The third and final live tutoring session went very well, again. I left the session feeling very satisfied with the work I'd done with the student I was paired with. Strangely enough, I was again fortunate to work with a highly motivated student who displayed a great attitude throughout. This student was very well prepared and had a substantial amount done as it pertained to the research paper assignment. I was initially shocked by the student's work (quality/quantity) and his confidence while we spoke about the assignment. However, I must note that even though I felt good about the session as a whole, I walked away feeling as if I cheated the student because of the time constraint period we worked under. I felt as if I could've helped the student even more, as we were in deep discussion moments before the session ended.
Firstly, as mentioned above, this student was highly motivated and had a great amount done as it pertained to the assignment - this really laid the foundation for a productive, effective, and efficient session. Additionally, the warm welcome I received from the student made me feel very proud on a personal and professional level, as I was greeted with a huge smile and the words, "thanks for coming in to help me out". The student had an eagerness in his voice and body language to learn which really leaped out to me. Nevertheless, as it pertained to the actual physical copy of the student's work, which was an extension of the annotated bibliography assignment, it outlined how his research paper will be structured. The student outlined the contents of his intro, body paragraphs, and how each of his five sources will be incorporated throughout. While I was reading the student's outline, I was taken aback by his level of writing. I was was even more surprised by the way the student articulated his ideas to me while we were discussing about his topic choice; "the positives of stop and frisk". The only stumbling block that the student highlighted to me was his inability to create enough 'writing' for the final piece. More specifically, the student was worried about the 1000-1500 words requirement. Having reviewed his outlined, I quickly noted to him that the shouldn't be a problem, as the contents in the outline will require him to go over the words requirement.
While we continued our discussion about the positives (and negatives) of stop and frisk, I asked the student if he had a copy of his annotated bibliography. Unfortunately he didn't have a physical copy with him, but instead, he used his phone to access it online (blackboard). There, I reviewed the summary of all his sources to see how they will support his thesis, as well as to help him generate enough writing for the final piece. Three of the five academic articles spoke not only about the positives of stop and frisk, but they also highlighted many negatives. After reflecting on the annotated bibliography, I told the student that everything is in place for the final piece to be a success. I told him because some of his sources highlighted both positives and negatives of stop and frisk, we should work on creating a supporting sentence for his thesis that notes to his audience that there are arguments from both sides regarding the stop and frisk practice. So we went on to create a few sentence templates to use as a support for the thesis statement. One of them read along the lines of, "Even though stop and frisk is a positive police practice, there are many citizens that are opposed to the immoral and forceful actions of random police searching". I told the student to review all of sentences we created and choose one that he feels most comfortable with. That was the final activity we were able to work on as time expired on the session...
Reflecting on all three (live) sessions, I can say that I was able to work with some great students - all of which were very respectful, motivated, prepared, and confident as it pertained learning. I felt a great amount of satisfaction with the work I'd done, and could genuinely say that all the students I'd work with felt equally the same. I will forever be grateful for this opportunity to tutor first-hand students that I share so much in common with, having been in their position not that long ago. Teaching and learning writing goes hand-in-hand; its a never-ending progression.
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