brainstorming part deux (blog 12)

1.  Back to the when-I-don't-know-what-to-do-as-a-tutor idea...  I tried to notice on Wednesday night what happened when Dr. Chandler seemed to be trying to figure out what to say, etc.  That made me realize that those situations are probably really common in a session.  Nobody knows exactly what to say right off the bat every time.  
Some of the signals were non-verbal - eyes looking off or up.  And there were verbal cues as well - talking slowly or repeating Sam's question while Dr. Chandler thought of what to say.
So I think there's definitely somewhere to go with that... though I don't know exactly where it would go.  I might need to narrow it down even more and focus on just nonverbal or just verbal stuff.  And then there's got to be some.. analysis of it.  Like what's good or what you should do or even how it's perceived.  
I keep thinking of wanting to have like a debriefing with the student about how he perceived certain aspects of the session or tutor.


2.  Last Monday I thought about what the most important elements of a session are.  I would venture to say that the very beginning and end are most important.  In the beginning, the tutor has to understand what the student needs/wants/says/doesn't say and get on board pretty quickly.  Then, in the end it's pretty important to make sure the writer knows where to go.  But then again... if the middle is bad, nothing else matters, right?  
And there are elements beside just beginning, middle, and end.  The necessary things to do will vary from session to session, but maybe my question is more like, "If I had to make a list of things to accomplish that would work with (almost?) every session, what would those things be?"  This might be too broad. 
And how would I research it?  Perhaps I could compare what was done in each session and see what the common threads are and if those things are essential. And also try to consider what I'm not doing that is essential.  Hmm.


3.  "What makes writers come back to the center?"  I think we read something about grades being a big factor, but we also noted that grades are hard to change in one session.  Let's face it; a student could spend an hour with a tutor and still have a not so great paper.  It may take some real dedication for some students to keep coming back, and how do we encourage them to do that when we can't do much about their grades?  Is it connecting well with a tutor?  Is it being strongly encouraged to come back?  - Maybe being really specific and saying, "Hey, next time we can work on __________."  Or is that too overwhelming?  Okay so go home and work on this, and this, and this, and then you're still going to have a lot left to do.  See you soon!  (For the rest of your college career!  Mwahaha...)  (It's like at the dentist when you get the lecture about flossing, and then they schedule your next appointment right then and there.)
This is another one of those things where I would like to have some kind of post-session questionnaire for the writer where they can rate how helpful the session was and if they're likely to come back.  I don't know if we can do that though.