My First Tutoring Experience

Earlier this week I had my first tutoring writing adventure. We had never met the students before, so I had no idea of what to expect. However, it turned out to be a very pleasant experience..

My student, Ms. Gonzalez, was a lovely young girl whose parents had come from the Dominican Republic.She was born here and had a very unusual first name, I will have to post it next week since it was so unusual that I can't remember it. She was bright and well mannered.

When she first sat down, we introduced ourselves and exchanged some friendly formalities to break the ice. When we were comfortable, I asked her what her assignment was, and she took out some blue books containing the essays she had been writing for class. I looked them over and saw that her writing was not bad at all. I read the comments written by her professor that stated that her main problem was organization--that her introduction, conclusion and body seemed to be talking about different things. 

Happy to have a starting point, we dug into a discussion about organization. I told her about something I had heard that simplified the process of organization which went like this:

In the introduction, you tell the reader what you are going to say.

In the body, you say it.

In the conclusion you tell them what you said.

She looked at me, amazed, then laughed and said she would remember that for sure. 

I then asked her what her next essay was going to be about. She showed me a paper from the exam book about the fact that good looking men get hired easily but women have a harder time. She seemed to be having a bit of a problem deciding what she was going to say exactly, so I asked her to tell me in one sentence what the essay would be about. She stared at me for a minute, then asked, "One sentence?" Yep, I told her, one sentence. She thought for a minute, then said "Women are discriminated against when they apply for a job because of certain things". Her topic was now narrowed down to a more manageable idea. 

I asked her what those things were. Her first answer was speech. Ok, that was one paragraph in the body. What else? The way they present themselves, she answered. Ok, that's another paragraph. She was getting into rapidly.

I asked her to tell me what an introduction, body and conclusion were. She repeated my little ditty from above. Ok, she was going to mention her points of discrimination in her introduction, talk about them one at a time in her body, then sum it all up in her conclusion. She seemed quite happy with that.

We discussed other things such as putting her own thoughts into the body of her essay instead of just in the  conclusion, as per her professor's notes. She seemed to have ideas already about what she was going to say. Soon the time was up and I told her we would go over her next essay the next time we met. I felt she left with more confidence in writing than she came in with. Isn't that was tutoring is for?? I think so.

EXCERPT FROM ACTIVE VOICE BY James Moffett

Revising Inner Speech and Dialogues and Monologues

The topic discussed in this excerpt from James Moffett’s book Active Voice is the transition that takes place as ideas move from our inner speech (stream of consciousness) to our outer speech--both written and oral. The author has created a system designed to improve this transition by having people practice certain “assignments” that he has created for this purpose. His system consists of two distinct groups of assignments. The first is concerned with the act of writing and the second with vocal speech.

The purpose of the assignments, states Moffett, is to teach  people “how to tap off, and verbalize what is going on at any moment in their sensations, memories, thoughts and feelings”—collectively known as “inner speech.  The writing assignments are designed to create a base to work from for any type of writing the reader wishes to do—be it dramatic, narrative, expository or poetic.

He explains that the process all begins with witnessing, and the act of trying to make sense out of what we witness. The assignments are meant to help expedite the switch of these into writing and oral speech. Since self awareness and deliberate concentration are needed to make this happen, an important function of the assignments is to evoke them so that writing and speech can flow more naturally and freely.

GROUP 1 - Seven Assignments Leading to Writing -- The first five assignments can be done by anyone who has already learned to write and spell, and can be modified to allow for age and ability.The final two assignments are more advanced since they involve reflection, and should probably only be used for students over the age of ten.

1. Stream of Consciousness--This first assignment begins with notation, rather than actual writing.
    Although the author does not want to call it "free writing," that is the easiest way to describe it in
    general terms. It consists of sitting down for 15 minutes and trying to record in writing everything
    that is going through your mind without any concern for formalities such as grammar and form.
    Just do it. It's a daunting task because there is so much to try to keep up with, since the mind is
    filled with such active, ever-changing thoughts.

