Kayla TS #5

Date/Time: September 17, 2016/11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Tutee's Home
Topic/Skill: Writing an Opinion Essay/Revising
Feedback provided to tutee:

I told PJ that he did a great job today!  It started out rough, but towards the end of the session he began to understand the revision process.  Although he still had some things to work on, he did progress.  He was a little bit more attentive and enthusiastic than the previous sessions.  However, I did have to tell him today that his focus does not need to be on keeping track of time and making sure I know the time, but on the actual lesson. 


Lesson(s) about tutoring and/or the tutee you learned:

Today P.J. and I took his first draft and revised some of it (due to time limit).  Today I learned that over-explaining leads to confusion.  It took about 25 minutes for P.J. to understand what I wanted him to do.  All I wanted to do was make it clear to him that revision includes changing somethings in his essay to make it better.  However, I guess I could not convey this message to P.J.  One of the reasons was that I wanted to make sure he noticed what he wanted to revise and it not be just telling him where exactly he needed to revise.  He started to ask me if he could just come up with a whole new idea, and from there we spent about 25 minutes on me explaining and him asking me questions.  I think next time I should show him a visual aid on revision.  Also, I think from the beginning I should have done a better brainstorming activity.  I also learned that P.J. doesn't write better with music.  I was going to play some today, but he said it wouldn't be a good idea because the last time he tried that, it didn't work.  Once he understood the revision process, he realized that it takes time and he can't just rush through it (like a first draft).  I still had to stress him to give supporting details/examples.  So I had him tell me an example for one of his subtopics: some 32 floor hotel in South Korea.  He was really excited telling me about it and even showed me pictures.  I told him that that is the type of example and details you should write in your essay.  So I guess it helps for kids to talk aloud while they are revising and tutors must ask a lot of guiding questions.  So next time I hope to wrap up this opinion essay topic and move on to expository writing.