Journal 3
Journal 3
On Tuesday, I worked with three different students, one of which will be a recurring student from the ENGL 121 course who I will work with every week. I assisted the two students who came by appointment with essay revisions, focusing on their content and its relevance to the prompt, while I helped the ENGL 121 student with general reading strategies and introduced her to essay structure.
Summary: I enjoyed beginning to foster a relationship with my ENGL 121 student as well as my in-person appointment. I found that I struggled more with the Zoom appointment as it was harder to communicate and break down the barrier between us. I still need to get better at time management while still covering all of the higher order concerns, as well as integrating the student's feedback and focus areas. I was impressed with my ENGL 121 student's capabilities, and I found that oftentimes, my students knew where they went wrong even before I pointed it out to them.
Challenges: I was not prepared for how much more difficult it would be to assist someone online and especially how hard it was to develop a connection. One of my primary motivations as a tutor is fostering an environment suitable for learning, but I found it difficult to create that environment digitally. The lack of physical body language and social cues made me uncertain about the feedback I was giving and how the student was receiving it. I need to get more comfortable in that digital environment and figure out how to give involved but less structured feedback.
Ideas or theories: I do believe that the best feedback is given in person, but I found it less helpful than I had anticipated asking the students what they thought their essay needed the most help in. For example, some students specified grammar, citations, verb tenses, or formatting, but few of them mentioned the actual content, how relevant that content was, and how focused their paragraphs were. I've had to reevaluate how I plan on giving feedback and whether I should ask for their opinion moving forward if I cannot focus only on what they ask me to.
Right now, I identify most strongly with the anticipation stage, though I do identify on some level with the exploration and competence stage as well. I feel a little anxious about entering a new program with different expectations, and find myself beset by several different "what if" questions with regards to my hours, my assignment, and what supplemental work I might need to fulfill.
At the anticipation stage, the steps I need to take according to Sweitzer and King are to solidify my engagement skills, critique my assumptions, recognize my fears and anxieties, clarify my role, and start building relationships.
I believe the steps as described by Sweitzer and King most important for me at this stage are to acknowledge my anxieties and clarify my goals. The better grasp I have on these two concepts, the more confidently I will be able to move into the exploration stage.