The Role of a Peer Tutor

1. The Role of a Peer Tutor Melissa Danko // Writing 300 Class Conference // April 5, 2012

2. Common Concerns • Do I need to be an expert writer to be a good tutor? • How can I help a writer if I’m just a peer? • How directive or non-directive should I be? • What kind of environment should I establish in a tutorial? • What kind of tone should be set?

3. Act Like a Peer,Think Like an Expert Peer: provides feedback on another student’s writing, engages in discussion with the writer, and offers guidance for improving the writing Expert: not an expert of writing, but an expert of stimulating thought, encouraging productive collaboration, and giving helpful readerly responses

4. Agenda • Characteristics of a peer • What it means to act like a peer • Characteristics of an expert • What it means to think like an expert • Why both are equally important

5. Characteristics of a Peer Friendly Interactive Attentive Understanding Supportive Encouraging

6. Acting Like a Peer • Sets up a more comfortable environment • Provides a “climate in which students can feel less inhibited about asking questions and seeking help” (Churches & Magin) • Creates a community of equals • Provides a social context for academic discussion (Bruffee) • Stimulates collaboration • Helps writers maintain ownership of their writing • “meet students wherever they are in their own writing process and facilitate their development to the next step” (O’Neill, Harrington, & Bakhshi)

7. Characteristics of an Expert Thoughtful Adaptive Flexible Patient Knowledgeable Prepared

8. Thinking Like an Expert • Promotes usage of different techniques • “Experts’ knowledge is organized around core concepts or ‘big ideas’ that guide their thinking about their domains” (Brandsford, Brown, and Cocking) • Ask the right questions, provide helpful responses • Allows for adaptation of the tutorial to the writer’s needs • Better understanding of the situation leads to adjustment of tutoring strategies for a particular individual (Hart) • Enables recognition of issues • Ex: Is the thesis unclear or is it an organizational issue? • Being familiar with common issues and knowing to watch out for them

9. Importance Forming a peer-to-peer relationship sets up the entire tutoring session and helps it to run smoothly Thinking like an expert provides the most thoughtful feedback and solutions to writers Paying close attention to our mindset and attitude will best serve students and hopefully improve their writing!

10. “We train our tutors to go straight to the heart of whatever a student is working on, to discuss the question without worrying that they need to be experts or to have mastered the scholarship and reading on a subject that may well be beyond their expertise. Their job is to help students be as clear as possible about what they need to do for any particular assignment and to discuss student drafts in the light of this.” – Peter O’Neill, London Metropolitan University