My First Tutoring Experience

Today I was scheduled to give a tutoring session as apart of my Teaching and Writing class. Before class, I was nervous about tutoring someone. My main concern was hoping that I knew enough information about tutoring so that I could help my tutee the best way I can. However, once the professor gave us a general understanding of what type of students we will be tutoring and a few refresher ideas about what to do, I felt a little better.

It was a pleasure to meet my tutee. For privacy sake I will cal her Sandra. Sandra’s first language is not English. She appears to be very hardworking and organized. Upon starting the lesson, she had all her documents neatly organized and she was ready to work.

After greeting Sandra in the classroom, I began the tutoring session by asking Sandra how was her day, she responded by saying “good…even if it is bad you can’t say that it was bad…right?”. I paused and responded by saying, “it depends, being optimistic is always a good thing.” We quickly began working on the CATW practice exam.

The first thing I did was read the assignment. Skipping over the words I didn’t understand myself, I hoped that she wasn’t going to ask me what those words meant. I continued to read through the material and upon completion I said, “Okay, let me see what you have here.” Sandra showed me her work and I began reading over paragraph one. After reading through one paragraph and noticing very few mistakes, I decided not to read silently to myself anymore. I thought that reading to myself would take up too much valuable time. I therefore, had her read her first paragraph aloud. Before she began, I said, “a way for a writer identify their mistakes is reading over their piece of writing slowly. Ask yourself does it make sense?”. She said, “ok” and began reading her paragraph.

While going through her piece of writing I noticed several key things. The first thing I noticed was that she was engulfed with many rules of which she held to very tightly. For example, “we are not supposed to use ‘I’ in an essay”. After clearly stating that for this essay it was perfectly fine to use ‘I’, she still held tight to what she believed. I’m not sure if the reason why she hesitated was because she didn’t trust the information that I was giving her, so I looked at the practice CATW article and underlined the part of the directions that states that you have to use personal experience. Holding so tight to her rules also caused Sandra to write sentences that had nothing to do with the subject. I explained to her that it is okay to let go some of the rules she knows because in the CATW they are looking for specific things. She also seemed to be very focused on the subject/verb agreement and other grammar rules. I explained to her after about the third time she pointed out the grammar rules that I haven’t studied the grammar rules, I just know something is wrong by the way it sounds. However, while subject verb agreement and other grammar rules play a small part in passing, I didn’t want her to focus on getting those things right. I told her we were going to focus on the specific things that will help her pass the test, like making sure she has a summary, author‘s main ideas, etc.

I also noticed that Sandra imitates the exact style of the papers and or books that she reads. While imitating format is a good thing (e.g. an essay should start with an introduction and end with a conclusion), imitating style may cause problems. In an another example, Sandra tries to adopt an advanced writing style. However, because she does not know the complete technique, the reader is left confused. At the end of her essay, she mentioned to me that her short sentences was supposed to be like the short and powerful sentences that was in the CATW practice exam. What she achieved was not a replica of what she saw. Because Sandra lacked technique, which comes through experience, I read those sentences and was very confused. She explained to me what she was trying to do and I thought for a minute. Since we were out of time, I told her that, that was a skill that could be learned.

Besides the fact that Sandra holds tightly to rules and imitates writing styles without having a complete understanding, Sandra exhibit’s a few structural problems. Sandra had good ideas but they were not organized well. Instead of restructuring and organizing the entire piece at one time trying to figure out what should go where, I decided to work with what she had on the paper. I did not change her paper to fit my ideas of what I think a CATW should look like but using her ideas and formats working one paragraph at a time. For example, I explained to her what a topic sentence was. Then I asked her if the current topic sentence was appropriate for the paragraph. She responded, “No”. I then asked what is this paragraph mainly about. She gave me a response. I noticed that her topic sentence was in the middle of the paragraph, so I asked her, “which one of these sentences do you think should be your topic sentence”. She read through the paragraph and chose the right one. I was so excited that she understood what I had just explained to her and I said, “that is exactly right! Okay lets move it to the top”. She smiled and moved the sentence to the top.

As the time passed, the tutoring session seemed to be moving a good speed. We managed to finish the entire essay with one minute to spare. And with that last minute, Sandra, wanted me to work on another CATW practice article that she already had in her bag. I told her that our tutoring session was over but if she needed help, she could go to the writing center and they could help her with her CATW. She asked if they would help her even if she didn’t have the actual essay and I told her yes. “You can come to the writing center when you have an essay, when you need ideas on how to start an essay and when you know what you want to write in your essay but can’t seem to put it into words”. She responded, “wow”. And we both smiled.

Sandra was very focused and hardworking and when she pulled out the second CATW practice exam, it really showed me that she really wanted to pass this test. It was at that point I decided to give her my email address. I decided that we will work on trying to pass this exam together. If I give it my best and she gives it her best, I can only hope that she will pass. However, if she doesn’t pass I will know that I did my best teaching her some writing skills that would benefit her in the future.

