Questions for 4/21/10

Doodles:
The article talks about many rules that ESL students have for writing in their home country that do not apply to english writing. How is this similar and different from the rules we were taught in high school that do not apply in college any longer?

Influence of culture:
How might recognizing a students cultural background make them feel in the tutorial session?

Creating a Common Ground:
The WATCH approach seems very similar to what we have learned to do in a normal tutorial session with a native speaker. What might need to be added to this approach to make it more geared towards ESL students.

Writing Center: Week Eight

Tonight was another no show at the writing center. Good thing I have lots of posts from earlier in the semester.

Questions for 4/12

Planning for Hypertexts: What are the differences you see in a tutoring session with a hypertext document compared to just a paper with a subject matter you are not familiar with?

Protocols and Process in Online Tutoring: It seems to me that a lot of the strategies for online tutoring are similar to face-to-face tutoring. Do you think it would be easier for our younger generation of tutors who are more used to non-face-to-face interaction to adapt to some of the drawbacks to that do exist in online tutoring?

Rule of 3rds: Could learning more visual techniques like the rule of thirds help in tutoring session with hypertext documents?

CARP rules: How could the visual strategies of contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity relate to writing or make you a better writer?

Tonight there was a no-show. We waited for twenty minutes to make sure the writer would not show up and then went back out into the beautiful warm weather!

Ideas for Training Session

It is clear that the mentors will need something to refer to after the sessions are over in case they forget some of the things that were taught. I think that a wikispace would be best for this "manual". This makes it impossible for the mentor to lose the manual and waste trees making many of them. It also opens up the information we are putting together to the public. If we are going to spend time making this we should try to share it with as many people as wish to see it.

As far as the first session goes, I think it really should just be the basics. Explain how the ideas and organization are far more important than grammar. Also include the importance of revision and focus on that. The next sessions can be used to talk about specific types of students.

I think this session should not just be lecture and discussion about how to tutor, but actually doing it. Have each student bring a piece of short writing with them and split up into pairs and switch paper (in a sense, what we did for our mid-term). If this were to happen it would be important to have experienced writing tutors in each group there to help if a new mentor does not know what to do.

Questions for 4/5

Bedford: As a writing tutor, it is a common rule that you should not try to give the writer too much information in one session for any type of student. Do you think our writing center is set up in a way that makes this easy to do? Should a follow up session be required for students who have more problems with their writing?

St. Martins: I observed the ESL students in my time at the writing center as not being prepared and not being passive, these two things are different from the qualities Harris describes. Do you think what I observed were rare cases or are ESL students just as different from each other as any other normal students?

Writing Center: Week Seven

This session was a follow up on the session with the same ESL student that I observed last week. The writing consultant is very patient with the writer from the start after dealing with a long and tedious session last week. They start out by establishing where the writer is in her writing process. There is no conclusion to the paper but there are quite a few pages already written. She says one of her goals is to shorten the paper. They start by looking at a section in the paper that the writer had underlined that she knows she wants to work on. There are a lot of errors that are found from the consultant reading the paper out loud. This helps the writer a lot with her paper because the consultant can show the writer where in the paper her translation to english does not make sense. They underlined sentences that did not make sense and then identified what was not working within that sentence. The writer has not properly cited her quotes yet. They went over the basics for citation. They discussed how she needs to add analysis after each quote. This the writer seemed to understand very well. They also talked about the danger of using too many quotes. The writer didn't really seem to grasp this concept well at first. This may have been because it required a larger revision to the paper as a whole. The consultant then described how you can still use some ideas from the quotes but make a comparison of the two books in the paper. The writer then requests that they talk about the conclusion. This is a case where they are simply having a conversation and trying to create a conclusion idea. The consultant finds a sentence near the end that the writer considers one of her transition and explains how that would be good to put into the conclusion. The writer is then confused about what to do about the transition because she didn't realize she just needed to make a different conclusion. After discussing the conclusion, they go over the proper mla format for the heading of the paper. It seems like the paper should be due soon since she has been working on it for a week, so I think it was good to go this since the writer doesn't know the way to format the paper. The consultant then attempts to wrap up the session and asks if there is anything else the writer wants to work on. The writer takes this opportunity to ask the consultant to read over a section of the paper to check the grammar. They pointed out a lot of the same things they talked about earlier and it made it seem like the writer was trying to turn this into a "fix-it-shop" type session. The consultant tried to avoid this by pointing out a grammar point of where to use the word "and". The hour was up after this and it seemed like the session was overall very productive. The consultant was very polite and encouraging as the writer was leaving the WC. In this session it was clear that the writer was more comfortable with the consultant. She was interjecting(not in a rude way) and asking questions about things she did not understand. It was good to see the writing seeming to be more engaged in the session! This engagement didn't last the entire time. It is certainly hard I can see for the writer to stay focussed for an entire hour.

