My tutoring Experience

When I was told by my professor that I would be tutoring another college student, I automatically felt nervous but yet still a bit excited. The thought of tutoring another college student left me with many questions. One question I raised in particular was; would the tutee take the advice I give because I was a student like them? Going into the tutoring session I felt anxious and still remained a bit nervous. Although I had tutoring experience, I did not know anything about the student. When my tutee wrote me a letter introducing her to me, she mentioned her goals, expectations, and struggles she had when it came to her writing. In reading the letter, I realized we had more things in common than I originally thought. For example, in writing we both find that our strong parts of our essays are the introduction. After reading her letter, I became aware of the problems that she had in writing. I grew less nervous and more excited on how I can help another peer accomplish their goal.

            During the first tutoring session with my tutee, we introduced ourselves as we walked towards the desk we would be working at.  First, we reviewed the material for her paper that she was in the process of writing. My tutee explained to me that she had taken the CATW test before n failed by a few points. After going over her well written summary on the article that was given; we started looking more in depth of the article she was writing about. I advised her that underlining and high-lighting the main ideas of the article will help her a lot when trying to write a paper. My tutee made me aware that she didn’t know how to start her paper off. I replied by explaining that you have to state your main idea first. I explained to her that the Main idea of a paragraph is the most important thought or topic in the paragraph. Next, I told her she should state the topic sentence.  She wasn’t sure what I meant by this so I explained that this is the sentence that includes your main idea. I also advised her of the sandwich method when outlining her paper. I explained to her that her introduction should include her thesis and preview of what the paper is about. Then I explained next comes her body paragraphs. Then finally her conclusion which includes the review or sum up of her paper and a restated thesis.After, explaining the method she used it as a guide to help her when I wasn’t there to help her. We also worked on sentence structure. My tutee often had run on sentences, which we corrected. I had her read her paper over with the changes; we both agreed that the paper was now a definitely passable paper to the exam.

            During our tutoring session she addressed the problem she was having whether it was not understanding the passage thoroughly, organizing her paragraphs, or even determining what was important enough to include in her paper.  After my tutoring experience, a question that was raised was, is my tutee going to take the information that she learned and use it for her writing in the future? Finishing the tutoring session I wanted to leave my tutee with good techniques to use when she is writing future papers. Therefore, I printed out some good techniques I thought would be helpful for her when she is writing future paper. 

Sondra Pearl : "Understanding Composing"

I was asked, what is the most important idea Sondra Perl has contributed to in the field of theorizing the writing process? In reading, “Understanding Composing”, I came to the conclusion that the most important idea to Sondra Perl is “Felt Sense”. According to Perl, while writing it does not occur with words but with “feelings or non-verbalized perceptions…the move occurs inside the writer, to what is physically felt” (Perl 30-31).

The term felt sense comes from Eugene Gendlin who is a philosopher at the University of Chicago. As Gendlin describes it as, the soft underbelly of thought…a kind of bodily awareness that…can be used as a tool…a bodily awareness that…encompasses everything you feel and know about a given subject at a given time…It is felt in the body, yet it has meanings. It is body and mind before they split apart (Perl 31). Felt sense is inside the body and deals with feeling while writing and also feelings before you start writing. When we write, we must think about our feelings towards the topic we have chosen to write about. When thinking about our topic, we should think not only think about our ideas but also our own feelings and thoughts in order to write a well thought- out and processed paper. As the writer, you can’t write just on the topic alone, you must write what you feel.

Revised Myself as a student.

Myself As a Student

I attended both a Catholic middle and High School and was a sports player throughout my sixth through twelfth grade years. During my junior year in High school I received the best news I could have imagined. I received scholarships to play volleyball for Penn State University and Long Island University. At this point, I was always on-top of my grades and my main focus was to keep up my grades and play my hardest during games. My main focus was getting passing grades and aiming to get a scholarship. However, in High School teachers would always push the sports players to stay focused on their academics. One of my favorite teachers in high-school was my history teacher named Mr. Arbitello. Although he was my history teacher he was also the assistant athletic director and later became the head coach of the boys varsity basketball team. Mr. Arbitello would push me to do my best in not just his class but also in all my other classes. He saw potential in me not just on the volleyball court but also in the classroom.
 In October of 2006, she became our math teacher after my old math teacher left the school. However, I didn’t know that she was soon to be my coach. Mrs. Kull knew that my weakness was math and made it mandatory that I see a math tutor. I was told that in order to play I must see a tutor for math and keep all my grades between an A and B average. There were times I would say I hated having her as a teacher because she was always making sure I was getting good grades and the moment I slipped she would either make me take a day off from practice to get extra help or if I refused I would have to sit out a game. This pushed to eventually make sure I was getting excellent grades to accomplish my goal of getting a scholarship. This also pushed me to get help if I didn’t understand something that was being taught.
During the last volleyball game of my senior year, I was excited we were down by three and it was my turn to serve. I served the ball as hard and deep as I could. A player from the other team picked up the ball and it became a good rally as I went to dig the ball from the other team spiking it I tore my anterior cruciate ligament. I always say this is one of the worst things that have happened in my life. After this I felt as if my life and success as I knew it came crashing down. After this, It seemed like one prob. after another. The worst problem of all was that my scholarship to play for Penn State had been yanked. Due to the fact that I was injured and would have to miss out a whole season, the school could not offer me the sports scholarship. Penn State was my dream school. Throughout middle school and high-school, I would always refer to Penn State as my future school. During the summer of 2010, I became nervous and yet a bit anxious to enter college that fall. I wondered what my college experience would be like since LaGuardia Community College was not the college I was suppose to attend when I graduated high school. I wondered if I would have professors that would push me to make sure that I passed their class like I did throughout middle school and high-school.
In September of 2010, I went into my first semester with such a negative state of mind. I hated the idea of going to a two-year college because I felt that I would not learn as much as a four year and that my future volleyball career had been over. Going to a two year school such as LaGuardia Community College didn’t have teams. I knew that coming into LaGuardia I would not have that extra push behind me and teachers always making sure I was on-top of my academics. I didn’t like the fact that I had to take a remedial math class which didn’t give me any college credit. I didn’t like how I now had to pay for my own college expenses and how the school was so unorganized. However, after seeing a few people I had already new and meeting new people I began to think with a better attitude. I also spoke with a couple of my old teachers who really boosted my moral. I began thinking about pushing myself to get my degree and then attend a four year college. I am now in my last semester at LaGuardia and look forward to passing all my classes and get my degree in December.

