Most WC writings use many different names for those of us who work in the Writing Centers, working with students with various writing abilities, a multitude of writing difficulties, and at any stage of the writing process. Some say it doesn’t matter what we our called, but I disagree. What we are called or call ourselves will have an influence on what is expected of us and the session that each student is involved in.
While doing the reading for class last week, it occurred to me that there is a difference between tutoring and consulting, between a tutor and a consultant. Knowing these differences can help us in our interactions with the students. And these differences can affect how the student reacts and responds when we are trying to help them.
Let’s look at the word tutor first. By definition, tutoring is to teach or instruct especially privately. Another word that can be used in defining what a tutor does is the word guide. A tutor gives guidance. All of these give the implication that it is a process, one that happens over time. Consistent, regularly, and scheduled also come to mind. All of this meaning that tutoring is more than just one session of meeting with someone. It is where someone is lacking in knowledge in a certain area, and needs to be instructed and given the information that they do not have to become efficient in the that subject. So in this case, a tutor is someone who is an expert, a teacher, someone who can instruct a person for a duration of time as in which the individual will be apt in their knowledge.
Here is a good definition of consult, “…to seek from a presumably qualified person or source advice, opinion.” A consultant is the one who gives expert or professional advice. And a consultation is a conference at which advice is given or views are exchanged. All of this gives the impression of a limited time frame. It also gives the collaborative feel that is a main theme in academic writing of what is done in the Writing Center. It also does not give the authoritative sense that tutor implies, where the instructor is superior to the person they are helping.
It is mentioned over and over that the majority of students have fears coming into the WC. If it was expressed that they were coming in to ‘consult’ about their papers and writing process, would this not help alleviate these fears? Would this not insure that collaborative activities would be more likely to happen?
I am not ignoring that there is a need for tutoring, and that it can be done at the WC. But what if we gave the students this choice? If they felt that they just needed support for one paper at different stages, or in one specific area, then they could come in and get advice on that part. But if there was strong indication that they were lacking in knowledge of basic skills needed to be writing at a standard level, then tutoring would be offered on a regular basis with one certain person. So both services are offered separately, giving both the consultant and tutor a clear idea of the basic expectations of each session.
So basically, in the WC we are doing both tutoring and consulting. It just seems that if it were specified which one was needed and which one we were attempting, it would be better for all involved. Clarity is always a good thing, especially when it comes to writing, right?
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Add Learning Style to the List
If you looked in my The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors you would see written in BIG yellow highlighted letters, the word AMEN. This would be located on page 178 in the section where Shammon and Burns article entitled A Critique of Pure Tutoring says,
"...we find that the benefits of alternative tutoring practices are frequent enough to make us seriously question whether one tutoring approach fits all students and situations. Surely, students at different skills and accumulating different kinds of information, thus making them receptive to different kinds of instruction and tutoring."
Later they go on to say,
"If students are exercising different cognitive skills at different stages in their learning, it makes sense that they may be responsive to different kinds of information and tutoring styles at different stages, too. Our personal and WAC experiences suggest that, at the very least, for intermediate and advanced students, and perhaps on occasion for beginners, too, one tutoring approach does not fit all."
As much as it would make it easier to be able to tutor each student that comes into my cubicle the same and have it be effective most of the time, it is not realistic. Nor would it be interesting. And although the Writing Center and the students who come in into the Center are not there for my entertainment, it does help when there is variety. This helps me learn more about tutoring and all the different issues there are.
This also shows me that I have to stretch myself to figure out in a fairly quick span of time what might work best of the student. In trying to assess this, there is something that Shammon and Burns did not list in their essay as a consideration of what brings uniqueness to each student. That would be their learning style. All of us have certain ways that we learn the best. The most typical are visual and audio. Just talking to a visual learner is not going to be enough for them to learn what they should be doing different in their papers. They might get enough information in to 'correct' the paper in front of them, but it will not stick with them into the next paper, and they will be back the next time with the same issue.
