Monday, December 3, 2012
Bonding over Biology
So I had, what I feel, was the best tutoring experience this week. I had a tutee who came in seeking help with a proposal letter for a professor's research project. He felt that all he needed was someone to look at how it was structured and help with little grammatical errors. As a walk-in, what we felt would be a quick 30 minute session, turned into an hour long intense session. He already had the letter written and together we read it aloud and went over it paragraph by paragraph. I was more hands on with him then I'd been in other sessions. We actually discussed what he wanted to say and I helped him word it in a way that his point came across very clear. Through the session we discussed his past, I showed him how he could "show" more (even in a proposal letter), and we shared laughs. I've never been a fan of biology or science, but reading his proposal letter and hearing about the research was exciting. We really had a great time working on his paper, it didn't seem stressful or forced at all; in the end we both ended the seeing feeling positive about the work. Overall, he was a model tutoring session.
Comfortable with tutoring
I'm not sure exactly what made this tutoring experience so much different than all the others, but the two sessions I had last week were awesome. I think the reason things went so smoothly can be partially attributed to the level of comfort I've felt recently in the writing center. Instead of going in and getting asked, "hi, do you have an appointment?", I've been greeted with smiles, friendly greetings, and people who now remember my name.
As I walked into the writing center last Thursday, the girl I was tutoring first had gotten there early and was already waiting for me when I arrived. I usually don't like to be rushed in any situation, so I was surprised with how calm and comfortable I felt jumping right in without getting much of a chance to situate myself. The tutee seemed to be a little all over the place in terms of her writing assignment. She told me that you could pick any movie from the class you wanted and write about it and that was all I had to work with in regards to the prompt. I wasn't familiar with the movie she had seen and well, neither was she. I eventually started reading her essay aloud, though, and as we got to about page 3 (of a 7 page paper), it was apparent that my tutee's attention span was waning. I'm not sure she was listening at all to what I was reading and I think I even saw her texting. Rather than get mad, or tell her to pay attention, I found it pertinent to change my strategy. I recognized her writing style to be similar to mine, circa ENC1101: a decent writer, not too bad with grammar, but a little hasty and unorganized. I can remember writing freshmen papers that amounted to one really long strain of conciseness. The problem was usually rooted in the fact that I didn't have a thesis, and thus, didn't know how to structure my paper.
So okay, rather than pursue with the mundane task of reading through her paper right off the bat, I had her talk to me a little bit more about the direction she wanted this paper to go in. I had noticed a few reoccurring topics, and so that's where we started. We pulled out what she felt were the most important topics or themes of the movie she had chosen to write about and then discussed what made them important in the movie. Before I knew it, we had together composed a short list that would amount to a pretty decent thesis and, subsequently, a good paper if executed properly. I had her put all the ideas together and take a minute to put together a thesis statement. After we had a good idea of how to structure the paper off of the thesis she had composed, we then went through and re-read it. We figured out how to reorganize the paragraphs to make them flow in conjunction with her thesis. This paper that I initially thought was a complete mess of thoughts was really coming together!
This session was really cool. We laughed a few times, I shared a personal story about a similar writing experience, and the tutee left feeling like they had a good grip on their paper. I also feel like I gave her some important tips that she will be able to use in future papers, regarding theses and basic structure.
As I walked into the writing center last Thursday, the girl I was tutoring first had gotten there early and was already waiting for me when I arrived. I usually don't like to be rushed in any situation, so I was surprised with how calm and comfortable I felt jumping right in without getting much of a chance to situate myself. The tutee seemed to be a little all over the place in terms of her writing assignment. She told me that you could pick any movie from the class you wanted and write about it and that was all I had to work with in regards to the prompt. I wasn't familiar with the movie she had seen and well, neither was she. I eventually started reading her essay aloud, though, and as we got to about page 3 (of a 7 page paper), it was apparent that my tutee's attention span was waning. I'm not sure she was listening at all to what I was reading and I think I even saw her texting. Rather than get mad, or tell her to pay attention, I found it pertinent to change my strategy. I recognized her writing style to be similar to mine, circa ENC1101: a decent writer, not too bad with grammar, but a little hasty and unorganized. I can remember writing freshmen papers that amounted to one really long strain of conciseness. The problem was usually rooted in the fact that I didn't have a thesis, and thus, didn't know how to structure my paper.
