Live Tutoring Session #1

My live tutoring session went very well. I thoroughly enjoyed working with the student and felt a great deal of satisfaction with the work we did during our time constraint session (20 mins). Firstly, the student displayed a great attitude throughout and welcomed all my advice regarding the revision of his paper. Additionally, I felt he was very motivated to improve the paper as he asked me several questions regarding specific details he could/should work on. In regards to the paper, I personally felt it was well constructed, but had fundamental mistakes throughout. The student had written about the "Positives of Gentrification" and had a clearly stated thesis, but his mistakes came with having too many direct quotes; which were not paraphrased and analyzed, as well as a lack of critical thinking. Additionally, there were minor mistakes with the MLA formatting as well as a few grammatical errors. However though, the paper had great ideas throughout, many of which I felt were simply misplaced and needed restructuring.

When I asked the student about his usage of so many direct quotes, he responded by saying, 'he thought that's what makes a great paper - having many direct citations'. I told him not necessarily, especially with the specifications of the assignment. However though, being that it was the first paper assigned to the class, I felt that the professor may have used the assignment to gauge the writing abilities of his students, so I understood the fundamental mistakes. Nevertheless, I left the student a goals-list as a reference to use when revising his paper. Some of the details included:

1.  Direct quotes - introduce, cite, paraphrase, and analyze them. Add critical thinking where necessary. *Refrain from using too many (ideally 1 per paragraph) 
2. Topic sentences - sentence that introduces the focal point of the paragraph 
3. MLA formatting - seek assistance from MLA guidebook (online or text)
4. Paragraph structuring - do not overload information into one large paragraph - divide thoughts and ideas evenly throughout
5. Reflect - look over paper when complete or as you write along to avoid spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors

Expectations and Questions for Tutoring

Expectations:
I expect the two students who I'll be working with to have questions/issues for me to help address regarding their essays. 
I'm slightly nervous, but at the same time I'm quite confident in my abilities to assist both students. I'll adjust to each student's individual needs and apply the techniques discussed in class accordingly.  

Questions (student point-of-view):

• I'm having problems understanding the assignment, can you help me?
• Can you help me with my thesis?
• Do I support my thesis well enough?
• How's my sentence(s) and paragraph(s) structure?
• Is my citation correctly formatted? 
• Can you check my grammar and punctuation?
• Does my essay read well?

Tutoring Session Observation #4

My fourth and final observation was again completely different from my previous three observations (Seems like I start each blog with the same theme). Firstly, the session was even shorter than my previous observation (3rd observation 30-35 mins), something I thought might-have been impossible to replicate. It lasted just under 30 minutes but that was in large part down to the student's particular reason for visit. The student came in for help regarding her thesis statement for a five-page essay comparing two novels. Furthermore, her primary concern was wanting to know if her thesis was applicable to the assignment instructions. Without being too negative, I thought this session was the least effective of the four sessions I observed. I was left very disappointed with how the session panned out, and I went away feeling a bit sorry for the student, as I was in a similar position just a few semesters back. The tutor displayed OK body language at best, as well as an OK attitude throughout. His tone was very loud, bordering on frustration and he seemed somewhat tired.

The student had not composed the 5 pages yet, as she wanted to know if the thesis would work, hence her reason for visit. The draft had just an introduction with her thesis and snippets of a first body paragraph developing, just over 1 page in length. The tutor firstly set about by silently reading the introduction to himself followed by highlighting the thesis. He then asked the student to show him the assignment instructions to see if it would applicable. He simply stated to the student it would not work, and that she will need add a supporting sentence or reconsider her direction/views pertaining to the topic. The student reacted by having initial problems as she didn't know which direction to set out. The tutor recommended her to do "Pre-Writing" instead of simply sitting at the computer beginning to construct the entire essay at once. He said writing down general ideas about both texts and planning the structure of the paper would help in putting the final piece together. The student simple nodded, and before I knew the session was over. It seemed to me though, the student went away still a bit confused as suggested in her expression, but that could be just speculation on my behalf. Overall, I was not impressed at all about the session. I thought the tutor could've done more in helping the student with simply throwing out some ideas or asking further questions. It just seemed meh....

Tutoring Session Observation #3

My third observation was completely different from my previous two observations. Firstly, it was much shorter than the previous two sessions, it lasted roughly 30-35 minutes. Secondly, the tutor was very straightforward in his approach with the student, being very bold and loud throughout (I think this was because of his familiarity with the student as they didn't even greet and share names). The first thing he said to the student when we were walking to the cubical was, "Nice to see you again....how's it going?" I immediately recognized that the student was very comfortable working with him as they shared a couple of jokes and had good chemistry. The tutor displayed great body language throughout and generally speaking he seemed very friendly & somewhat funny...

Nevertheless, the student came in for help regarding a scholarship essay in which she wanted general feedback; if it checked off on the criteria, sentence structures, vocabulary, punctuation, word choices etc. The tutor firstly asked the student if she had a copy of the guidelines to constructing the essay. Unfortunately she did not, so the tutor then asked for us to follow him into the computer lab. In the computer lad, he then asked her to check on the website for the essay guidelines. While sitting at the computer, the tutor and student reviewed the guidelines and matched it to the contents in the paper. While reading the paper, the tutor also highlighted grammatical errors and word choices throughout. The student seemed to be in a rush for her class and that could've been the reason the session did not last the 1 hour duration. Finally, before the student left, the tutor recommended the her to come back to the writing center before submitting the final draft to double check on completion.