Experience Summary
Being a tutor has been my most positive experience. It’s great to get to know the students that I work with. I love talking and seeing them waving and smiling at me!I took this job because of my experience in proofreading papers for my friends. The focus here, however, is to improve writers, not just the papers they bring in. I feel that makes this job all at once more meaningful, challenging, and rewarding.”I am not a very talented person; I can’t sing, dance, play any instruments, or excel in any athletics. The one thing I can really do is write, so it feels good to use this ability to help those students whose talents lie elsewhere.I have learned about my own ability to interact in a tutor position and based on what works and what doesn’t, I have altered my approach.
Teaching Style
Many students do not plan before writing; they prefer to just start to write. For others it is important to go slowly and take the time to think about what they will write. Writing is a process and includes planning, thinking, and organizing to get a final product that is complete. Generating and organizing ideas impacts the quality of the work. Students must be able to get started and concentrate on the task as well as monitor the quality of their work. They also need to present their perspective and to think creatively. They need to decide what to write about, develop a topic, research a topic, produce original thoughts, elaborate on ideas, use prior knowledge, think critically, and apply new and learned concepts. Here is a framework you can employ to help your students stay focused, organized, and creative.
Help students by having them think about the finished product before they even start. Then have them delineate the steps required to get to the end. Have them outline the information they will include in the report or story.
Provide jump starters by providing some start-up sentences to help to generate ideas.
Encourage self-monitoring by asking for a plan or outline for the project. Make the objectives clear, specific and measurable–-how long will they work, what will be the length of the report.
Allow them to warm-up by noting what they remember about the topic or by quickly reviewing the last class or the recently learned material.
At first, use high-interest topics to ensure that they will begin and sustain work on the writing assignments.
Be aware that a difficult task will require more mental effort and that some students do not want to perform less than perfectly. This may be a reason some students may not want to start on their own.
Writing tasks require long periods of concentration; make sure there is sufficient time for the student who has difficulty sustaining long periods of mental effort. Adjust the rate, complexity, and amount of information that will be produced at one time.
Provide summary charts, partial outlines, or other graphic organizers to assist with complex concepts and ideas.
Begin with assignments that allow them to choose a small topic that is related to something they know about. Let them know they can include charts and diagrams to explain their views with written captions.
Monitor the quality of their work while allowing for self-monitoring. Self-monitoring involves students in noticing their mistakes while writing and proofreading. Use specific exercises that allow students to successfully self-monitor.