The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

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Griswold, Gary. “Postsecondary Reading: What Writing Center Tutors Need To Know”. Journal of College Reading and Learning 37 (2006): 61-72. EBSCO. Web. 19 Apr. 2010. Tierney, Robert, Soter, Anna, O'Flahavan, John, and McGinley, William. "The Effects of Reading and Writing Upon Thinking Critically". Reading Research Quarterly 24 134- 173. EBSCO. Web. 16 April 2010. 80
Reading Out Loud: An Effective Strategy to Engage ESL Writers 81 Julia Bursell Spring 2004 How is writing like swimming? Give up? Answer: The psycholinguist Eric Lenneberg (1967) once noted, in a discussion of “species specific” human behavior that human beings universally learn to walk and to talk, but that swimming and writing are culturally specific, learned behaviors. We learn to swim if there is a body of water available and usually only if someone teaches us. We learn to write if we are members of a literate society, and usually only if someone teaches us (Brown 334). I often felt that a similar statement could be made about tutoring: We learn to tutor if we are members of a community that values interaction, and usually only if we are able to learn from one another. I started this semester with many questions. Although I still have questions on what the best approaches to tutoring may be, this semester has been a success largely because writers I worked with shared their time and their ideas about writing. Each of them taught me something about what encourages good writing, even if sometimes we both learned the hard way. In particular, working with ESL writers taught me that while native and non-native English speakers have much in common when approaching writing, non-native speakers face unique challenges. I would like to describe some of those challenges, and an approach that we arrived at to make our sessions more effective. Throughout the first few weeks of active tutoring, I tried hard to remember the guidelines for promoting good writing. Experiences in the Writing Center, discussions in the classroom, and readings from the texts emphasized active involvement. In Understanding ESL Writers, Leki asserts that “Feedback on the writing of both natives and non-natives is generally more effective if it is given when the students have the opportunity to incorporate the comments into their writing rather than if it appears on a dead, final text” (127). The advice was logical; the tough part was applying it to the best effect. To begin with, discussions of whether or not to incorporate comments, or interaction of any kind seemed strained. Writers I met with were congenial, but many, especially those for whom English was not their primary language, seemed hesitant to say much. I was the only one interested in active conversation. Remembering good advice, particularly sections from The Tutoring Book on “Learning to Listen and to Question,” I tried to wait out our “loud” silent pauses. I could see we were both struggling. These were their words, why weren’t they eager to share their thoughts on writing? Realizing this was unproductive, I searched for ways to engage the writers. As our sessions progressed, the students (and I) relaxed a bit, and they began to respond with more than “OK,” or “I guess so.” From our conversations, I began to understand that their stoic behavior was really deference, or respect, shown to the “authority figures” (tutors) at the Writing Center. Early in the semester, the reading material emphasized the importance of establishing a peer relationship, and collaboration during tutoring. I found that for some ESL students, this only adds to their tension and sense of awkwardness. Coming from family backgrounds or traditions in which teachers’ opinions should be accepted as spoken, raising questions or even offering a firm opinion might be seen as impolite. Contributing to an “authority image” is the fact that I am two to three decades older than most of the students. Although that was unlikely to change, I was determined to be more approachable and establish a collaborative atmosphere during our sessions. Asking writers to read out loud proved to be a big step toward achieving this. It began as an experiment, asking a couple of writers to read their essays out loud to me. My goal was to test several ideas:
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The Tutoring Book Fall 2011 Edition
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�� Diverse Students and Cont
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Helpful Strategies 5 Savannah Corti
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Draw Upon Other Tutors Experiences
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and that even the sessions that did
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What is one thing you wish you had
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eceiving tutoring. But don’t let
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helped me see that. As a result, ex
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One Time Wonders: 30 Minutes to an
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No Draft? No Problem! 19 Kathleen U
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10-4, Little Buddy: Two Way Convos
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her paper, I noticed she hadn’t a
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mentors and sounding boards for the
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�On this page, the top link leads
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Page 31 and 32: • Argument • Writing about Lite
Page 33 and 34: The WAC Clearinghouse (http://wac.c
Page 35 and 36: “This exercise, popularized by Pe
Page 37 and 38: active problem solving and critical
Page 39 and 40: Directive or Not? Adapting an Appro
Page 41 and 42: essay meet the page limit is no lon
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Page 61 and 62: thinking about it and without reali
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Page 73 and 74: Tips for Tutoring Reading 73 Kathry
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Page 91 and 92: experience on the tutoring road. I
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Page 101 and 102: Worldview: the Continent, Asia and
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Page 121 and 122: 121 Katie Johnson Fall 2004 The Wri
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Tutoring for the Grade: Finding the
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The Writing Center and the WPJ 133
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available. Students need to make su
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Essay #1 (60 minutes/90 minutes for
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“Learning to write is a complex p
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Analyzing Rhetorical Situations in
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word choice and the attitude that r
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Social Constructivism in Action 145
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Social Constructivist Strategies fo
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The Writing Center as a Bridge: A P
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Situated Acts of Writing and Tutori
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Kastman Breuch, Lee-Ann M. “Post
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The Tutoring Book - California State University, Sacramento

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