Questions for 3/29

Thirty-something students: Besides needing to be more encouraging to an older student because they may less confident, what else could you do to make them feel more comfortable in the session?

Non-Traditional Students in the WC:

The article's main reason non-traditional students should have non-traditional tutors is that then the students will not feel scared of the tutor or what the tutor thinks about them. What other problems would a tutor have that would lead the session to being unsuccessful and how could they be overcome?

WC ethics: Although it is ethical to not think of "non-traditional" students as any different than typical students, is this a practical strategy? Couldn't knowing some of the "non-traditional" students common flaws or knowing strategies that work best for an older age group help a session run smoothly?

Defense of Conference Summaries: Why do the writers feel it necessary to include the writer in writing the conference summary? Doesn't the writer already know what was discussed and shouldn't tutors be responsible enough to write the summary accurately?

Writing Center: Week Six

When I saw the writing consultant I shadow in d-hall before the session, she told me to be prepared for a more intense session than usual because the english was not the writer's first language. She had received the paper ahead of time and she knew that there was going to be a lot to discuss. At the Writing Center, the consultant began by asking the international student why they came to the writing center. The student responded by saying she wanted to work on grammar and she also mentioned her professor suggested she come to work on english translation. The consultant then proceeded to ask the writer what she meant in her thesis, without looking at what she had written. This didn't seem to help much so they look at and analyzed what she had written. There were short discussions about the meanings of certain words dispersed throughout the session, like "strong" (emotionally or physically). It was clear that the writer had good ideas, but was having trouble expressing them. She wasn't sure how to make her writing sound more formal because she hasn't been exposed on a regular basis to formal words. The consultant then set up the progression of the paper using an outline (with much help from the writer of course). The consultant began to read through the paper, discussing many many sentence level problems throughout the paper. Quotations were also discussed and how to analyze them properly. Overall this consultation was seriously overwhelming. If I were the writer I don't know that I would have felt good leaving the session. The writer seemed shy so it was hard to tell if she was getting frustrated, but there was a lot discussed in the session and it makes me wonder if the writer would have benefited more by just focusing on and perfecting one aspect of her writing.

Questions for 3/24/10

Apprenticed to Failure:

Do you think it is possible to be continuously failing and not realize it? What warning signs are there that show an unsuccessful session? How do you know if it is a situation when just walking away is in order?

Bedford Guide Ch. 8:

One of the suggestions for what to do with a "perfect paper" is to make stylistic changes. How do you do with without taking away the voice of the writer? How can you be sure one way of saying something is better than another?

College Mentor Writing Consultation Part 2

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and the idea of sitting inside concerned me. Good thing it was possible to take the essays outside and enjoy the sun! First we were paired up with out writers. Last time I was a floater so I didn't have a writer, but this time Molly and I both shared a different writer. We began by going outside to read the papers. This gave us time to read the paper carefully without having to worry about the awkward silence that occurs when you are reading to yourself. Then we came back inside to retrieve our writers and then went back outside. First we asked the writer what her and her consultant worked on last time. She they they worked on organization. This is what we initially thought was worked on because the paper was very well organized. The one major problem the essay had was the lack of direct quotes. It was clear that the writer was not comfortable using them or had not used them in the past. She did a lot of paraphrasing the quotes. This is good sometimes, but she was asked to use direct ones as well. She was very willing to listen to what tips we had to incorporate them. We took her through how to pick out a good quote and how to introduce it and also how to add analysis following it. There were a few grammatical errors, but we were more focused on her ideas and making sure the main ideas of her essay were expressed. Then we went back inside and talked with the high school students about the difference between high school and college. I think the high school students really learned a lot through working with us. Also, the process of revising their paper multiple times is a very good experience to have. I never revised a paper more than once before coming to college and its exciting for them to have this experience in high school.

Writing Center: Week Five

The writer did not show up for the writing consultation last night. It was the first "no-show" I had so far. Not too bad considering other people had multiple no-shows.

Questions for 3/15/10

Minimalist Tutoring:

Could there be a time when minimalist tutoring does not work? Could a shy or unengaged person benefit from another tutoring method?

A Critique of Pure Tutoring:

Why do you think writing centers avoid directive tutoring? Could one problem be that there are not enough writing tutors with enough experience in particular fields to run a directive tutoring session?

