While I know that there were things I could have done better, I thought this tutoring session went pretty well. I tutored two students working on an essay in response to a short online essay about men and women who share an equal amount of domestic chores in the home and some of the controversy surrounding the idea that this is a good thing. The title of the article was something like, "Men Who Do Housework Are Happier."
Writing for the CATW requires a summary of the reading followed by a thesis driven discussion. The first student I worked with had a good summary and a good basic thesis. She needed work on her body paragraphs. She had chosen to pull ideas from the essay they read as a basis for each one of her body paragraphs. She had a good start on the first paragraph but had two which she had erased. We discussed them and she told me that her professor had told her the other two quotes wouldn't work. It turned out that one of them was fine but that she had left out one word that changed the meaning of the quote, she changed it from "Few men think..." to "Men think..." which made the rest of the sentence mean the opposite of its intent. She and I discussed her ideas and she got to start working on her paragraphs while I worked with the other student.
This student had an introduction and several body paragraphs. From what he had written it was clear that he had a strong opinion about the piece. But he never actually stated his opinion. In effect he was supporting an unstated thesis. His introduction also commented on the piece but didn't summarize the reading as required. We discussed his body paragraphs and how they reflected his thesis. I told him he needed to work on summarizing and making his thesis more clear. I gave him a few ideas how to get started on that then went back to the other student.
Toward the end of the session I tried to give them both a list of things to keep working on. They were both in a good place with their writing and knew where to go from where they were. When I went to write down what he had left to do, the student who hadn't summarized or expressed his thesis gave me a piece of paper his professor had given him with basically the same comments, that he needed a better summary and a clearer thesis. Knowing that I had told him to work on the same thing his professor thought he needed was validating. But it probably would have been a good thing for the student to show me when we started.
Overall, I think I did okay. I was more nervous than I usually am when I'm tutoring. This may have been because we were in a cramped, packed, loud classroom, and so far most of the tutoring I've done has been one-on-one in a quieter environment. It could also have been because I felt like the professors were watching us. Most of the things I think I need to work on are the kind of things I think I'll get better at with practice. I had to stop and think before I knew what to say next. I referred to our book a little. I think I could have communicated better with the first student in particular. I found myself asking her the same question more than once which she probably found annoying. But like I said, on the whole I think the session went pretty well and I expect to get better at tutoring as I do more of it.
As far as the concepts that we've discussed in class, I tried to keep it student centered. I didn't tell them my opinion of the piece at all, instead discussing and asking them questions about their own ideas. I tried to use leading questions to help them see how they could extend the ideas they already had. I did give direct feedback regarding the requirements of the assignment or how to properly use quotations. I had planned initially to try techniques like looping or asking questions based on Burke's Pentad if they needed help finding a thesis or ideas to write about. But both of them had a pretty good start so we worked primarily with what they already had and expanded on that.
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