Second Session

      During this week's session, it was particularly busy, so I observed a tutor who took on two Eng 101 students at the same time. Both of these students had recently come to the US, therefore English was their second language. The way the tutor decided to take on the task was to switch from each student every five minutes or so. He introduced himself, and got to know his students a small bit before getting into their assignments. He starts with a student who has come from Haiti, whose first languages are French and Creole. He reads through her assignment and asks her a little about what it is about, and then goes through a few lines with her. Some of the words she uses are used incorrectly, because in French they would make sense to use them that way, but in English they don't sound correct. He asks her to ask herself in what language she is thinking, whether in French or English, and then try to figure out which language she is trying to translate to. He expresses to her that the paper is on its way to looking and sounding great, now she just needs to use words that fit better. He says he leaves her with this task while he switches to the other student, a young man from Egypt.
       The student's main focus based on peer reviewing is that he had too many run-on's. The tutor reads through some of his paper, and finds that the student is a great writer, but yes, his entire paper is made up on run-on's which also create unnecessary mega-paragaraphs. So the tutor explains to him that he is already a great writer, and doesn't need to make his sentences so complicated to express what he wants to say. He says to use his confidence as a great writer to simplify some of his points and sentences. He also helps him turn his huge introduction into a two paragraphs, and says that he can find a third one, but leaves that up to the student while he switches back to the other one. Throughout the session, I think he did a great job switching back and forth and always leaving the other some kind of task. When something he thought could benefit both students came up, like a simple paragraph structure worksheet he gave them, he would have both look up and listen in. He would also include me and show me how it could be beneficial to use that method or tool during a session. I believe I observed a very successful session, where I felt the timing was fair for each student. The student with run-on's felt that he was so helpful that he asked if he could stay or when he could come back for another session with this tutor.