Writing Center: Week Four

On the last night before spring break started I did not think that anyone would make an appointment at the writing center. But of course, someone had a paper due the next day that they wanted to have checked over. The assignment was writing about three different poems and poets. The writer then had to support or refute their ideas. Each of the poems told the readers different negative things about falling in love. She is supporting the claim that little has changed with love over time. The consultant asked the writer what she wanted to work with and she said overall flow, and if her paragraphs go along with her thesis. She also wanted to work on grammar. Then the consultant started reading the paper out loud. The writer had particular parts of the paper in orange lettering that she wanted to work on. The first problem area was just a wording choice. The consultant asked the writer just to talk about what she meant in order to find a new way to say her sentence. The consultant then continued reading aloud and fixed some little grammar points as she went along. There was then a lot of work done on particular word choices. This was able to be done because the thesis and supporting paragraphs were strong. Reading the paper aloud really did a lot to improve it. The writer really got on a roll with rewording some of her sentences to make them sound a lot more concise and academic sounding. The consultant then had to plug her computer in which gave a great time to take a break and have a different conversation before returning to focus on the paper. The focus continued to be about word choice and grammar. It was over-all not as exciting as other tutorials mainly because there were not major problems, but this is a very realistic thing that happens in the writing center. There aren't always huge issues and word choice and grammar are sometimes the only things that need fixed up in a paper. At the end of the tutorial the consultant told the writer about transitions and gave her a hand out from the writers web to help her when she got home.

Questions for 3/1/10

Bedford:

When pre-writing needs to be done in the Writing Center, how do you decide which method would be best for the writer when you have only known them for a short time?

St. Martin's:

Considering that professors with strong opinions will be grading a writer's paper, could voicing your opinion on a writers paper that offends you potentially save them from offending a professor?

Writing Center: Week Three

The student was a student athlete, but not an international student. She said going to the writing center "helps her" and she wasn't looking to work on anything in particular. They started out by reading the prompt. Then the writing consultant addressed the issue of the writer not having a clear thesis. She read the introduction paragraph aloud. The consultant then wanted to get the writer's ideas without even looking at the paper. They discussed the two different classifications Aristotle had between two types of people. Then she asked the writer what her opinion was on the text to continue getting her ideas out. The consultant was writing down what the writer was saying and told her she could keep the notes. The writer had very long paragraphs so that was one thing they were going to focus on while the consultant read the paper out loud. Then the consultant and the writer were looking for a word for something and the other consultant in the room that did not have a student thought of one that would work. This shows how people have such different ideas, that collaborating always helps. The consultant was writing directly on the paper when going through the paper. The consultant is pointing out to the writer where she strays from her original ideas in each paragraph. The writer was going off onto tangents that the paper is not supposed to be about. This consultation seemed to me like it would be difficult because the paragraphs were so long and the consultant had to dig through the student's writing to find her main ideas. As the consultation went along the consultant started to understand more and helped the writer greatly in figuring out her thesis. From there they formed a small outline of where the paper could go and the transitions between each point. There was another interjection from the other writing consultant in the room, but this time it was not a help to the paper. It was an attempt, but it ended up interrupting the consultation. The consultant then pointed out some points in the paper where a textual citation would enhance the student's argument. As she was reading silently, the consultant then found a good spot to break apart one long paragraph into two different ones. The writer then also had another idea as they went along. This showed how the writing center can spark ideas and make the writer think more in depth about the particular prompt they are given than they would had they not come to the center. The consultant then pointed out a reoccurring problem the writer had with commas. She got her some Writer's Web worksheets on commas and also incorporating quotes since she needs to do that after leaving the writing center. They also get into a discussion of what the professor wants. It is a philosophy paper so "I" is very acceptable and the professor even encouraged it. This was a good example of how writing for different purposes is very different and its good to always ask and not just assume one thing or another. The writer left with a lot to think about and some great ways to improve her paper.

Questions for 2/22/10

This is a Redneck Argument!

-Have you ever taken a stance in a particular issue you are writing about and make your opinions seem stronger than they actually are in order to make your writing better? Have you ever taken it too far like in this particular writer's case?

Reflections on Teacher Comments

-The author talks about "balance" when talking to a student about a professor's comments on her paper. How would you handle a situation where a student feels her professor's comments are mean or too critical?

Hjortshoj Ch.5

-When working with an ESL student, would you be tempted to just fix their grammar rather than focus on their other more thesis based problems?

Bedford rest of Ch.4

-Have you ever used the incentive of a reward to help keep you focused and on task in your writing process? What other ways are there to stay motivated?

Lanham's Paramedic Method

-Have you ever tried eliminating "is" from your writing? If so did you find it greatly improved your writing?

