Riley Journal 1

As a science major and a biology and chemistry tutor I identify primarily with Aimee.  I frequently came across frantic students who although they knew a topic just couldn’t quite grasp it and therefore worked themselves up about.  The student Aimee had was  most likely stressed do to an up coming quiz or test that they felt unprepared or felt like they were drowning in new material. I have seen many clients like this, coming in a throwing a bunch of handout and notes and books on the desk and combing through almost out of breath trying to find what they wanted to go over, or those students that came with a list of hundreds of questions.  The problem was they expected me to just tell them the answer to each and move on.  I really liked and can relate with the phrase from Aimee, “They “struggle,”, I give them a “clue,” they get it, then they struggle some more, and so it goes,” I used this same approach, as we were taught at TJ’s, of countering the students question with a simpler question that leads them on the right track.  Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day teach a man to fish and you feed him for a life time.  Also as a science tutor I frequently see students come in speaking in only numbers and figures and one way to help them slow down and also understand what they are themselves are doing is to ask them not what a number is but how they got that number.  Aimee did this by asking “What are you getting those numbers for?”  I feel that questioning the student in order to get them to come upon the answer themselves is a tactic that TJ’s has taught me, and that both I and apparently Aimee have used to great success.

 

Journal 1

            Due to the nature of the class I’m tutoring, most of my tutoring sessions tend to be like Ashleigh’s. In a perfect world, we would have been in every class our clients have been in, and know their material front and back. But from time to time a student comes in for help with a paper-or studying for a test-where they know the content better than their tutor. What do we do when that happens? Hopefully not send them away—though sometimes it may seem like the easiest solution. I thought Ashleigh did an excellent job stepping back from the content and focusing on the student’s learning strategies. While they couldn’t review to bulk of the material in their session, Ashleigh was able to give the student the tools she needed to study for her test. Surely the student would have benefited from a tutor who had taken the course before; but the time spent in her session was not wasted. I would feel completely out of my element trying to help someone review content I was not familiar with; but there are other parts to our job than just going over content. Focusing on those is still an effective way to spend a session, and clients will still be better off for the time spent with you.

            I think that everyone can relate to clients such as the one Julia had to tutor. We can tell our clients to come to our sessions prepared until the cows come home, but some of them still will not get the memo. There’s only so much work that can be done with a book and a reluctant client. Notes and other study tools are the best way for us to discern how to use our sessions in the most effective way. Without them, it is much harder to gather a clear picture of the student’s learning style. Additionally, there’s no way for us to see what outside materials the professor is bringing in. It is highly likely that the students in these sessions are there for us to do their work for them—and sometimes they get away with it like Julia’s did. And while Julia came up with excellent strategies after the session was over, it’s much harder to do so mid-session. I think the best way to deal with these types of clients is to stay aware of how much work you end up doing. If a client remains disengaged throughout the entire session, then you have to change some things up. Finding a non-confrontational way to send the message, “I’m not going to do your work” is tough; but preventing a tutoring session where the student takes advantage of you is well worth the effort.

 

Journal #1

After reading the french tutoring session with Omar, I believe he did apply the good method to adapt to the client.  Indeed it does not seem like an easy case, and even though i have not started yet i can imagine myself facing that situation, and i think i would probably panick a little after giving a glance at the paper. I believe online translators are the worst thing you could do, it might be helpful for one word or two, if you do not have a diccionary within reach, but after it is literal transition that makes no sense. “La méthode” seems like the best way to proceed in this case, even though i am impressed cause i could not write upside down! Maybe read upside down, but even then i would quickly get tired! I find the reading out loud part essential too, because many people seem to be stressed by having to read out loud especially if they have to read their own paper. By having helped a few people around me i saw that most of the time people try to work with intuition, however grammar does not work like that and the first step is learning the grammar rules and then put them into application, but not trying to guess or make up their own rule…
In the end, i believe that in the foreign language study you will rarely have two clients very similar, and you have to adapt to their needs and situate their weaknesses quickly.

