Monday was a great tutoring day. I was back to back, and the best part was that the students I met with had come in for very diverse reasons. I love that sessions can range from very directive help for a non-native speaker with great fluency to very holistic comments for a confident student whose draft is near completion.
Sometimes, we worry about how heterogeneous our students' are and how different their needs can be, but I think that's my favorite part of teaching/tutoring. Maybe I like the challenge, or maybe I just get bored easily, but the element of surprise and the constant change is one of the perks of our line of work as far as I'm concerned.
I wonder if other people feel this way. Am I "the odd man out," so to speak, for enjoying this aspect as much as I do? What does everyone else think about it?
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I think that I have to agree - I enjoy the surprising possibility that each tutoring session brings.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious as to how you handled the student whose draft was near completion. I had a student like that today, who had a great draft. We worked for 25 minutes, but I almost get more nervous with students like this: What do we talk about?
Of course, there is always more to do with any piece of writing, and we filled the session, but I want to make sure that I am making their time constructive and full of productivity. Does this make sense?
yeah, it does, Erin.
ReplyDeleteLike you Jen, I love to get a mix of papers and writers, 'cause its fun and challenging. But while I enjoy reading a full draft for the writing's sake, its way harder not edit when its pretty decent already. Those are the tutees I usually ask the most of...what do they think they need? What are their concerns or difficulties with the paper? And, if they say little, I just offer a reader's response- would they like to hear what I'm thinking as I read it?
Sometimes the students with good writing need a little affirmation, and also are willing to be challenged to a next level of recursive writing, too.