Tutoring Case Studies

DK

I like how the tutor treated DK as a whole person, not just as a list of errors.

The student’s emotional and social life is as important to the tutor as the student’s writing.

The tutor built a plan of action in  the first session.  I had not thought of doing this.  Makes sense.

I like the way the tutor gave the student more help with editing in steps, each more specific than the last. (point out the sentence, point out the line, give an example of a similar but correct structure)

Justin

This tutor made the mistake of designing his course before he met the student.  I did something similar, so I know his pain.

Justin is a Gen 1.5 speaker.  His difficulties are common ones for Gen 1.5ers.  The tutor seemed to expect only ESL students.

I admire the tutor’s flexibility and his attempts to change his expectations and goals according to what the student needs.

I don’t think the tutor should feel bad about what he perceived as a less than successful tutoring experience.  He did his best and the student did too.  It’s clear that  the student got a lot out of it.

The tutor states that he regrets he did not contact the professor with questions.  I’ll keep this in mind.

Aurora

Tutor “learned the value of holding back, hoping that Aurora would emerge more from her shell.”

 Tutor came to realize that finding and correcting errors is easy for the tutor, but perhaps not best for the student.

Again, similar to other tutors, the tutor realized that s/he can’t  come to the meeting with preconceived notions of what to do. The student, her work, and her needs are what should set the agenda.

George (Robert)

Tutor had a hard time building rapport with Robert, and feels s/he should have tried harder.

As I read, I am interested in this student, because I think I might have a similar student—mine did not show up to our first meeting, similar to Robert.

I  can relate to the tutor’s initial overestimation of the student’s abilities because the student is a native speaker—I have been having a similar issue.

I like the idea of using sentence stubs for generating support for an idea or thesis.

What a tough experience!  I would be so frustrated with  this student.  I admire how the tutor was able to tap into Robert’s extrinsic motivation to do well in the class and how s/he just focused on the homework assignments.  This got Robert to buy into the tutoring process to a certain extent.