I was extremely nervous about tutoring students in English 101 because they are about the same age range. I was also afraid to make a suggestion that they wouldn't like or feel like I wasn't fit to make that suggestion. As we walked towards the classroom, I kept telling myself that I will do fine and that I need to be confident because the student needed my help to become a better writer. Everyone was assigned to two students on the first day and they went to them. I wasn't there on the first day so I couldn't be a part of that and had to wait to be assigned to a student.
Once everyone was seated, there were no students left and one student from three different groups had to be taken away in order for me and two other classmates to have a tutee. I was prepared to have two but was satisfied to even have one to tutor. I asked my tutee what the assignment was, after reading the assignment paper I asked him what his position was. He told me that he thought that biculturalism was a strength, that this was his first draft and that it was rushed because he didn't have a lot of time. I also asked him if he could relate to the topic and if he could use himself as an example in his paper.
He wasn't too sure and I told him that he should ask his professor if he could do that because a first hand experience could be a great example to his paper, other than the sources that he already had. We read the paper together and as far as the introduction, he had a great thesis, making it clear that he found biculturalism is a strength. The beginning of his body paragraph he immediately used his source to support the strength and in the second body paragraph he used his course textbook as another example. I felt like his third body paragraph needed more because he was lacking an example to support his thesis. I made suggestions to put more detailed information and also asked him if he thought another source would help him.
He told me that he had a hard time finding his first source on CUNY+ so I told him of an artist I thought was bicultural since he did use an artist in one of his body paragraphs. I asked him if he knew anyone that was bicultural and after saying yes. I suggested to him that he can use that as an example of someone overcoming the difficulties of being bicultural and using it as a strength. After completing the paper and suggestions, I offered my assistance in other concerns that he had. He wanted me to check if he needed any grammar corrections. I felt since we were already done, I could go over it once more and only two corrections were needed to be done.
I had a good experience as a tutor and felt how it can be nerve racking but once you are calm and confident, your help can be of great assistance. Although, this was my first experience as a tutor I felt like I can be more confident in my own writing and not to be so critical towards it either.
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