Learning is what the ultimate goal is, right? I would love to see most of those that I have tutored come back and see me, and have had three do so. But what I would really love to see is them coming back with a different set of issues, and showing me that they have implemented what we went over the last time. So if in order to do that, I need to model exactly what they need to do, then I will do that. Not giving them the answers, but showing them what the correct way looks like, and doing it so that they can take it home with them to look at later as they process and practice what we have talked about in our short little encounter.
My favorite moment this week was with my most difficult session. A 'required' guy came in with his English 101 persuasive paper. There was only three pages and he needed at least 6 to 7. Although grammar was not what he needed help on, I still went ahead and read it out loud so he could hear his words instead of just reading them. For the first few paragraphs I stopped and pointed out different subjects in a sentence that could possibly be expanded on. By the second page of the paper I gave him the opportunity to say if he saw anything and he did! We talked through his different ideas, and he wrote and wrote, filling up two pages of the WC notepad. He had more than enough to research and reach 6 pages.
After we had gone over expansion, I asked if he had noticed anything else about his paper while I was reading it. He said he noticed that he was very repetitive, which he very much had been. I was proud of myself for not mentioning this during the reading, even though I really wanted to. But there had been signs that he was an auditory learner, and this proved that he indeed was.
Even more than this, I was excited about the session because as he left he almost smiled and said, "Thanks. I learned a lot." I got the feeling that this kid doesn't say very much that he doesn't mean. Usually the quiet ones don't. So even though he was not very talkative, and showed signs of not really wanting to be there, I am pretty sure he was glad he had. And I learned to keep silent about something because I had listened to my instincts about what kind of learner he might be. A great session is where both the student AND the tutor learn something!
"...we find that the benefits of alternative tutoring practices are frequent enough to make us seriously question whether one tutoring approach fits all students and situations. Surely, students at different skills and accumulating different kinds of information, thus making them receptive to different kinds of instruction and tutoring."
Later they go on to say,
"If students are exercising different cognitive skills at different stages in their learning, it makes sense that they may be responsive to different kinds of information and tutoring styles at different stages, too. Our personal and WAC experiences suggest that, at the very least, for intermediate and advanced students, and perhaps on occasion for beginners, too, one tutoring approach does not fit all."
As much as it would make it easier to be able to tutor each student that comes into my cubicle the same and have it be effective most of the time, it is not realistic. Nor would it be interesting. And although the Writing Center and the students who come in into the Center are not there for my entertainment, it does help when there is variety. This helps me learn more about tutoring and all the different issues there are.
This also shows me that I have to stretch myself to figure out in a fairly quick span of time what might work best of the student. In trying to assess this, there is something that Shammon and Burns did not list in their essay as a consideration of what brings uniqueness to each student. That would be their learning style. All of us have certain ways that we learn the best. The most typical are visual and audio. Just talking to a visual learner is not going to be enough for them to learn what they should be doing different in their papers. They might get enough information in to 'correct' the paper in front of them, but it will not stick with them into the next paper, and they will be back the next time with the same issue.
Learning is what the ultimate goal is, right? I would love to see most of those that I have tutored come back and see me, and have had three do so. But what I would really love to see is them coming back with a different set of issues, and showing me that they have implemented what we went over the last time. So if in order to do that, I need to model exactly what they need to do, then I will do that. Not giving them the answers, but showing them what the correct way looks like, and doing it so that they can take it home with them to look at later as they process and practice what we have talked about in our short little encounter.
My favorite moment this week was with my most difficult session. A 'required' guy came in with his English 101 persuasive paper. There was only three pages and he needed at least 6 to 7. Although grammar was not what he needed help on, I still went ahead and read it out loud so he could hear his words instead of just reading them. For the first few paragraphs I stopped and pointed out different subjects in a sentence that could possibly be expanded on. By the second page of the paper I gave him the opportunity to say if he saw anything and he did! We talked through his different ideas, and he wrote and wrote, filling up two pages of the WC notepad. He had more than enough to research and reach 6 pages.
After we had gone over expansion, I asked if he had noticed anything else about his paper while I was reading it. He said he noticed that he was very repetitive, which he very much had been. I was proud of myself for not mentioning this during the reading, even though I really wanted to. But there had been signs that he was an auditory learner, and this proved that he indeed was.