Advertisement Responsive Essay

I would consider this response essay to have some of the main components, for example, summary and personal experience however, the authors most important ideas are not different from the writer chosing one specific idea and sticking with it. The writers lack of organization and grammar also makes the essay hard to understand. So in my opinion the writer fell a little short.

The writer starts off with a summary of the article. This summary is well written and their ideas are clear. The writer then goes into the author’s main idea. Again she is clear in stating that advertisement is taking over people’s lives. The writer then goes into her idea without starting a new paragraph, so its hard to tell if the writers is still discussing the author’s idea or their own.

The writer essentially tries their best to get their point across however, however because the essay is not organized well, it hard to really understand what the writing is saying. For example, In the first paragraph the writer has a summary, an experience, and back to the main point. In paragraph two, the writer talks about how media is sending a contradicting message. In the third paragraph, the writer tries to summarize all the ideas together in one sentence.

What I think would have made this essay a definite pass, is if the writer would have organized their thoughts better. They had good ideas, but it lacked organization leaving the reader a little unclear about what they think about advertisement.

Where am I now with Sondra Perl?

After completing my first essay on Sondra Perl, I was left a little confused about her ideas on retrospective Structuring and Felt Sense. However, after reading it again and discussing it in class, I must say that I have a pretty good idea about the components of felt sense and retrospective structuring. Retrospective structuring is a process in which you take the ideas that are floating around in your head and apply them to paper in a structured and organized form. For example, if Elizabeth had to write a paper about dogs, she would probably be thinking about all her experiences with dogs. She will then organize those thoughts and structure them in a way that makes sense. Once she has written a couple of sentences, she rereads her work to see if she wrote down what she intended to say. This process of retrospective structuring also calls upon the use of felt sense; they work together making sure the structure is correct and the actual feeling you wanted to project is correct. The other part of this trio is called projective structuring. While felt sense and retrospective structuring are working hand and hand, projective structuring comes into the equation to put yourself into the audiences shoes. Not focusing on the correctness of the piece, but focusing on another perspective (the audiences perspective). The process of projective structuring will enable you, as the writer to identify all the things that you noticed while reading other works. It enables you to look your work and include positive and avoid negative writing techniques in your work.
Retrospective structuring, felt sense, and projective structuring work together in order to compose a piece that is intelligible to others, that is what you want to say, and that takes your audience into perspective. Although, this process may sound like that’s all you need in order write a perfect paper, it is not. As writers, we must remember that writing is a recursive process and even after you have written the first draft, you have to go back , revise, rewrite, edit and/or scrap what you felt was not needed.

"Tutoring Do's and Don'ts"

“Tutoring Do’s and Don’ts”
When tutoring a student there are things that a tutor should and should not do when in session.

“Tutoring Do’s”

1.Be Ready – A tutor should be ready to pay close attention to their tutee.
2.Be Attentive – A tutor should be alert, focused and be willing to address the needs of the tutee.
3.Be on Aware—A tutor should be aware of the messages that they are giving.
4.Be Relaxed
5.Look Approachable
6.Help the student to create ideas and images on their own by asking open ended questions.
7.Establish eye contact
8.Realize that each tutee is different and give the tutee that individual help that is needed
9.Realize that talking is a major part of the writing process – It will help the tutee develop and create ideas on their own.
10.Its okay to play dumb at times.
11.Praise the tutee when you deem it right to do so.
12.Be Honest
13.Be Positive

Tutoring Don’t’s

1.Posture is very important so a tutor should not:
a.Fold their arms
b.Looking everywhere else , except for in the tutee direction
c.Taking a phone call
d.Looking at your clock or watch
e.Yawning
f.Fidgeting
g.Doodling
h.Drumming fingers
i.Tapping a pen
j.Be too relaxed
k.Be too anxious
2.Slouch
3.Tone of voice should not be to harsh or to warm.
4.Act as if you have something else more important.
5.Do not write the paper or assignment for them.
6.Don’t Act as if you are the expert.
7.Don’t develop a personal relationship during the tutoring session
8.Don’t be late.
9.Don’t be a therapist
10.Don’t Correct errors unless that is the only thing wrong with the paper and if you are qualified to make corrections.
11.Don’t be a cheerleader, praising him or her for every single thing.

“How I feel about becoming a Writing Tutor”

Well,

I remember helping students in one of my first English classes. Everyone in this English class had taken the entrance exam and failed by one point. The goal was to learn how to correct the little issues that caused us to slightly miss the mark. After the first round of tests, half the class passed and half the class failed. The students that passed helped the students that failed. As I was lucky enough to actually past the first round, I got the opportunity to help my classmates pass their test.

This experience bought me to a point of excitement and nervousness. When I first started this class I was completely unaware that we had to tutor. And finding out that we had to tutor actually made me excited and nervous. I was excited because I knew how happy I was when I was tutoring my fellow student. I would also be able to give them skills and strategies that would not only help them in with this exam, but in exams to come. And the pressure of the end result made me very nervous. If they didn’t pass or didn’t do well on a paper, that would make me feel really bad.

