Planning Sessions

To plan an effective 30-minute session a tutor must have good time management. Knowing how much time you will have with a student is crucial.

Here is a helpful outline of one way tutors can outline their sessions.

·      Opening: (2 min.) What does the student need help with? Do they have all the needed materials? For example, a prompt, a book, etc.

·      Objective: (3 min.) Distinguish what your end goal will be. What do you want accomplished by the end of the session? Plan out what you and the student will do for the next 25 minutes.

·    Activity: (20 min.) Recommend a helpful learning strategy, demonstrate the learning strategy, and apply it to what the student needs assistance with. Plan a few activities that will focus on the main topic. Make sure that these tasks are engaging and meaningful.

·      Closing: (5 min.) Wrap up main ideas and thoughts. Reflect on what has been accomplished during the session. Has the end goal been met? Does the student need to make a follow up appointment?

·    Review: Critique your own session. Which learning activities were successful, and which ones were not. Review your session and write down helpful tips that will make your sessions even more successful.

Works Cited:

Lipsky, Sally A. A Training Guide for College Tutors and Peer Educators. Pearson, 2011. Print.

Learning Formats

According to A Training Guide for College Tutors and Peer Educators by Sally A. Lipsky, there are two main ways of teaching. One technique is through a lecture format and the other is through a collaborative format. For tutors and supplemental instructors who work with groups of students, a collaborative format is much more useful.

The difference between the two:

Lecture format

- An instructor does the talking while students sit and listen.

- Learning is based on an individual’s effort.

Collaborative format

- Students share knowledge and communicate with each other.

- Learning is based on a team effort.

When working in a collaborative format it is helpful to arrange students into groups of 3-4 people. This makes the session more manageable and effective. Students will more often speak up in smaller groups because it is more comfortable than speaking up in a larger group. It is best to assign each group a set of tasks to work together on. Examples of this can be: developing examples, teaching the material to one another, predicting exam questions, creating outlines that summarize class lectures, etc.

Works Cited:

Lipsky, Sally A. A Training Guide for College Tutors and Peer Educators. Pearson, 2011. Print.

Reading Response 5: Group Tutoring

When you are working with a group of students, it can be challenging at times. All students have different ideas and think differently when it comes to many things. It is important that we make sure that we listen to everyone's ideas and are open minded during these sessions. To make sure that you take your time and to have a lot of patience with the students.  It is important to know that the students know that you WANT to work with them. To me, I think that teamwork and listening to everyone's thoughts can be a huge key to success. I say that because when you get more ideas, you get amazing feedback and can be very helpful towards the students. They learn to be work together with their peers and to not be closed minded.

In the article "Collaborative Analysis Of Student Work : Improving Teaching And Learning", Langer, Colton, and Goff talk about how tutors need to have great communication skills and are comfortable with being able to lead group sessions. They state, "The facilitator ensures that the norms are followed, that everyone develops the necessary communication and analytical skills, and that participants stay focused on student learning"( Langer, Colton & Goff 16). Having social skills can go a long way and can be very beneficial for school and for the rest of your career. Having group sessions can also have a shy student be more outspoken and teaches them to be more independent. You have to also make sure that you be careful what you say. Do not be too critical and always watch your tone when you speak to students because they can take things the wrong way. You have to make sure that you guys treat each with respect and care. When students are not agreeing, it is important to keep your composure and to step in when the environment gets a little hostile.                        
      In the end, we have to make sure that group sessions are used for learning and not a social event. You have to use your the time that you have wisely, because we only have about thirty minutes. We have to make sure that we use all the resources that we have and to teach the students how to use those resources. For example, websites, handouts, the library etc. It  is important that we also make sure that the students ask lots of questions because you learn more about that subject and you become a better student. So remember to make sure students are fully engaged and are asking questions throughout he group session. Let us all become better leaders and tutors so that we can help our peers be better students!! (=                        

                                                                    Works Cited

Langer, Georgea M., Amy B. Colton, and Loretta S. Goff. Collaborative Analysis Of Student Work : Improving Teaching And Learning. Alexandria, Va: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2003. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 15 Apr. 2016.

