At first I had a difficult time figuring out how these templates could be used in our tutoring. I could have just skimmed the book, summarized it, and spit something not useful to me out. However, I want to avoid any awkwardness that may arise between me being a first time tutor and my freshman tutee. So in order for me to engage in meaningful conversation to make the rookie not dread seeing me for an hour each week, I decided I could use certain templates and turn them into questions.
From the section on They Say templates (21), I decided I could first prompt the tutee by asking what they say in the paper. Easy enough , right? Well some students may get caught up in sounding smart that they actually lose sight of what they're actually writing about. I know I was guilty of this my freshman year. I can use the standard views templates in question form by saying "people assume that....", do you agree or disagree? Why? Or "my whole life I heard it said...", so why do you say differently? (21). Going beyond this I would like my tutee to critically think, so I would use a something implied template by possibly saying "although it's not said directly, what do you think the author assumes?" This way maybe they can come up with a new idea that was waiting to come out of their brain and into their brilliant papers. If a debate is encountered, a tutor may ask what the controversial issue is and one point of view from each side, then your view.
Anytime a quotation is found in a paper the tutor should see a big red flag! Each quotation should be sandwiched (43) and EXPLAINED!! So if you see a quote chilling by itself prompt the tutee to tell you some more information to go before and after it.
If your tutee is disagreeing with an author make sure to talk about why she thinks X is mistaken and what X overlooks (55). Consequently if your tutee blindly agrees talk about what she agrees with, why, and what experiences has she had that possibly connects to this?
I think a very important "move" in the tutoring conversation will be for the tutor to be the naysayer, or to challenge the author to be the naysayer against their argument. This definetly promotes critical thinking, and while you're doing this ask who cares and so what?? Talk about why X matters so much or why ultimately ______ is at stake. These are all important templates that may be used in conversation if you change the template around into a question.
If your tutee is too academic and you don't understand it, talk to them about it. Make them make you understand it and let them know that mixing academic writing with colloquial talk aint always so bad.
Finally you can ask them, "in other words, what's your point?" Make them explain their intention for writing and possibly put it in another way (129).
So what, you're thinking as you're bored out of your mind, those of you who actually took the time to read this?? Hopefully you will care and these suggestions helped you in some way to avoid an awkward encounter and dull moments with you and your tutee.
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