11/24

I've been thinking about what I wanted to write about distance tutoring and realize that I have very conflicting feelings on the subject. On one hand, it seems like such an efficient use of time. I'm a big planner and when it comes to utilizing time wisely, I get pretty excited. That's really nerdy; I'm aware. I just live a very compartmentalized life, especially when it comes to school work since I don't have a lot of free time.
On the other hand, its difficult when there is no facial expression or body language to read. I rely on this a lot in my tutoring sessions and there seems to be no discernable way to tell if the student understands what I'm telling them if they are shy, or are afraid to appear stupid. From the perspective of the student, its this kind of person that I feel would take advantage of online tutoring most, but how do I know they're getting and absorbing the information they require?

class 11/11

Very recently, I came across an issue that Ortoleva brought up, referring to trying to help someone with a biology paper. Ouch! I don't have a problem with words I don't understand because typically, grammar rules are universal. However, the way the paper was set up was so unorthodox to me that it threw me off a little. I asked a bunch of questions, making sure that he knew for sure that that was the way it should look and he seemed confident that it was. Really, the point of the visit was because of a requirement from his teacher, and he admitted that he just slapped something down on paper for me to read. I politely perused it and sent him on his way to, of course, revise. The question this brings up to me is, "Why do we need familiarity in a text in order to tutor well?" All of the things we do in the writing center don't have anything to do with the subject matter of the writing. This is evident from the articles we have read written about sexist or otherwise offensive topics.
Also, Ortoleva talks about a doctoral and grad students coming into the writing center quite a bit. I'm not sure how many doctoral students we have on campus and I know there aren't many grad students, but I found it odd that a doctoral student would come to the writing center. The only reason I say that is because all of the tutors we have are undergrads and for that reason only, I wouldn't feel like we are qualified to help someone at that education level. Maybe I'm wrong, but I know that I would feel apprehensive and a little intimidated about helping a doctoral student with his writing. Am I alone here?
I like that Ortoleva writes about when to be text-centered and when to be writer-centered instead of preaching for one correct way to do a tutoring session. After reading about how he treated all of the students as individuals, and how the upper level students had very focused goals about what they wanted accomplished, it made a little more sense to me why they would like to utilize the writing center. However, if I were a grad student, I don't know if I would want help from someone the likes of me, with less education. I guess I can't assume that just because someone graduated from college that they are good writers. I think that's sort of the point of this article; to take every situation and treat it individually only with the goal to make the writer feel like something good was accomplished because of the experience.

class 11/04

While reading the first article, I began to look back and try to remember if I had tutored someone with a learning disability so far. My next thought was how would I necessarily know? Learning disabilities come in many different varieties, some of which are not as obvious as others. When a student has dyslexia, by the time they reach college level, they have probably learned the tools they need to work around it. I believe it is important that tutors specifically, but everyone should be aware of the fact that learning disabilities are the result of a physiological problem and not because the student is unitelligent. I would like to believe that if a student were to come to the writing center and disclose the fact that he had a learning diability that we would be equipped to handle it, but I don't know that we are. I know for sure that I'm not. I'm glad we are covering this so that I will know how to be a benefit to a student with a disability that comes in for help.
The Burton article was of great interest to me, being a "thirty-something" student. I don't know if many people know this, even though its not something I try to hide. It simply doesn't come up in conversation. Having said this, it never before ocurred to me that an older student may be more comfortable if they know I'm closer to their age. I have thought about this before, and I sort thought they might think I would be less qualified to tutor them because they would wonder what I've been doing with my life all this time, besides furthering my education, and furthermore wonder, "If this person is so good at writing, why did it take her so long to go back to school?" This may totally be paranoia or insecurity on my part, but it makes me feel better that this article puts a positive spin on the fact that I am a nontraditional tutor in the writing center. Also, even though I am a notraditional student in terms of my age, I do not exhibit a lot of the characteristics most of them have, such as a family or coming back to school for a second degree, since this will be my first Bachelor's, so this article was helpful to me in terms of imagining how other older students feel. On the inside, I probably have more in common with them than I think.

class 11/04