Tutoring Developmental Writing Oh, The Places You’ll Go! Case Studies Teri Mates Passaic County Community College

Scenario 1: Fool Proof The student wants you to proofread his essay, due tomorrow, for his Basic Writing class. You immediately notice several severe problems before you finish the first paragraph. You know better than to “fix” the errors for the student, but the student tells you his grade is borderline, and this essay needs to be perfect, or else he will fail the course. How do you handle this situation?

1: Personal Responsibility, Time Management, and Prioritizing Tasks What we teach best isn’t always our subject area. This student has just made his crisis yours by not planning ahead and making a last minute rally to avoid a failing grade. Whether he passes or not is not the result of what you do or don’t do. Work with the student as you normally would, and remind him that how we plan our tasks has more bearing on our success than who we can get to fix our problems.

Scenario 2: Making Something Out of Nothing Denise has a three-page essay due this evening on Alice Walker’s The Color Purple. She comes to you to help her “get her ideas together,” but when you ask her specific questions, you discover that she saw the movie but didn’t read the book, and has nothing written down. How do you help this student?

2: An Unprepared Student Is Our Least Favorite Customer Lack of time management and planning again plays into this scenario. However, at least the first student brought an essay. Denise wants you to make magic without forcing her to work any harder than necessary. Short of politely declining to work with this student, I would suggest that she base her paper on the movie The Color Purple and level with her instructor about not having read the book. Her grade likely will suffer, but sometimes that needs to happen before students realize that it isn’t high school anymore….

Scenario 3: Ghostwriter A student repeatedly states to you that she is not good in writing, and that she has gotten by in other classes by having her cousin the English major write her at- home essays for her. How do you help this student? Secondly, should you inform anyone else about the fact that this student has not written her own essays?

3: Can We Say “Academic Integrity”? Likely, this student has shared her “getting over” story because an instructor already suspects the student isn’t writing her own at-home essays herself. As educators, we have a responsibility to help the student by helping them to learn. First, speak to the student about what has prompted this confession. Then speak to a staff supervisor, who might then involve the student’s counselor and instructor. A student might view this as innocent behavior, but it is cheating and needs to be dealt with accordingly.

Scenario 4: It Sounds Ok To Me A student has received his midterm back and asks for your help revising it. He says his instructor’s comments mostly don’t make sense, and that some of her changes “don’t sound right.” As you read through the feedback and clarify it for the student, he remains resistant. How do you handle this situation?

4: The Value of Criticism (and Sports Analogies) It’s not news that many students view courses outside of their major as irrelevant and a waste of their time. Here’s where a bit of charm works wonders. Ask the student what his major is. Remind the student what kind of writing his field likely will require, and that he might as well start learning how to improve his writing now. Remind the student that, like any skill, one can make an ok effort, but that effort can be improved upon. (cont’d)

4: The Value of Criticism (and Sports Analogies), cont’d. Find out what the student likes to do for fun, or takes seriously as an activity. Often, this is some type of sport or music. Let’s use basket- ball as an example. Is a coach going to settle for so-so play on the court? If the student wants to go pro, should he settle for ok? Any suggestion for improvement is valuable, not a personal attack. Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and if you can communicate this idea to the student, you will have done your job well.

Scenario 5: Tutor Go-Round A student says she’s worked with other tutors and they didn’t help her. She says she’s heard good things about you, and knows you’ll help her write her essays better. You pinpoint a problem with verb tense and help her with that. Two days later, you notice her working with another tutor, who also seems to be “helping just a little” on the same essay. A day later, you see her working with a third tutor. How do you handle this situation? Do you need to handle this situation?

5: Too Many “Cooks” It is a given that a student might work better with one tutor over another, usually due to compatible learning styles. When students start “tutor-hopping,” troubles begin. Each tutor offers help on one or two areas. Multiply that by three different tutors, and that’s a professional editor with three different faces. Sooner or later, one tutor might seem to contradict what another tutor has stated, and chaos will ensue. (cont’d)

5: Too Many “Cooks” cont’d. Careful record-keeping on which tutor does what and when with a student can help. Establishing a policy in one-on-one tutoring centers that requires students set appointments with one tutor only helps. However, with drop-in centers, this problem is harder to track. As a tutor, you might want to bring this concern to a supervisor and open a dialogue on how best to deal with this problem in general and the student in particular.

Discussion Board Prompt What techniques have you found helpful in helping students to become independent and self-motivated learners?