Keys to having a Successful Tutoring Session

My ideal tutoring session would be to have a collaborative relationship. There should be a line of communication where both the tutor and the tutee are asking questions regarding the writing piece. I feel that the ideal tutoring session should consist of not only the student learning but the tutor learning from the session as well. As Cindi stated in her second observation blog, "What was great about this session was that despite the lack of actual work, there was a lot of conversation going on about the potential of this research paper." Conversation is the key to a successful session, it's always best to understand and know the idea that your student has about their work. Although having physical work will make the session go smoothly, as a tutor it is important to help the writer brainstorm their thoughts and ideas so they can have a sense of direction of where to go with their paper. Conversing with one another is what will create this brainstorm process because therefore the writer will receive feedback that can be valuable for their paper in the long run. As I stated before the tutor will also be learning from this session because now that they have an idea of what their student is writing about, they will know to approach the tutoring session accordingly.

 Making your student feel comfortable is another important key. When you are starting off your session, it is always important to give off a good vibe to the tutee. Good vibes consist of having good body language, being friendly and overall making your tutee feel comfortable enough around you. Going back to Cindi's blog, Cindi had mentioned that, "the student was nervous. I believe her attentiveness however made him feel a lot more comfortable because he opened up rather quickly" Due to the tutor being pleasant to the student, it made him open up more which made the session turn into a very effective one. Another key that's important is to always involve the student in their work. You must constantly ask them questions about their writing piece, ask a lot of open ended questions and most importantly make sure that you as the tutor understand what they are trying to prove in their writing piece. Michelle's third observation blog is a perfect example of the tutor keeping his tutee involved, As Michelle states, "The tutor consistently asked the student to voice their opinion for the brief reaction response that the task is asking for, but the student is not a native English speaker, so they struggled a bit. Still, the the tutor worked diligently to understand the student and make sure that they were writing exactly what they meant. The conversation was very fluid and I saw a lot of effort from both parties." This is very important because sometimes students may have their thoughts together in their mind but aren't able to express this clearly through their writing so it is the tutor's job to ask them what point are they trying to get across in their paper and it again, this all goes back to the communication aspect of tutoring.