Even more than this, I was excited about the session because as he left he almost smiled and said, "Thanks. I learned a lot." I got the feeling that this kid doesn't say very much that he doesn't mean. Usually the quiet ones don't. So even though he was not very talkative, and showed signs of not really wanting to be there, I am pretty sure he was glad he had. And I learned to keep silent about something because I had listened to my instincts about what kind of learner he might be. A great session is where both the student AND the tutor learn something!
Friday, October 16, 2009
Doubled Up
So this week I doubled my solo consultations number, and that was in one day! I really do love doing this tutoring thing. There are parts of it that I think I do great at. Greeting each student and trying to get them to quickly relax and feel comfortable comes naturally to me. And even though I might be nervous about what they might need help with and how/if I am going to be able to help them with it, I don't think it comes across to the student.
The concerns that have come up for me this week is the reading of the paper. For all of my sessions I have read the paper, except for one time this week. I had decided not to let the student have a choice, and just asked her to read the paper out loud. I tried to look at his as best as I could (not a good seating arrangement, my bad) so I found it hard to get a total feel for the paper and the issues that were occurring. The student was concerned with transitions, having been told by her E101 teacher that she had problems with that in an earlier draft. We found one to work on, and then several grammar spots. The biggest help for her she said at the end of the session, was letting her talk about which piece of writing she should include in her paper as a writing sample of the person she was interviewing. And although the session went well, I feel that I could have helped her more if I would have read it out loud.
Another problem I have with reading papers, is knowing how much of the paper to read. So far they have all been fairly short papers, the longest being around 8 pages, so I have been able to get through them. Although one session went 10 minutes over because I did not have another one after her. But I am worried about the time when there will be a longer paper that cannot be read through in 30 minutes. The problem with me is that I am extremely linear, start to finish kind of girl. So I know I am going to have a hard time with this. But I know I will get a feel for it, even though there could be some rough spots along the way.
My favorite session this week was with a non-traditional student working on her E101 interview paper. She was so nervous about the paper and that everything was correct. She had been in the day before and had seen Lizzy. They had worked on her thesis and focus of her paper. She had totally revised it and was wanting to check grammar and punctuation. I read through it and realized that she had interviewed her husband, the wrestling coach. She laughed and said she knew it was probably not right that she used her husband for her subject. I told her that I had just finished a paper where I interviewed my sister. She said that made her feel a lot better. It is a small thing, but it still helped her feel more confident, and that is a HUGE thing when writing!
I want to be better at this, and I know I will continue to the more I tutor. The problem is that I want to do it the right way right now! My confidence keeps waning. But my desire is there, and so I will keep pushing, learning, and doing the best that I can.
The concerns that have come up for me this week is the reading of the paper. For all of my sessions I have read the paper, except for one time this week. I had decided not to let the student have a choice, and just asked her to read the paper out loud. I tried to look at his as best as I could (not a good seating arrangement, my bad) so I found it hard to get a total feel for the paper and the issues that were occurring. The student was concerned with transitions, having been told by her E101 teacher that she had problems with that in an earlier draft. We found one to work on, and then several grammar spots. The biggest help for her she said at the end of the session, was letting her talk about which piece of writing she should include in her paper as a writing sample of the person she was interviewing. And although the session went well, I feel that I could have helped her more if I would have read it out loud.
Another problem I have with reading papers, is knowing how much of the paper to read. So far they have all been fairly short papers, the longest being around 8 pages, so I have been able to get through them. Although one session went 10 minutes over because I did not have another one after her. But I am worried about the time when there will be a longer paper that cannot be read through in 30 minutes. The problem with me is that I am extremely linear, start to finish kind of girl. So I know I am going to have a hard time with this. But I know I will get a feel for it, even though there could be some rough spots along the way.
My favorite session this week was with a non-traditional student working on her E101 interview paper. She was so nervous about the paper and that everything was correct. She had been in the day before and had seen Lizzy. They had worked on her thesis and focus of her paper. She had totally revised it and was wanting to check grammar and punctuation. I read through it and realized that she had interviewed her husband, the wrestling coach. She laughed and said she knew it was probably not right that she used her husband for her subject. I told her that I had just finished a paper where I interviewed my sister. She said that made her feel a lot better. It is a small thing, but it still helped her feel more confident, and that is a HUGE thing when writing!
