With the sun shining and temperatures unusually mild (for February in Maine), our growing group met for a third time to discuss the things that writing tutors should and should not do. Before our group brainstorm ensued, however, Ms. Ruark led us in an opening moment full of musical hearts.
Using hearts cut out by Ms. Davis, and designed by Mr. Pittis, the group wrote down the songs and artists that have made an impact – good or bad – on our lives. Only a few people shared, but we discovered quickly a near unanimous dislike of all things Jonas Brothers and Hannah Montanah. Among the more positive were several showtunes and some Willie Nelson.
After spending some time pouring our hearts out (pun intended), the group moved on to the dirty work of the day. In a discussion led by Ms. Ruark, tutors and co-directors listed some of the basic Dos and Don’ts for tutoring sessions. Here’s what we came up with:
Do …
• stay on task (create and stick to an agenda)
• use positive statements rather than negative ones
• be the “coach” not the writer
• ask what the student would like to work on
• encourage students to work ahead in order to avoid a time crunch
• use sticky notes to make comments, or ask the student to mark their own work
• have the student read their paper out loud to you
• check for proper paper formatting
Don’t …
• write the paper for the student
• be mean or disrespectful
• lost your temper or patience
• try to tackle too many issues in one session
• try to fix everything
• focus on lower-order issues (MUGS)
• take too long (30 minutes is a good amount of time in most cases)
After the brainstorm, Ms. Davis handed out two chapters from the book A Tutor’s Guide: Helping Writers One to One. Writing Center staff should read the packet over vacation as we prepare to begin mock tutoring sessions.
We ended this week’s session with a closing moment a la Mr. Pittis. In true writer’s style he sared a poem called “Spell Checker Blues”.
Note: There will be NO training session on Monday, March 1.