Tutoring session techniques adapted for classroom use
Diane Gruenberg, Tutoring Center & Writer’s Place
dgruen@tcnj.edu
ext. 3000
Sharing Strategies
 “The Minute Around”

If we were chatting over coffee, what do you want me to know about ….?

Read aloud: writers see their own text differently when they hear someone else read it OR read it to
someone else.

Think, write, and share (groups of 2 or 3)

Writing partners AKA Peer reviewers focusing on
Responding as a reader: Draft is interesting. Is confusing at this point. Raises questions for reader to
puzzle over. I’d like to read more about.
Thesis/claim/position: Clear? Appropriate to assignment? Complete?
Support/development/evidence: Clearly on-point? Organized logically? If appropriate, acknowledges
opposing viewpoints?
Conclusion: Reconnects logically from thesis? No surprise new ideas or evidence introduced? Brings
together evidence used as support?
Quotes/paraphrases cited appropriately? Framed coherently within text?
Focused free-writing possibilities (short: 2-5 minutes; writing correctness not important)
Beginning of class writing:
What ideas concluded our previous session?
Summarize the key concepts/ issues, techniques, discoveries covered previously.
What are two key points from assigned reading?
What question(s) do you have about assigned reading for today?
Mid-class writing:
What is one question you have now?
What is one thought you want to share now?
What are two important ideas you gained from discussion so far?
Write conclusion/principles in your own words.
What do you think comes next?
End-of-class writing:
What are important concepts/ issues, techniques, discoveries learned today?
What questions do you have?
What conclusions can you reach now?
Summarize/synthesize/apply ideas from this session to ……
What did today’s class add to your understanding of the course/discipline?
What did we cover today that you think might be on the mid-term/final?
Were your goals for this session met? Why/why not?
S:\\Tutoring\OUTREACH\First Sem Faculty Workshops\FSP Wkshop_May 2011_Tutoring session techniques adapted for classroom use.doc
Tutoring session techniques adapted for classroom use
Diane Gruenberg, Tutoring Center & Writer’s Place
dgruen@tcnj.edu
ext. 3000
“How can I tell what I think until I see what I say?”
E.M. Forster, Aspects of the Novel, 1927
“… the standard of ‘knowing’ is the ‘ability to explain to others’ not ‘understanding when
explained by others.’ Require students to articulate what they know in writing or orally,
thereby making what they know and don’t know explicit, and therefore easier to evaluate, and
easier to build on or revise.” Willingham, Daniel T. “Why Students Think They Understand—When They
Don’t.” 2004
Resources
Galloway, Chad. “Vygotsky’s Constructivism.” Emerging Perspectives on Learning, Teaching, and
Technology. http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Vygotsky%27s_constructivism
Forster, E. M. Aspects of the Novel. London: Edward Arnold Publishers Ltd., 1927, 1974.
Willingham, Daniel T. “Why Students Think They Understand—When They Don’t.” American Educator.
Winter 2003-2004, 38-48.
S:\\Tutoring\OUTREACH\First Sem Faculty Workshops\FSP Wkshop_May 2011_Tutoring session techniques adapted for classroom use.doc
Ground-rules for NOTICING (aka MIRRORING)
1.
2.
3.
Characteristics of the writing are named specifically.
Named characteristics must be verifiable in the text. I.e., we must all agree the characteristic exists in the text.
Named characteristics must not be interpretative. That is, if we disagree about a characteristic, it cannot be
named for this exercise.
Practice in Applying NOTICING/MIRRORING
TOPIC: No matter how much we try to get along with other people, we still become angry when
someone does something to offend us. Most of the time we control ourselves because it isn’t
advisable to lose our temper and it isn’t legal to hurt someone else. But wouldn’t it be wonderful
if, just once, we could show our true emotions toward the people who have angered us?
Wouldn’t it be wonderful—if only in our imaginations—if we could throw cream pies in their
faces?
Fill in the blank in the sentence below and write a well-organized draft in which you
argue that the person you chose deserves a pie in the face. Be sure to be specific.
I would throw a cream pie in ________________’s face....
RESPONSE:
I ‘d throw a cream pie in Sylvester Stallone’s face for three very good reasons.
First of all, his bulging, greasy muscles disgust me because they look so unnatural. Mr. Stallone appears to
have shoplifted fruits and vegetables by stuffing them under his skin. Cantelopes in his arms, bananas around his
stomack, and potatoes in his legs. I am sure he is just trying to compensate for his pea brain.
I think becoming a walking bag of groceries distorts Silvester’s humanity. I am convinced he’s been rolling
around a bin of Mcdonalds frenchfries his skin shines with so much oil. I believe I come closer to a heart attack
ever time I see Sly on the movies because my arteries harden in response to all the grease glistening on his body.
Second, I hate Mr. Stallone’s unrealistic suffering his films. In Rocky IV Sly labors through gruling exercises
is screamed at by his coaches rejected by his wife and beaten to a pulp. Yet he always survives the broken heart
and the broken body as though they were minor inconvenience rather than major catastrophes. I begin to feel
needlessly guilty for not possessing the unrealistic physical and metal strengt that Sly’s characters demonstrates
when I watch Rocky surviving a terrific fight. Finally I think that the violence promoted by Mr. Stallone is not good
for our country or for the world. Sly uses machine guns knives and fists to get whatever he wants. And I believe
people respect his behavior and want to imitate his method. Instead of peacefully talking out a solution. I think
Americans are encouraged by sly movies to use the violent Rambo method to deal with problems.
So, I believe Sylvester Stallone deserves my cream pie in his face because he has an unnatural and
revolting body and suffers unrealistically and promotes violence.