Thursday, November 7, 2013

Tutoring experience

Tutoring is an experience I will never forget I felt nervous but at the same time good because for the first time I was on the other side of the table. My tutee was cool he was nervous so it seem. The first thing he asked me was if I have ever taken English 99. I told that I didn't have to because I past the exam and went straight to English 101 then I asked him what he's working on. The topic was perfect  and something I can relate to. The topic was about parents vs non parents. People believing that parenting is rewarding but in reality, parents have to deal with  stress due to children being who there are of course and financial need, emotional needs plays a huge factor for parents. I was afraid that he wouldn't get it because  he's a young male with no children so he has  no experience with children I asked him if he fully have an understanding of the essay and what he thought about it. He said he believes its true about parenting being hard and parenting isn't for him. I asked if that was  all he thought of the essay and he said yes I asked him to give more detail, what makes it hard and from personal experience how can he relate to what the Arthur is getting across, he mention a friend who had a hard time with a child and that's all so I said okay maybe you can tell me more, how do think your parents would feel about the comment made in the article, would  they disagree, same way did he witness hard time or does he believed they enjoyed it etc. I then asked the tutee to write down how he relates to the essay. He was mostly focus on developing a thesis for his paper. I told him that it's easier to develop a thesis once he has the body, because he can then tell the readers how he's going to break it down. He had a few sentences underlined so I asked him what did he underline and he said the main point of the essay.After I read what he underlined I asked him to put it in his own words on a  new sheet of paper Then I spoke about how he can make the body to his paper easier if he reads each paragraph and summed it up in his own words, and to make sure he puts in personal experience  and thoughts to what the author is trying to convey. He wrote for probably ten minutes... I read his paper and notice that he has a hard time writing a full sentence that is clear and precise. His writing made me realized that English is his second language. Example. " I think that he good" Is not a full sentence. "I think that he is good" NOT he good. It was hard for me not to criticized his sentences. I know my expression says it all, so people always tell me so I tried to change my expression and told him that his sentences needs some work. He writes shortcuts and I'm sure there's another name for the way he writes. Well as he continued to write some more, we heard that we only have a few minutes left, so I quickly went over all the things I felt he needed to go over  and I asked him if he understood  everything. He said yes but I wasn't convinced so I explained it again and asked him if he's sure that he understand everything I told him  and that I have no problem explaining it again but he said he understood.  I hoped he did, cause their was a few times I asked him to write down some of my advise but he didn't, he claimed that he would remember so hopefully he understood the work he needed to put into his essay.