seeing the light through the grove

today's discussion did answer many of the issues i had been thinking about if i were to encounter an ESL student. How and where I should start was a concern of mine. whether we should treat them differently. isn't that a bad thing? discussing the differences between an ESL writer and a native speaking writer is giving me a better understanding of what we can assume about the student, that the way they see grammer is different and also that even if their wording may not be "americanized", it's not our job to correct and make it sound like ours.

I have to agree that the word "correct" gives a certain wrong schema to writers, tutors and professors. we need to be more careful and perhaps by changing these minute phrasing, one or two words, we can also change the sterotype that writing centers recieve as a fix it up shop. there is not 'correcting' i think when it comes to a writer's ideas; however, it's safe to say CORRECTing grammar mistakes for the writers who really do not understand how english grammar works. Explaining the reasoning is important so that they won't make the same mistake again and it's also important not to change all their mistakes for them for the same reason.

on a somewhat different topic, i wonder if we should think about our individual personalities and how that affects the kind of tutors we are. we talk about the strategies as directive and nondirective tutors but there's a difference between directive and nondirective PEOPLE, u know? tutoring can be difficult when the tutor is a very nonconfortational person and do not like "correcting" or being the person to say maybe this should be fixed or it would sound better in another way. how can these types of tutors become more effective in their approach. Do they need to change their methods?

unnecessary phobias

Looking back at my recent blogs, I'm beginning to sense a need to address the fears that tutors may have in going into a session, especially students who are new to tutoring. There are many factors to think about when one goes into a session: belief in oneself and the ability to project confidence but not appear authoratative, keep in mind everything learned in 383, and pray to God you won't screw up majorly, and there is without doubt a strong stereotype of writing tutorers as this know-all be-all -what- they- say- goes- on- paper- word- for- word-that -if- the- tutor- really- really- likes- your -paper- it- means -no -more- work- has- to- be- done- kind of person.

I went to the writing center last semester and the dude who read my paper told me there was pretty much nothing to be changed in my paper. I was estatic! This meant that I would be able to get a good night's sleep and the responsibilty of turning in a good paper was no longer mine ( it wasn't necessarily on the tutor either) ; my work was done. I think, many of us can agree that writing a paper can be an incredibly tedious and distasteful process for many students and as ideal it would be to be excited and geniously innovative. It seems most times its something that just gotta get done and when its done and turned in, there is a sense of relief. The praise I recieved on my suposedly perfect paper should not give me a sense of relief. If I'd thought about it more, I would've taken into account the tutor's laziness. He actually read the paper when I got there for the first time b/c he hadn't had time to look at it before.

It would be nice to have an understanding of the purpose of the writing center plus a desire in both the tutor and writer to accomplish something within the session. Even with those two points accomplished, a lot of the fears that tutors or students may have in attending a session may diminished.

link sausages

how to make skinless link sausages

oh the agony

barely twenty minutes and the session was over. should i have been more prepared?

i believe i was more prepared to tutor J than before because well first i recieved the paper beforehand, and also the midterm and nietzche paper we had to grade and review was helpful in this real live situation. I even left a comment at the end of his paper learning from the last midterm. i initially did this so i could let him know i enjoyed his paper. ( a bit of encouragment is always helpful). But after the session, i discovered another important aspect of leaving a comment: the truth of it is that sometimes the tutor does not remember to explain everything she wanted to and the comment is a way for the writer to find the comment. for example, in his paper, J seemed to include a lot of the same reasons in all of his paragraphs. i mentioned briefly and generally that the paragraphs should be soley supporting the paragraphs. i think in my mind, i didn't want to sound repetitive and say the same thing again, but i thought that brief explanation was not enough. however, i did include what i wanted to say in the comment which makes me more at ease.

i feel like twenty minutes was not enough time for his paper; i don't think its hard to get a lot corrected but the important thing should not be what i correct but what he understands about the corrections. i feel like i didn't have the right words to convey how to better organize the paper and i kept running into flashing red lights telling me i needed to let him figure out the answer and his own thoughts. ive been learning how i shouldn't be directive but it is really hard not to be. wording the right words is harder than i thought.

nowadays i feel like it is wrong to point out grammar mistakes and that it is better not to and i try to get over them as quickly as possible. i think we've been told repeatedly how the point of the writing center is for students to get their papers proofread and edited, that it seems wrong to do any editing at all!
--edit--
so that was a bit of the good part of the session. but then again there was a part where i didn't know how to let the writer know how to organize his paper. in the paper, he had one paragraph that talked about the negative aspects of his advertisment and it did not seem to be in the right place but i had no idea where it should go. I thought and thought but i did not have the 'right' answer at the moment. what should I have done? was there something I could have done before the tutor session that would have prepared me more for this moment?

