Reverse-Tutoring?

What being a tutor in the WSWC taught me

By Hyunha Hwang

You want to teach both a cat and a dog how to sit. The dog immediately learns how to sit after you reward him with a bone. Assuming that all animals are the same, you do the same with the cat and reward her with a bone after each time she sits.

Obviously the cat did not learn how to sit, moreover annoyed at you.

Tutoring at the West Springfield Writing Center has taught me a similar lesson—or a realization—that not every tutee has the same process or incentive in achieving what they would like to achieve during their writing process. For example, there are tutees that come in to simply obtain the yellow pass required for a grade, and there are tutees who willingly walk in with the purpose of wanting to improve their writing. From that realization alone, being a tutor has given me the skill of asking various types of open-ended questions and suggesting ideas or corrections without having the tutee lose control of their paper.

“Different types” of tutees?

One tutee may come in with a partially complete paper and an “I-don’t-want-to-do-this” face, plopping down onto the seat and sliding their paper toward you as if the paper will complete itself without the input of any effort. Then again, you might have another tutee with a paper that is practically perfect and needs no refinements, leaving you clueless and lost about what to do.

What these tutees teach us in return

Such “different types” of tutees give us the skills, as tutors, to adapt to not only different kinds of people but the finesse in improvising from the experience we build. No tutor in the writing center has a script to use for every tutee that walks in to be tutored; some people need to be approached differently, and we build a skill of creating conversations that don’t get interrupted. Moreover, as tutors, we acquire a variety of teaching techniques that can be applied in different situations. We’re able to explain concepts in different ways and broaden ideas. This skill can be used in multiple real-life situations that require communication skills.

As a tutor in the West Springfield Writing Center, I teach many people how to write, but the people teach me the valuable life lesson of communication. The more I develop as a tutor, the stronger my skills in interacting with others become. Such lessons and experiences can only be learned by being a tutor or a teacher, and I am grateful of these skills I have acquired.

Questions, comments, or concerns? Ask away!