Blog Post #5 - Coaching, Tutoring, Teaching... oh my!

This semester, I have really enjoyed connecting with a handful of young writers by tutoring them through their everyday assignments. While there were many hangups after the initial push, such as limited-to-no contact with many of my students, I was able to have a few interactions with a small handful of students from the Milwaukee area. Digital tutoring simplified the feedback process and allowed me to focus on the feedback scaffolds that I can push my students to use in future classes (praise-leading acronyms).  Despite the limitations and frustrations, it convinced me further that I still have to be a teacher because even those 3 emails back and forth left me staggering with excitement. When I clicked on an updated draft and saw my very first student’s final piece of writing, the fact that anything had changed to better encompass her ideas made me giddy.

That interaction made me think of my hesitancy to overstep with giving feedback originally. As McAndrew & Reigstad remind us in Ch 3 of What Tutoring Isn't, there is a thin line between helping shape a piece of writing into what the student envisions and hijacking students writing to become “first draft kidnappers” (19). Instead of worrying about overstepping, I could have focused on trying to develop a relationship with my mentees more online. Truly, I think that the difference between being a writing mentor and teaching is that you do not need as deep of a two-way relationship to be tutored on your work. Teaching, however, is a much more in-depth process of getting to know your students and what helps them learn. I am excited to apply the feedback and digital communication skills we’ve practiced in this course to my future classes.

As a writing resource, I personally used Grammarly in high school and it built my understanding of what could be improved in my writing as I was writing it. Most document apps have auto-correct, but having Grammarly on your computer/phone allows you to decide what to change and gives the writer a brief explanation of what looks incorrect in real time. This tool allows writers to reflect on where they are making continuous errors and recommends shifts in the overall tone or professionalism of a paper. I have never paid for a premium but there are likely benefits to the added features as well!