2. Spontaneous Sensory Monologue -- This assignment is about observing a place away from where 
    you usually are and writing down what you see, hear and smell on paper and pencil. As in the
    above, details such as grammar and spelling don't matter here. Try to include how things look,
    sound and smell as well as your thoughts and feelings regarding what you are observing 

3. Composed Observation -- The task of this assignment is to rewrite one of your sensory notes
    so that other people can read and understand  it. It should become more interesting and easier to                   read when it is edited for consumption by other people "an "audience." Then distribute it.

4. Spontaneous Memory Monologue -- 15 minutes/Find something around you that reminds you of
   something out of your past and write it down. Now write about the memory you were reminded
   of. Continue to write down memories as they come without regard to time elements in your life o
   things such as grammar.

5. Composed Memory -- Write a composition from the memory notes you gathered in the 
    previous exercise. Make it more comprehensible and interesting and give it to your chosen                             audience to read. Distribute it.

6. Spontaneous Reflection Monologue --  Find a quiet place where you can concentrate and choose
    something that you want to be able to understand. Focus on it. Relax in a manner as if you were
    meditating. When you are ready to write, jot down your thoughts.

7. Composed Reflection -- Rewrite your reflection monologue to make it readable and interesting for the 
    audience of your choice. Distribute it. 

GROUP 2 -- Four Assignments Leading to Outer Speech. They are organized from easiest to hardest and include both actual speech/transcripts and invented speech/scripts. The former is not actually composition, but serves to move the student from oral speech into composition. The latter is actually composition.

1. Duologue -- This is an invention or reproduction of a conversation between two people, written in a play format. The setting is established and each character's name is written before the words he is to speak. This is usually done after the student has practiced improvised speech between two people with a partner so that they become familiar with how it is constructed.

2. Exterior Monologue -- This is a 3-5 minute speech given by one person, in which they express their thoughts to another person. It is first written, then spoken aloud from the written words.

3. Interior Monologue -- This deals with the expression of a person's thoughts and feelings while they are doing something.

4. One-Act Play -- This is a more sophisticated assignment, which involves both dialogue and stage direction. It is written to be performed as an actual one-act play.

Tutoring Do's and Don'ts

DO's
Be well-groomed and keep a professional appearance.3
Do establish a friendly atmosphere.. Introduce yourself to the student and tell them a little about yourself and ask them something about themselves.
Do ask to see some of the student's work to see where they are at before beginning.
Do help the student to choose a topic to write about if he has not already done so. Ask him to do some freewriting and make a list of subjects he is interested in, has written about in the past, or is interested in writing about now. Allow him 10 minutes to do so.
Do ask them if there is anything in particular that they feel they need help with.
Do look interested and maintain good posture.
Do have your tutoring be mostly student-centered. Have the student do the majority of talking and work. Find ways to "nudge" the student into realizing things for himself.
Do concentrate on HOCs (Higher Level Concerns) first.
Do be honest with the student. Don't mislead him about the level of his writing.

DON'Ts
Don't be overly-friendly or too personal. Remember that this is a professional relationship.
Don't the work for the students. Like the old story, "Don't give a man a fish. Teach him to fish for himself."
Don't be teacher-centered in your tutoring. There are times when you do want to give advice, but be sure that you are not lecturing, but tutoring.
Don't allow distractions such as a ringing phone or other things to interfere with the flow of the lesson.
Don't just correct errors or concentrate on LOCs (Lower Order Concerns) before the (Higher Order Concerns) HOCs.
Don't flatter of praise unwarrented work. However, do mention the positive things so he knows he's on the right track

Notes on Understanding Composing

Response to Sondra Perl's article.

I found the concept of "felt sense" was one of the most important ideas in the article. When I write, I refer to what I choose to say as "instinct" rather than the terms "inner voice" or "inspiration" as noted by Perl.  I think of it as a spiritual experience that seems to come from an external source, rather than from yourself as you know yourself to be.

I also liked the discussion about a writer being a reader. I have found that it's sometimes better to stop writing for a while and come back to the material later with fresh eyes. Sometimes it feels as if you are reading somebody's else's work. This is good, because you can see it objectively to assess how clear and easy to understand the writing actually is. Then you can edit it to make it into something that you would find easy to read and understand.

I agree with Ms. Perl's comments that being aware of your methods of writing might hamper them. As mentioned, I feel it is instinct--which just has to be let flow if it is to be effective. It's not really meant to be analyzed because we don't really know where it comes from.