My First Tutoring Experience

My first tutoring experience was something that i will never forget.  My tutee was asking many questions and that made me less nervious about the whole tutoring process.  There were many things that the tutee wanted to learn and she asked a lot of questions. she was the leader of the conversation and that made me less nervous because I was not the only one in the session that was trying to communicte. My tutee made me try to understand some things that i thought i did not really know and she made me look up things that i would not have looked up unless i needed to use these terms for my own work. i thin\k that this session is helping me to learn as well as it is helping the tutee to learn too.

Evaluation of CATW

 The essay gives us a summary of the article and it talked about the authors most important idea of the article.  The essay also gave outside experience of the need people have to get a new phone because it is the modern thing to do. I think that the essay makes it clear that the student understands the ideas of the article and that the author's most important idea is that advertisements are shown everywhere and that it is polluting everyone's mind. There were a few mistakes most of them were spelling, but the language use were good. The student essay was good and I think that this essay will pass.

Discussing Sondra Perl

In Sondra Perl essay the important key aspects are Felt Sense, Retrospective Structuring and Projective Structuring.  What confuses me is that they are all used together and that when I uses one the other one is automatically on my mind. I think that my favorite of these three aspects is Projective Structuring, because it allows me to think about what the audience what to hear.  It also allows me to be a part of the audience and to think in a way that the audience themselves might be thinking about the topic.  The most useful aspect to me is Felt Sense.  I think it is important to know what I want to talk about and try to talk about it within my topic.   It makes me look back and ask myself if this is really what I want to talk about.  It really give me a sense of what I want write. When I ask myself the question if this is what I really what to say it make me think about what I really want to get through to my audience and then I could have a better way of writing what I really mean and what i want them to know.

Tutoring Do's and Don'ts

Do
-  Let the Tutee explain what they need help with.
-  Help them to understand what you are trying to explain.
-  Let them ask questions and you ask them questions if you think they don't understand.
-  Talk about the topic.
-  Try to get the Tutee talking and help her to get her ideas out about the topic.
-  If the Tutee is not on the topic try to talk about something that is related to the topic that will help
     her to get her thoughts out.
-  If the Tutee needs help with sentences or paragraphs you can give them sheets from the writing center.



Don't
-  Do the tutee's work for them.
-  Ignore what they are telling you they need help with.
-  Do other things while they are explaining their ideas to you.
-  Talk to much about yourself or your experience with their topic.
-  Talk about what's going on in you own life and forget about the topic.
-  Tell them what to write try to let them think of what they should do.
-  let the Tutee sit there and do nothing the whole hour.
-  Talk on your cell phone while you are in a tutoring session.
-  Eat or drink while you are tutoring because the tutee might not be getting your full attention.
-  Make fun or say that a person paper is not good.
-  let the Tutee know that you think that their paper is not good.

How I feel about becoming a Writing Tutor

I am excited about becoming a Writing Tutor. I am also nervous about becoming a Writing Tutor.  The reason I am excited is because I want to experience what it would be like to engage in a lesson with a student.  I want to be a teacher and I think that this would be a good opportunity to see what it is like to be in the environment in which a student comes to me for help.  I am also nervous because if the student don't gain anything from what I am trying to get across to them then I may not be a good teacher.  I think that in the case of having no experience with a student it will be a scary thing to do, but I am hoping that I will at least help the student with one thing that can improve their skills as a writer. I think that maybe helping them, it can also help me become a better writer too.  Maybe, then I can look at my own work the way I will be looking at their work and ask myself what can be done? Or what needs work? I really do feel that tutoring may help me to improve my skills as a writer as well.

Sondra Perl

    Sondra Perl, who is an English Professor at Lehman College have many ideas about the writing process.  Some of her ideas include the recursive process and writing whatever you learn can help you to learn better.  However, her most important and enduring contribution to the writing process is asking your self questions.  She believes that a student develops their own voice when they ask themselves questions while they are writing. 
    According to the article “Through Teachers’ Eyes: The Portrait of Teachers at Work;
        Teachers’ goals of helping students find their own voiced inspired two             curricular choices: the first choice reflected the teachers’ uniformly held             belief that students’ writing is “most real” when they write about the             feelings and events of their lives.  Most of the writing in this classroom             took the form of experimental narrative or description. (Mirel. P129)
Mirel explains that students find their voice by writing about events that takes place in their lives.  Mirel also explains that teachers and students practices Perl’s contribution to the writing process by asking themselves questions.  They practices a way to find their voice by asking themselves questions and writing about feelings and events.
    In the article “A Community for Writers: A Workshop Course in Writing”, “The crucial operation in the Perl process is when you pause and say, ’what’s my feelings for what I am getting at?’”.(Elbow)  Elbow explains exactly what Sondra Perl wants us to stop and ask ourselves.  She want us to figure out whatever our feelings are towards whatever we are writing.  Than we can get a sense if we are headed in the right direction or not.  This particular comment takes us back to the most enduring contribution of Perl to the writing process.  We ask ourselves the question and our inner voice helps to become better writers.
    In the article “Understanding Composing”:
        Everyone in the group were given the topic in the morning during class             was told to compose later on that day in a place where they would be             comfortable and relatively free from distractions. (Perl  p.363)
According to Perl it is two very different aspects of looking at writing when one speaks out loud and on the other hand one writes.  When speaking out loud one can hear the questions that they ask themselves. It would give them a sense of what they are doing wrong.  They can also find out whatever they can do to make their writing better.  In many cases when people writes they makes mistakes it is easily fixed when they listen to their questions.  It may help them to get back on tract and know what they should be writing about.
    In “Understanding Composing” it states:
        Many writers reduce projective structuring to a series of rules or criteria             for evaluating finished discourse. These writers ask ‘Is what I’m writing             correct?’ and ‘Does it conforms to the rules I’ve been taught?’ while these             concerns are important they often over shadow all other and lock the             writer in the position of writing solely or primarily for the approval of             readers. (Perl  p368)
When writing students that ask themselves questions have a better understanding of the piece that they are writing.  When they ask themselves “Is what I’m writing correct?”  this will help them to get a closer look of whatever they are writing about.  In their writing they have to follow rules.  When following these rules it makes them write better.  Most students are thought to write a certain way and when they stop to ask themselves these questions it will help them to become better writers.
    In conclusion, the most important and enduring idea Sondra Perl has contributed to the field of theorizing the writing process was the idea of asking yourself questions while you are writing.  When students write after asking themselves what they are doing then they get a better sense of what is to be done. Sondra Perl’s idea is to stop and think of what you are writing and ask yourselves questions such as; Is what I’m writing correct” or “Does it conforms to the rule that I’ve been taught”  it help you to get a better sense of what you are writing.  In my point of view Sondra Perl have many great idea that was contributed to the writing process but the most important and enduring is asking yourself questions while you write give you a better perspective to your own writing.




Mirel, Barbara Ellis; Through Teachers’ Eyes: Portrait of Writing Teachers at Work;     Educational source spring 88, Vol.19 Issue 1, p.128, lep    

Elbow, Peter and Lanoff, Pat; A Community of Writers; A Workshop Course in Writing     University of Massachusetts at Amherst; State University of Ne York at Stony     Brook. Copyright (p. 118-120 124 126-128)

Perl, Sondra; Understanding Composing, College Composition abd Communication, Vol.     31 No. 4 Dec. 1980 p. 363-369