This week in tutoring was significantly better than last week. I feel good about prioritizing and setting agendas with my student and working on what she wants to work on. This week we worked on a research paper she has to do, and we also covered a mechanical issue she's had trouble with in the past. I found myself actually making use of the handouts in the ETC...even if it wasn't spot-on for what she needs to work on, I molded it to the situation she should be aware of. It was a tough conversation for her, because as she says, "it sounds right" even though it doesn't look right to her instructor. I made sure to engage once again in a conversation about dialects for speaking versus writing and the idea that we simply have to code-switch when we're writing for a particular audience.
For my other student writer, progress is pretty slow-going as she is dealing with significant personal issues, so I try my best to simply be supportive and help out with her assignments, no matter how small the amount of writing we get done together. I can only hope this helps her in at least a small way to accomplish some of her work since I know it's adding up, and she'll have to catch up with everything at some point. I discussed the situation privately with another tutor, and she reminded me that I am not this student's therapist, and there is only so much I can do. Though it feels like I'm not doing much for her, I hope my simply being there, offering to look at drafts via email and meet up on other days, et cetera can be taken as an offering of understanding and support.
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