 

It is interesting to see how different clients have different ways of learning. Being a Spanish tutor, I have found that clients who learn orally and visually benefit for different methods.  People who learn orally benefit from practicing outloud.  Practicing through repetition, these clients learn the most when we write the tenses first and then I ask them to write what they remember.  Then at the end of the session I ask them to tell me the new things they learn and what they knew from before.  For example, this method works when teaching the difference between imperfect and preterite.  For visual learners, I teach them the tenses by writing them down.  Then, I ask them to write the tenses to see what they have learned.  When I identify a visual learner, I find that this method is very effective because they learn from looking at and writing down the tenses.

 

Journal 1 Ryan Maleknia

Some of the tutors were unfortunate enough to get to work with the dreaded “unprepared client”! Julia Humphrey’s passive and anti-notetaking client is every tutors worst nightmare. It is extremely difficult and frustrating trying to explain a topic with somebody who has no background knowledge on the subject because they haven’t read the chapter, their notes, etc… For such a client Julia pointed out a subtle, but I think very important, technique that would keep the client a bit more engaged, and that was sitting on the same side of the table. If you sit next to the client there isn’t that awkwardness of trying to read the book upside down, or having to take turns to read the text. If you sit next to them you can read the text together and point out important points as you go, which is a great technique for “activating” a passive client.

One of Margaux’s sessions mentioned in the blog involved what seems to be the average TJ’s client. The student came in prepared but at the same time had questions on the topic. Margaux used open-ended questioning to help guide the client to the answer, without explicitly telling them what the answer was, or how to get there. This technique seems to be very affective. It makes the student do their own work, and I feel that when they find the route to the answer on their own that there is a much greater chance they will remember it when their wonderful tutor isn’t around.

Another technique that I noticed in Margaret used was forming a connection, on a personal level, with the client in an effort to help them feel more comfortable. Margaret remembered a class she and the client had together so they could relate. I have found this to be a very important part of being a tutor. If the client feels uncomfortable around the tutor they will hold back and the session will not be as successful. On the other hand, if they feel at ease around the tutor they will ask more questions and be more active in the session.

 

Journal 1

When it comes to some clients, I’ve had better conversations with brick walls.  I’ve seen shoulder shrugs, head nodding, heard mumbling, I don’t know, and I give up.  Statistics is not the easiest subject to conceptualize especially at the introductory level without a knowledge base of the statistical jargon that is used: correlation coefficient, coefficient of determination, z-scores, p-values, marginal probability, joint probability, regression lines and confidence intervals.  One must first learn the language of statistics.

Passive learners are not my problem.  If my clients were content with sitting in class and allowing their sponge-like brain to absorb the methodologies of statistics then they wouldn’t be coming to me.  I get the kinesthetic and visual learners, the ones who need to see it worked out, made tangible, and approachable.  Good luck to anyone who tries to take a “hands on” approach to statistics.  Repetition is my forte:  try this way, now you do it, what do you do now, remember what I did, and repeat.  Unlike the “reluctant participant” that Julia had, I get the go getters, the ones that are not afraid of temporary failure to achieve permanent success.  For that I am grateful. 

I am a statistical Houdini.  I have learned that my experience with statistics is nothing more than a bag of tricks and a firm knowledge of when to use them.  It is this experience and these techniques that I try passing on to my clients. It does them no good if I simply help them with their homework.  I must convey the meaning of the statistics problems, provide examples of when this approach or that equation must be used and then quiz them on such topics.  Crash training has given me some of these tools and as my clients learn statistics I am learning how to become a better statistics tutor.    