So okay, rather than pursue with the mundane task of reading through her paper right off the bat, I had her talk to me a little bit more about the direction she wanted this paper to go in. I had noticed a few reoccurring topics, and so that's where we started. We pulled out what she felt were the most important topics or themes of the movie she had chosen to write about and then discussed what made them important in the movie. Before I knew it, we had together composed a short list that would amount to a pretty decent thesis and, subsequently, a good paper if executed properly. I had her put all the ideas together and take a minute to put together a thesis statement. After we had a good idea of how to structure the paper off of the thesis she had composed, we then went through and re-read it. We figured out how to reorganize the paragraphs to make them flow in conjunction with her thesis. This paper that I initially thought was a complete mess of thoughts was really coming together!
This session was really cool. We laughed a few times, I shared a personal story about a similar writing experience, and the tutee left feeling like they had a good grip on their paper. I also feel like I gave her some important tips that she will be able to use in future papers, regarding theses and basic structure.
Met a dragon, had a fiery conversation.
A few Tuesdays ago I had the best tutoring session yet, not because it went well but because it was a total mess and I still managed to keep it together. I had a very attractive client (this is important) who was leaving for Thanksgiving and had a stack of essays that would be due for each of her classes right after the vacation so she made an appointment at the Johnston center with the intention to hand them to me and browse Facebook on her cellphone until I was done marking all the errors.
The first was an ENC1101 paper that required her to interview an instrumental member of her community and write about their passion for public service. I asked the student what she'd written and she was resistant to saying anything more than that the paper was about a girl scout leader in her Miami neighborhood. She totally ignored me and continued to point at the paper when I asked her to elaborate on this. This seemed weird since it seemed like a very personal paper; thinking of the situation now, I feel like someone else wrote this paper for her. However, she was hot and I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.
I tried to get her to read her own work out loud and she refused, so I began to read it out loud. This is where I began to get annoyed since it was obvious that I was reading the paper to myself. It was poorly developed and obviously written towards the word count, so I stopped to ask her about Mrs Johnson-- the topic of the paper-- in hopes that the conversation would spark something that she felt would make this paper stronger. I asked "How would you ideally want Mrs Johnson to feel when she reads this? If you had to write a recommendation or a eulogy (God forbid) for her, does this do her justice?" The client had no answers, she had checked out and wanted to be done. The few times she said something, it was along the lines of "I just came to get my grammar checked". She also wanted my signature on the draft to show that she had taken the draft to the writing center. I continued to let her know that her punctuation and grammar were secondary issues in this paper and I could not ignore the bigger issues for the sake of her writing and my reputation.
Eventually she snatched her papers off the table and began to yell about how she was going to ACE to find a better tutor because she had to get home for Thanksgiving. I lol'd. I was never that aggressive but can remember having so little invested in my writing that I could've had a similar attitude back in my freshman year, I wonder how she'll turn out in the next 4 years.
The first was an ENC1101 paper that required her to interview an instrumental member of her community and write about their passion for public service. I asked the student what she'd written and she was resistant to saying anything more than that the paper was about a girl scout leader in her Miami neighborhood. She totally ignored me and continued to point at the paper when I asked her to elaborate on this. This seemed weird since it seemed like a very personal paper; thinking of the situation now, I feel like someone else wrote this paper for her. However, she was hot and I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt.
I tried to get her to read her own work out loud and she refused, so I began to read it out loud. This is where I began to get annoyed since it was obvious that I was reading the paper to myself. It was poorly developed and obviously written towards the word count, so I stopped to ask her about Mrs Johnson-- the topic of the paper-- in hopes that the conversation would spark something that she felt would make this paper stronger. I asked "How would you ideally want Mrs Johnson to feel when she reads this? If you had to write a recommendation or a eulogy (God forbid) for her, does this do her justice?" The client had no answers, she had checked out and wanted to be done. The few times she said something, it was along the lines of "I just came to get my grammar checked". She also wanted my signature on the draft to show that she had taken the draft to the writing center. I continued to let her know that her punctuation and grammar were secondary issues in this paper and I could not ignore the bigger issues for the sake of her writing and my reputation.
Eventually she snatched her papers off the table and began to yell about how she was going to ACE to find a better tutor because she had to get home for Thanksgiving. I lol'd. I was never that aggressive but can remember having so little invested in my writing that I could've had a similar attitude back in my freshman year, I wonder how she'll turn out in the next 4 years.
It's Over Already?!
Today was my last day of tutoring for this semester. :( I am usually always so thrilled for the semester to be ending but when it comes to this peer tutoring class and the experiences I have had tutoring in William Johnston, I'm sad to see it coming to an end. I truly cannot look back on any of my tutoring sessions with anything but positive thoughts. I know there are things I wish I had said or done while in a session but I think I have learned and am continuing to learn from these instances, so I really could not call them regrets.
