Shadowing with Kathleen on November 16th at 5 pm
Today I shadowed for the first time, the first tutor I shadowed was Kathleen. I must say it was very exciting and a little nerve wreaking, I wasn’t really sure what I had to do. The tutee came in with a science creative paper which I thought was very interesting. Actually I have never heard of such a class. The tutee came in with concerns on grammatical errors and help with creative which she felt was stifled because she was not used to writing creative stories or papers as she is a science major, the most writing she does are lab reports. As new writing tutors we do have a challenge ahead of us by helping students with papers from different disciplines. I looked on as Kathleen helped the tutee with her creative writing assignment.
She did edit the paper for grammatical errors and when she found sentences that were confusing instead of saying that it was confusing she asked the student to explain what she was trying to say in here story. It was so interesting to see the facilitative approach at work, reading about it was one thing but to actually see in practice, it’s a different experience. Especially since it’s easier to just tell someone what to do instead of having them come up with their own ideas, for additional help on making the story more enjoyable to the reader, Kathleen suggested just looking at different writers and the way they used dialogue and imagery to make the stories flow. I would have never thought of using other writer’s samples to get ideas on how to write. Then again it does make sense; authors are the perfect source to get the dos and don’ts of writing. It’s like writer shadowing without leaving your room.
After we were done with our session Kathleen showed me how to fill out the tutee form, I think this is a great idea not only as a way for tutors to cover their backs but so professors can see that students are trying to improve their writing skills. I noticed there isn’t a form for tutees to fill out for their tutors on whether or not they found the session helpful or not. I would be nice to know how we are doing as tutors; maybe we can do surveys online or after each session?
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