I had my first student today. It went really well. I wasn't expecting to have a student on my first day, so I didn't have time to be nervous, but all of my fears of having nothing to say or of not being any help turned out to be unfounded anyway. I think I was a lot of help to the student and the session made me realize that I do actually know a lot about writing and I can easily share this knowledge with other students. It also helped that she was a particularly easy client. By this I mean she didn't have any major problems; she just wanted to talk about her idea for a paper and make sure she was on the right track. I think I helped her figure out how to structure the essay and I also helped her realize exactly what her main point was. But I was frustrated by a couple things. The first is I'm not entirely positive that she found my advice helpful or if she was just pretending that she did so I wouldn't feel bad. I am pretty sure that she did find it helpful, but I also comfort myself by realizing that I did give her good advice--so whether she likes it or not, she has to accept it. The other thing that kind of bothered me was that sometimes when I had a point to make I would kind of interrupt her. I'm glad I was excited about what I was talking about, but I want to realize that what the client has to say is more important than what I have to say. I do think, for the most part, that I kept her in control of the session and only helped her do what she wanted with the assignment. I think I helped her understand the assignment better, the process she needed to go through to produce a good paper, and the main point she was trying to make in her paper. The session made me really excited to do more tutoring; I enjoyed it and hope to get better with practice.
Posted by hoga0094 at September 14, 2004 8:29 PMAndy,
I overheard a little of this session too and talked about it with the class on Tuesday. Listening to the student express concerns about how to structure her personal essay reminded me how anxiety producing college-level writing can be (making me think about Lunsford's social constructivist model). It sounded like the student was quite unsure about the openness of this new kind of assignment: "how can I create a 5-paragraph theme on this?"
I'm glad to hear that the session went well overall, and it sounds like your energy matched hers (perhaps why you were interrupting each other), but I also appreciate your thoughtful comment about how easy it is for us to get excited about the student's paper and bowl them over with our "talk at them"-- rather than have a true dialogue.
Posted by: Kirsten at September 16, 2004 6:42 AM