First Time Tutoring Experience

My first tutoring session was really scary because I really did not know what to expect. Before I went into class I was starting to panic and I got really pale. I really was scared to go in and tutor students because I was thinking about how I write my own papers and was not sure if I was ready to help a student with theirs. When the Professor came in I was ready to tell him that I did not have my work done in order to avoid tutoring. I decided to just regain my composure and do this and see if I could help students with their papers. When I went into the class room I was assigned to two students and when I introduced myself to them and they introduced themselves to me I stopped being so nervous and got to work. The two students that I was assigned to had two very different styles of writing. The young women who I tutored had a decent blog and knew what she was talking about. She had her thesis and had her main topics for her paragraph but thing that she was missing was to incorporate the reading into her blog. She mentioned the article only one time in her whole blog and the professor's assignment asked for evidence supporting whether or not Reality TV is bad for young viewers. As I was talking to her I told her that she needs to go back to the professors question and make sure that she answers everything the professor told her to put in her blog. This is important because she could lose major points for not putting everything she needs to into the blog. The other student had a little trouble with his topic sentence and was a little confused because he didn't really now how to summarize without taking exactly the words from the article. I helped him understand how to write his topic sentence and put down what he will write about. I am really glad I was able to overcome my fear and do what I had to do.  

Writing Observation

Writing Center Observation 1 [4-11-12]


    The tutoring session I observed today was the tutor and a student who came to the U.S six years ago. The student had grammar errors and also had a problem with run on sentences. The student native language was not English but overall her essay did not have many errors. The student just had to fix some grammer errors and as well as just fix some of her sentences that was run on. The student understood what her professor wanted in the assignment and was really focused on her work and she came really prepared. She had the professors assignment as well as her original essay that her professor had graded. The student really wanted to understand what she had done wrong and see what she could do to make her essay an A+. The student also did not let the tutor do all the work she was also participating and they both were interacting together.The student made sure that she was asking the right questions as well as understanding why her sentences were considered run on sentences. I believe that the student was very well prepared and did a great job in making it clear what she needed help in. The student also felt really comfortable with the tutor and the environment.

      The tutor did a great job in helping the student understand what her problems were and help her create a new and improve essay. The tutor received the professor assignment and read the question word by word to make sure he understood what needed to be in the essay. Once the tutor understood the question next he received her essay and went through each paragraph carefully to see where the problem was. What I really liked was the way he went through the thesis with the student. He asked her to read it to him and to analyze the thesis and see if what she read goes with what the professor is asking her. They both agreed that the thesis was really good and answered the question. The tutor read the entire essay and helped her with her grammar and told her overall that it was really a good and well planed essay. The body language of the tutor was really good to because he did not slouch or seemed bored. He showed that he did care about her work and gave it his all to help her understand what she did not. The tutor also did not let the conversation go out of the topic. They both stayed on topic and both used their time to focus on the essay. The tutor also gave his personal opinion of what could be said in one of the students opening paragraph. The student listened and they both came up with a new way to open her paragraph. The opening paragraph consisted of the students and the tutor idea put together which I thought was really good. I really liked the way they worked together to make the essay come out really good.

   In overall I think the tutoring session I observed came out really good. The student really learned a lot and she came out of the tutoring center understanding what she did wrong and now she knows how to avoid doing the same mistake. The student really liked her tutor and planed to return again to the tutoring center when she has trouble with an essay again. I really liked this tutoring session because I learned how to be a good tutor and see at first hand how it feels to have a student be so thankful for helping them understand something they don't understand.