Bedford 3 and 4

I thought that it was interesting how the book talks about doing things that kind of come naturally as you tutor. I don't remember formally reviewing and learning some of the techniques that are discussed in these chapters, but I still use many of them to some extent. For example, the book identifies several main actions that are to be performed by the tutor: reacting as a reader, requesting information, requesting clarification, developing critical awareness, refocusing, and prompting. To me, all of these are kind of one streamlined interconnection of related processes. I suppose that it's good to break these down and analyze the steps one by one so as to better understand each part, but I've never really thought of them as separate actions before. Another interesting separation of thoughts that they enumerated, which were, in my mind, one conglomerate thought, was the idea of tutors' many roles. The ally, the coach, the commentator, the collaborator, the writing "expert," and the counselor are all roles that I have filled as I've tutored. But I've never consciously recognized that I was filling them. Doing these things just seems to come naturally over the course of a session as the student's needs change. Again, I suppose that it is good to sit down and pick these apart in order to become more aware of these roles and how to better fulfill them.