After drilling the importance of minimialist tutoring into you, here's an article that throws it all into question. -- Isn't academic discourse supposed to be messy?
The author, Stephen J. Corbett, doesn't seem to be opposing nondirective (minimalist) tutoring so much as urging us to be flexible. As Susan and Marian and our other ESL tutors know, sometimes our ESL students need clear-cut, prescriptive suggestions. And as our more experienced tutors understand, we custom-tailor our approach to every new student to some degree.
Mostly, we're coaches, but sometimes we slip into being teachers, too, as we explain what comma splices are, how to repair fused sentences, why topic sentences are important. As long
as we're not dominating the tutoring session or doing the work for the student, I think that's okay.
In the late 1970s, I worked as a secretary for a group of psychoanalysts who were also trained to respond minimally as a way to get their patients to open up. One psychoanalyst was so unresponsive that he wouldn't offer a tissue to a patient who'd started to cry. -- I think we can be effective minimalist tutors and still offer our student writers a tissue (whether real or metaphorical).
However, I still think we need to be minimalist tutors as much as is reasonable. Maybe I'm projecting: I constantly have to fight my own impulse to "fix" student papers; it would be so easy. However, we want to move away from the idea that the Writing Center is a sort of body shop for student text. We're not here to do the work that students need to be doing.
What do you think? Can you share an example of when you've had to cross the minimalist-tutoring line because that was the best thing for your student?
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I believe that minimalist tutoring is generally the best policy. I have not actually started tutoring yet (as I am a new tutor), but minimalist tutoring appears to prompt the student to do more critical thinking. This, in turn, will help form them into better writers. While some students may want clear, direct suggestions for their paper I feel that discussing and asking their opinions on their papers will benefit them more in the long run. As the saying goes, “Give a man a fish; you have fed him for today.Teach a man to fish; and you have fed him for a lifetime." We could easily fix students' papers for them, but by putting the emphasis on their own thoughts and ideas, it will enable them to better write papers in the future.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very important to be flexible in tutoring as well. The article suggests asking students what step they are in drafting their paper. This helps the tutor to know how far the students are in their writing and they can tailor their advice based on this. I agree with Francis, in that ESL students might benefit most from specific suggestions. When reading a paper, I sometimes get caught up in the minor grammatical errors and have to remember to focus on the higher order of concerns as well. The main point of the writing center is to assist students in their own writing and improving their confidence in writing. It is very important to remember that we do not write papers for students. We do not want to "take over" a students paper, but rather offer a small amount of assistance so that the paper is still their own thoughts and ideas. While students may simply care about getting a good grade, by offering minimal tutoring they will learn to become better writers not only for school,but for their careers and future.
I see myself slipping into the teacher role quite a bit. If I ask a question like, "Do you have a thesis sentence." and the student looks at me like I'm crazy, there are only so many questions I can follow up with before I just have to explain what a thesis is. Even though I enjoy being able to teach students about writing, I do agree that the minimalist approach forces the student to open up and talk about their paper and writing process more. Flexibility is definitely the key. Today I had a student who was able to talk very openly about her paper, so I had to say very little. After that I had a student who wouldn't say much at all. I had to ask question after question, and explain things a lot more with him. Every student had different needs. My biggest challenge as a tutor is not falling into a certain pattern, and allowing myself to adapt as necessary to each student.
ReplyDeleteI found myself underlining and starring so many points in Corbett’s article. I guess the most important point is that we can’t have cookie-cutter conferences, and that the nature of writing itself and the diversity of our students mean that we have to custom-design our sessions.
ReplyDeleteIt is, however, necessary to keep the idea of “minimalist tutoring” to the fore as we begin our sessions. I see minimalist tutoring as a pattern that we as tutors/tailors have to adjust and modify as we gather information about the writer in front of us and the text he/she has brought to share with us.
I thought of the story about the psychoanalysts that Frances has shared when reading Nancy Grimm’s words (quoted by Corbett): “Writing center tutors are supposed to use a nondirective pedagogy to help students ‘discover’ what they want to say. These approaches protect the status quo and withhold insider knowledge….” A tutor who just sits there and waits for the student/writer to discover everything about the text on his/her own is making the same mistake that the psychoanalysts did. If we know the student is struggling with his/her writing, and not getting what we are asking him/her to do, we have to open up and release the “insider knowledge” with explicit words of help. We have to teach a man/woman how to gather his/her crops or the crops will be of no use to anyone.
“Authentic listening” is also important in a tutoring conference. In my view, a good conference includes plenty of time when no words are being spoken and thinking and/or writing is taking place. As Frances notes, we have to keep ourselves from grabbing the pen/pencil and making corrections. We also have to keep ourselves from talking and teaching too much. How much is too much? It depends on the session, the text, and the people involved.