The concept of literacy is still something that I think a struggle with a bit. The way it is typically discussed in class seems to suggest to me that being literate in something simply means understanding it. I have a problem with this because such a thing is impossible to write about, it is too difficult to know where to begin.
I wish we had come up with some kind of specific definition for literacy in class (I remember that we did a bit, but for some reason I can't quite remember it). The most important component is communication. At first my understanding of literacy was that to be literate in something one needed to understand enough about it to communicate with others about it. I think I prefer to think of literacy as not being fluent in something, but rather being fluent in a form of communication. At least, that's what I'm going to write about in my literacy narrative. Music has been brought up a bit and is perfect in this sense because music is a form of communication. I might also use it for my narrative, but I'm not certain yet.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Client and Satellite Observations
I had my second session as a client today, once again at the Library. I’m definitely coming to appreciate the later hours that branch has open, given my hectic schedule. For this meeting, I brought in a copy of my resume to go over. We’ve been working on them in class, and I wanted to make some improvements before I handed it in. Since I switched into Professional Writing relatively recently, I’m somewhat self-conscious about what I perceive as a dearth of relevant PW experience. One of the first things the consultant encouraged me to think about was how my various experiences could be spun to seem more significant. As we discussed the points I had included, she inspired me to think about what I had left out, or what I could explain in greater detail. More than just helping with documenting my experiences, she genuinely made me feel better about my accomplishments. I’ve gained some valuable insight into how I can present myself and my experiences to potential employers.
Given how closely form and function are intertwined in a resume, I appreciate the attention to detail the consultant paid. In each area, she urged me to think about my word choices, and to see if I could use more active words, or more concise language. We also talked about the layout and appearance of my document. Though it was already much improved from my earlier version, she provided valuable insight as to how I could make further design changes. It is fortunate that she had suggestions for increasing the amount of content that I could include. Before we began, I felt like my resume was practically empty, but after our discussion, I don’t know if I’ll be able to include everything!
I also had the opportunity to observe a session while at the Library. I immediately noticed that the consultant was consistent in her use of “I” statement when she responded to the student’s paper. She described her reactions in phrases like “I’m confused about this…” or “What’s I’m hearing you say is…” These are phrases that the Bedford Guide urges tutors to use, and I myself try to remember. I was also impressed by the way the consultant addressed issues of grammar and mechanics. Without overly fixating on them, she nevertheless managed to correct grammatical issues by clearly explaining the underlying principles. She also did an admirable job of explaining how the connotations of certain words changed the meaning of the student’s statements. In all, she actively engaged the student in a continuous dialogue to get her to think about her reasoning and objectives. Rather than simply identifying a problem, she talked the student through possible solutions.
This was my second time visiting the Library Satellite, but the last time I was there I wasn’t focused on the environment itself. This time I noticed how open the work area felt. I kept noticing people as they passed by. Surprisingly, despite all the foot traffic, the atmosphere seemed quieter than at the Bessey Center. Perhaps that’s because there weren’t a dozen people sitting in one small area, all holding separate conversations at the same time. It’s not that the main center is loud, but trying to filter out all those other conversations can be difficult. I can definitely sympathize with students who have ADHD who come to us for help. Something else I noticed was the difference made by not having a dedicated receptionist. When a new client came, rather than addressing one of the unoccupied consultants, he simply came to the closest one, even though she was working with another student. If all the tutors had been working with students, I could understand this. However, given that there were several available consultants, this seemed unnecessarily disruptive. I can see how this could be frustrating for a consultant. Perhaps there could be a sign posted, indicating how students can check the schedule to see who their appointment is with.
Given how closely form and function are intertwined in a resume, I appreciate the attention to detail the consultant paid. In each area, she urged me to think about my word choices, and to see if I could use more active words, or more concise language. We also talked about the layout and appearance of my document. Though it was already much improved from my earlier version, she provided valuable insight as to how I could make further design changes. It is fortunate that she had suggestions for increasing the amount of content that I could include. Before we began, I felt like my resume was practically empty, but after our discussion, I don’t know if I’ll be able to include everything!
I also had the opportunity to observe a session while at the Library. I immediately noticed that the consultant was consistent in her use of “I” statement when she responded to the student’s paper. She described her reactions in phrases like “I’m confused about this…” or “What’s I’m hearing you say is…” These are phrases that the Bedford Guide urges tutors to use, and I myself try to remember. I was also impressed by the way the consultant addressed issues of grammar and mechanics. Without overly fixating on them, she nevertheless managed to correct grammatical issues by clearly explaining the underlying principles. She also did an admirable job of explaining how the connotations of certain words changed the meaning of the student’s statements. In all, she actively engaged the student in a continuous dialogue to get her to think about her reasoning and objectives. Rather than simply identifying a problem, she talked the student through possible solutions.
