Carlos' Case Study

My experience as a tutor has made me reflect on my skills, flexibility and
knowledge towards tutee’s ethnicity and background in unpredictable tutoring
sessions. My case study is a gathering of information describing my experience
with students I have worked with relating to education and identifying my
actions as a tutor to help people with their abilities and efficiency to write.
I had four sessions were a tutee’s background needed understanding to flex
critical thinking and activate chemistry to help complete their paper. Many
tutees are students in a class that are not native English speakers, some are
adults attending college, and others are attending the curriculum at their
freshmen year. My training and studying of strategies to develop thinking to
write academically has convinced me there is more understanding evolved between
me and the tutee of these sessions to find answers to questions, to dominate the
assignment given by the professor, or leave with satisfaction between me and the
tutee of each session.   

My first two tutees had similar situations with similar outcomes of progress of
each session. The first session was with a Dominican native of the island who
comprehended his assignment, and was persistent and considerate towards me when
he found out I was his tutor. The other tutee was a bus driver who was born in
the island of Jamaica and her accent was broken English. She had trouble
understanding what she needed to improve on; being the youngest in the age
difference amongst each other made me spot a felt sense of what they expected of
me to perform and be knowledgeable of; when each session proceeded, they wanted
me to examine their writing and find what weakness they must work on to complete
their assignments. When I asked questions, I was processing information of their
background, accent, English word usage, general thinking, body language and
facial expressions. They saw my ability to conducted myself with persistence and
professionalism and became more open to my feed backs and advise. With patience
and timing my determination to collaborate with both tutees made me realize the
vibe of the session, pushing both tutees to open themselves to me to communicate
and leave with satisfaction of every session.

My third tutee was a from an Asian country who is much older than me and her
English was not efficient. She did not know how to start a draft. As I offered
my help to guide her to start on her writing, she gave facial expression of
confusion when she explained to me her problems. I would find simple ways to
explain my answers to her questions. I realized by my fifth explanation, she was
asking the same question and using condensed words to explained what I just
explained to her. I felt I was not appreciated or taken serious because she
seemed to be challenging my advice. It occurred to me that she didn’t want to
fail and her perception of right and wrong held her back. I let her control her
own frustration by rereading the assignment but she could not stop worrying
preventing her from writing. I told her in order to start writing, she must
write her thoughts on paper and that there are many English words to describe
what she wants to convey. She insisted to stick to the assignment describe by
the professor which prevented her from writing. She was so persistent in writing
the paper the right way, it distance her away from her creativity and writing
ability, but I understood she was not receptive of me because of my age,
experience and position as a tutor. In Asian countries, the teacher is the only
position were someone has the most say and liable information to give to a
student, which directed me to move to assist other tutee.

My last tutoring session was with a student nurse who had a well written essay.
The student wanted to focus on her A.P.A rubric and identify errors that needed
correcting. It was difficult to examine her writing when it had no errors. when
I reread her paper, I offered to print out hand out sheets of rules and
organization of correct A.P.A instructions for her essay because I did not know
them. She seem disappointed when I told her I cannot identify her A.P.A errors.
I was hard on myself when I realized I did not have the answers to all her
questions. It was stressful for me not to find any errors in her writing because
if she did not pass her assignment, It would have reflected on me as a tutor.
When someone writing is efficient, it is more stress on me to make sure there
are no errors on the paper. For her to rely on my input pressured me to give her
feedback that had to be correct in my position.

As a tutor, I am put in position to help tutees convey what they want to create
and express in their writing. My experience as a tutor gave me a board sense of
interacting with people of diverse, social, cultural, and environmental
situations. I read the signs, gestures, and signals of the tutee to make sure we
are communicating comfortably in a session. Being a tutor helps me think
critically and develop flexibility to maneuver out of situations in social and
academic interacting, improving and expanding my learning, reading and writing
skills. In general I see being a tutor involves keen strategic thinking to help
and connect with the tutee to make the best out of the session.