Sometimes I think of what we all have been doing at the Reading and Writing Centers as a job, we are all "working" as tutors. However, it's hard for me to label it as work because I have enjoyed it so much. I love talking about writing and I like to encourage students that they do have the ability to write well, especially since so many students who come in to get tutored give off the impression that they are not confident in their writing skills. They may need feedback on their ideas, grammar assistance, a push in the right direction or maybe their whole paper needs to be rerouted. No matter what the issue, I find that I enjoy tackling it because I like to see these students learning. I can't help but get invested in their work particularly because I can relate entirely to the confusion, stress and anxiety felt when working on and submitting an assignment.
On a different but related note, I'd like to bring up one of my tutoring sessions today which turned out to be interesting. It was actually pretty funny to me because I had just read Shea's blog post about her red pen issue when I found myself encountering the same problem. I think I would have been a lot more frazzled and completely thrown off if I had not read that post and the comments, so thank you for that! In my session it happened to be an orange pen, which isn't quite as hostile as red but there was no way I was going to let this student put that pen in my hand, no matter how many times she kept pushing it in my direction. I simply told her it would probably be easier for her to decipher the comments later if she wrote them herself. It worked really well and I think it actually helped her to notice her mistakes a lot quicker since she was taking an active part in our session. She's an ESL student and mainly needed help with grammar. During the session I pointed out a word that she had made singular and explained to her why it should be plural, I was then so pleased to notice that when she made the same mistake again she was able to recognize it on her own without me having to say anything. These small yet gratifying moments are what make tutoring worthwhile for me and, looking at the other posts on our blog, it seems like everyone else can relate.
Sometimes I think of what we all have been doing at the Reading and Writing Centers as a job, we are all "working" as tutors. However, it's hard for me to label it as work because I have enjoyed it so much. I love talking about writing and I like to encourage students that they do have the ability to write well, especially since so many students who come in to get tutored give off the impression that they are not confident in their writing skills. They may need feedback on their ideas, grammar assistance, a push in the right direction or maybe their whole paper needs to be rerouted. No matter what the issue, I find that I enjoy tackling it because I like to see these students learning. I can't help but get invested in their work particularly because I can relate entirely to the confusion, stress and anxiety felt when working on and submitting an assignment.
On a different but related note, I'd like to bring up one of my tutoring sessions today which turned out to be interesting. It was actually pretty funny to me because I had just read Shea's blog post about her red pen issue when I found myself encountering the same problem. I think I would have been a lot more frazzled and completely thrown off if I had not read that post and the comments, so thank you for that! In my session it happened to be an orange pen, which isn't quite as hostile as red but there was no way I was going to let this student put that pen in my hand, no matter how many times she kept pushing it in my direction. I simply told her it would probably be easier for her to decipher the comments later if she wrote them herself. It worked really well and I think it actually helped her to notice her mistakes a lot quicker since she was taking an active part in our session. She's an ESL student and mainly needed help with grammar. During the session I pointed out a word that she had made singular and explained to her why it should be plural, I was then so pleased to notice that when she made the same mistake again she was able to recognize it on her own without me having to say anything. These small yet gratifying moments are what make tutoring worthwhile for me and, looking at the other posts on our blog, it seems like everyone else can relate.
Sunday, December 2, 2012
Why I loath 30 mintue sessions
So, as I'm sure you've gathered from the tittle, I am not so fond of thirty minute sessions. Why? I think it's because I'm Cuban.. Meaning, I talk too much. This may be indicative of a flaw in my tutoring, but I think its just reflective of my tutoring style. That's right fools, I gots' style!
On a serious note, I am really conversational in my tutoring sessions as I feel that it is beneficial for every facet of my teaching/ tutoring approach. I really enjoy to build rapport with my tutees, through conversation, joking, questions, and overall friendliness. It brings down the apprehension level of the student because, after all, a stranger is about to read their writing. This isn't easy for everybody.
I always begin my sessions by asking them for a rubric, what their class is about, and what their essay is about. Then I converse a tad bit, just to see what they are like and to, hopefully, have a couple of laughs. I solemnly decree laughter to me MANDATORY for tutoring sessions (Authoritative, raspy, deep voice)!!!!!! :) I know it does wonders for me. Of course it doesn't happen every session, but when it does, I feel the wall between them and I just melt. After I've spend about five, seven, sometimes ten minutes (when we're really enjoying our conversation) then I move on to the paper. Again, this isn't every time.
