Second Tutoring Observation

September. 18, 2014

              In my second tutoring observation session at the Writing Center, it was very different from the first visit. A student came in who was also in ENG 101. She was given a essay assignment that she had to write about herself regarding her goals in life. Right from the beginning, I felt like the student didn't want to be there. Her body language and face just looked like she didn't want to be bothered. It seems like she just came in the Writing Center because it was a requirement from her professor.
              The tutor firstly, took a look at the assignment that the teacher gave the student. The tutor then read the student's draft that her teacher corrected. Then the tutor discussed what she needed to include in her essay based on the comments that her professor wrote. After the tutor read the essay she explained to the student that she had to be more specific in getting her point across to the reader. She mentioned, that she should include more information about her life, why she wanted to join the navy and what were her long term goals. After that the tutor discussed the use of grammar in the  essay, they went over when to use commas and conjunctions which I thought were not the main problems in the essay. I think that the student needed help developing her details about why she wanted to join the navy such as the reason and purpose. The tutor then went and got several worksheets on grammar usage when writing that she went over with student. The student looked bored like she wanted to leave the session. After the tutor went over the worksheets with the student she then had her practice some examples that they did together.
                Like we discussed in class of LOC's (Low Order Concerns), this tutoring session was an example of that. This session was based on a teacher-centered tutoring. A portion of the session was based on telling the student what to include in her essay such as details and the majority of the session was based on grammar usage.
               The tutor was more concerned with spelling, grammar, and word structure with the student essay rather than developing main points in the essay  that could have helped develop a thesis statement.