I want to be better at this, and I know I will continue to the more I tutor. The problem is that I want to do it the right way right now! My confidence keeps waning. But my desire is there, and so I will keep pushing, learning, and doing the best that I can.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Balancing
While reading chapter one of ESL Writers by Bruce and Rafoth, I have to admit I was surprised to learn in chapter one that they believe that high school teachers have a large role to play in the struggles of the Ls college student. The fact that anyone would follow a trend that stressed content over errors must have also be some of those who weren't taught grammar in school and haven't yet realized that wasn't a good thing.
Why does it have to be one of the other? Is there a secret scale that is used, and if grammar gets too much attention that content gets thrown off into space? Where is the balance that is needed for the rest of the adult life? Isn't it their jobs as teachers to be thinking about the future of all the students, and preparing them for the 'real' world? Of course they want the ESL students to have success and feel good about what they are doing. But do they have any idea how bad they feel when they get to college and realize that they high school teacher was not telling them the whole truth? Maybe no one has told them, the high school teachers, that this is happening. The ESL students could write them a note, bring it into the WC, and then we can make sure the grammar is correct so that the teachers don't have to struggle to find the content of the writing.
When working with ESL students, or really, any student who is struggling with writing and all that it involves, there has to be an effort to find something to point out that they have done correctly and along with correcting what they haven't done correctly. Understand? It is balancing, and it is very much needed in most learning in life. You have to know what you are falling short on so that you can get the help you need to learn how to correct that. If you sail along thinking that everything you are doing is fine, how do you know to fix it? And then when you realize that it needs fixed, you have already acquired bad habits, you are now past puberty, and relearning is not going to be very easy.
During my consultations this week (that is so great to be able to write!) with the ESL students and the native student alike, I made a conscience effort to find an example of where they were doing correctly the thing that they were struggling with. One of the girls was struggling with commas, and I pointed out the places that she succeeded in placing them correctly. Or even if there is no success in one area, there is always somewhere that can be found that they are doing correctly.
We all need this as humans, rather native or foreign. Being told that you are doing something good and right helps us be able to tackle the things that we are not doing correctly. It is common sense. That is how we learn and succeed. Somebody please let the high school teachers know as soon as possible. I thought it was innate, but I guess not.
Why does it have to be one of the other? Is there a secret scale that is used, and if grammar gets too much attention that content gets thrown off into space? Where is the balance that is needed for the rest of the adult life? Isn't it their jobs as teachers to be thinking about the future of all the students, and preparing them for the 'real' world? Of course they want the ESL students to have success and feel good about what they are doing. But do they have any idea how bad they feel when they get to college and realize that they high school teacher was not telling them the whole truth? Maybe no one has told them, the high school teachers, that this is happening. The ESL students could write them a note, bring it into the WC, and then we can make sure the grammar is correct so that the teachers don't have to struggle to find the content of the writing.
When working with ESL students, or really, any student who is struggling with writing and all that it involves, there has to be an effort to find something to point out that they have done correctly and along with correcting what they haven't done correctly. Understand? It is balancing, and it is very much needed in most learning in life. You have to know what you are falling short on so that you can get the help you need to learn how to correct that. If you sail along thinking that everything you are doing is fine, how do you know to fix it? And then when you realize that it needs fixed, you have already acquired bad habits, you are now past puberty, and relearning is not going to be very easy.
During my consultations this week (that is so great to be able to write!) with the ESL students and the native student alike, I made a conscience effort to find an example of where they were doing correctly the thing that they were struggling with. One of the girls was struggling with commas, and I pointed out the places that she succeeded in placing them correctly. Or even if there is no success in one area, there is always somewhere that can be found that they are doing correctly.