 

Journal 1

As a language tutor myself, I could most identify with the session with Jane Lombardi as a SPN tutor. Her student was struggling with the subjunctive verb tense, I fortunately have not had to deal with advanced students in this verb tense in French; however, I have had to tutor phrases and grammar concepts nonexistent in English. As a native Spanish speaker, I see these rules as corresponding in French so they just make sense to me, but by helping out native English speakers, it has made me appreciate a more structured form of the French language. I have had to deal with direct and indirect objects in French so far with the tutor students and these are existent in English, however, the replacing of these before the verb is what tends to confuse most students. Through helping several students on the same topic and feedback from Mme Mésavage, I have been able to better help the students.

Another language tutor, Becky, caught my eye in the reviews. She had a peculiar appointment because she was reviewing a composition of a 101 student that was almost completely perfect. Again, I have not had to deal with this yet in French but I have seen students writing out their thoughts in English first and then translating. I recommend students to veer away from translating and rather to start writing in French right from the start, since their cognitive skills in French will only ameliorate this way. This was an interesting session to read about and good to keep me alert and ready for sessions like these to happen.

 

Journal #1- Kevin Krughoff

One thing that resonated with me very quickly when reading the observations was the varying degrees of interaction and active participation that you have amongst the clientelele.  In other words, some clients will come in and just say something like, “I just don’t get it” (referring to the entire chapter), haven’t read the chapter, and have no test/quiz questions or problems out of the book to work on.  When asked what specifically is confusing, its hard to know how to guide the session when you get an answer like, “just… everything, I can’t get this stuff.”  Trying to calm down and pace clients like how Aimee did is something I don’t believe I’ve experienced yet, but I feel like I would much rather that be the case than having to try and teach a client an entire chapter and improvise a lesson plan.   And this is not always the case, nor is it even the majority of the cases I’ve seen, but I’m coming to terms with how students view the session… as if I’m going to have some sort of action plan waiting to go over with them when they get here.  When I get more proactive clients, on the other hand, its much more enjoyable.  In these cases I can identify what the problem is, where the client went wrong, explain it (perhaps in several different ways), and then do some practice problems, before finally asking the client to repeat the whole process back to me.  The way Grace would provide hints and recognize the significance of the struggle reminds me of my own technique (see Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development); its important to gradually wean a client off of advice/hints over the course of the session to make sure s/he can do it in a testing situation.

 

Ryan Webb, Journal 1

The tutors in the observations from last fall have used some techniques that I know I will need to master to become a better economics tutor down the line. Currently, I have had only three different students sign up for tutoring sessions, so I have yet to encounter many of the types of students that are presented here. The observation that jumped at me right away was John’s encounter with a very active learner (mostly because we are both economics tutors). I have yet to have an economics student come in and participate actively with me to try and figure problems out (but I look forward to it). I can relate to his inability to have every question mastered that a student asks, while at the same time I also get the student involved with me in trying to figure it out. John’s observation helped reinforce the idea that I already had to not lecture the student or reteach it to them, but make them master it by explaining it in their own words and giving them extra examples that may not be in the book, but are the same structure as some in the book.

Unlike John, most of my students thus far have not been thoroughly prepared when they have come to their tutoring sessions. When this occurs I do things like make them read important sections of their book aloud and tell them to keep reading outside of class and tutoring sessions. I am hoping to get the students to understand the material better by thinking out loud, like the student in Margaux’s observation. Even if they struggle through it I have learned that if the student is able to say it out loud and put the ideas presented into his/her own words they get a better understanding of the material.

 

