Second Observation

During this observation I was able to see what it was like for a tutor and tutee who had a prior relationship work together. My tutor Kay had been working with Xien for quite some time and they have become comfortable with how they each work. The tutor begins reading the paper to herself and the tutee looks for any additional facts from her text that could possibly be added to strengthen her paper. As shes looking through her text I happen to notice some of the writing centers worksheets for grammar in particularly, prepositions. I also happen to notice a dictionary with the student, something that is typical for an ELL student (which I found out later that was in her case true). After the tutor was done reading the essay she pointed out her main concern of the essay as a whole which was the tutees conclusion. The tutor went on to explain why the ending was lacking and they together came up with ideas for some of the details that could be put in, in order to make the conclusion filled with more substance. After working on the conclusion the tutee and the tutor go over some minor corrections such as grammar and proper word usage. Here I noticed that this is where the tutee seemed to be the most concerned and had a lot of questions about words, there meanings, and how to proper place them in her paper. The session ends with the tutee knowing what corrections that should be made and having some more clarity with grammar, etc.
At the end I asked the tutor about how she feels working with a repeating tutee. She explained that it at times can be easier because they know how they each work and have a good flow throughout the session. However she did explain that there is a downside, the student can sometimes become to dependent on your opinion and what corrections they should make before making their own attempts at it. A good idea she said to help this is to ween them off and challenge them to find their own answers and solutions especially in cases like grammatical issues. Overall I thought it was insightful to working with ELL students and the pros and cons of already having a relationship with your tutee.