We all need this as humans, rather native or foreign. Being told that you are doing something good and right helps us be able to tackle the things that we are not doing correctly. It is common sense. That is how we learn and succeed. Somebody please let the high school teachers know as soon as possible. I thought it was innate, but I guess not.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Okay-let me say first off that I might have misunderstood the entire message in Singley & Boucher's essay Dialogue in Tutor Training: Creating the Essential space for Learning. Maybe after tonight's discussion I will have a different outlook and opinion on it. I guess if I do, I will have to write another blog about what I learned!
Bur for now, I have to say that, even though there are basic philosophies and practices that I agree with, there is a fundamental premise that I have an issue with.
Bur for now, I have to say that, even though there are basic philosophies and practices that I agree with, there is a fundamental premise that I have an issue with.
On page 14 the author's make this statement, "We can only conclude that teaching must consist of dialogue, not monologue, since dialogue opens up the space that would foster true learning." Although I totally agree with the last part of the statement, I take issue with saying that only dialogue and not monologue should be included in teaching. There are times where monologue is required for learning. You can not discuss what you don't know. If you try to have a discussion about something that you have not learned yet, then it is going to be a fruitless conversation. So my revision of this statement would be that teaching should include both monologue AND dialogue. I know that dialogue is useful in learning, and that there are times that it is essential, but it seems that it gets overused and also used as an excuse for teachers not to teach as much as they should. There is also the fact that when having discussions while in a class, there is usually that one person that monopolizes the time, asks unrelated questions, or doesn't under-
stand the real subject and concept that is being talked about. Then it is a waste of time for everyone in the class.
In learning to be a tutor I believe this is the same situation. Although we are reading material about the 'the theory and practice' of tutoring, we still need monologue/teaching from those with the expertise and knowledge of not only HOW to tutor but also how to teach how to tutor. Those are two separate things.
What I agree with a 100% is the statement on page 19 that reads, "We believe that tutors must first understand themselves both as learners and teachers- or at least be engaged in this endeavor-before they can offer useful assistance to others." Basically, the two are so intertwined that you cannot be one without the other. But you also need to know when it is the right time to be which one. That is the tough part. It is almost as simple as knowing when to speak up, and knowing when to shut-up. How is that for oversimplification.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Discussion Quesitons
Week 5
1. In What Tutoring Is on page 62 & 63 is the section Responding to the Whole Piece of Writing where McAndrew and Reigstad have come up with a lot of good suggestions on the best way we can react to a paper both in person and in writing. In the General Strategies for Writing Comments I see a lot of ways that could be used in writing workshops, notorious for crushing an author with their so-called helpful criticism. In number three of this section is the statement "Frame your comments so that you are not taking the writer's attention away from her purposes and focusing attention on your own thinking." If you were to make a comment about a piece of writing that did not follow the original idea given in the thesis statement, what would be the wrong way to put it and the correct way to put it?
2. Chapter three of The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors has a list of factors that will determine what your time of a consulting session will be used doing on page 20. The last factor is in the form of a question asking "how willing is the writer to work with the tutor in order to improve the paper?" What would be some strong indicators to you that the writer is willing or unwilling?
3. When working with an ESL student (a lot of foreign languages do not use pronouns) and there are a lot of 'fuzziness' caused by ambiguous and vague antecedents (Rhetorical Grammar;Kolln) how would you explain this so that they can easily understand?
Week 4
1. In the Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors, another writing is referenced when talking about editing for grammar mistakes. In this article it is suggested that when a repeated grammatical error is noticed that one example of it should be pointed out, and then the writer be asked to find more examples of this mistake. Why do you think that this practice, with the possibility of being highly embarrassing, be helpful enough to risk this uncomfortable situation?
2. While reading Fulwiler's article about revision in St. Martin's Sourcebook, it was interesting to learn that revision can happen without tutoring if the writer is engaged in their work. By asking for several revisions, there are examples of people becoming engaged with their work/assignment. When it becomes apparent that the one you are consulting is not engaged, would you tell them that they need to do revision over and over to help them become engaged, or just find other bogus reasons for the revision?
Week 3
1.There is a quote in the Bedford Guide for Tutoring by William Zinsser that says, "Writing is no respecter of blue prints-it's to subjective a process full of surprises". So even though "...we cannot outline the writing process..." why are there so many books with so many different varieties of descriptions of the process?
