You'll meet your tutees soon. What questions will you ask your
tutee to get at his/her linguistic and educational background and find out
factors that have affected his/her language and literacy development? You won't
be able "Are you Generation 1.5?" or "Are you an ear
learner?" So you'll need some other strategies for getting at students'
language/literacy backgrounds.
In my experience tutoring at my
undergraduate tutoring center and at the Learning Assistance Center here at SF
State I have found it is best to establish rapport with my tutees right from
the start. I like to begin by asking simple questions like what is your major
or what do you do for fun? I find that
once a student feels comfortable with me they will reveal more information about
themselves. I also like to ask my tutees for writing samples. I try to get them
to bring an extra copy of what they are working on that I can keep. This
enables me to take a closer look at what writing issues the student may be
having and also may help me identify their language/literacy background. Here are some possible questions I might ask
my tutee to figure out his/her linguistic and educational background:
• Did you go to high school here in the bay area? Are you a
transfer student?
•
Do you like to read? What types of things do you like to read
outside of school?
• Did you have to take any placement tests like the CMSPT or TOEFL?
•
What writing classes have you taken so far?
• Do you speak any foreign languages? What languages do you speak now at work, school, home?
•
What are your tutoring and writing goals?
• What are your learning styles? How do you like to study?
Michael, as a new tutor I appreciate your specific list of questions you ask new tutees. Thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteDear Kateb, thank you for your kind words.
ReplyDeleteGreat Questions! I would have never thought to ask about placement exams, but I love that you did. I think that a lot of information can be obtained from this question. The question that I liked the most, however, is: "What are your tutoring and writing goals?" I think that this questions is super important and super illuminating because it tell you so much a student has thought about their writing, how invested they are in tutoring, an even give you information about their understanding of tutoring.
ReplyDeleteI think certain questions can also aid me in tutoring. A question like, "What are your tutoring and writing goals?" can help me try and meet the tutees wants and needs as well as give us something to work towards together. I really like working one on one with students so I probably sound like a tutoring geek!
ReplyDelete