by a Creative Tutors' Tutor

The goal for any tutor is to help a student become more self-sufficient with the tutor acting as a guide throughout the lesson. When I first started tutoring this ninth grader, she was rather insecure about her writing abilities and her responses to questions. I sensed that she almost assumed that I would give her answers on her homework or write sentences in essays for her. She was insecure with her answers when I asked her what she thought or what she would say, waiting for me to hint what she thought I wanted her to say. Even though I could have easily given her answers or told her exactly what to do, that would not help her learn to think for herself so that she would be independent for all of those situations in which I was not around to help her. Early in my tutoring with her, I made it a priority to get her to trust her instincts and take the lead in her work. As our tutoring progressed, I would ask her, “What do you think?” and “How would you say it?” The purpose was to get her in the habit of making her writing her own, not a mimicking of how I would write the essay. She had thorough knowledge of the material since she was reading the literature closely. After making suggestions to her about how to set up the essay, I asked her to write her thoughts in her own way even if it was rough. Then I showed her areas in which the sentence could improve, such as vocabulary and sentence fluency. At first, she was very reluctant to volunteer her ideas and word her thoughts, saying repeatedly that she wasn’t sure. I wouldn’t give up on her though and waited until she offered a starting point. Soon, this process gave her more confidence because she was taking the lead, and my role was as someone who could take her where she was and raise her to another level.