This was my second time visiting the Library Satellite, but the last time I was there I wasn’t focused on the environment itself. This time I noticed how open the work area felt. I kept noticing people as they passed by. Surprisingly, despite all the foot traffic, the atmosphere seemed quieter than at the Bessey Center. Perhaps that’s because there weren’t a dozen people sitting in one small area, all holding separate conversations at the same time. It’s not that the main center is loud, but trying to filter out all those other conversations can be difficult. I can definitely sympathize with students who have ADHD who come to us for help. Something else I noticed was the difference made by not having a dedicated receptionist. When a new client came, rather than addressing one of the unoccupied consultants, he simply came to the closest one, even though she was working with another student. If all the tutors had been working with students, I could understand this. However, given that there were several available consultants, this seemed unnecessarily disruptive. I can see how this could be frustrating for a consultant. Perhaps there could be a sign posted, indicating how students can check the schedule to see who their appointment is with.
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
2 Tutoring Sessions and One Observation
My second tutoring session was with a girl working on a paper for her physics class. Her class read a book and had to compare the challenges the physicists to challenges she had in her own life. She brought in her paper that had been corrected by her teacher and wanted me to make sure she had fixed what her teacher had pointed out and make sure her organization was good. I went over the paper paragraph by paragraph with her and pointed out any parts of her paper that did not fit with the rest of it. In each paragraph she was missing an intro sentence, she just jumped right into what she was talking about without setting it up. I explained to her that she needed both the intro sentence and the closing sentence so that the reader can follow her train of thought, especially because she was writing a comparative paper.
My third tutoring session was definitely once in a lifetime. I didn't have a scheduled client and about five minutes after sessions started a graduate student walked in. He was somewhere in his thirties and I immediately felt completely not the right tutor for him. I may be 18 years old but I look like I'm 16! I was afraid this man wouldn't take me seriously or would feel like he was getting the short end of the stick. I greeted him and we took our seats next to each other, I asked him what his paper was about and he told me he was writing to try and apply for a type of scholarship that would allow him to finish his final year at MSU without having to be a TA. He was an art major so he showed me a piece of his art so I could have a picture in my mind about what we were working on. His paper was divided into sections about his artwork, his performance artwork, and finally his performance piece that he is currently developing. We went through the paper and pointed out where he didn't have enough information for the reader to be able to visualize what he was talking about and how that was extremely important in a paper you are writing about art because the reader needs to be able to see in his minds eye what my tutee was talking about. That was really the main focus of our session. A final note: my student said to me "Far out!" after we finished one of his paragraphs! Crazy.
My observation at the library was very interesting. I ended up observing the yawner!! The tutor who had yawned through my entire paper. What was really bizarre was that he preformed this session almost to the tee the same way he preformed mine. The student came in, the tutor read his paper allowed as one whole chunk. As he went through he pointed out words that didn't belong or grammar mistakes. When he got done reading the paper he told the student that he assumed the student just wanted him to fine tune the paper. The student just nodded along. It was insane to me that the session had no tutor and student interaction at all. Another thing I noticed was that the student took the "turned off" behavior, he leaned back in his chair and took himself out of action with the paper. After the ten minute session the student left, in my mind, empty handed. The tutor then turned to me and asked me what exactly I was observing for. I told him and he said that I probably didn't observe his best session because he had been in and out of the hospital for the past week or more and just wasn't doing his best work. He said that if he had been feeling better he would have gone over many more things in the paper with the student. That puzzled me. If you know that you aren't doing your best work and helping the student to the best of your ability, should you really be at work? I just didn't quite understand that logic especially because I felt that the session I had with him was a complete waste of my time and if that had been my very first experience with the writing center I would not have gone back.
My third tutoring session was definitely once in a lifetime. I didn't have a scheduled client and about five minutes after sessions started a graduate student walked in. He was somewhere in his thirties and I immediately felt completely not the right tutor for him. I may be 18 years old but I look like I'm 16! I was afraid this man wouldn't take me seriously or would feel like he was getting the short end of the stick. I greeted him and we took our seats next to each other, I asked him what his paper was about and he told me he was writing to try and apply for a type of scholarship that would allow him to finish his final year at MSU without having to be a TA. He was an art major so he showed me a piece of his art so I could have a picture in my mind about what we were working on. His paper was divided into sections about his artwork, his performance artwork, and finally his performance piece that he is currently developing. We went through the paper and pointed out where he didn't have enough information for the reader to be able to visualize what he was talking about and how that was extremely important in a paper you are writing about art because the reader needs to be able to see in his minds eye what my tutee was talking about. That was really the main focus of our session. A final note: my student said to me "Far out!" after we finished one of his paragraphs! Crazy.