Today, I think that I am not prepared enough. It seems like a lot of work. I feel like I may run into several problems that I am not ready for. The feeling of nervousness and excitement has gone away and now I am feeling overwhelmed. What if I do not understand the readings that I have learned in my class? What if I don’t remember a certain strategy that I studied? I am now starting to doubt myself and although I am sure I shouldn’t, I am.

Sondra Perl

What is the most important and enduring idea Sondra Perl has contributed to the field of theorizing and the writing process?

         According to Sondra Perl, the writing process is a recursive process. As Perl defines the complex writing process into stages, I find that the most important and enduring idea that Sondra Perl has contributed to the field of theorizing is the process she labeled retrospective structuring. If a writer can either naturally utilize or learn how to utilize retrospective structuring, the chances of becoming a successful writer are great.

         As a writer begins to writes, he or she goes through several stages even before the pen has hit the pad or the fingers have hit the keyboard. Prewriting, which includes reading, asking questions and creating outlines, etc.; writing, which includes projective structuring (thinking about what might be said later on), and retrospective structuring (thinking about what you have already written); and rewriting, which includes rereading, revising and erasing if necessary (Mc Andrew & Reigstad 22). While all of the steps to the writing process carry importance and are, constantly recurring, I will focus on the retrospective structuring.

         Thinking and then hesitating… writing a sentence or two…going back to read it aloud…and then asking myself, “Did I capture exactly what I wanted to say?” “Am I using the right words?” “Are the mental images in my mind clearly being depicted by the words that I have chosen to write?” “This process of attending, of calling up a felt sense, and of writing out of that place, [is what Perl labels as] the process of retrospective structuring.” (Perl 1980, 367) The reason why Perl has labeled it retrospective structuring is simply because, “it is retrospective in that it begins with what is already there, inchoately, and brings whatever is there forward by using language in structured form.” (Perl 1980, 367) Retrospective structuring allows the writers to go back, think about the idea or thought that was not fully developed, and assign words to identify exactly what is in the mind of the writer.

         What makes retrospective structuring so important? As retrospective structuring points out that the ideas or the images has to already be in the mind of the writer, one must ask what if that idea or thought about the subject or topic is not readily accessible? The writer may find him or herself having trouble writing about a particular subject or topic. Once the initial ideas or thought are registering at a blank, writing may come to a complete stop until the ideas or thoughts begin to generate in the writers mind.

         While some writers may have a difficult time generating ideas, other writers may find that the ideas flow continuously and their trouble lies in accurately describing what they really want to say. Perl states that although ideas begin as thoughts that are not fully developed, they end with a result that is “tangible” (Perl 1980, 367). The fact that these thoughts are in the mind and not fully developed proves that you cannot just simply “dig deep enough to release it.” (Perl 1980, 367) Perl makes it clear that these thoughts have to be “crafted and constructed” in order to accurately pinpoint the true meaning to what we intend to say (Perl 1980, 367).

         When the writer experiences no blocks in ideas or has no trouble accurately pinpointing what they intend to say using words, the process of writing can be smooth and efficient, moving along quickly. During Perl’s research on the writing process, she talks about several case studies. Tony, in particular, provides a perfect example of someone who exhibiting the use of retrospective structuring. “During the intervals between drafts, Tony read his written work, assessed his writing, planned new phrasings, transitions, or endings, read the directions and the question over, and edited once again.” (Perl 1979, 324) This reveals that the retrospective structuring process of looking back and configuring if what the writer meant to say, is actually said in the way that the writer desires for it to be structured is very important and very necessary.

         Is it possible for someone who is not able to generate ideas or thoughts to learn how to generate them? Is it possible for someone who has the capability to think the ideas or thoughts about any topic or subject but, find it difficult to accurately structure what they want to say on paper learn how to accurately structure the meaning that is currently in its intangible form? According to Sondra Perl, the answer to those questions is yes. Retrospective structuring is just one, not easily identifiable stage that can help all writers in the writing process. For “this basic step… skilled writers rely on and… less skilled writers can be taught.” (Perl 1980, 366) Therefore, once a writer has learned on how to utilize retrospective structuring his or her success in writing will increase their chances of becoming a better writer.

Work Cited

McAndrew, Donald A., and Thomas J. Registad. “The Writing and Tutoring Processes.” Tutoring Writing a Practical Guide for Conferences. 22. Print. 15 Sept. 2011.

Perl, Sondra. “The Composing Processes of Unskilled College Writers.” Research in the Teaching of English. Vol. 13, No. 4. National Council of Teachers of English, Dec. 1979. 324. Jstor. Web. 13 Sept. 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40170774

Perl, Sondra. “Understanding Composing.” College Composition and Communication. Vol. 31, No. 4. National Council of Teachers of English, Dec. 1980. 366-367. Jstor. Web. 13 Sept. 2011. http://www.jstor.org/stable/356586