CMP

Initially my role for today was to be a "floater". When the idea was described it seemed like it was going to be a very simple task. Observe what other people were talking about and then comment and add my own opinion that may be separate from the writing consultant in action. About a minute into "floating" around I found myself at a complete loss for what to do. I had the most trouble with listening in to a conversation without feeling like I wasn't intruding. I realize that teachers and professors do this, but I didn't feel like I had the authority to come over and just start listening, even though that was my job description. I also found it hard to just jump into discussing a paper that I hadn't read or looked over. Would I be asking a question that the consultant had just gone over? These problems were not something that could be overcome in the hour we were given so I ended up just sitting and helping consult one student. Having two consultants was good I think because we both could share our ideas and give the reader different opinions. It also help me to feel more comfortable because if I missed something when reading over the paper, the other consultant was there to contribute. The writer was very responsive when asked to just talk about her ideas. She did not go into much detail as she could have, which is something she will work on for next time. She had good ideas for how to relate what she read to why she wanted her dad to read the article, but she just hadn't written them. The thing she had most trouble with was focus. The prompt was asking to explain an article and the specific article wasn't even mentioned until the next page. Once this problem was pointed out she seemed to understand as to how she should have set up her paper. There was also mention of a second article which wasn't really relevant and we explained how adding that other article took away from the focus of the main article she was discussing. Overall though her paper was a great start and I was impressed with the ideas she had and just how excited she was about the topic of biology after she admitted it hadn't been her favorite in the past. I'm looking forward to seeing the progress she makes on the paper.

Writing Center: Take Two

I ended up observing a session that was a bit unexpected. The consultant did an excellent job, in my opinion of course, at going over the paper without reading it beforehand. This was good to observe because it is similar to what will go on this Saturday. First she had the writer fill out his name and information on the sheet of paper that is handed into the Writing Center. The writer brought his paper in on a computer. The first thing the consultant asked for was the writer's assignment sheet. She read it slowly out loud, giving her time to think about the task at hand. She asked the writer what he wanted to accomplish. He said basically thesis related items and grammar. The first thing they checked was that the introduction paragraph set up the paper correctly for the prompt that was given. The consultant read the paper out loud since she had not previously seen the paper. Little grammar mistakes were fixed along the way as she read it out loud. Although we are taught in class that grammar isn't necessarily the most important, he had asked for that help and his paper was due the next day so it seemed more necessary. At the same time this time spent fixing grammar could have been devoted to more thesis based discussion, but that was covered too as they went along. After going over the first paragraph, the consultant decided to put the paper aside and just get the writer to express his ideas. This actually worked quite well and helped the consultant understand the two books being compared in the paper. She then tries to help him combine the things he is saying and the thesis he has written out. For the next paragraphs they discussed the use of quotes and the consultant pointed out times he used them well and other times when they could be stronger and supported better. The consultation seemed to go really well and the writer seemed to get a better idea in general of how to explain his quotes in a good way that relates to the thesis statement.

Tell Me What You're Thinking

Professor Dolson asked a question at the end of last class that really stuck with me. What makes people want to tell us things? This may not be hard to answer when thinking about your friends, or family. They tell you things because they trust you. They know you'll listen to them and even give them advice if its needed. However, in a writing consultation the writer doesn't know you beyond your name and where you go to school. Of course the writer isn't sharing super personal topics with you about their lives, but depending on the writing there may be personal aspects tied in. Even if the writing is completely academic analysis, it is still the writers original ideas that they may be insecure about. So how, after knowing someone for all of five minutes can you get the to feel comfortable enough to share their thoughts about their writing and other thoughts they may have about the topic at hand? Obviously there is no concrete answer to this question. If there were, robots would be doing consultations, not people. I think you have to try and be as friendly as possible. No one is going to open up to someone who is not smiling or at least seeming like a nice person. Another important aspect is not seeming nervous. I know I'm a little nervous for this saturday, but if I come across nervous that could potentially make the writer feel even more nervous. Hopefully these tactics will work and allow the writer to feel comfortable enough to start the academic conversation about their writing.

