The Murray DIDN'T Abide

The Murray Didn't Abide

This week Ryan and I gave presentations about Donald Murray's A Writer Teaches Writing . My part of the presentation focused on how Murray's novel pedagogy is and has been applicable to writing center services. Ryan devoted his classroom presentation to baseless attacks on Murray in an effort to discredit him for sport.

I applied Murray's ideas of peer consultation, student centered consultation and how writing should be viewed as a processess rather than a final product. Ryan disagreed. One other point I touched on is that Murray felt that writing was of fundamental importance because it is difficult. This helped me to come to understand that MSU Writing Center can offer services to above average writers by challenging them to take on more difficult tasks.

Furthermore, the University has a vested interest in making poor writers good, good writers great, and great writers exceptional.

R.I.P. Donald Murray

POST YOUR SECOND LIFE NAME!

Mine is Raphael Delong.

The videos

I really liked the videos. It begins with the teacher having his students sits in groups of 3 and 1 person is held responsible for the groups to work smoothly. The teacher then goes over the students notes and asks them to communicate to each other one-on-one and explain how the class’s note taking policy works.

In the second video, we see how the teacher who acts like a consultant, handles a student who is extremely careless. This student doesn’t even think of the center as a grammar revise shop, but actually comes to the center as a place where consultants put in time and effort to write the students paper for them. At first, the way this student was handled impressed me … Yes, this kid needed to be scolded and told that he cannot take the center for granted. We are not is paid servants who will write his essay for him. I also agreed with the consultant taking the directive approach, informing the student that he will not write the thesis for the students and then making it clear that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated again. But, I felt bad that in the end, the consultant did not help the student just because he did not have a book. If nothing else, I feel that the consultant should have taken time to at least help the student plan his goals for this paper, so he could return to the center with a write piece promptly.

Hey all...

Just a quick request from me for ya'll in regards to my and David's presentation tomorrow:

Could you guys bring in a short piece of writing of your own? It can be any length, for any subject, and obviously not a copy you want to turn in. Preferably printed; if not, that's okay. Heck, it's okay if you don't get this in time or forget. I just wanted to try something out during our presentation, and we don't need the whole class to bring in a piece, but we might as well cast a wide net.

That's all. Seeya guys in class tomorrow! Come prepared to talk. Or at least listen. Or at least look like you're listening.

Consultant 1.3

This session was really interesting and I would like to share it with everyone. On a regular Sunday night, after 3 appointments, I decided to walk around in the library while I sipped my cup of water. In no time, I noticed a blonde girl banging her head on her own table and then walking from place-to-place begging people to proof read her essay for her WRA class. I walked over to the student, Janet – short for JJ or Janey, and asked her to over the Center station so we, the consultants, could heal her wounds. She signed in and began reading her essay, ‘Along the shores of Gitchee Gumee’ a memoire. Overall, the essay sounded PERFECT! However, there were a few phrases and lines that were vague. I questioned JJ and my minimalist tutoring skills truly unveiled the best from her. Even though I did not directly help the client, I saw that the ways in which she helped herself raised her self esteem and she left the Center smiling {like this } ‘=)’ Below, I have attached a note from Janet, which acts as a testament to the positivity of our Center’s policies.

“Dear Trixie,
Your employee Krish abused me and harassed me until he ‘convinced’ me to come and get my PERSONAL writing edited. He continued to make fun of me and he told me I was stupid for thinking my dad and grandfather could have possibly been in the same picture frame. Please reconsider his employment. He just abused me again I write this!

JUST KIDDING! HE HELPED A LOT. Thanks!”

Consultant 1.2

Again, I remember talking about this in class… so I’ll try to keep this blog short and just review. This was an appointment I had with a student who was born, raised and schooled in America. The student was at the library on Sunday night to get help with his WRA class. Before our session began, he showed me his first paper from the class and wanted to discuss the comments his professor made. I really liked his idea and read over his first paper. I saw the student was really skilled with researching and paraphrasing his research. These qualities helped him achieve a 3.75 on the paper and the client wanted to know what to improve on to get a 4 point.
I saw that the student’s paper lacked his own ideas or analysis about his research. We discussed how he should aim towards adding more thought into his second paper. He questioned how his professor would be able to analyze his English if the student had less research and more thought. I told the client that as he presented his thought, or what Murray calls – voice, in the paper… the WRA professor will see the English used in the process. That is, if the student used grammar, voice, word choice, etc correctly.

Consultant 1

I remember talking about this in class… so ill try to keep this blog short and just review. This was an appointment I had with an international ESL, Ph.D student. Once we took our seats, I asked the client if he wanted some coffee or water. “I think we should just get done with this,” he replied. I didn’t care too much for his attitude as I thought his paper could be really long and he wanted us to have all the time. I soon found out that the student thought of the center as a drive through quick fix solutions to his grammatical problems. One we got started, I asked him to explain what he meant at a certain part of his essay. He asked me if I was worrying about a grammatical error and if not, he thought we should move on. At this point, I felt that the one-on-one pedagogy was not helpful and my approach with this client should be a little more authoritative; an approach that had been applied on him his whole life in his native land, South Korea. I told the student that even though the line did not have any grammar mistakes, it really did not make any sense. I followed my comment by pointing out two grammar mistakes. This showed the student that even thought he was a Ph.D student; an undergrad could be of some help. From that point, the client was more attentive and followed what I said more closely.

Last week, I saw how David used the authoritative approach with a client by sitting across her, and not next to her. In his second appointment of the day, I saw him sitting next to a student. Both clients were ESL students and I observed David alter his practices as needed.

Holy Frick! I Did It!

HAPPY EASTER!