The Struggle Is Real

The article I found in the Writing Lab New Letter was extremely relatable. Written by Tabetha Adkins who is the writing center director at Texas A&M it goes over the struggles writing centers and we as writing tutors come in contact with here on campus. The main focus of the article was perception and how the college views her writing center. Many faculty members made comments to her regarding the fact that the WC does not help student with their grammar. This is obviously a huge misunderstanding and when Adkins tries to combat this misconception with the fact that the writing center is here to help with all aspects of writing but that grammar is not the most important aspect, her colleagues just hear that the WC is open for grammar correction.

                Unfortunately, we are all too familiar with the idea that we are here to fix papers and get the students the best grade possible. Yes, we are here for the students’ success but even more so we are here to help make students better writers. The biggest problem we face is what exactly we do and why we do it. The misconception that we are a one stop fix-it shop starts from the ground up, the professors. It  may not be their fault that they have not looked into what the writing center’s purpose is but that misguided idea carries down to the students.

I believe professors are the reason why we get those students who come in saying they need help with their grammar and when it comes time to sit down with them it is apparent that their grammatical errors are the least of their worries. I believe that this is not the biggest issue we have as tutors it is the student writer’s resistance to changing priorities on what needs to be worked on and what doesn’t because he/she has been taught that grammar is the biggest factor in writing and the professor has solidified that idea by sending them in to get their grammatical errors fixed. Now there are students who come in and the only thing they need help on is their grammar and most likely it is because he/she has worked with me on the paper in previous sessions. The most important statement made in this article is that writer’s level of grammar does not carry over to whether or not he/she is a good writer

Overall, we have to appreciate the amount of effort our director puts into the WC. I have read many articles on what issues are taking place in other writing centers and the preventative measures they would have taken given another chance. Megan has implemented most of the ideas other directors or admin have recommended. She has given the WC a clear path to help students as well as maintaining the flow of ideas with exercises such as the blog and other activities. With her help we have a much more in-depth idea of what a WC can do.

Works Cited

Adkins, Tabetha. "The (un)importance of a preposition: How We Define and Defend the Writing Center   Work." The Writing Center Lab 36.1-2 (2010): 1-5. Wlnjournal.org. Web. 4 Apr. 2016.

Michael Perez

Blog Post

Megan Wong

4/9/16

Tips to keep you on your toes

Since I have not had the chance to lead many workshops this semester I am forced to really focus on my drop-in hours even more than I did before since it is the only type of tutoring I am doing now. I decided to research some ideas, tips, and some general guidelines on participating in a one on one tutor session. I found these ideas reinforcing the structure we hear every Tuesday and some others gave some incite that I can relate to. More importantly I think every tutor we have at the writing center could definitely benefit from just hearing these tips.

                Walking us through the session the article lets know what will be going through your head when you first sit down and how to open up the session. First, is obviously the reading of said paper. This is where I struggle particularly because the papers brought to me tend to be rather long. Of course I am calm minded about the whole situation but when a student hands me a ten page paper and they stare at me for the next three to five million hours (minutes)  I feel pressured to skim the pages faster than maybe I should. The article said to right from the get go to give the student an assignment of writing down questions that they might have or ideas they could not fit into their paper or even an outline. The point of getting them to write while you read is to take their eyes and the pressure off you while read so you can calmly assess their paper adequately.

Some helpful reminders are about the meet and greet and the reaction to reading a paper. When we tutor a client that we are familiar with we tend to drop the formalities or introductions and in letting them know that we are eager to work alongside them. Even though we may know the student writers we are dealing with quite well it is always a good idea to start off a session with the right attitude and positive energy. I have noticed that the energy you start a session will determine how the rest of the appointment will inevitably go.

Something I have noticed that is very different in our writing center compared to other colleges’ writing centers are the lengths of the sessions/appointments. At Gavilan we have sessions/appointments for roughly fifteen to twenty minutes. The article of course goes down the whole list of setting goals for the sessions how to attack each problem and know which issues can be addressed in the short hour that they have. We have an incredible task of introducing ourselves, reading their paper, assessing the issues, creating goals, and helping the student writer with said issues. In my opinion being able to do all these things in such a short amount of time is pretty amazing but it was how we were conditioned to work, and even more so gave us the ability to time manage at work and at home with our own homework.

