My First Tutoring Experience

My first tutoring experience was nerve racking. The thought of having to tutor another person the same age or older was scary because for one, even with proper preparation, I still felt as if I might be inadequate.
Now when I met my utter she did not look like she wanted to be tutored, like she did not want to be here and once we talked and tried to get to know each other it was apparent that that was her attitude. It was very hard to warm up to her so what I did was jump right into the essay. I asked her what it was about and if she understood what the assignment was. Afterwards I saw that she had an outline so I asked her to walk me through her outline and she did, she pointed out the main points of her the essay and was perfect to start her essay. So we started with the introduction I told her that the directions asked for a summary so I asked her to summarize the essay and she did so by telling that was what her outline was so I said let's work on her next paragraphs. I asked her prompting questions so that she could get her own ideas flossing because any time I asked her what did she think she should write or how would she start the topic sentence of the paragraph she would shrug her shoulders and say I don't know. It was very much like point teeth with my tutee unfortunately and I just hope next time we meet she will have a more positive attitude so that I could help her to my best ability.

James Moffetts's System for Dummies

           James Moffett's system of writing is broken down into many stages in which he believes is the best way to effectively write. Basically everyone has an inner and outer speech, inner speech is obviously a persons thought process that stays inside their mind, it is organized and has some sort of rhythm to it, outer speech is the thoughts of the writer just verbalized. Then there is the stream of consciousness, which is basically your thoughts jumbled in your mind. There is no specific topic or direction that you have in mind, your thoughts just kind of wander and you are lost in it.
         

Tutoring Do's and Tutoring Dont's

Tutoring Do 's

• The tutor has good posture/ body language
• The tutor gives off a welcoming/ positive attitude
• The tutor welcomes tutee back for more help
• The tutor talks with the tutee not to or at them
• If the tutor gets stuck, they excuse themselves and ask for a second opinion
• The tutors desk/ table is clear and clutter free
• The tutor has a pen, paper, highlighter, and a thesaurus in arms reach, if needed
• There is a two way conversation between tutee and tutor
• The tutor make the environment comfortable for the tutee
• The tutor makes sure the tutee fully understands 

Tutoring Dont's

• The tutor has bad body language/ posture/ slouching
• The tutor is eating
• The tutor is on their cell phone/ texting/ taking phone calls
• The tutor is going off topic/getting too personal/makes the session into a therapy session
• The tutors des/table is messy and filled with clutter 
• The tutor has the demeanor of rushing the tutee
• The tutor shows up late/has no sense or urgency
• The tutor is writing all over the tutees paper
• The tutor is imposing their ideas onto the tutee
• The tutor ends the session early
• The tutor gives more attention to one tutee rather than giving them both equal time
• The tutor is constantly checking the time
• The tutor is not give the tutee a chance to speak
• The tutor is having side conversations
• The tutor leaves the tutee confused with questions unanswered
• The tutor makes the tutee feel uncomfortable/awkward situation
• The tutor is focused on grammar more than anything else

Sondra Perl Response

          In Sondra Perl's piece she talks to the audience about Understanding Composing, and this so happens to be the name of her writing, basically the process in which writers go through in order to write... or try to write, in some cases.

          There are a lot of interesting ideas from Perl in her piece but the one idea that I can relate to the most is projective structuring, which in Perl's definition is the ability to craft what one intends to say so that it is intelligible to others.

          I can relate to this in such a strong way because when I write, and I am pretty sure that I am not the only one who feels the same way, whether it is for a research paper, a short answer on a quiz, even a free write in some cases, I find it hard to get the thoughts that are jumbled up in my mind out on paper. It is not that I cannot write, I cannot transfer my thoughts, I can not make them sound intelligible to a peer writer or the audience I am trying to speak to.

          Perl does mention that there are a couple of issues that pertain to projective structuring and one of them is that the writer is too focused on what someone else wants them to write and this is a big reason why they get stuck. This is true too, it is not until I am being told to write or prompted to by a teacher or professor that I get stuck and can not think of a thing to write. If I were to sit at home and just write because I felt like it, it feels like my writing could win a noble prize. The next thing that Perl mentions is that because of what we are previously taught about writing, we let that override everything else and then we find ourselves asking these questions like am I following the rules? or is the way I am writing correct? We the writers find ourselves worrying about those things instead of our audiences, our readers needs and expectations in what we are writing.
          Perl had many ideas in her piece but this is what stood out to me the most, it hit home and it was very realtable. Reading this is going to make me think more before I write and instead of what someone is making me do versus what I am doing for someone else