Generating New Theory for Online Writing Instruction (OWI)
Document Sharing Plus Text-Based Chat
Note: This tutorial is fairly lengthy and the movie takes up several screens. Therefore, the movie stops at the end of each screen so that you can read it completely and then will restart with the next screen automatically.
Tutorial One Essay and Tutorial One together present an example of a synchronous tutorial that relies upon document sharing to jump-start the interaction. In this case, the student has sent his essay to the tutor just prior to the tutorial, enabling her to read the draft before the tutorial was set to begin. The chat, which comprises the entire tutorial in this case, is about the essay draft, or the product of the student's work thus far. However, the tutorial does not ignore the generative nature of the writing process; AmySTutor attempts to help BobKStudent develop his thinking and writing beyond the current draft. The tutorial took approximately 40 minutes to conduct from reading the essay to completion of the chat.
The tutor attends to a number of issues in this dialogue. First, she demonstrates her sensitivity to the affective dimension of the tutorial by introducing herself, by being positive and supportive, and by honing in on the student's frustrations. Second, she focuses on the student's biggest problem, which is developing an adequate and original response to the assignment, or the purpose of the essay. Quite appropriately, she does not suggest to the student that the assignment is poorly phrased or "bad." Instead, she teaches BobKStudent by restating the teacher's focus and then asking questions that encourage the student to restate the concept in his own words. During the chat, they engage in a dialogue that uses questions and praise to guide the student to understand better what the assignment calls for, to question his thinking, and to refocus his thesis.
Despite the evidence of some consistent, but relatively easily addressed, sentence-level issues, she focuses entirely on the higher order concerns that the student will need to improve his essay. She looks first to the audience and purpose (teacher and assignment) and second to BobKStudent's need to have a message of his own in the essay. The teaching methods that AmySTutor uses in this tutorial include probing “Socratic” questions and restatements of the assignment parameters and about the subject’s (the novel’s) context. She provides organizational strategies within the context of their discussion, enabling BobKStudent to envision how revision might unfold. Toward the middle of the tutorial, AmySTutor guides the student by using a list to summarize the tutorial. When the student doesn't seem quite to understand and asks "so what should I do next, how do I make this essay do that?" she guides him with another list. AmySTutor also provides analogies to assist her tutee's understanding, always refocusing the tutorial on the audience and purpose.
Although AmySTutor unquestionably tackles appropriate higher order, or global, issues with the student, it is possible that a quick mention of two lower order, or local, issues at the end of the tutorial might lead to a stronger next draft. BobKStudent needs to know to proofread his work carefully, especially for "spell-check" errors and to check with his professor or writing handbook about the appropriate source citation style.
Implications for Future Research
Given the previous analysis of this tutorial interaction, the following are some questions that practice-based research could explore within this context.