My first tutoring experience can best be compared to the feeling of being in a roller coaster. Although there were times in which I felt as if things were moving along well and progress would begin to be made, there were also times in which I felt as if we were suddenly halted into what seemed like a brutal stop. For example, my tutti needed help in developing his ideas further and although we would progress in figuring out what these ideas might be, we would then face the problem in finding examples from the author. I would then ask the student questions that might guide him in the direction of finding these examples (e.g. The author talks about 9/11 in this article, why would he do this?) The problem would be that usually all my questions would end in an "I don't know."
As the session progressed, I found myself having to take over. We created an outline which I tried to keep as simple as possible to avoid the risk of the student getting lost. I then asked him to try to develop the essay and provided him with my email address. Although he has not contacted me yet, I am looking forward to meeting him again and see how much the essay has changed.
