My First Two Tutoring Observations

       For my first tutoring observation I was anxious and excited to observe my first tutoring session because I've only stepped foot in the writing center for a freshman seminar class, but it was not bad at all. I was assigned to be in a tutoring session where the student and the tutor were very familiar with one another because of past sessions; therefore there was a good and friendly vibe in the room.

       The methods used during this session were mainly collaborative and teacher-centered methods. As the student placed all the papers needed for the session to start, the tutor asked what work will they be working on together, "Are we starting or fixing a paper?" and the student said she actually needs help on understanding the material, therefore the session dealt with paper development. For the reason that the class was focused in an honors course, ENG 102, and the student was a foreign student, the session was based on explaining and helping the student understand the passages she needed to read. The students’ assignment was to read short passages and reflect on them. The tutor read the title of the first passage assigned to read and asked the student if she was aware of the persons' name but the student was not. The tutor informed the student that it will be a great idea if she read the passages aloud and to stop and look up the definitions of words that she is not fully aware of because there are a lot of words that has more than one meaning to it. The entire session was focused more on helping the student understand the context of the passages since most of the passages dealt with the American history, which the student was not familiar with. 

       During my second tutoring observation, the tutor and the student was not familiar with one another, the tutor introduced herself and informed the student that I was also a student who was there just to observe her skills of tutoring. The tutor asked the student what they'll be working on today and the student said that she wanted the tutor to read a draft essay she had for her English 102 class, which was her reflection of a poem. The student informed the student that she needed help writing down her ideas onto the paper. During this session the tutor focused more on the High-Order concerns, collaborative tutoring, and student-centered tutoring. Once the tutor read the students’ draft, the tutor asked the student about her ideas and how she interpreted the poem, after she informed the student that her paper does not have a thesis, “Is it okay with you if we start on an Outline first, or do you have another concern you’ll like to focus on more?” The tutor and the student begin with the outline, and as they begin, the tutor asks the student to introduce the story briefly and to add her ideas onto the opening paragraph. The session was over by the time the opening paragraph was finished but the tutor was okay with answering any last minute questions. The vibe of the session was calm and the student seemed more relax leaving the writing center. Both tutors nodded at the students and smile at times to have the student feel more comfortable and confident with their pieces which I think was really helpful. 

Video Blog- Plagiarism in a Writing Center

       Based on the two scenes of plagiarism in a writing center, there were a lot of helpful and non-helpful techniques used. In the first scene, the tutor was really laid back about the student using plagiarism. The tutor did mention what a good idea it was to use different types of sources for her paper, and informed her that she needed to cite her sources. The student informed the tutor that she has never used citation before in High School and does not understand why she needs to use citation now; the tutor should have but did not reinforce the rule and the consequences of plagiarism in college.

       In the second scene, the student is barely paying attention to the tutor; she is angry and frustrated that she was forced to visit the writing center. The student is not letting the tutor speak while he tries to calm her but ultimately the session is lost when the tutor fails and the student leaves the session angrily.

       The last video we viewed was a session where the student is constantly on their phone and not paying attention while the tutor spoke. The tutor tries gaining control by asking the student read her paper to him but the student continued pausing the session and replying to text messages. The tutor could prevent this from happening in future sessions by informing students in the beginning of the session about the no cell phone policy that they have in the writing center, or also by just saying “let’s put our cell phones on silent before we start working”. 

Writing Center Videos

       Based on the writing center videos, what makes a tutorial successful is having the students leave the session satisfy and with a positive view of the session. A tutor can notice that a tutorial was successful by seeing a change in the student; the student is less frustrated, and is headed on the right track, understanding what needs to be done with their assignments. 

       As we begin our observations, we will be looking for the methods and strategies used by the tutor, for example we will be keeping an eye on what’s the main focus of the session, if it’s Low-Order Concerns or High Order Concerns. We will also be observing the posture, tone, and body language of both the tutor and the student and hopefully feel the vibe of the session to be a calm one. We will be observing the tutor, to see his/her reactions to frustrated students, and how they react and try to help students feel less anxious.