The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

Tutoring the Student Not the LD
56
M. Isabel Chavez
Spring 2005
When students come into the Writing Center, we see them as writers. Usually, we do not know
much about them; we may come to know their major and their year once they fill out the sign up slip or
drop-in form. However, what is clear is that they are seeking help with their writing by entering the
Writing Center door. As writers, students encounter all sorts of problems from writer’s block to a lack of
analysis in their essays to becoming completely frustrated with a writing assignment. These are common
problems for writers, but the writers themselves are not common. This semester I have been lucky to
learn from writers with learning disabilities. Since their disabilities are not physiological, until they
informed me of their learning process problems, I was unaware that talking and writing were not enough.
Some writers need extra help, others need creative ways to learn how to formulate an essay, and others
need explicit lessons on how to write an essay such as pre-writing, writing and revising. Regardless of
the method of process and learning modes, the end result is, and should be, both a product and an
effective method that facilitates learning and writing for student-writers.
As tutors, we are leading writers to assertiveness and independence in their writing skills. We want
students to be confident in their process and finished products. Through collaboration, writers and tutors
arrive at the style that will give writers the tools to be confident and able writers. But collaboration alone
is not enough for some students. Through collaboration, we find that the relationship is give and take: the
writer learns as does the tutor. Collaboration tends to decenter authority in the relationship between tutor
and writer, but for some students, the decentering of authority does not enable them to achieve the tools
they need to be successful writers. Occasionally, students who have challenges that require a more direct
approach than collaboration come into the Writing Center for help.
This semester I have worked with several writers with learning disabilities, mainly auditory
processing problems and short term memory problems. Learning disabilities are not psychological;
moreover, the Learning Disabilities Act of 1968 defines them as “a disorder in one or more of the basic
physiological processes involved in understanding or in using spoken or written languages.” Learning
disabilities are permanent, and throughout life they can range in “expression and severity” (Learning
Disabilities Overview Handout). When I began to work with the writers who had auditory processing and
memory problems, I was unaware of their disabilities until they disclosed them themselves; moreover, it
is against the law to ask a writer if they have a learning disability and then to access information
regarding the nature of the student’s disability. Had it not been for their honesty to try to explain some of
the reasons why they struggled with writing, I would have assumed they were just students who had had
bad experiences with writing in the past or simply did not like writing. Learning disabilities are not due
to “low intelligence, social situations, or economic conditions” (Neff 379). Thus, since we cannot tell by
looking at writers what kind of help all will need before we talk to them, as tutors we need to be open to
different approaches when working with students.
In the Writing Center, we work on the principle of collaboration. As tutors, we do not want to coopt
the students’ work, so we create an environment in which working together, often in a non-directive
way, students receive suggestions or advice on how to improve their writing. Collaboration assumes that
we are all learners in this atmosphere, and hence, both parties contribute to the half an hour or hour
session. However, as I got to know some of my writers, I realized that collaboration without some
explicit information and ways to improve the writing was preventing the writers from moving forward.
One writer, Mari (not writer’s real name) has an auditory processing problem and a short term memory
problem; in class, she struggles to take notes because not only does she sometimes not understand what