Reading Summary and Responses

Chapter 1: The most important point from this chapter is that a tutor and a tutee must set an agenda for the session in order to have a successful meeting. This is an important skill to have as this determines the productivity of the session. Having a plan helps both tutors and tutees alike. This will keep both of them on track and help them remember what goals they want to establish in the session.

Questions or Comments: I thought this was a great point as setting a goal is often the most difficult task in a tutoring session. I wondered if there were some solid examples (charts?) that tutors use to set goals in their sessions.

Chapter 2: The most important point in this chapter is that the tutor must distinguish between what will hinder the session or help the session.  The author emphasizes that sometimes if the tutor is too cautious to help the tutee guide his/her own work, then it becomes unproductive and passive and therefore, the tutor must know how to navigate and balance his/her involvement with the tutee.

Questions or Comments: My question for this chapter is how does one navigate through such complex power dynamic in a 50 minute session? If the power begins to shift, what are some of the practical things we can do as tutors?

Chapter 3: This chapter especially emphasizes on the need for tutor’s flexibility and dynamic open mind when it comes to difficult situations with establishing rapport with the tutee. This is very true in many cases because as tutors, we encounter a lot of students who want us to check for grammar errors or whatnot. If their needs are not met, tutees and tutors get upset and the session falls apart. This chapter emphasizes that we must learn how to balance this dynamic well and establish rapport at the right moment.

Questions or Comments: I thought this chapter’s example was great as this happens a lot in a session when a tutee is not establishing a connection although we are reaching out. If you must let the tutee know that you cannot help them with grammar but it is all they want, what should we say to them other than changing subject or shifting attention to other parts of the paper?

Chapter 4: This chapter offers variety of suggestions in terms of dealing with students who are not likely to engage in a session due to various reasons. The chapter goes over some of the reasons and offer helpful tips on how to deal with it. For example, the chapter emphasizes on the power of empathy. Many students respond to such connection. The chapter also suggests tutors to reach out and give them questions to think about as well as time and space for them to think and write.

Questions or Comments: I thought the suggestions were great. The power of empathy I think works the best in a lot of situations. Some students are truly shy and some students simply refuse to cooperate. I think it would be great to include that tutors must not blame themselves if, by some unfortunate reason, the connection doesn’t completely establish and the tutee does not want to participate as tutoring session is a par of a long process.

Chapter 5: This chapter deals with various issues but in particular, it talks about the emotionally charged sessions where both tutees and tutors face emotionally sensitive issues as paper topics. This chapter gives us insight on how to deal with such situations and what to consider. The chapter argues that we as tutors must understand and provide comfortable environment for tutees to share their difficult experiences. The article also argues that in cases when the tutees use derogatory term in their papers, it must be pointed out and corrected in diplomatic terms. Lastly, the article argues that along with these issues, the tutor must consider his or her own emotions in dealing with such situations and try to turn the situation into a productive writing session.

Questions of Comments: Although it seems unlikely, often times, academic essays are just as personal as personal essays. It becomes the student’s world.  I believe understanding how to respond to such emotional aspects of the essay will enrich our tutoring skills.