First Observation

On Monday I participated in my first observation session of tutoring at the writing center. It was something like I had imagined it, but was more of a tight fit. During the session though I had kept my distance I still felt as though I was invading their session, but thankfully the tutee didn't mind my presence there. Other than the feeling of being invasive, the session was insightful and was a prime example of the "do's" of tutoring. The tutor was very polite and clear in expressing his points. Something I did like was that he was able to clarify that the writing centers responsibility is not to fix grammatical issues but to help students with their structuring, transitions, and clarity in their works. After expressing this to the tutee, they went over the paper together aloud and he gave some positive feedback. He then asked to go skim over the paper again and then offered his thoughts. The tutor found points where there were some clarity issues and some details that took away from some of the really powerful ideas she had in her paper. He even found instances in her paper that she could insert some additional information that would strengthen her arguments. At the end of the session the tutor found exercises for the tutee to do on her own to strengthen the areas of grammar she had trouble with. I found this to be really thoughtful and showed that the tutor did take in to consideration what the tutee was really worried about. After giving her the exercises, she took down his schedule and told him that she would be back if she needed any additional help and thanked him for his time. He wished her a good day and the best of luck. I feel that I was fortunate to have had such a good experience and see how being polite and welcoming goes a long way in order to build a relationship with the tutee, I do hope my next session will be this great but if not, its just another learning experience and time for self reflection.