Field Report #2: Live Tutoring Observation in Learning Center

Summary of Session:    

Sits next to her, rather than across from her

·      Student is facing tutor, but tutor had his hands crossed for some of the appointment, actively works on her laptop with her

·      Was already familiar with parts of the assignment

·      First questions asks:

·      What course is it for?

·      Who is your professor?

·      Tutee starts explaining: child Gambino video and about a media that shows a problem in society

·      Stops her, and asks if it was a chosen assignment and if you could choose it?

·      Description assignment, and student asks if he wants to read the prompt

·      Student explains she needs help with revising the essay

·      Tutor spends a few minutes reading the assignment

·      Tutor has a notebook in order to write out assignment requirements, but asks tutee if she has this all in her head or else he will have to remember it

·      Tells her she can stop him at any point, he reads the essay out loud, and stops to fix some minor punctuation (commas—eludes to a the difficulty of the professor)

·      Tutee explains that she doesn’t believe the essay is “good as a whole” tutor says he didn’t feel that, and continues reading

·      While reading it out loud, he stops and says “comma” out loud, as a cue where a comma should be added. Mentions that the voice is passive, and most professors want active voice (and asks if the student would like to change it or keep it)

·      Asks for clarification for some parts of the essay “people rioting against the police” and after pointing out some parts that do not fit, he fixes it for her on her laptop

·      Take out semicolon, and put in period, but asks permission first to change it

·      Breaks down thesis statement, and shows what evidence has for the assignment (separation of foreground/background, warehouse representing America, and people rioting) and why it is effective media.

·      And says thesis is clear, but if you want to make it clearer, can add more

·      Tutee explains that the assignment she wanted to focus on gun violence, touched on police brutality, and how America was represented by the warehouse (two body paragraphs total)

·      Student said that teacher had read the thesis and said it was good

·      Said professor said to make the ending more specific

·      He continues reading the assignment out, only stops to fix major grammar issue: Comma

·      Stops to fix words that may be missing from the sentenceà example, “that”, “where”

·      Points out sections to be changed in active voice

·      Fixes punctuation like period

·      Involves me in the session, concerning a section of the essay that the student didn’t like but tutor said was good

·      Word choice and gives words that can replace a word that wasn’t strong “similar” to “mirror”

·      References the assignment’s video to find details that neither could recall

·      Pointed out that not to use the same words in the same paragraph

·      “I would keep it like that., but it’s completely up to you.”

·      Omit some details from a paragraph that don’t fit in that paragraph

·      Always put in punctuation in quotes, makes light joke about it

·      Fixes sentences to get rid of the “ing” in the paper

o   Explains why: Professors like it

·      Clarifies what the student said, “So you’re saying...”

·      “I can’t give quick answer off the top of my head”

·      Asks tutor for quick ideas on how to fix some paragraphs, “big idea stuff”

·      Quickly in three minutes, reads another paragraph, says it is good, no problem

·      If there was a part he doesn’t remember clarifying earlier, puts the blame on himself, as a job

·      Clarifies a paragraph idea, and says a sentence in that paragraph doesn’t follow the main idea of the paragraph, and asks the student to tell him “show me how this fits with the paragraph idea.” Student explains why it belongs

·      Ran out of time:

o   Told her he would be happy to continue after his next session

Pre-session questions:

How are you able to make split-second corrections, and have confidence about your suggested correction?

How do you pace the session so that you can get through the entire paper, but do so in an effective way?

During the session, I realized how important it is to know how to make quick decisions while reading a paper, and understand how to explain those changes to the tutee. Understanding that tutoring is a time-sensitive process means that learning how to make a craft from it would greatly benefit. Making a craft refers to making a routine out of tutoring, and this can be done by knowing what works and what doesn’t work (through lots of experience/practice). For example, a tutor might use the same greeting or have a list of greetings in their arsenal that they can use without fumbling or making the session awkward. A tutor can prepare for each session by having grammar rules printed out that the tutor could refer to at any time during the session (visual aid) in order to clarify something. This, I believe, comes with practice. Tutoring is essentially honing a skill.

         The tutoring session I observed spoke a lot about a rhetorical analysis approach. The tutee had to make certain that her essay had ethos, logos, and pathos. These ideas were mentioned in the Backpack vs. Briefcases assigned reading. During the session, I also observed the tutor expressing many roles, such as ally, commentator, and collaborator. The ally role came out when the tutor had mentioned really specific requirements of the professor that the tutee didn't even know was essential. The commentator part is especially crucial in the sense that the tutor should make comments on the paper, but not be the one to act on them. The collaborator refers to the fact that the tutor should never enforce their beliefs or ideas into the paper, and squash the voice and tone of the tutee. These concepts were mentioned in The Bedford Guide reading Chapter 2. At first, I didn’t see how the tutor had to take on such roles, but after observing the session, I realize Chapter 2 made an excellent point about the dynamics between tutor and tutee.  

         Some criticism I had about the tutoring session was the fact that the tutor did not delve into explanations when he inserted a comma or swapped a semicolon for a period. I think it would be invaluable if he were to explain why he made those changes for the tutee. In each 250 class, we stress the importance of establishing life-long writing skills, and this is an effective means of practicing that ideology.