2. There is a strong statement in Writing as a Social Process"A Theoretical Foundation for Writing Centers?" by Lisa Ede that declares that those who work in writing centers for an extended amount of time have more knowledge then those who work with grad students and teach undergraduate writing classes in a better place for research. If you were one of those that Ede is underplaying, what would your argument be to this statement?
3. In Rhetorical Grammar, Martha Kolln tells the reader that most of the grammatical rules that guide us when we speak have began to internalize in us as infants. So when we hear something spoken incorrectly, we know it is wrong, we just don't know why. So when working in the WC, would it be more difficult working with ESL students or those who have been subjected to and internalized mostly incorrect grammar all of their lives?
Week 2
1. Kenneth A. Bruffee's article about writing centers entitled Peer Tutoring and the "Conversation of Mankind" he puts great importance on the ability to carry on a conversation with other people. On page 210 he even says that conversation is the 'root' of writing. So does this mean that if you are not a good conversationalist, if you are shy and get to nervous to speak that you can't write, let alone work in a WC? 2. It seems that North is saying in his Revisiting "The Idea of a Writing Center" n number 1 on page 88 is that the WC should mostly be for those who choose to come to the center because they believe in the value of being able to write to the best of their ability. Do you believe that this a good idea? Is the WC really best fulfilling their purpose if they are not also helping those who need the WC help the most, those who don't value writing?
Week 1
1. The statement by North in The Idea of a Writing Center he says that all writers want to talk about what they have written and need someone who is a good listener and also knows how to talk about writing. Later on he says "...we are not here to serve, supplement, back up, complement, reinforce, or otherwise be defined by any external curriculum. We are here to talk to writers." Is this truly the basis's of a WC, or is this a huge oversimplification of what we will be doing as consultants at the WC?
1. In What Tutoring Is on page 62 & 63 is the section Responding to the Whole Piece of Writing where McAndrew and Reigstad have come up with a lot of good suggestions on the best way we can react to a paper both in person and in writing. In the General Strategies for Writing Comments I see a lot of ways that could be used in writing workshops, notorious for crushing an author with their so-called helpful criticism. In number three of this section is the statement "Frame your comments so that you are not taking the writer's attention away from her purposes and focusing attention on your own thinking." If you were to make a comment about a piece of writing that did not follow the original idea given in the thesis statement, what would be the wrong way to put it and the correct way to put it?
2. Chapter three of The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors has a list of factors that will determine what your time of a consulting session will be used doing on page 20. The last factor is in the form of a question asking "how willing is the writer to work with the tutor in order to improve the paper?" What would be some strong indicators to you that the writer is willing or unwilling?
3. When working with an ESL student (a lot of foreign languages do not use pronouns) and there are a lot of 'fuzziness' caused by ambiguous and vague antecedents (Rhetorical Grammar;Kolln) how would you explain this so that they can easily understand?
Week 4
1. In the Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors, another writing is referenced when talking about editing for grammar mistakes. In this article it is suggested that when a repeated grammatical error is noticed that one example of it should be pointed out, and then the writer be asked to find more examples of this mistake. Why do you think that this practice, with the possibility of being highly embarrassing, be helpful enough to risk this uncomfortable situation?
2. While reading Fulwiler's article about revision in St. Martin's Sourcebook, it was interesting to learn that revision can happen without tutoring if the writer is engaged in their work. By asking for several revisions, there are examples of people becoming engaged with their work/assignment. When it becomes apparent that the one you are consulting is not engaged, would you tell them that they need to do revision over and over to help them become engaged, or just find other bogus reasons for the revision?
Week 3
1.There is a quote in the Bedford Guide for Tutoring by William Zinsser that says, "Writing is no respecter of blue prints-it's to subjective a process full of surprises". So even though "...we cannot outline the writing process..." why are there so many books with so many different varieties of descriptions of the process?