I know that might sound crazy, but check out my reasoning. I enjoy one hour sessions because it achieves three important things for me.
First, I have the right amount of time to be non-directive. When I have thirty minutes sessions I feel as though I am forced to be more directive, because I really want to address everything. I am put in an uncomfortable position of either being directive and knowing that a lot of what I address wont make a permanent impact on the student's writing, or being non-directive, as I like, and risk running out of time and not being able to cover everything. Lose-lose.
Secondly, I want to build a friendship with the student. Why? Two reasons: I like having friends, and I want them to come back to the tutoring center. I want their first tutoring session with me to be the catalyst that leads them to become "regulars" in the Lab. This continuity of tutoring really helps cement any lesson we are trying to get across to the student, thus making our tutoring much more efficient. If we are truly attempting to make better writers, not better papers, then we must aim for this.
Lastly, I want our sessions to be long, and their visits to be frequent, because I am trying to be a better tutor to Foreign and Non-English speaking students. This is an interest of mine (being myself an immigrant) as well as a topic of research for various class projects. In having a longer tutoring session, the tutee and I have more time to talk, thus improving the language proficiency of the student by framing language withing a social context. My ESL Education textbook has reiterated many times that deep, meaningful acquisition of language happens best when part of real communication. Thus, being non-directive with ELLs is doubly good, as we improve their language acquisition simply by conversing, all while addressing the content that needs to be addressed. Win-win.
So basically, my loathing of thirty minute sessions stems from my love of 1 hour sessions. Coming from a teacher perspective, it makes total sense for me to adopt this stance; it is beneficial in every way. Then again, the session might not call for one hour. Maybe the paper is in solid shape, not that long, and only demands thirty minutes of attention. And, after all, there are lots of students that need tutoring.
Obviously there is no one right way to tutor, and our best skill will always be our adaptability. But as far as my sessions have gone, there is often something else that needs to be addressed, and thirty minutes simply isn't enough for me.
So what do you think? I am interested in your responses. :)
On a serious note, I am really conversational in my tutoring sessions as I feel that it is beneficial for every facet of my teaching/ tutoring approach. I really enjoy to build rapport with my tutees, through conversation, joking, questions, and overall friendliness. It brings down the apprehension level of the student because, after all, a stranger is about to read their writing. This isn't easy for everybody.
I always begin my sessions by asking them for a rubric, what their class is about, and what their essay is about. Then I converse a tad bit, just to see what they are like and to, hopefully, have a couple of laughs. I solemnly decree laughter to me MANDATORY for tutoring sessions (Authoritative, raspy, deep voice)!!!!!! :) I know it does wonders for me. Of course it doesn't happen every session, but when it does, I feel the wall between them and I just melt. After I've spend about five, seven, sometimes ten minutes (when we're really enjoying our conversation) then I move on to the paper. Again, this isn't every time.
I know that might sound crazy, but check out my reasoning. I enjoy one hour sessions because it achieves three important things for me.
First, I have the right amount of time to be non-directive. When I have thirty minutes sessions I feel as though I am forced to be more directive, because I really want to address everything. I am put in an uncomfortable position of either being directive and knowing that a lot of what I address wont make a permanent impact on the student's writing, or being non-directive, as I like, and risk running out of time and not being able to cover everything. Lose-lose.
Secondly, I want to build a friendship with the student. Why? Two reasons: I like having friends, and I want them to come back to the tutoring center. I want their first tutoring session with me to be the catalyst that leads them to become "regulars" in the Lab. This continuity of tutoring really helps cement any lesson we are trying to get across to the student, thus making our tutoring much more efficient. If we are truly attempting to make better writers, not better papers, then we must aim for this.
Lastly, I want our sessions to be long, and their visits to be frequent, because I am trying to be a better tutor to Foreign and Non-English speaking students. This is an interest of mine (being myself an immigrant) as well as a topic of research for various class projects. In having a longer tutoring session, the tutee and I have more time to talk, thus improving the language proficiency of the student by framing language withing a social context. My ESL Education textbook has reiterated many times that deep, meaningful acquisition of language happens best when part of real communication. Thus, being non-directive with ELLs is doubly good, as we improve their language acquisition simply by conversing, all while addressing the content that needs to be addressed. Win-win.
