During today's class we were able to go into an ENG 101 class and tutor two students with their writing assignments. The students task were to describe biculturalism as either a strength or confusion. They had read prior about accounts of bicultural people and the role it played on their lives. My tutees today did not have anything written but by the end at least had an outline of how they would like their papers to be. In talking to both students I found out that they were both bicultural and both felt that being bicultural was more of a confusion that a strength. At first I was unclear of what the assignment was asking but was able to get a copy of the task at hand and break down the task for my tutees. "I' usually am unsure of what hes asking in his assignments and that's where I feel the most difficulty for me is". I did explain that if they had anymore questions they should ask their professor and explain the way they interpreted the task and ask if that is not how he meant it to explain it again for them.
They both seemed very eager and excited to start their tasks but worried because they didn't have a thesis quite ready. I explained to them that they could start their papers without it so long as they knew what they wanted their body paragraphs to consist of and how they wanted to make those transitions. The two also explained that they were unsure of where to get their research from and I explained to them some of the websites they could go to and how they would use key words in order to sort out information that was applicable to their papers. Though the two seemed more confident than before I do question if I could have done more for them, but without any writing done or any sources I felt that just giving them directions of where to start was alright. I had them explain to me their plans of action and they both explained that they were going to start working on the assignment tonight and then revision. Before leaving I thanked them and wished them the best of luck. I told them I would be back next week and hopefully from there we could make any other needed editing after their peer revisions.
Ultimately the session went better than I had expected but I still feel that there was more that could have been done on my part. I do hope that I was able to give the tutees more positive reinforcement and guidance. I'm anticipating to see their works next week and seeing how my bits of input helped them.
i feel you couldn't have helped them more than you already have, not only were you able to help them with the actual assignment but also how to acquire their CUNY sources. during my tutoring session i was also able to see how their personal accounts of Biculturalism helped shaped their view. connecting new information with prior information motivated critical thinking, inspiring new ideas for their argument. although my tutees point of view differ from yours i believe they got their the same way. i have questions about your session. was English the tutees second language ? and if so , did that influence the difficulty in writing the paper ?
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