31 Suggestions for First Weeks
Typically, instructors want students to get a sense of the writing process on their own before diving into peer review and feedback. (More specifics will be coming prior to your first tutoring session.) We know, however, that it’s valuable to establish rapport with the students early on to help make them comfortable with the feedback process. To that end, you may want to consider the following for the first week or two of tutoring:
- Find out more about students’ concerns about the class generally (see the educational support section for more info).
- Learn more about the students themselves, as much as they are willing to share.
- Find out how students are handling the LMS and typing. (Depending on the location, students may have access to the LMS during tutoring.)
- Discuss your expectations for tutoring sessions: active listening among peers, each allocated similar time, etc.
- Discuss your expectations of the LMS messaging function: what it should be used for, how frequently you will check messages, etc.
- Discuss strategies that you’ve used to get unstuck during the writing process.
“Students have been wonderful at participating in every session and are always eager to share their writing with each other and receive/offer feedback”