What to expect

      Coming into Dr. Coopers class, you will defiantly need to expect papers and lots of reading. Before I came in the class, I wish I would've known that, The thing was I didn't expect to read as much, I knew the class was called "Seminar in Teaching Writing" so all I thought I would be doing is writing papers and not only that, I was thinking what could be so hard about writing. Being that I like to write I knew that wasn't going to be the problem, it's what we had to write about that was the problem. I also didn't know I would be observing students in the writing center and defiantly didn't think I would be tutoring students on my own. Tutoring students at LaGuardia was a learning experience that I would never forget. So as I stated earlier, look forward to reading and writing but most defiantly look forward to learning a lot.

fourth tutoring session

This session went good, I got to be with the same students I tutored my third time around, the "girl" tutee didn't bring her paper this time, she told me she left it at home. I asked her did she fix the mistakes I told her to fix and she said she did. I really wish she would've brought her paper, I would've loved to make sure it was good before she handed it in to the professor. The second tutee "guy" brought his paper "Thank God" and he fixed everything I told him to fix, he even added more. I been thought his paper was good but being that he made the corrections, it became great. It felt great tutoring a student that actually fixed what you told them to fix. I'm sure when he give in his paper, he will receive an A.

2nd tutoring session

    So I had one tutee this time and I can say it didn't go as planned. The tutee didn't have a draft at all, all she had was articles from the internet on a topic she no longer wanted to talk about and the articles she had wasn't even good enough if she would've kept the topic she first wanted to talk about. The tutoring session was about 45 minutes long and in those 45 minutes, the tutee went out the classroom to go to the library to print out articles on her new topic, this tutoring session didn't go well, when she came back I had about 5 to 10 minutes left with her so I helped her outline her paper real quick by telling her what to write, she kept asking me could I repeat myself so I took her paper and pen and just wrote out what I was telling her on her paper, just so she could know where to start, I told her don't forget to add details on why you feel this or that way. she thanked me and that was it.

3rd tutoring session

         I had two tutees and even though I didn't want two, this time around it wasn't bad, the two tutees I had were cool, their assignment were to Write a 1200-1500 word research essay arguing that a work of popular culture (short story, novel, comic book, advertisement, T.V. show, movie, or song) either discriminates against a particular group of people, or that it works to raise awareness about a specific type of discrimination. Both tutees told me they had already did a paper earlier in class and for this paper they could go back and take information from it. Both tutees had their paper, I read the first tutee paper and his paper was great, every time he brought up a main idea, he had information to back it up, he had just enough details, the only thing for his paper I had to correct was the way he wrote his sentences. The second tutee paper was ok, as I read her paper, I see she kept writing the same thing over and over. every paragraph had the same information, all she did was change words and she had a lot of mistakes. I told her to stick with one main idea and talk about it. she wrote everything down that I told her to change. Both tutees told me that I helped them and they would make the corrections on heir papers.

First Tutoring Experience

        So it was my first time tutoring and I had two tutees', to be honest having two tutees' was too much for me. One of the tutees had a good paper, the only thing wrong with his paper was that he needed to go more into detail, ex; he stated his parents were illegal immigrants, he needed to state where they worked and how many hours they worked a day. he also needed to add a title., he had little mistakes which is LOC. The second tutee paper was all over the place, he went off the topic a lot and had lots of mistakes, his paper dealt with LOC and HOC. He had a title though. Both started their paper like...Yes undocumented immigrants contribute to our economy, I agreed with him that he should start his paper over.
          When the second tutee began to write his paper over, I told him to use the one-sentence summary strategy, good thing I remembered that, he didn't know where to begin, I did tell him to keep the beginning how he started his draft. While he worked on his paper, I went to the other tutee and asked him questions, so he could begin to write details. With his paper, I talked aloud a lot and when I saw something that didn't make sense, he heard me say it and tried to change it around. I told him every paper needs a title. the second tutee definitely needed all my attention. he had only a sentence and I needed him to free write, write anything that came to his mind, I told him he could use the same example he used in his other paper because it sounded good. I wish I would've spent more time with him on his paper. I feel like I didn't help him as much. He definitely needed me the most, I wish I would've outlined his paper for him. Time went so fast.
         

My third observation

During this observation session, the tutor introduced himself, after he did that, he went straight to one of the tutees paper, just like last time, it was two tutees. one of the tutees jus wanted the tutor to help her make corrections, her professor revised her paper already, she just wanted to change some of the words to words that sounded better. She kept using the same words over and over. the tutor told her, her professor basically wants her to be more specific, and to add more details. I thought it was cool that he gave her a tip at the end of the session, he told her when writing, don't be too vague, try to give an experience. He then went to the next tutee, her essay was already done, he read her paper and told her to add more, elaborate. I take it her paper was confusing a little bit because he kept asking her what she meant when she said this and that. While he talked to her, the other tutee picked up a phone call, I thought that was rude. This particular tutor looked like an expert. I could tell he knew exactly what he was talking about. at the end of the session, he gave the tutees, which I realized was from the same class a paper which held a question they had to write about and bring back to the writing center. I could tell they liked him, they asked when they come back, could they get him instead, he gave them his name and said ok.