Journal #1 Observations

It was very interesting to read the many different styles of teaching and learning that occur between tutor and client. I noticed that it clients can be from all extremes like extremely passive or extremely active. However, it is important as a tutor to be able to understand all different type of learning styles and actively engage the client. Through the example of Julia’s client I learned that passive students like to listen and want to have terms explained to them and be provided with examples. A tutor should then be prepared to make the client actively engaged in the session by having them read aloud, checking their comprehension, asking them questions about what they think is important, and having them write down terms to study. All of this will prove to be beneficial for long term learning. A client can also be very active and knowledgeable, such is the case with John’s client. When a client is actively engaged I learned it was beneficial to work with their current knowledge, continue to guide them to your own level of understanding, and work together on figuring out the complicated parts of the work. In tutoring sessions that require a lot of reading and writing I learned that it is important to outline ideas, go through drafts section by section, and posing questions for the client in order to get them to participate. Overall, I learned that clients have many different learning styles and it is the job of the tutor to be able to adapt to their learning styles and find adaptive techniques that will help them learn and understand the material better. I noticed that no matter the style of learning it is extremely important to actively engage the client and pose questions to check their comprehension in order to instill long term learning habits. 

-Christina Benitez

 

Ashley Toth, Journal #1

The clients in these examples show very different levels of engagement and preparedness. Julia’s client was extremely passive, as noted, and Aimee’s client seemed to be at the opposite extreme.  Apparently she was working so quickly and frantically that Aimee had to slow her down to get her to fully understand what she was doing.  This seems to show that the interaction between tutor and client should be somewhere between these extremes if the session is to be as productive as possible.  It is possible that the student’s learning style and the tutor’s personality have some affect on the client’s participation (and this was stated in the case of Julia’s client).  I can see how I might need some knowledge of the learning styles that we discussed in training.

I really liked the way the prompt-response method was used in these cases.  Obviously Julie, John, Margaux, Aimee, and others used the technique of asking their clients open-ended questions.  I think I can work on deepening my own use of this technique based on these examples.  Aimee seems to use it effectively to control the pace of the session, and John uses it to improve his client’s general problem-solving and study skills.  Fostering independence is also an objective, as John says.  These are clearly important goals because they can really help students in the long run.

 

Justin Wright, Journal 1

It sounds like these tutors have had clients spanning the whole spectrum – ultra-passive to highly engaged.  So far, all of my clients have been  in the middle ground. They’ve had their own questions to ask and thoughts to explain as they solved chemistry problems, while I still have had to point them in the right direction with a few open-ended questions. It was interesting to see how Julia handled a very reticent client who was unprepared for the session. Although she answered Julia’s questions with single words, Julia did not become frustrated and continued to try to engage the client, who eventually started answering in phrases. Sometimes it takes time for a client to warm up (it was her first time with Julia).  In retrospect, Julia came up with a few more things she could have done to engage her client, including having her explain the graphics and key terms in the text to check understanding, reading along together, and even some minor considerations I often overlook such as sitting on the same side of the table.  Apparently Aimee had a client who was silent like Julia’s initially, but soon became much, much more talkative. Aimee had to slow her down so that she would think more carefully about each problem. Each question she asked was a “stop and think about it” inquiry, rather than just “what’s the answer?” And this is especially important in chemistry, where rushing can quickly lead to huge amounts of unnecessary mistakes. What I’ve learned from these examples is to not just ask open-ended questions, but phrase them in a way designed to engage the client more, or to have them slow down and think, depending on how the session is going.

 

Reminder: Journal #1 for new tutors, due WE 2/18

New tutors:    Due on the blog by  Wed. 2/18

Journal #1 assignment is on the blog, in the Journals tab at the top!  Have fun.  Be thoughtful and reflective.  Looking forward to reading your posts!

Here’s the first paragraph of the assignment.  What follows is the more technical side–working within this wordpress.com blog to log in, find the posts I’ve asked you to quickly read, then write, categorize and tag your own post.  Read the complete assignment in the Journals tab up top.

“JOURNAL #1

For this first journal assignment, I’d like you to review and comment on some of what I wrote after I formally observed nine tutors at work (in fall ‘08). While reading my posts, think and then write a post addressing some of these questions…whatever is compelling or relevant to you as you read and reflect.   What kinds of student clients are these tutors dealing with?  What techniques are they using that are interesting?  What do you see them applying from what you’ve learned in crash training and staff meetings so far? Please bring in at least two examples in your blog post from my observations.”