First Writing Center Shadowing Experience

I had some idea of what to expect in my first shadowing experience because I have been to the writing center a few times before for my English 103 class. I was surprised though when I got there and the writing consultant told me that the writer had stood him up. He received an email from the writer just fifteen minutes before the consultation was to take place. Fortunately, there was another consultation going on in the time period so I was able to observe that. The writer came in with a half written paper. She was a history major, taking an art history class and had to write a paper about some vases from history. The writer had the history aspect of the paper completed. The other part of the paper was to be her own observations. I could really tell that this threw the writer way off her "paper-writing-game". She was having trouble at first deciding how to write her thesis or if she even needed one in general. The writing consultant was very patient with her even when the writer started to get overwhelmed with the amount of confusion this paper was causing her. The consultant kept reminding her that she needed to stay focused. To help the writer do this she carefully went over the assignment sheet (just like in the article we just read for class) and had the writer do a general outline for how the different aspects of the paper should fit together. The rest of the tutorial was spent making a clear thesis in order to give the writer a great start on her paper. Towards the end of the consultation the consultant emphasized that she was available during the weekend to review the paper once the writer had more done. I thought this was important because it gave the writer a chance to gather her thoughts and then later be able to get her paper looked over once more. The writing tutor was so polite and the hour long consultation really flew by quickly.

Observations

It is a tuesday night in the library and one would think it would be time to start cracking down on homework. I am currently in the quiet section of the library blatantly staring at a table of three students. Let's just hope they don't notice. Two of them have their computers out, but only one seems to be working on it diligently. I'm wondering if he'll take the paper he is writing to the writing center. That same person keeps sniffling which makes me think he has a cold. I'm wondering if he got this cold by being out in the snow too long over the weekend. Although this is the quiet section of the library, these three students have not stopped chatting since I've been observing them. The talk doesn't seem to be academic considering I hear lots of quiet chuckling. I'm wondering if these three don't have a lot of work or whether they are just procrastinating and trying to avoid their work. After observing, I realize how different my observation might have been had I been able to hear their conversation. Maybe they were discussing something they learned in class or a funny thing that happened in class and I jumped to the conclusion that they were not talking about school because they were laughing. I also would need to have made a much longer observation in order to see how well they were working. Maybe they have been here all day and finally took a quick study break. There are so many things that I don't know that hopefully I won't miss in my observations at the writing center.

Engagement

Being engaged in a class throughout the entire semester is something that does not happen very often, but when it does the results can be sensational. However, after reading the blog post about Engagement vs. Grades I'm surprised to hear that engagement doesn't always lead to good grades. The more I think about it the more it makes sense. Just because you enjoy learning about something does not necessarily mean that you will get the perfect grade. I learned this last semester in my CORE class. I hadn't been extremely interested in most of the book and my engagement level was relatively low. When we finally got to a book that I was excited about and enjoyed discussing during class it was such a relief. I no longer had to be bored in class. When it came time to write the paper on this book I was excited to finally be writing about something that interested me. When I got my paper back though, that ended up being my worst grade for the semester. How could this be? I was involved in the class discussion, understood what was going on, but it just didn't end up being my best work. If someone just looked at my grades they would have thought that was the time that I was least engaged when thats was not reality. I'm still glad I got involved in class though and realize that grades really aren't everything.

How May I Help You?

After reading Yother's article about helping students write literary analyses it became clear to me what my biggest fear involved with being a peer tutor. Yother discussed how graduate students were having problems deciding how much was "too much" help in their consultation sessions with younger students. Those graduate students knew far more about the literary works being used than the students did and needed to decide how to help the students fix their incorrect work without giving to student too much help. This was a serious dilemma for those graduate students, however, I am far more nervous for the exact opposite situation.

What do you do when you have no idea what the literary work is even about? Sure you can look at the organization of the paper and other grammatical errors, but I'd imagine it would be hard to tell if a paper was well focussed if you had no idea what the paper was even talking about. I get reminded of this fear some days when my roommate reads me the prompts she gets from her CORE class. We both are reading the same books so I would think that I would at least be able to understand the prompt given to her. However, some of those prompts are extremely difficult to even understand, let alone write about. I'm hoping there are some "tricks-of the trade" out there that I will learn in this class that will help to deal with this particular situation.

Do grades really matter?

When considering the question of whether or not grades truly matter in the grand scheme of things I initially found myself torn. I would like to think that grades do not have as much of an effect on me as actually learning the material the course covers. I would like to think that no matter how poorly I did, I would still enjoy the experience of being challenged. However, when I think about this in a real life situation I find that this is not necessarily the case. Last semester I took an Intro to Psychology class to find out if I liked the subject because I had never taken it in High School. I ended up learning a lot in the class and got an "A". I am now considering Psychology as a possible major and feel excited to explore different career paths in Psychology. Looking back on the past semester though, I have to ask myself, if I had not done well in the class would I be as excited about pursuing a future in the subject? Would the pure satisfaction of learning lots of new information make me as excited? This ideal that learning is all that matters would mean that getting a "B" or a "C" in a class would have no effect on me as long as I felt I had learned and retained useful information. As much as I wish this were true, it absolutely is not. If simply gaining knowledge would be enough to satisfy me, my academic life would be far different from what it is now.