So basically, my loathing of thirty minute sessions stems from my love of 1 hour sessions. Coming from a teacher perspective, it makes total sense for me to adopt this stance; it is beneficial in every way. Then again, the session might not call for one hour. Maybe the paper is in solid shape, not that long, and only demands thirty minutes of attention. And, after all, there are lots of students that need tutoring.
Obviously there is no one right way to tutor, and our best skill will always be our adaptability. But as far as my sessions have gone, there is often something else that needs to be addressed, and thirty minutes simply isn't enough for me.
So what do you think? I am interested in your responses. :)
A "Red Pen" Case
For this post I want to share a challenging appointment with all of you on the blog. I had a girl come in for a half hour session last week. She was working on a paper for a humanities class, analyzing a painting and the artist. It was research-y but she had some of her own opinion in there as well. Before even saying hi to me she sat and started telling me all the things I needed to do for her/ to her paper. She proceeded to practically thrust a red pen into my and and scooted her paper in front of me; it was completely up side down to her. Well, I'm exaggerating a little but she did put a red pen in front of me. A red pen. And by pushing her paper away from herself, it seemed like she was just going to wait patiently while I edited and not engage with me in the slightest. I moved the her paper back towards the middle of us and told her she could mark up her paper while I read it allowed and we talked about it. I was glad that she communicated all of her concerns but I didn't like how she was trying to force me into using a directive approach. In my sessions, I like to focus on being a mere facilitator to help the tutee improve their writing themselves. I find that approach to be the most effective. She wasn't rude about it or anything like that; I think she just didn't understand and I think she had never been to the writing center and thus, shared that misconception that many people may have of us: that writing center tutors are editors for the the student body.
I felt like a managed to salvage the session when I gave her some ideas to lengthen the piece and improve her conclusion (both of which were some of her main concerns). Once she realized that I wanted to talk about everything she did engage with me, which allowed me to conduct the session in a non directive manner.
I'm wondering if anybody else has encountered a "red pen" case? And if so how did you handle yourself?
I felt like a managed to salvage the session when I gave her some ideas to lengthen the piece and improve her conclusion (both of which were some of her main concerns). Once she realized that I wanted to talk about everything she did engage with me, which allowed me to conduct the session in a non directive manner.
I'm wondering if anybody else has encountered a "red pen" case? And if so how did you handle yourself?
Saturday, December 1, 2012
Awesomesauce Students
I don't know about you, but I've got to tutor some pretty awesome people so far. I know I've got one more tutoring session left, but I want to make the most of it like I always do. People often tell me that I am the human equivalent of Grumpy Cat (my boyfriend, sister, friends, etc), but when I'm at at Williams-Johnston at the tutoring center, my grumpiness seems to go away. I turn into a really friendly person with concerns and a smile plastered on her face. I try my hardest to make sure that there won't be a situation that could potentially arise that could bring disaster among my tutees, because they're turning to me and it is under my responsibility to give them the treatment they deserve and the calming environment they need to assure that everything will be alright with their work.
That's why I always make sure I have coffee Monday mornings so that I can be pumped and ready to go, because nothing would suck more than to be falling asleep on your tutees. I also go visit Mom and Pop's by Diffenbaugh, or when I'm lucky, La Lola Loca at Landis when they're there, because unfortunately, they're like Haley's Comet.
So far, I've been extremely lucky with my tutees. Even the quieter ones have been open towards me and have told me what their concerns are, their strengths, weaknesses, and which sentences are troubling them the most in their essays. A couple of weeks ago, I had a tutee who was pretty much the ideal in the Minimalist Tutoring article in Murphy's Handbook. This guy would ask me all of the question, show his concerns point-blank, and would join me in reading his sentences out loud so that there wouldn't be error. He knew of his bad habits with the experience of his past research papers and asked me to point out any if I had seen them, and most times, he would catch them as I kept reading. Out of all of the people I've helped tutored, this guy was pretty memorable and was with the hour long session because even I learned some interesting facts on his paper that I applied in a future (by then) paper myself, as well as his research skills and information.
I've always pictured tutoring to be like this. You meet people and you get something in return. Sometimes, it won't be tiny tidbits like how the SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) protested Delta Airlines for not having diverse stewardesses, or how Belgians base their romantic attachments on a complete open-book mentality and how secrets are taboo to them. Sometimes you get something else deep down inside when you tutor people, especially those who seek the help they need and give you direction on where to go, these guys give you a deep sense of satisfaction and a need to keep on doing this, because this is the right thing to do.
And because of that, I lose all sense of grumpiness for the rest of the day.
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