101 Sessions!

Wow, today has been a pretty great day! My session went really well this morning, and I’ve just revised my first draft of the reflection! Even more exciting is the fact that I was able to tell my 101 student, Brandon, why a semicolon was unnecessary in the place he tried to use it!
When we talked about grammar, for what seems like forever ago, I remember thinking, “Oh gosh, am I going to be able to explain to someone why this type of punctuation is needed, or why this is grammatically incorrect?!”  Today I learned that I can at least talk about semicolons.  I don’t remember the exact wording of the sentence, but I know it started off with “Even though” and then he tried to use a semicolon where a comma would be needed.  At first, I didn’t know how to address the problem in a way that would make sense and also get the point across. So, I began by asking if the first phrase could stand alone.  I asked, “Can this first part before the semicolon stand alone as a sentence, or are you promising something that you don’t explain before the semicolon?”  Brandon’s initial response was that it could stand as a sentence.  A little disheartened, I repeated the question of whether or not he was explaining the “even though” part of the sentence. Brandon soon understood that the phrase could not stand alone.  The next battle was how to ask Brandon what punctuation was needed.  Before I began to speak again he asked, “Can you just put a comma there?”  Bingo!!

I remember being so excited that he understood the difference between a semicolon and a comma just a little bit better.  What seemed like a difficult grammar tip to teach was actually relatively easy.  In the future, I think I would use another sentence as an example, and really try to help the writer understand what punctuation is necessary.  For now, I will just be happy that Brandon learned at least one new thing about writing today, and I hope it will help him for future assignments.

I know that more difficult issues will arise in future sessions, and I think it will take time to develop strategies for overcoming those obstacles.  As we’ve discussed, not everyone learns the same way, and several examples might be needed before a student understands the tidbit about grammar.  I know I’ll be learning along the way as well!

Tomorrow's Session

So, who’s excited for tomorrow’s session?! I know I am!! I’m really curious to see how I improve as a result of our previous sessions, and what advising strategies I incorporate.  Last time, I took an outline approach to help organize Brandon’s ideas; will this tactic will be beneficial for this assignment as well?  If not, what other strategies will I utilize?  I cannot predict what issues will need to be addressed with regard to Brandon’s paper, but I do know that I would like to both alleviate the issue of time, and engage Brandon as much as possible.  I understand that we have the full class period to work with the 101 students, but I also want to treat this session like the ones we will have in the future.  There needs to be some indication of time, and a steady working pace, so that the writers leave with a sense of direction.    
I found out last session that Brandon’s father is a police officer (just like mine!), and he is interested in writing about the texting-while-driving debate.  I am really interested in what Brandon has to say about this issue, and how he incorporates other’s opinions and scientific data.  Because this assignment requires an abundance of outside sources, I will look for clarity and flow within Brandon’s paper.  I think it is important that he successfully balance his ideas, alongside other’s, and does so in a way that engages the reader.  I will also look for strong points of argument, and whether or not the counter-argument is addressed.      

When it comes to reading style, I think I prefer working paragraph-by-paragraph.  With a lengthy work, like the papers we will be reading through tomorrow, I think it’s best to see if the individual paragraphs make sense and connect with one another.  That way, you are asking questions throughout the reading, and really focusing on the importance of each argument/piece of evidence.  The opposing, “big picture” strategy—reading the entire text without pausing, seems too complicated for me.  I feel like you can ask the writer to describe the point/main argument of their paper prior to reading, and then can look to see if those points are expressed.

With all of that said, my simple game plan for tomorrow is to be relaxed and as helpful as possible.  I hope that Brandon is at ease during the session, and continues to engage in his writing.  I think that reading paragraph-by-paragraph will be the best approach for this assignment; we’ll see how the actual session plays out!   

A Simple Greeting Would Be Nice

We’ve previously mentioned that anyone who enters the Writing Center should feel entirely at ease, and at least receive a welcoming “hello.”  There is certainly some value to being friendly and inviting.  
I went to the Math Workshop this morning to clarify some issues I was having in my calculus class, and I have to admit I was not impressed.  I felt very uncomfortable and unwelcome; there wasn’t anyone at the front desk to even greet me! Even when there is a student working the front desk, they just look at me and wait for me to say what I need help with.  Thankfully, I had been to the Workshop a few times before, so I knew the sign-in procedure.  However, I probably could have stood at the front desk for twenty minutes before anyone noticed!  There was one gentleman who looked up at me, and then looked away.  It was like he was hoping I didn’t need help.  I proceeded to the side room where there was a girl behind another desk.  I asked if anyone could help with calculus, and then got up to take me to the same guy that looked away from me!  Why is it that the math tutors don’t ask if you need assistance?  I mean, I don’t like hanging out in the Workshop so I don’t know of any other reason for being there besides getting help.  I guess I just don’t understand why the tutors aren’t quick to greet you or offer assistance.  Once I finally sit down next to a tutor and begin working, however, they are extremely helpful.