Works Cited

Institute for Writing and Rhetoric. "Advice for Tutors." Writing-speech.dartmouth.edu. Dartmouth, 26                      June 2013. Web. 09 Apr. 2016.

Tips for Good Writers

Yale Center for Teaching and Learning recently released a somewhat humorous post about what “good” writers do in their writing. However it does make some valid points (points that tutors can pass on to their clients!)

The first tip that Yale Center for Teaching and Learning gives is to BEGIN WRITING BEFORE YOU’RE READY TO DRAFT. Instead of planning in your head and doing a cold draft the center instead advises you to, “jot down notes about what interests you and what concerns you have. Write while you’re doing the reading and initial research: how does this reading differ from others you’ve looked at? Let yourself write about your beginning ideas without trying to make it sound like an introduction or a real paper. All of these practices harness the power of writing to discover and will allow you to develop richer, more complex ideas” (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning).

The second tip Yale gives is GET FEEDBACK ON YOUR WORKS OF PROGRESS. It is important to get help early because then your professors/teachers can guide you in the right direction. The Center says, “Ask professors or teaching fellows to give feedback on drafts or on an initial thesis/introduction; they can give you the most guided suggestions about how to succeed on an assignment” (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning). Especially if you are unsure about your grasp of the concept it is essential to get help from a peer. Professional writers often get help from at least 3 or 4 editors before they publish their work.

The third most important tip is MAKE SURE YOUR THESIS HAS NEWS IN IT.  Writers often present a boring, formulaic thesis that lacks creativity because they are so focused on their ideas/stance. The center has the cure for this problem. They say, “Inexperienced writers often make claims that represent superficial interpretations of the relevant evidence. As a result, they use their sources only to illustrate ideas that most informed readers would find uncontroversial. Experienced writers, by contrast, develop what are known as arguable claims—ideas that an intelligent person, looking at the same evidence, might disagree with. One effective way to ensure that your thesis is arguable is to address the counterargument briefly in your essay” (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning).

The fourth tip is ADD ANALYSIS AND REFLECTION TO YOUR SOURCES. Yale Center for Teaching and Learning says, "If it’s worth quoting, it’s worth discussing. Never assume that your evidence can speak for itself—if it can, why would we read your essay rather than just go to the original source? Always add commentary to ensure that we know which parts of the evidence are most important and how it fits into your larger argument. When working with written evidence, it’s good to observe the rule of two: the writer should supply at least two words of analysis for every word of a citation, and usually more" (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning). For beginner writers the "rule of two" might be a bit difficult, but the important thing for beginners to understand is they need to provide commentary and explain why the quote is relevant. This tip will help them provide commentary.

The fifth tip is EMULATE GOOD WRITING. This may sound like plagiarism, but I assure you it's not. It simply means find a writing style/device that you like and use it in your own way. The Center comments, "With your advisor’s help, identify texts that exemplify the best writing in your field. Read these texts to understand how they work, what techniques the writers use for analyzing evidence, paraphrasing theory, representing counter-arguments, even sentence-level techniques such as introducing a quotation with a leading term. Then try to incorporate these strategies into your writing. You can extend this emulation to any text you admire, remembering that some techniques may seem out of place in a particular writing context" (Yale Center for Teaching and Learning). Something borrowed something new! 

If you wish to learn more about Yale's Center for Teaching and Learning then visit this link: Yale Link  

Writing Center Technology

The Writing Center has been considered a valuable resource by many that take advantage of it's services.  This includes the new technological resources that are being implemented with the hopes of improving our ability to help students.  The article "Technology and Your Library Writing Center" by Timothy Horan admits technology's worth when used properly, but makes it clear that it should be only a tool that is used to increase productivity and aid.  I personally like what he is saying in that regard, and I believe it's a good lesson. 

Link: http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.gavilan.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=3285eb9a-ea31-491f-81d7-1d3474b86a2d%40sessionmgr102&vid=5&hid=117