Tutoring Do's n Don'ts

Tutoring Don'ts:
-Discuss personal matters.
-Check the time or your cellphone.
-Make corrections to the writing, without explaining them first.
-Use poor body language eg. yawning, rubbing your eyes, stretching.
-Waste time with pleasantries and catching up on what's new in the tutee's life.
-Confuse student with too many questions. Take it slow and focus on one issue at a time.

Tutoring Dos:
-Ask if there is anything specific the tutee is having trouble with.
-Let the student read their writing aloud to see if it sounds right to them.
-Go over the criteria for the assignment to make sure you focus on the task.
-Let the student explain in their own words what the main point or thesis of their piece is.
-Be patient and understand you may have to go over the same issue a few times before the student is comfortable with it.
-Ask open-ended questions, not just yes or no questions

Myself as a Student

Cheryl Bisono
September 20, 2012
ENG 220.0905
Professor Kristen Gallagher

Myself As a Student

               I attended both a Catholic middle and High School and was a sports player throughout my sixth through twelfth grade years. During my junior year in High school I received the best news I could have imagined. I received scholarships to play volleyball for Penn State University and Long Island University. At this point, I was always on-top of my grades and my main focus was to keep up my grades and play my hardest during games. My best subjects were History and English. In these classes I always upheld an A average, however, I wasn't so lucky when it came to math. My main focus was getting passing grades and aiming to get a scholarship. However, in High School teachers would always push the sports players to stay focused on their academics. One of my favorite teachers in high-school was my history teacher named Mr. Arbitello. Although he was my history teacher he was also the assistant athletic director and later became the head coach of the boys varsity basketball team. Mr. Arbitello would push me to do my best in not just his class but also in all my other classes. He saw potential in me not just on the volleyball court but also in the classroom. Another favorite teacher of mine was my Math teacher, Mrs. Kull. Little did i know, Mrs. Kull new more about me than anyone in the class. When she became our freshman year math teacher i had no clue that she was soon to be my volleyball coach as well. In October of 2006, she became our math teacher after my old math teacher left the school. However, I didn’t know that she was soon to be my coach. Mrs. Kull knew that my weakness was math and made it mandatory that I see a math tutor. I was told that in order to play I must see a tutor for math and keep all my grades between an A and B average. There were times I would say I hated having her as a teacher because she was always making sure I was getting good grades and the moment I slipped she would either make me take a day off from practice to get extra help or if I refused I would have to sit out a game. This pushed to eventually make sure I was getting excellent grades to accomplish my goal of getting a scholarship. This also pushed me to get help if I didn’t understand something that was being taught.
          During the last volleyball game of my senior year, I was excited we were down by three and it was my turn to serve. I served the ball as hard and deep as I could. A player from the other team picked up the ball and it became a good rally as I went to dig the ball from the other team spiking it I tore my anterior cruciate ligament. I always say this is one of the worst things that have happened in my life. After this I felt as if my life and success as I knew it came crashing down. After this, It seemed like one prob. after another. The worst problem of all was that my scholarship to play for Penn State had been yanked. Due to the fact that I was injured and would have to miss out a whole season, the school could not offer me the sports scholarship. Penn State was my dream school. Throughout middle school and high-school, I would always refer to Penn State as my future school. During the summer of 2010, I became nervous and yet a bit anxious to enter college that fall. I wondered what my college experience would be like since LaGuardia Community College was not the college I was suppose to attend when I graduated high school. I wondered if I would have professors that would push me to make sure that I passed their class like I did throughout middle school and high-school.
        In September of 2010, I went into my first semester with such a negative state of mind. I hated the idea of going to a two-year college because I felt that I would not learn as much as a four year and that my future volleyball career had been over. Going to a two year school such as LaGuardia Community College didn’t have teams. I knew that coming into LaGuardia I would not have that extra push behind me and teachers always making sure I was on-top of my academics. I didn’t like the fact that I had to take a remedial math class which didn’t give me any college credit. I didn’t like how I now had to pay for my own college expenses and how the school was so unorganized. However, after seeing a few people I had already new and meeting new people I began to think with a better attitude. I also spoke with a couple of my old teachers who really boosted my moral. I began thinking about pushing myself to get my degree and then attend a four year college. I am now in my last semester at LaGuardia and look forward to passing all my classes and get my degree in December.