I wonder...

As I went through my 103 student's paper, I wondered if there was any sort of guideline that I could make for myself as I corrected it. And then I wondered whether or not there was already guidelines made up for grading papers. Not grammatical rules or essay formatting but general structuring for the tutor to be a more effective helper. Then I couldn't seem to remember whether or not I should mark grammar mistakes of the paper or mention them later in the session and whether or not I should even start talking about immediate obvious errors and such. The second portfolio's paper seems much longer than the first and it is obviously more difficult to come up with a way to have an indepth conversation of the paper. I think that in this specific student, it will be easier for me to be nondirective and try to have explain certain things about his paper.

I realize tutors have to be very flexible and cannot always go through step by step in a session. There's the possibility of the student bringing his own concerns to the table; also, he may want to go over specific grammar issues and it does not seem right to even suggest going over something else first. I mean, he did come to the session wanting to get answers and if I have those answers I should help him figure things out, right?

I need to find ways I can have my own guidelines to create a stimulating and thought provoking atmospheres but also be able to switch back and forth from being general to more narrow issues. How do I do this?

Actually, the biggest question I have at this moment is how i can get the student to be interested in his own paper. I know in the past when I went to my writing fellow, the times I left feeling hopeful and that I needed to fix a lot of things in my paper was when I was the most excited. Maybe i need to try to get out of the writer more of what he does not understand and what he wants to fix and in this way help the student become excited about his paper.

tutoring a friend part ii

Here is a classic example of the dangers and also pleasntries of tutoring a friend. I ran into (what i would consider an oppurtunity) of tutoring my friend the other night. I was sleeping over and she was staying up late cramming the last words into her paper that was due the next day. she asked me to edit and i was of course very willing to put my newfound tutoring skills into effect. As I went through the paper I reminded myself not to correct or change naything for her and instead highlighted anything that I thought may be incorrect or had confusion about. And as i went through the paper i realized that there was a lot of mistakes that may not be mistakes but that i only misunderstood. as i went through each sentence and tried to explain what was incorrect, i found it harder not to correct the sentence for her because the situation was pretty informal; we were both sprawled on her bed and had just finished talking about her boyfriend, we were both tired and ready to stop working, and because the situation was informal it was harder for me to ask what Brooks calls "leading questions". In some areas I succeded in helping her reach her own conclusions, and then was more directive in other areas.

Nearing the End Zone..

Like I briefly mentioned in my reflections this week, my shadowing session went more or less as it usually did. except the fact that I knew the student being tutored and it was hard not to get drawn into a conversation that had nothing to do with writing. I think I recovered pretty well after the initial outburst of girl talk in the beginning asking specific questions about her paper and what she was having a hard time writing. A rough draft was due in a couple days and I could tell she wasn't stressed out and that it wouldn't have affected her grade if we had gotten off subject but I can see the importance of keeping a session impersonal and professional. There's always the possibility of running into problems when being "too friendly". Also, it shows the students who come for help that the writing tutors are reliable and serious about helping the students.

The videos and readings for the non traditionnal writer was the most helpful for me as I learned new ways to approach different types writers. Reading about what the writer felt and their feeling of being rusty at the writing process made me see that it must be pretty difficult for those who come back to write after a long period of writing no papers. THey must have a tough time getting help with papers considering there would be more cases where the tutors would not assist the writer in the right manner. Professor D mentioned that we probably would not be placed in a situation where we needed to help non traditionnal students but at the same time this is another way of reaffirming the need for all tutors to be open and flexible with the writers that come in through the center's doors. There can be plenty of cases where there is a miscommunication or feeling of dejection on the writer's part without being a non traditionnal writer and I'm sure there is a wide range of confidence levels out there in the writing world.

shadowing 2

Last Wednesday, an upperclassman came for help on his paper. He hadn't emailed his paper ahead of time and it was due at the end of the week. He was cordial and respectively listened to the tutor's advice, but I could tell he didn't voluntarily come to the writing center. I could tell it was especially hard because for one the tutor had to read the whole paper on the spot, comprehend and then analyze the paper. And it was a pretty tough assignment with concepts that was definitely not common knowledge. I was really impressed with the way the tutor held her cool and did the best she could under the circumstance even with the kid's nonchalance.