Basic Techniques to Use When Working with
Students
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You will be familiar with:
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Directive vs. Non-Directive Tutoring
Open and Closed Questioning
Best Practices for Essay Tutoring (Are there any??)
Resources to Develop Tutoring Techniques
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Tutor tells the student
what they should focus on
during the session.
The tutor imparts
knowledge to student.
Answers questions,
explains.
Tutor holds role of
authority
Directive
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Student tells the tutor
what they want to focus
on during the session.
The tutor asks questions,
draws knowledge out of
the student.
Opens Dialogue
Creates equal relationship
Non-Directive
“In one-to-one conversational tutorials, tutors can encourage
students to talk through their own writing process and to
bounce ideas off of their tutor, thereby allowing the tutor to
more readily engage with the writer's imagination. In contrast,
when tutors provide only direction without collaboration,
students are not as likely to engage as readily with their
ideas, only the "rights“ and "wrongs" of the words they've
chosen to express them.
-Lani Varga and Jessica Ilko
The College of Wooster
Peer Tutoring Handbook
“When I started tutoring in the Writing Lab I
was worried about being non-directive. It’s a
hard skill to learn, and only experience makes
it easier. However, with more tutoring, I have
established patterns to focus on nondirective tactics. “
 Claire Schmidt, University of Missouri
Peter Carino, a professor
at Indiana State
University, argues for a
more balanced
approach to tutoring
that involves both
directive and nondirective techniques in
“Power and Authority
in Peer Tutoring”
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The non-directive approach is largely based on
writing center’s fear of faculty concerns over
plagiarism.
A directive approach is entirely appropriate for low
level students.
A tutorial session can shift back and forth between
directive and non-directive approaches.
A session can also shift back and forth with both
tutor and student serving as the authority during
various points in the tutorial.
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More student knowledge, less tutor
knowledge = more nondirective methods
Less Student Knowledge, more tutor
knowledge = more directive methods
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Both directive and
non-directive
techniques can be
useful in different
situations and with
different students.
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Using open ended questions is one nondirective technique used to create
opportunities to open a dialogue about a
text.
◦ Compare:
 Do you like your thesis? (Closed Question)
 How did you come up with your thesis statement?
(Open Question)
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Find a partner
Sit across from one another
One Person ask 5 closed ended questions.
Switch
The other person now asks 5 closed ended
questions
Now repeat asking 2 open ended questions
each.
Discuss the differences between open and
closed ended questions. Why would one be
more beneficial to tutoring than the other?
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Tutor: After reading through your paper, I am wondering why you
spent the first page writing about you and your friends on the way to
the theatre.
Student: I don’t know. That’s What happened. We had a hard time
finding a parking space.
Tutor: Do you think that’s important for the reader’s to know?
Student: Well, I thought I would put it in to get started and I thought
it was neat the way we got lucky and got a space just when we
thought we’d be late. I wanted to start with something interesting,
and I thought the play was really serious, heavy.
Tutor: It is interesting, but how do you see it relating to the play?
Student: I don’t know. Should I take it out?
Tutor: That’s up to you. What do you think?
Carino, Peter “Power and Authority in Peer Tutoring”
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Tutors do not to write on student papers.
Students to write on their own papers.
Tutors want to preserve student ownership of
his or her paper.
Tutors focus on Higher Order (HO) concerns
first and Lower Order (LO) concerns last.
Tutors mention the positives about the essay
as well as the areas that need improvement.
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Tutor does mark on paper highlighting areas
of concern without fixing the issue.
Tutor gives expert feedback on what
techniques and strategies are available to the
student to fix the paper.
Tutor assumes the role of authority.
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Once again, finding
a balance between
the two approaches
is key…Just
remember that the
guiding principal is
that you should
never, ever let the
student plagiaries
your ideas or work.
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If a paper is at the point when focusing on
just the grammar is necessary, please do so.
One technique that is especially effective with
ESL students is to point at a problem area and
ask them a guided question.
“Should an article go before this noun?”
“This sentence sounds awkward. How do you
think we can make it clearer?”
“Is this the best preposition for this phrase?”
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Patters of error is a term we
use for mistakes or errors a
student repeatedly makes.
You can tell the student
that you will help him/her
identify and fix the errors in
the first paragraph or even
the first page and let
him/her fix the rest of the
errors in the paper.
A Few Words from Our Students
What Important Themes Pop Out for
You?