My fourth tutoring observation was again very different from my previous experiences. Again the tutor did not introduce himself but he had great body language and was very professional. He began by asking what it is that he could help her with.
The student begins to tell him about her assignment. She explains that she needs to use a specific quote in her assignment but does not know how to incorporate it properly. She goes on to explain the assignment and continues to stress the quote. Instead of the focusing on the quote the tutor shifts the primary concern to what she actually thinks about the question asked. I think he does this in a great way by simply asking a question. She then is able to get out her ideas, instead of just focusing on the quote. The session becomes collaborative and they start to piece together thoughts and ideas using open-ended questions. The student then starts to realize all her great ideas and begins to write them down without being instructed to. The student often had times where she took long pauses to think or respond to a question but the tutor was very patient. This might have been due to the fact that the student had a bit of a language barrier and you could tell that English was not her first language. Even though communication was difficult at times, the tutor still listened closely. After the student had a full two pages off notes to work with, the session ended and the student thanked the tutor for his help.
I really enjoyed this session because it showed me a great example of how to be professional. The great thing I noticed was how to divert a student attention in the right direction with questions rather than telling them that they are wrong. This way the student corrects their own errors and begins to think of new ideas.
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