Tutoring Objectives

36 Tutoring Objectives

What this might look like:

Ask questions about how the students are finding the class so far and if there is anything that is worrying them.
Share a story about your own struggles with writing or school generally.
Encourage students to work through negative experiences they may have had in previous educational settings.
Provide practical strategies for approaching the work.
Be aware that OBB provides support to students and alumni. For instance, they can ask the OBB Success Coach to guide them through credit transfers or college enrollment.

What this might look like:

Ask questions of the students to get them talking about the reading–what they liked and what they struggled with.
Have someone (you or the student) read portions of the text aloud. Hearing it can often provide greater clarity.
Ask if there are any words that were confusing. Typically students have a dictionary at hand, but if they don’t, it’s helpful to let them know the dictionary’s definition and then discuss how it fits in the reading.
Narrow in on specific passages, if possible. What does the group think this passage means? How does it fit with the rest of what the author is saying?
Sometimes it’s helpful to provide framing for how the text is constructed. (Example: Tommy Orange’s There, There was written with a cast of characters in the front of the book, and the story unfolded through very short chapters written from the vantage point of each specific character. Some students needed help understanding this structure.)
A little biographical information can sometimes help make the position or vantage point of the author clear, particularly in nonfiction.

“Students are eager to share with each other, and the quieter students are getting better at participating each week.”

What this might look like for starting a paper:

Ask students to tell you about the assignment and what they are thinking of writing about.
Ask questions of the student to help them generate a topic for their essay.
Take notes while the student is talking or answering questions.
Be a sounding board for the student by reading your notes back and explaining what you’ve heard the student say.
Suggest, based on what you heard, how the student could approach this topic.
Learn about students’ learning styles and suggest activities that suit them (mind-mapping, free-writing, reverse outlining, etc.).

What this might look like:

Ask students to read their draft or what they are thinking about.
Ask students if anything is getting in their way of writing.
If students are just scared of getting started, see if they’d like to freewrite during the session while you move on to the next student. (The process of listening to fellow students often will help as well.)

If students have a solid start:

Ask the tutoring group to comment on what they liked in their fellow students’ pieces.
Find out if the tutoring group had questions or concerns with the piece or wanted to hear more about a specific area.
Reiterate the group’s responses, explaining everything they have done well and why those aspects are working in their draft.
Suggest no more than three, specific things that they might consider in moving their draft forward. (More than this can be overwhelming.)

What this might look like:

Ask the student to read their draft.
Ask the student if there are areas that they are concerned about or would like comments on.
Ask the students in the tutoring session to provide specific comments about what is working well for them in the piece.
Find out if the tutoring group had questions or concerns with the piece or wanted to hear more about a specific area.
Reiterate everything that they have done well and explain why those aspects are working in their draft.
Suggest no more than three specific focus areas they might consider during revision.
If the student is close to a final draft (especially if the instructor mentions moving into micro-level issues like grammar and punctuation), you can spend time working on this.
If students are reluctant to revise their drafts, you may want to share that everyone–even the most practiced writers–rely on the revision process. You may also want to share some of your own experiences with revision to humanize the task. Some students–especially those who are new to the writing process–will feel immense pride for their work and struggle to understand why others aren’t recognizing how great it is. Additionally, some students may feel vulnerable in the feedback process and want to defend their work.