2. There is a strong statement in Writing as a Social Process"A Theoretical Foundation for Writing Centers?" by Lisa Ede that declares that those who work in writing centers for an extended amount of time have more knowledge then those who work with grad students and teach undergraduate writing classes in a better place for research. If you were one of those that Ede is underplaying, what would your argument be to this statement?
3. In Rhetorical Grammar, Martha Kolln tells the reader that most of the grammatical rules that guide us when we speak have began to internalize in us as infants. So when we hear something spoken incorrectly, we know it is wrong, we just don't know why. So when working in the WC, would it be more difficult working with ESL students or those who have been subjected to and internalized mostly incorrect grammar all of their lives?
Week 2
1. Kenneth A. Bruffee's article about writing centers entitled Peer Tutoring and the "Conversation of Mankind" he puts great importance on the ability to carry on a conversation with other people. On page 210 he even says that conversation is the 'root' of writing. So does this mean that if you are not a good conversationalist, if you are shy and get to nervous to speak that you can't write, let alone work in a WC? 2. It seems that North is saying in his Revisiting "The Idea of a Writing Center" n number 1 on page 88 is that the WC should mostly be for those who choose to come to the center because they believe in the value of being able to write to the best of their ability. Do you believe that this a good idea? Is the WC really best fulfilling their purpose if they are not also helping those who need the WC help the most, those who don't value writing?
Week 1
1. The statement by North in The Idea of a Writing Center he says that all writers want to talk about what they have written and need someone who is a good listener and also knows how to talk about writing. Later on he says "...we are not here to serve, supplement, back up, complement, reinforce, or otherwise be defined by any external curriculum. We are here to talk to writers." Is this truly the basis's of a WC, or is this a huge oversimplification of what we will be doing as consultants at the WC?
What Tutoring Is...Is Awesome!
Now this is what I was waiting for! Honestly, What Tutoring Is: Models and Strategies is the first thing that I have read for this class that I totally got into. I think that I must be more of a 'practice' girl then a 'theory' girl. I have a feeling that by the time this class is over and I have reread some of the readings about what a WC is and all the historical thoughts and struggles, I will have a better appreciate that information. But right now I am happy to be getting into the actual mechanics of being a consultant.
In this writing I found what will be my motto as a consultant (or at least until I read something even more amazing!). On page 44, at the end of the second paragraph is this statement.
"The questions and comments the tutor makes are at the heart of the success of the tutoring session." For me this means that it is how I conduct the tutoring session that makes it good or not. It won't be the students fault, even if they are ill prepared, resistant, limited, or even misguided as to what the WC is there to help them with, because I am the one in control. I decided what questions to ask and what responses to make that will help the student not only improve the paper that they are working on, but to be better writers themselves.
Another statement made on page 64 in the summary section is also one that I will keep in mind as a consultant. "...be mindful of the uniqueness of each tutorial encounter, keep to the basic situation...and work on a hierarchy of HOCs to LOCs by using the questions and strategies that seem most appropriate." This is telling me to keep in mind that each time I consult that it will be different then those before and those to come. Always start with the the simplest things and go into the harder more difficult issues. And use the suggestions given in the writing (and any others that are read) that I feel will best help that person that I am dealing with at that time. If I prejudge a session as being just like another one I have done, I could miss what is needed and use a procedure that will not be helpful. I could ask the wrong questions and make the incorrect comments, jeopardizing any chance of success for not only the session, but also for the paper on which the student is writing.
The tutoring model at the end of the piece seems like a great guideline to follow. It seems like a great idea to being with determining the voice of the writing first. This is important to know as I start formulating the questions in my mind when we get to the main issues with the paper. If I assume that it is a certain voice when it isn't, that could hinder progress. Having the three main voices broken down and explained as well as examples where each kind might be used, will help me to explain to the student why or why not the voice they have chosen is working. The example of voice/tone tutorial was helpful showing how once the writer is reading their work out loud, they can recognize if it has the appropriate voice or not.
When reading the strategies suggested for helping find a thesis/focus, I noted only one that I thought would be beneficial, and that was the one-sentence summary. The nutshelling and teaching, as well as talk aloud, seem like they would waste too much time. It could be if I saw these being used that I could change my mind. The make a promise and create a headline or bumper sticker seemed too juvenile, and I wonder if used that would make the student feel talked down to. It could be that the bumper sticker one would work with a particular group of students, but I would be very hesitant to experiment to see which one that would be.
