I have learned of how to present myself as a tutor, I have learned how to act as a tutor, and I have even learned, as a tutor, the many varieties of students I will come upon. What Ryan and Zimmerelli teach me next is incredibly valid and helpful information—they offer how to handle these different people.
These are questions that fill my head before each consultation: Is my student a visual learner? Do I need to use pens and highlighters? Should I make the student write out all the information? Or is my student a listener? Should I read all the information aloud before preceding? Or does my student learn by doing? Should I give the student the pen and watch as he or she figures out the thesis with only a little of my aid?
These are all valid questions, and Ryan and Zimmerelli face them head on, and provide critiques and helpful comments. I, being a visual and kinesthetic learner, was able to respond to their tips in agreement. For example, Ryan and Zimmerelli list these tips under “visual techniques”: “Use color when possible” (60) and “work from written material, pointing to, circling, highlighting” (60). These make sense to me; they seem viable options.
I made sure to do this during my consultation, even pulling up the assignment on my computer, having previously highlighted the important parts. My writer seemed very happy with that—the assignment was over four pages long and overwhelmed her even before she set down to read the sheet. By simply setting aside five minutes to go over her assignment and highlight the important pieces, I was able to help her out immensely, and quite simply.
On the kinesthetic side, I gained the tip to use post-it notes. “Use them to identify the parts of the paper, like the thesis, topic sentences, and evidence. Have the student write the concept on the self-stick note and then match it to the appropriate part of the paper” (61). Overall, these tips allow the writer to better grasp the concept of the paper and assignment.
Excellent image to use for this. One heuristic for visual learners involves post-it notes: have the idea that the writer wants to convey written down, one to a note, then have the writer arrange them to see what sort of order makes the most sense.
ReplyDeleteGive these techniques a try.
I love the idea of using color, and I thought it was great how you highlighted the assignment sheet for your WILL student. Have you tried using kinesthetic or auditory techniques with a writer? How did they work out?
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a lot of good questions. I think the best thing to do would be to ask the writer how they learn best, then you could use the techniques you mention that correspond with their learning style. If a writer does not really know their learning style this could be harder, but you could just try a couple techniques and see how they respond and try to learn what works best for them.
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ReplyDeleteThank you for these insights regarding the use of color and visual aids. I am also a visual/kinesthetic learner and benefited greatly from you post as well as the listed article!
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