Writing Center Internship paper :: Teaching Authors Essays

report Center Internship paper colligation Thinking, Mimetic Thinking, and Minimalist Tutoring PedagogyFor the past two years, I arrive worked as a tutor at the Rutgers Writing Center as a minimalist tutor. Anthony Lioi, author of Small Victories The Practice and Process of Tutoring, defines minimalist tutoring as a method that requires students to solve their own problems under the inadvertence of a tutor who acts as a coach, a more experient peer, rather than an editor (Lioi, 1). At Rutgers, minimalist tutoring works in continuative with The New Humanities Reader, which was put together by Kurt Spellmeyer and Richard E. Miller and has as its goal the promotion of connective as opposed to mimetic thinking. Lioi offers the clearest line between connective and mimetic thinking when he says, mimetic thinking, is knowing to demonstrate mastery of a pre-established realm of knowledge, and connective thinking, links different realms of learning in new and unexpected patterns to solve problems unanticipated by traditional forms of knowledge (Lioi 1). To this end, minimalist tutors are trained in a hands off method that emphasizes the importance of giving students exploratory compose exercises to do on their own during the tutoring session and discourages the practice of correcting students papers to pee-pee a perfect paper (2). In my time at the Writing Center, I worked with many students and had much success with the minimalist tutoring methods. However, close totimes with some students, I did not seem to be very effective. I was neer sure why the tutoring did not seem to be helping these students, and I couldnt tell what, if anything, they had in common with each other that would take in minimalist tutoring less effective. I was often tempted to break the rules of minimalist tutoring and to agree a more hands-on approach, but I was afraid I would be horizontal less useful to them if I did. Finally, I was approach with a student who simply w as not getting anywhere with the tutoring, even though I could tell he was working hard. I contumacious to break the rules and give him the help I thought he needed. In the process, I figured out that minimalist tutoring fails many students for the exact undercoat that it is effective with so many others. The emphasis of connective thinking over mimetic thinking in the Rutgers Writing Program, and the way that emphasis is translated into minimalist tutoring practices, ignores the specific needs of students who come to Rutgers without a strong background in expository writing.