What makes a successful tutoring session?

I believe the keys to a successful tutoring session will be to have patience when reading a tutee paper. The tutee is obviously not an expert at writing. I think the tutoring session goes well when a tutor introduces herself to the tutee, it makes the tutee feel comfortable. I think its best when the tutor focuses more on Hoc than the Loc . The tutor shouldn't tell the tutee what to write, let them think, don't make them feel low. I think its best when the tutees know how to explain what their paper is about, I agree with what Cindi said, during her session, she said "the tutor immediately wanted to dive into the paper" that happen many times during my observations and I think that's good, the sessions are about an hour and that's not enough time, most of the times. So the quicker you go to looking over the tutees paper is good, as long as you make sure you're helping them with their paper.

My fourth observation

This was the second time a tutor introduced herself to me, she was younger then the other tutors I had previously observed. She told the tutees, I wasn't there to observe them but her, The female tutee had to write a paper on "Why marriage fail?" she had some errors she needed to correct, The tutor read it out loud because there were a lot of information the tutee added that didn't make sense, the tutee took out a lot of information, the tutor told her other than that her paper was good,  I would say the tutor was being an expert, she respected the tutee paper, she just gave honest feedback. the tutee replaced what she took out, the tutor read it over and told her it was much better, The second tutee, a male, had bought his typed paper in, he had two copies, one with the corrections his professor made that was very little, and one for the tutee, He had got a B on his paper, I guess he wanted that A, I honestly didn't think he had to come to the tutor and I could tell the tutor was supoosed he showed up being that is paper was good and the mistakes he had to fix was self explanatory. One thing I didn't like was the tutor was sick, she kept sniffing and I think if you're trying to help someone, you shouldn't be sick, No one wants to be in a small space with a sick person, this was a short session.

2nd observation

This is my second observation at the writing center and I can say it was so different from the first time I observed. This time it was not one but two tutees, One, a male needed help outlining his paper, making sure everything paragraph talked about what it was suppose to talk about and coming up with a thesis. The other tutee (female) wanted to make sure her essay was good and that she talked about everything she needed to talk about. The first tutee (male) read his paper sentence to sentence and noticed his own grammar mistakes, he told the tutor that he wanted to elaborate more and make sure he talked about what was important, he said his professor told him he could talk about anything he wanted too, he choose to talk about "Obesity" and how fast food restaurants effect obesity, she told him to think hard about how it effects many people and how salads at fast food restaurants are much more money than the cheese burgers, he said that was a thought in his head and he was going to add that as a main idea. After she helped him, she scooted her chair to the female tutee and began to help her, her essay was on another topic, she had her essay on her laptop and the tutor felt it would be best if she printed it out, she told the tutor she didn't feel like it and that she could make the corrections on her laptop, the tutor explained to her the next time she come, she should've a hard copy instead, she also needed help with her thesis, once she read it out loud she noticed all her mistakes, added a couple lines and she was done, the tutor then scooted back to the male tutee, she got up to hand him a sheet of paper, she turned to me and told me the sheet she handed him was a sheet that helped students brainstorm and come up with ideas. once he took the sheet, time was up, he told her he will come back when he thought his paper was done. I wasn't inform if they were from the same class but I think there should be one tutee per tutoring session because sometimes one student can take up the whole tutoring session.

First observation

Hi, My name is Bianca and I am a student in Eng 220 blogging about my experience observing in the writing center. As I watched the tutor look at the student paper, I noticed she was rereading it, she handed him back his paper and asked him what it was about, he explained, he also had two pictures with him, one of his mother pregnant with him and another one of him and his mother at his high school graduation, she compared his picture to something that had happened in her life, I guess that was her way of making him feel comfortable and I thought that was a good idea. She told him to read the paper out loud, as he did that, he noticed all of his mistakes, he had little mistakes, example a period in the wrong spot, he said his mistakes came from his computer not making the corrections, the tutor told him not to trust the computer, its just a robot, it doesn't know grammar. The tutee didn't add a title to his paper and the tutor told him professors are more than likely to ask for a title. Other than the mistakes, the tutee paper was good. From observing, this had to do everything with "Correcting Errors" the tutee didn't make the tutee feel low, she made him feel comfortable as I stated before and that's all that matters.