know that we do not "fix" papers but are more than happy to discuss or collaborate on their essay.
Keep encouraging everyone,
-Brian
Kendra,
ReplyDeleteWonderful post! It's great that Keenan is doing well w/his two weekly students but I was just curious if this is strictly from his perspective or from what you also observe. As Brian mentioned, I think your advice was excellent and relevant concerning Keenan's perceived shortcomings--yes, we do the best we can with the materials at hand, and sometimes later we realize that our advice was incorrect.
As far as working directly after a student's class--this presents certain challenges, but Keenan's dealing w/it seems quite logical. Here I would suggest that more global things can be worked on by using the final draft. A graded final draft, can also be useful for comparison with other drafts and indentifying repeated patterns of error that should be avoided in future writing assignments. Possibly, content issues may also benefit in these "after class sessions" but this is rather tricky considering that the assignment has already been handed in and the grade has been given.
I must commend you for mentoring Tim even though he is not your regular mentee and encourage other mentors to do the same. Bravo Kendra!
Steve