Observation, Round 4

My fourth session that I observed was quite a bit different than all the ones I'd observed previously. In fact, it sort of broke just about every rule we've been taught about conducting a session thus far. First, the tutor sat down across the table from the student... holding a red pen. The student had completed a full draft of her paper and the assignment sheet with her. The tutor read through the sheet and then had the student read her essay, paragraph by paragraph. As she read, he marked it up with his read pen, and the end of each paragraph, he told her what he thought. He said what he thought looked ok, what needed to be taken out or changed, and what could be elaborated on. He asked a few questions, but the student didn't have too much opportunity to speak. The session definitely reminded me of a professor/ta - student interaction. He did encourage her to build her paper around what she knew - focusing her paper on her own experiences and how that was important to what she was writing about. He asked questions like, "Who's your audience" and "I see a good idea here that you could expand upon" and "I've had to write things like this too, and I understand how frustrating it is." But for the most part, he was very directive in his approach, and he surprised me by saying, after the intro was read, "Ok, this is your thesis."

At the close of the session, the student said that the tutor was very helpful, and from what I saw he undoubtedly was, and the paper will end up being much better per his suggestions. He was very very knowledgable about writing and how to shape the essay to what the professor was expecting. He looked at the ideas of the paper first, and then the structure, also adding help with grammar. I saw that he was making suggestions just as new ways for the student to think about things. So as far as helping with the paper and giving the right kinds of help given the talent of the student and the development of the paper, he was an effective tutor, it just alarmed me that his approach was so contrary to what we've been discussing in class. If I had been the student, I would have been very grateful for his help, but I also would have been a bit intimidated and a bit unsure of my writing abilities when I left.