The questions suggested in the development tutorial section all seemed that they would be helpful except for the last one where the parts of the writing that have less information are colored gray. It seems that unless there is a way to do this, it could just be confusing to the student. But I could be wrong. Again, would like to see it used to see if it is or not. The one thing I did like in this particular section was the oral composing. The example of this being used on page 48 and 49 seem optimum especially for an ESL student. This way they could just talk and not have to worry about writing AND speaking English all at the same time. If the consultant writes it and later the student, with the ideas that they have just come up with, will have something to reference while revising.
There is much, much more in this handout that I could talk about. I am sure as I continue to take more sessions I will be referencing this work in my journal. In the mean time, I am going to type up Tutoring Model to have with me while consulting, to glance at and reference when needed until I have it all down in my head. Which means I will be carrying around a piece of paper with me for a long, long time.
In this writing I found what will be my motto as a consultant (or at least until I read something even more amazing!). On page 44, at the end of the second paragraph is this statement.
"The questions and comments the tutor makes are at the heart of the success of the tutoring session." For me this means that it is how I conduct the tutoring session that makes it good or not. It won't be the students fault, even if they are ill prepared, resistant, limited, or even misguided as to what the WC is there to help them with, because I am the one in control. I decided what questions to ask and what responses to make that will help the student not only improve the paper that they are working on, but to be better writers themselves.
Another statement made on page 64 in the summary section is also one that I will keep in mind as a consultant. "...be mindful of the uniqueness of each tutorial encounter, keep to the basic situation...and work on a hierarchy of HOCs to LOCs by using the questions and strategies that seem most appropriate." This is telling me to keep in mind that each time I consult that it will be different then those before and those to come. Always start with the the simplest things and go into the harder more difficult issues. And use the suggestions given in the writing (and any others that are read) that I feel will best help that person that I am dealing with at that time. If I prejudge a session as being just like another one I have done, I could miss what is needed and use a procedure that will not be helpful. I could ask the wrong questions and make the incorrect comments, jeopardizing any chance of success for not only the session, but also for the paper on which the student is writing.
The tutoring model at the end of the piece seems like a great guideline to follow. It seems like a great idea to being with determining the voice of the writing first. This is important to know as I start formulating the questions in my mind when we get to the main issues with the paper. If I assume that it is a certain voice when it isn't, that could hinder progress. Having the three main voices broken down and explained as well as examples where each kind might be used, will help me to explain to the student why or why not the voice they have chosen is working. The example of voice/tone tutorial was helpful showing how once the writer is reading their work out loud, they can recognize if it has the appropriate voice or not.
When reading the strategies suggested for helping find a thesis/focus, I noted only one that I thought would be beneficial, and that was the one-sentence summary. The nutshelling and teaching, as well as talk aloud, seem like they would waste too much time. It could be if I saw these being used that I could change my mind. The make a promise and create a headline or bumper sticker seemed too juvenile, and I wonder if used that would make the student feel talked down to. It could be that the bumper sticker one would work with a particular group of students, but I would be very hesitant to experiment to see which one that would be.
The questions suggested in the development tutorial section all seemed that they would be helpful except for the last one where the parts of the writing that have less information are colored gray. It seems that unless there is a way to do this, it could just be confusing to the student. But I could be wrong. Again, would like to see it used to see if it is or not. The one thing I did like in this particular section was the oral composing. The example of this being used on page 48 and 49 seem optimum especially for an ESL student. This way they could just talk and not have to worry about writing AND speaking English all at the same time. If the consultant writes it and later the student, with the ideas that they have just come up with, will have something to reference while revising.
There is much, much more in this handout that I could talk about. I am sure as I continue to take more sessions I will be referencing this work in my journal. In the mean time, I am going to type up Tutoring Model to have with me while consulting, to glance at and reference when needed until I have it all down in my head. Which means I will be carrying around a piece of paper with me for a long, long time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)