My observation at the library was very interesting. I ended up observing the yawner!! The tutor who had yawned through my entire paper. What was really bizarre was that he preformed this session almost to the tee the same way he preformed mine. The student came in, the tutor read his paper allowed as one whole chunk. As he went through he pointed out words that didn't belong or grammar mistakes. When he got done reading the paper he told the student that he assumed the student just wanted him to fine tune the paper. The student just nodded along. It was insane to me that the session had no tutor and student interaction at all. Another thing I noticed was that the student took the "turned off" behavior, he leaned back in his chair and took himself out of action with the paper. After the ten minute session the student left, in my mind, empty handed. The tutor then turned to me and asked me what exactly I was observing for. I told him and he said that I probably didn't observe his best session because he had been in and out of the hospital for the past week or more and just wasn't doing his best work. He said that if he had been feeling better he would have gone over many more things in the paper with the student. That puzzled me. If you know that you aren't doing your best work and helping the student to the best of your ability, should you really be at work? I just didn't quite understand that logic especially because I felt that the session I had with him was a complete waste of my time and if that had been my very first experience with the writing center I would not have gone back.
Co-Consulting Session #2
I remember someone mentioned in class that the writing center in the library was a little more of a stressful environment. My consulting session I led today was a little stressful. A student came in told me he had a biology exam right after our session, his paper was due tommorrow, and he had spend all of his time today working on another papre due tommorrow. I felt a little pressured to help him out.
The student came to me with a thesis that was too vague. His paper was on analyzing the American idea of success, what shapes this idea, and how this may or may not effect the idea of the American Dream. His first thesis was about the role of media, yet he did not mention media once in his paper. He had a lot of good ideas and points but did not have any clear organization for his ideas.
I asked him at the end of the session if he was happy and if I had helped him and he seemed really pleased and (hopefully) lessed stressed out. However, I think I gave him a few too many suggestions to help him organize his paper and should have let him think more on his own. I had him first rewrite his thesis, asking him a few times what exactly it was he wanted his paper to say. After that I had him write out a few main ideas and what he could use to support those. He left with a rough outline.
The student came to me with a thesis that was too vague. His paper was on analyzing the American idea of success, what shapes this idea, and how this may or may not effect the idea of the American Dream. His first thesis was about the role of media, yet he did not mention media once in his paper. He had a lot of good ideas and points but did not have any clear organization for his ideas.
I asked him at the end of the session if he was happy and if I had helped him and he seemed really pleased and (hopefully) lessed stressed out. However, I think I gave him a few too many suggestions to help him organize his paper and should have let him think more on his own. I had him first rewrite his thesis, asking him a few times what exactly it was he wanted his paper to say. After that I had him write out a few main ideas and what he could use to support those. He left with a rough outline.
Outside Observation #1
Today I went to the Library for an observation. The writing center at the library was a much different atmosphere then Bessey. It was very open, which I think distracts the students more then being in a room. The Library Writing Center was also much smaller with only 3 or 4 people on staff. I think it is a great location. Many students go to the library to write a paper and it is convenient to be able to have somewhere to go for help.
The student I observed came in with just a rough outline of her paper. I felt like she had expected her tutor to write some of her paper for her. She had great ideas, and an idea for direction, but had done little writing. The session was very short, the tutor and the student decided to arrange to meet again after she had established a rough draft. I think the tutor handled this situatly effectively. He went over her ideas for a few minutes, made sure she understood the assignment, but explained they could work together better if she went ahead and started writing and then came back.
The student I observed came in with just a rough outline of her paper. I felt like she had expected her tutor to write some of her paper for her. She had great ideas, and an idea for direction, but had done little writing. The session was very short, the tutor and the student decided to arrange to meet again after she had established a rough draft. I think the tutor handled this situatly effectively. He went over her ideas for a few minutes, made sure she understood the assignment, but explained they could work together better if she went ahead and started writing and then came back.
Leading a Session - #2
The other session I had today was much more productive than the first. The consultant I worked with this time gave me almost complete control of the session and only jumped in once or twice when it was obvious I was struggling to think of an explanation for why a sentence didn't work. I greatly appreciated her input because a lot of times I was thinking about the problem in a way that made it much more complicated than it was, and the other consultant's suggestions were much easier to explain and implement.
The student in this session was also an ESL student, and she wanted to go over a case study. She read the paper aloud, and we stopped at the end of every paragraph to go over any errors or rewording that might be needed. Some of the errors were simple grammatical ones, but I still made sure to try and explain them as best I could, such as when a subject was missing or unclear, or why a comma might be needed in a certain place.
