My first observational tutoring session was with Morgan at 3 o’clock. She was very polite, and I’ll admit that it was nerve-wracking to ask someone if you can observe them doing their job. Not wanting to be too apparent, I sat at a table behind Morgan and her tutee after getting permission from her to listen to the session. She opened the session by asking the tutee about his topic and questioning how he was going to formulate the paper. Her questions were beneficial and important to the topic. She let her tutee talk about what he wanted and what his draft consisted of. They discussed how his ideas were going to work out. When she didn’t understand about the topic at hand, she was ready to question for her own clarity and to help the student better his paper with her knowledge. They worked together on the Google Doc, sitting together, as she offered advice on word placement, correct word choices and the placement of sentences. In order to give structure to the essay, Morgan offered suggestions on where the student could move certain ideas to give more flow to his paper.
The student learned by himself the clarity of his sentences and how to reinforce his ideas. Meanwhile, Morgan offered ways to help him with transition sentences. The student was hesitant about what his paper would entail and wasn’t confident about his word choices, but Morgan’s calm demeanor helped the tutee formulate his words. The tutee was obviously struggling with the paper. As well as helping him formulate ideas, she was willing to fix minor mechanical errors. At some parts in the session, Morgan read sections of the draft out loud to try to get some sense of the section in question. By reading the paragraphs, the student could hear any mistakes or errors that he wanted to fix in the paper.
The student had a quote in his paper that was too long. Morgan offered him different ways of shortening it and talked about in-text citations. The student slowly but surely read the next sections of his paper aloud. While Morgan fixed minor punctuation and mechanical errors, she explained to the student why she was making those changes. They then took it sentence by sentence. While the student read the next sentence, he agreed that it was too heavy even before Morgan could say it. She helped him to reconstruct it with his original idea. When she was unsure of the topic that was being said, Morgan was sure to ask questions to keep herself as informed as the student was about the topic at hand. When the student had trouble with using certain tools on Google Docs, Morgan was eager to help. As the session went on, the student gained more confidence and was able to point out certain errors in the paper himself; Morgan was always beside him to guide him. She reminded him to cite his sources, explaining why the paper needs them.
Morgan asked where the student attained certain quotes in order to make sure the paper was properly formulated. The session lasted around 40 minutes. Towards the end of it, Morgan had brought up that the student needed to do an interview which he hadn’t done. She has covered all the basics. The dedication of her willingness to help the student was apparent with how much detail and time was spent on the paper. Towards the end of the session she asked the student if they had any questions or concerns and made sure to ask if the student wanted her to email the teacher afterwards.
– Ann Doychak
