In a previous post, I talked about the differences between a writing tutor (coach) and an editor. If you haven't read it, please take a moment to do that before proceeding. I will be expanding on those ideas in this post. You may also want to review my post on balancing writing feedback if you're unfamiliar with tutoring writing. Student (tutee) Expectations When a student decides to work with a writing tutor, she often comes in with expectations: how the session will go, what will be accomplished, and what the tutor will do. Some of these are realistic, some of them are not. For example, a student may expect a tutor to "fix their writing," before their deadline, which happens to be in ten minutes! This, I hope most educators can agree, is not a realistic expectation. Why? For two (hopefully obvious) reasons. 1) Learning takes time. How can a tutor possibly help you "fix your writing" with a deadline so near? 2) Tutors aren't meant to "fix" your writing. First of all, writing is subjective. It's dependent on context, purpose, genre, and audience. If it's grammar she expects to "get fixed," then the student needs to remember that even if there's "perfect" grammar, she may still earn a poor grade if the writing does not adhere to the assignment requirements. Tutor Expectations To be fair, writing tutors often come into a session with expectations, too. Sometimes they're realistic, sometimes not. For example, a tutor might expect a student to express her concerns clearly when most of the time students don't always know what they "need" or "want" help on. This is an unfair expectation not only because students are sometimes required to visit the tutoring center for a grade (and therefore are simply there for a "signature") but also because students don't know how to express their concerns even if they can identify what they are. (Which they often can't.) For example, a student may say "I need help writing transitions" or "I can't make it flow," which could either mean that they are struggling with word choice, or (simply) a need for a better thesis statement. She might even mean that she's not sure how to begin or end her paragraphs in an essay.
The Writing Process
If you're familiar with my blog, you'll know that I often talk about writing as a process. It's an important thing to always keep in mind, whether you're teaching/ tutoring writing, or attempting to complete your own writing project. When I sit down to conference with a student, I always first:
I usually accomplish this with a few simple questions. This assessment is easier for some students than others. Students sometimes (when asked questions about what they're working on) insist that knowing the deadline or instructions is irrelevant to receiving help from a writing tutor, but if you learn anything from me (and from my many years of experience tutoring writing), this is never true. Negotiate session goals This is an aspect to tutoring that I strongly live by, that I learned a long time ago but often take for granted. Recently, I was asked to observe and train some new tutors in our center. I've had a lot of fun doing that, but inso doing it, I realized how these negotiating skills need to be taught and practiced. Negotiating the session includes (as I mentioned above) assessing the student's needs (assignment instructions), timeline (deadlines), and asking the student, "what kind of help would you like from me?" (I sometimes throw in a time limit, just so the student knows how long I expect the session should go for. So, I might say, "what are you hoping to accomplish in the 30 minutes we have together?) Now, after asking that question, it's important to note that just because the student says they want you to do something doesn't mean that it's something you should do. I had a new tutor, for example, tell me that he spent two and half hours defining five pages worth of vocabulary because that's what the student asked him to do. Never mind that we have dictionaries. Never mind that the student had a quiz on those words tomorrow and probably needed tips for studying and/or someone to quiz him. When I suggested these options to the student, he lit up. He looked to the new tutor and said, "why didn't we do that?!" Step 1: Listen actively and validate concerns After listening to the student (and reading their body language), I like to (sincerely) validate the student's response to my question of what they hope to get out of the session:
Step 2: Help the student see what you can do as a tutor: (Sell yourself!)
Step 3: Give options and negotiate expectations for the session
Step 4: Repeat (as necessary, even for the same session/student) After making decisions on how you and the student would like to proceed with the session, then it's time to put those plans into action! I often write the goals or concerns on a piece of paper and as we address them, I put a checkmark next to them. ("Looks like you've written a solid thesis statement. Are you ready to move on to transitions?") Of course, you may list more items than is possible for one session, so you may say something like, "let's do as much as we can, but we might need another session to cover all of these items." As you're reading, you may find that a concern should not actually be a concern. For example, you might say, "this thesis is fantastic! I feel that it adheres to the assignment requirements. Should we proceed to your body paragraphs to see if your argument is working?" Or, you might find that the student wants to stop and work-out your suggestions for a particular item before moving to the next. In these cases, because I work in a drop-in tutoring center, I give the student the option to "work on their own" for a little bit and then ask them to signal me to pick up where we left off and/or begin a new session. General advice Remember, a writing tutor (coach) is not the same thing as an editor. Students should never bully you into doing their work for them or make you do more than is feasibly possible in a session (especially a session with a time crunch). Speaking from experience, it's always a good idea to set the agenda so your expectations and the student's expectations are negotiated and don't clash. It's also a good idea to summarize the session at the end, too: restate the objectives you started out with, how they changed, and what the student can "take away" from the session. This, in my humble (but correct opinion) is the best way to ensure the best success in your tutoring sessions.
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