You probably noticed that this was not the most successful tutorial session in the world. But it is interesting to note that:

1. Tim will leave this session happy - he did not have a paper when he walked in and now he does.
2. The meeting will continue and Tim will realize that things he found difficult and irritating are actually tied to some of the themes of the text. He will learn something that may actually increase his confidence as a reader.
3. Tim will return to the Center on Thursday, and will most likely write an adequate paper.
4. Tim will probably recommend the Center to a friend and will most likely be a repeat customer.

• So, why can't we call this a successful session?

As for the tutor - the situation was very difficult, and Jen was successful in several ways.

1. She was sensitive to Tim's reactions. She recognized when she messed up, and tried to rectify her missteps.
2. She tried several different approaches and had some good ideas in terms of trying to get Tim to figure out what he was interested in (recounting what happened, getting him to talk about the characters, and so on).
3. She stayed sensitive to Tim's immediate and practical needs - they had only 15 minutes left in this session and Tim didn't have a thesis statement, let alone a viable outline.
4. She also made sure that she asked Tim to come back with a first draft, thereby modeling good writing habits and setting up a work schedule for him to follow.

This tutor has probably had a number of very successful tutorial sessions.

• What went wrong?
• What do you do when the tutee keeps circling back to his hatred of the text and the fact that he didn't understand it?

Let's watch and see another possibility for this session...

Last Updated: 7/9/08