Other times sentence rewording or restructuring was needed, and if I offered a suggestion, I made sure to ask if it made sense to the client. Sometimes when I did this she pointed out how she worded something the way she did in order to emphasize a certain point or to refer to a different object than I expected. By keeping her involved in the process, I was able to help make her work more clear and to serve the purpose that she had originally intended. I feel like that concept was lost in some of the other ESL sessions I have observed, so because of the lack of dialogue between the consultant and the client, the client's sentences no longer did exactly what they had intended them to.
I also made sure to point out strengths in her paper. In some paragraphs I saw no need at all for changes, and I mentioned how she did an excellent job incorporating and explaining examples from the case the paper was analyzing.
After the session the consultant who sat in with me told me I had done a good job in engaging the student and keeping her involved, which made me really happy to hear. She also said I had good body language and explained things well to the student. I hope I continue to perform like this, and I'm also interested to see how these skills will help me in a session with a native English speaker.
The student in this session was also an ESL student, and she wanted to go over a case study. She read the paper aloud, and we stopped at the end of every paragraph to go over any errors or rewording that might be needed. Some of the errors were simple grammatical ones, but I still made sure to try and explain them as best I could, such as when a subject was missing or unclear, or why a comma might be needed in a certain place.
Other times sentence rewording or restructuring was needed, and if I offered a suggestion, I made sure to ask if it made sense to the client. Sometimes when I did this she pointed out how she worded something the way she did in order to emphasize a certain point or to refer to a different object than I expected. By keeping her involved in the process, I was able to help make her work more clear and to serve the purpose that she had originally intended. I feel like that concept was lost in some of the other ESL sessions I have observed, so because of the lack of dialogue between the consultant and the client, the client's sentences no longer did exactly what they had intended them to.
I also made sure to point out strengths in her paper. In some paragraphs I saw no need at all for changes, and I mentioned how she did an excellent job incorporating and explaining examples from the case the paper was analyzing.
After the session the consultant who sat in with me told me I had done a good job in engaging the student and keeping her involved, which made me really happy to hear. She also said I had good body language and explained things well to the student. I hope I continue to perform like this, and I'm also interested to see how these skills will help me in a session with a native English speaker.
Leading a Session - #1
This experience was technically co-consulting, but it really ended up being more of another observation session for me, which was disappointing. The consultant I worked with dominated the session and didn't really leave much room for me to add anything. I also didn't agree with the majority of the changes that she made, but I didn't want to object and confuse the client even more, or bombard her with too much criticism.
The client today was an ESL student with a paper criticizing the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel." It was a long paper, and the consultant told her right away that they weren't going to get through the whole thing. This was actually a gross under-exaggeration, because it took almost half an hour to get through the first paragraph. The consultant wanted to make all kinds of specific pages and basically had the client rewrite the entire paragraph. Many of them I didn't see as necessary at all since the student's point would still be the same. The consultant didn't completely take charge of the session and make all the corrections herself, but the sheer volume of suggestions she made had to be intimidating for the client. A lot of times she skipped over obvious grammatical errors in favor of rewriting a sentence that already served its point. Basically she was trying to change the student's delivery of her argument, when all that was needed was clearer language in certain areas.
I actually did manage to chime in when they skipped ahead to the conclusion of the paper. The conclusion seemed to focus on the fact that the author had a good argument rather than on the flaws in it, which is what the paper was about. I pointed this out to the client, and she reworded a sentence to make the paragraph work better with the rest of her paper. I'd also like to note that because of the extensive changes made to the introduction, the consultant found it necessary to spend at least another 15 minutes on the conclusion to make the style there match the new style of the introduction. This wasn't intrusive on the student's writing itself since the consultant didn't just jump in and reword everything, but the student's style was completely altered.
The client today was an ESL student with a paper criticizing the book "Guns, Germs, and Steel." It was a long paper, and the consultant told her right away that they weren't going to get through the whole thing. This was actually a gross under-exaggeration, because it took almost half an hour to get through the first paragraph. The consultant wanted to make all kinds of specific pages and basically had the client rewrite the entire paragraph. Many of them I didn't see as necessary at all since the student's point would still be the same. The consultant didn't completely take charge of the session and make all the corrections herself, but the sheer volume of suggestions she made had to be intimidating for the client. A lot of times she skipped over obvious grammatical errors in favor of rewriting a sentence that already served its point. Basically she was trying to change the student's delivery of her argument, when all that was needed was clearer language in certain areas.
I actually did manage to chime in when they skipped ahead to the conclusion of the paper. The conclusion seemed to focus on the fact that the author had a good argument rather than on the flaws in it, which is what the paper was about. I pointed this out to the client, and she reworded a sentence to make the paragraph work better with the rest of her paper. I'd also like to note that because of the extensive changes made to the introduction, the consultant found it necessary to spend at least another 15 minutes on the conclusion to make the style there match the new style of the introduction. This wasn't intrusive on the student's writing itself since the consultant didn't just jump in and reword everything, but the student's style was completely altered.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)