The tutors had seemed especially interested in learning how to use Blackboard, so I started the second session with a Blackboard tutorial. I showed them how to login, how to navigate within the site, and how to use the discussion board. They posted short intros in the most recent forum, which was the peer review forum my students were working in at the time. I printed out the peer review guidelines so we could move to a worktable and talk more easily (the writing center computers face each other, which makes conversation difficult).
I asked them about their writing center experiences: What kind of help do students most often come in for? How do they (the tutors) handle peer reviews? What methods, strategies, and techniques do they employ? I asked because I wanted to know what the tutors do when students come in for peer reviews—as well as what other kinds of help students ask for in the writing center. Even though my research project centers on responding to student writing online, I’m also interested in other tasks the tutors do with students and whether those tasks could be done online. I thought it may be possible to have an email Q and A service, but we would need to create a single writing center email account or maybe create an online writing center help form accessible from TCC’s website.
The tutors told me that many students come in for a quick fix, or for a quiet place to work. Some students ask for help with accessing their email or their Blackboard site. Some need help with using Microsoft Word. Some students want a tutor to look over their draft quickly; some need help getting started or choosing a topic. At the end of the semester, they get many last minute procrastinators. Some students want the tutors to tell them what to do from start to finish.
As for peer reviews, the tutors all agreed that they need to see the assignment from the teacher. If a student doesn’t bring one or if the teacher didn’t give students a hard copy, then the tutors still help them, but in a more general way. They read a student’s paper while the student sits and waits. Then they give their suggestions. They write their suggestions on a separate piece of paper, being careful not to write on the student’s paper. The tutors said they focus on different writing concerns; higher order content issues for college level writers and more on structure and grammar for developmental writers.
We talked about the differences between face-to-face tutoring and tutoring online. I showed them some sample reviews done by me and my former instructional assistant, Donald. Ellynne remarked that Donald “talked” nicer to the students than I did. I admitted that my tone sounded more direct and I gave less praise, but I reasoned that it was from doing so many reviews, for such a long time. I won’t lie to students, I told them. I won’t say something is great when it’s not. But I could probably work on improving my tone.
Before I left, I outlined the project schedule for the rest of the semester. I talked about how the cycle of drafting, peer reviewing, and revising goes for my students and about where we would fit our responses in—the due date for my students to post their first draft was the following Monday (and most students wait until the last day to post, of course). The following Friday, they were supposed to have given peer reviews to two classmates. Over the weekend, they were supposed to revise their drafts based on feedback from peers, tutors, and me. The final draft was due the next Monday.
