Tutoring for Tutors

• Tutor Trac
• The Tutoring Mindset
• The Ins and Outs
• Helping Students at Various Stages
• Battling the Typical Problems
• Resources & Handouts

The Tutoring Mindset

The primary goal of tutoring is to promote student independence.

• You're helping the student, not the assignment.
• Encourage students to take control of tutoring sessions.
• Keep students actively involved.
• Help students learn how to learn. Don't give them answers; help them find their own.

• Hold students accountable.
• Let students share their concerns about the tutoring process.

Students learn best when they feel safe and comfortable.

• Always balance criticism with encouragement.
• Congratulate students on their successes, even the small ones.
• Manage your frustration.

Good tutors take care of themselves.

• The student’s work is the student’s responsibility, not yours. Accept that you can't force them to work harder.
• If you're having trouble working with a student, ask for help.

The Ins and Outs

Opening Sessions

• Take a moment to put the student at ease.
• Ask what, specifically, the student wants to work on.
• When appropriate, suggest other things to work on, too.

Throughout Sessions

• Find ways to help the student become more independent.
• Model good reading, writing, and studying techniques.
• Tell students what you're doing and why.
• Slow down.
• Listen more; speak less.
• Let the student do it.
• Keep track of students’ body language and facial expressions, as well as your own.
• As often as possible, tell students specifically what they've done well.

Closing Sessions

• Explain, or ask the student to explain, what you just did.
• When appropriate, suggest that students try the techniques you used on their own.
• Give students a mini-assignment to work on between now and the next session.
• If a student needs to do more work on the assignment, say so.
• End on a positive note.

Helping Students at Various Stages

When They Haven't Begun

• If students are not prepared for your session, explain how and why they need to prepare.
• Make sure students understand the assignment.
• Read through abstracts/author bios and come up with questions for students to think about while they do their reading.
• Look up unfamiliar words in the assignment sheet, abstract, or the first couple of paragraphs of the reading.
• Try doing the first step of the assignment together, and then send them away to do the rest themselves.

When They Don't Understand the Material

• Ask students to point out confusing places in the text, and re-read those parts together. Stop and explain.
• Make a list of questions for the instructor.
• Gently suggest that the student do the reading again.
• Look up words.
• Make charts, drawings, etc.

Coming Up With Ideas and Drafting Thesis Statements

• Ask questions.
• Refer continually to reading materials and assignment specifications.
• Pick up the pen and write down the student’s ideas in the student’s exact words.
• Be careful not to impose your own ideas on the student’s work.

Improving Organization

• Use colored highlighters to differentiate between topics.
• Make outlines or lists.
• Use Inspiration software.
• Separate topics physically on piles or in folders.

Editing

• Send students to the Writer's Lab.
• Keep students involved. Do not fix errors while students sit by and wait.
• Read the paper out loud, stopping whenever one of you hears something that doesn't sound right.
• Help students learn to fix kinds of errors.

Battling the Typical Problems

Confusion

• Use down-to-earth examples.
• Try visual, auditory, and kinesthetic techniques.
• Substitute everyday words for academic terms.
• Reduce distraction.

Procrastination

• Tell students they need to start earlier.
• Ask why they didn't, and suggest strategies for avoiding procrastination.
• Offer to help make a step-by-step plan for completing the next assignment.

Reticence or Overdependence on Tutors

• Explain to students why they need to be involved during sessions.
• Have students do the bulk of the physical act of writing on their own.
• If they insist on doing an assignment with you at their side, resist giving advice on every phrase. Move a few feet away from them while they work.
• Send them away to work on reasonably sized chunks alone.
• Be encouraging. The most dependent students often lack confidence.

Frustration and Anxiety

• Be relentlessly positive.
• Help the student take one thing at a time.
• Try not to get frustrated and anxious yourself.
• If the student is very tense, don't let yourself mimic his or her posture. Make your body relax physically.
• Slow down, or stop and wait.

Inattention

• Chat for a minute; then gently direct the student back to the task.
• Find a quieter location.
• Get the student physically involved in the work.

Resources & Handouts

• Effective Writers versus Ineffective Writers
• Helpful Questions for Tutoring
• How to Collaboratively Edit Student Papers
• How to Work with Reluctant Writers
• The Writer's Lab and Student Independence
• Tutoring Writing at SALT
• Writing and Student Anxiety
• Learning Strategies

Last modified: April 04 2008 13:58:22.