The Tutor’s Tool Kit

1
The Tutors Tool Kit

• Basic Techniques to Use When Working with Students

2
Outcomes

• You will be familiar with
• Directive vs. Non-Directive Tutoring
• Open and Closed Questioning
• Best Practices for Essay Tutoring (Are there
  any??)
• Resources to Develop Tutoring Techniques

3
What is Directive vs. Non Directive Tutoring

• Tutor tells the student what they should focus on
  during the session.
• The tutor imparts knowledge to student.
• Answers questions, explains.
• Tutor holds role of authority

• Student tells the tutor what they want to focus
  on during the session.
• The tutor asks questions, draws knowledge out of
  the student.
• Opens Dialogue
• Creates equal relationship

• Directive

• Non-Directive

4
The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis in Favor of
Non-Directive Tutoring

• In one-to-one conversational tutorials, tutors
  can encourage students to talk through their own
  writing process and to bounce ideas off of their
  tutor, thereby allowing the tutor to more readily
  engage with the writer's imagination. In
  contrast, when tutors provide only direction
  without collaboration, students are not as likely
  to engage as readily with their ideas, only the
  "rights and "wrongs" of the words they've chosen
  to express them.
• -Lani Varga and Jessica Ilko
• The College of Wooster
• Peer Tutoring Handbook

5
Non-Directive Tutoring is a Skill

• When I started tutoring in the Writing Lab I was
  worried about being non-directive. Its a hard
  skill to learn, and only experience makes it
  easier. However, with more tutoring, I have
  established patterns to focus on non-directive
  tactics.
• Claire Schmidt, University of Missouri

6
In Favor of a More Directive Approach

• Peter Carino, a professor at Indiana State
  University, argues for a more balanced approach
  to tutoring that involves both directive and
  non-directive techniques in Power and Authority
  in Peer Tutoring

7
Carino Argues

• The non-directive approach is largely based on
  writing centers fear of faculty concerns over
  plagiarism.
• A directive approach is entirely appropriate for
  low level students.
• A tutorial session can shift back and forth
  between directive and non-directive approaches.
• A session can also shift back and forth with both
  tutor and student serving as the authority during
  various points in the tutorial.

8
Deciding on Directive or Non-Directive Tutoring

• More student knowledge, less tutor knowledge
  more nondirective methods
• Less Student Knowledge, more tutor knowledge
  more directive methods

9
Flexibility Is Key!

• Both directive and non-directive techniques can
  be useful in different situations and with
  different students.

10
Using Open Ended Questioning

• Using open ended questions is one non-directive
  technique used to create opportunities to open a
  dialogue about a text.
• Compare
• Do you like your thesis? (Closed Question)
• How did you come up with your thesis statement?
  (Open Question)

11
Closed vs. Open Questions

• Find a partner
• Sit across from one another
• One Person ask 5 closed ended questions.
• Switch
• The other person now asks 5 closed ended
  questions
• Now repeat asking 2 open ended questions each.
• Discuss the differences between open and closed
  ended questions. Why would one be more
  beneficial to tutoring than the other?

12
An Example of Open Ended Questioning Gone Wrong!!

• Tutor After reading through your paper, I am
  wondering why you spent the first page writing
  about you and your friends on the way to the
  theatre.
• Student I dont know. Thats What happened. We
  had a hard time finding a parking space.
• Tutor Do you think thats important for the
  readers to know?
• Student Well, I thought I would put it in to get
  started and I thought it was neat the way we got
  lucky and got a space just when we thought wed
  be late. I wanted to start with something
  interesting, and I thought the play was really
  serious, heavy.
• Tutor It is interesting, but how do you see it
  relating to the play?
• Student I dont know. Should I take it out?
• Tutor Thats up to you. What do you think?
• Carino, Peter Power and Authority in Peer
  Tutoring

13
A Non-Directive Approach To Essay Revision

• Tutors do not to write on student papers.
• Students to write on their own papers.
• Tutors want to preserve student ownership of his
  or her paper.
• Tutors focus on Higher Order (HO) concerns first
  and Lower Order (LO) concerns last.
• Tutors mention the positives about the essay as
  well as the areas that need improvement.

14
A Directive Approach to Essay Revision

• Tutor does mark on paper highlighting areas of
  concern without fixing the issue.
• Tutor gives expert feedback on what techniques
  and strategies are available to the student to
  fix the paper.
• Tutor assumes the role of authority.

15
Finding Balance

• Once again, finding a balance between the two
  approaches is keyJust remember that the guiding
  principal is that you should never, ever let the
  student plagiaries your ideas or work.

16
Will Helping a Student with Grammar Turn Us Into
a Grammar Garage?

• If a paper is at the point when focusing on just
  the grammar is necessary, please do so.
• One technique that is especially effective with
  ESL students is to point at a problem area and
  ask them a guided question.
• Should an article go before this noun?
• This sentence sounds awkward. How do you think
  we can make it clearer?
• Is this the best preposition for this phrase?

17
Using Patterns of Error to Your Advantage

• Patters of error is a term we use for mistakes or
  errors a student repeatedly makes.
• You can tell the student that you will help
  him/her identify and fix the errors in the first
  paragraph or even the first page and let him/her
  fix the rest of the errors in the paper.

18
A Few Words from Our Students

• What Important Themes Pop Out for You?