Honestly, the impression I get from the faculty and tutors is a culture of “not caring.”  They don’t care if a student feels awkward when they enter the Workshop, and there is no emphasis on the “total experience.”  I believe that any student resource center should always be inviting (including the furnishings and individuals that work there) and seek to offer the best assistance possible.  To me, the Math Workshop lacks these two qualities.  The tutors are only inviting once you initiate the interaction, and thus, fail to offer the best possible assistance.

I did not mean to pinpoint all of the negative aspects of the Math Workshop, but I do think it is important that we analyze the other student resource centers to make the Writing Center be the best it can be. 

I love how dedicated the tutors are, and how welcoming everyone is.  It’s not easy to bring a piece of writing in, so we must always make the writer feel comfortable.  The best appointments start with a simple “hello.”

Wordle!

Today’s class was great! It doesn’t get much better than metaphors and Wordle!! Although I struggled with the advisor metaphors, I thought it was a neat way to think about myself as a person, student, and tutor. I would love to hear what crazy comparisons the rest of the class came up with!

Ok, on to Wordle. I have never seen or heard of this website before, but I thought the collages were so cool! Keeping with our metaphorical/symbolic class today, I am going to attempt to decipher what my wordle means to me.

At first glance, you will clearly see the large font with the word BRANDON. This, of course, was the name of the English 101 student that I worked with. I was kind of surprised and embarrassed that this was the focal point of my reflection. However, I think the student is a very important component of any session. Of course, you need a writer to have a session, but they do control both what you talk about and how the session will progress. With that said, you have to work with their personality, strengths, and weaknesses. For me, Brandon was a challenge, so including his name in my reflection is not surprising.  I did my best to work with Brandon in a way that would benefit his writing; I was extremely outgoing and supportive.

The next bolded words on my collage were: time, ideas, session, and approach. I think these are legitimate points to think about, and can be the difference between a productive and nonproductive session.  If you don’t consider time, the rest of your schedule has to be adjusted.  If you lack a strategy/approach and a sense of direction for the session, then your writer will leave feeling confused about how to finish their paper.  In relation to my session, one of my biggest concerns was time—Brandon and I worked for 80 minutes.  Although I think this was a necessary amount of time, I wrote about how I was concerned for future sessions.  What if time is an issue and I really can’t help the writer to the extent that I know I could if I had more time?  I know you can always schedule another appointment, but I fear losing the important conversation that you ended with in the previous session.  In addition, I was continuously analyzing my approach.  I tried engaging Brandon with questions, helping him reword sentences, and focusing our attention on an outline for his paper.  I think these strategies had great value, but I was still contemplating how to handle the scenario.  I guess time and experience will help ease the anxiety.  For now, I’ll just continue to learn, and use Wordle….because it’s so cool!

Interesting Observations

I’ve noticed a change in the way I write.  The words that I use, the way I structure my ideas, and the process by which I actually go about writing have all been altered.  It’s really neat to sit back and think about the transformation; I attribute the change to English 242.  Not only do I have to think critically about how others write, but I have to hold my own work to a higher standard.
A great example of my writing progress relates to the summaries that Mike returned to us today.  I can remember getting the assignment, and starting it almost immediately.  I was fortunate in that I could start it so early, because I don’t always have that luxury.  However, I have learned that the earlier you can at least start an assignment, the more time you have to make revision.  This concept seems like common sense, but I never realized that just writing an opening paragraph and coming back to the paper later can be so beneficial.  I always thought that I would be less productive if I wrote in small increments, and would lose my train of thought.  I have learned that quite the opposite is true.  Simply getting an idea and a few sentences together, an opening paragraph, and/or a small sense of direction can be really helpful.  When I start an assignment in advance, I feel like a weight is lifted off my shoulders.  Just having one paragraph written down is more than I had before!  Anyways, as you now know, I started the summary very early.  After I wrote it, I printed it out and read through it several times to clear up any awkward passages, both aloud and silently.  I have always been one to read over my papers, but not with the level of scrutiny that I do now. 

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been guilty of making my sentences too complicated, and using words incorrectly.  Now when I read over my papers, I consider my audience to a greater extent, and really focus on flow and simplicity.  I owe Mike a thank-you for reading our papers very critically; it has sure helped me as a writer.

Overall, I have certainly grown as a writer.  The process by which I write has become more efficient, and I critique every sentence that I create.  I am really happy that I can physically see the good changes in my writing.  I think it is important to be able to analyze the way you write/ think, and I hope that others have felt that their writing has also improved. 

The Joys of Being a Writing Center Advisor

It seems like everyone is pleased about their time spent with the 101 students.  That’s great!  As I read through the blogs, I noticed that everyone seemed to have a greater level of composure and were able to give the writer a better sense of direction.  I think the improvements in our sessions are a result of increased confidence and experience.  I know I went into the session with a lot of excitement and more of a “game plan” of how I wanted the meeting to go.  However, I could have never predicted what I would learn as a result of this experience.  I felt like my time spent with the 101 student was more than an advising session; it was a time to help the writer’s confidence, and really help them get their thoughts on paper.  For me, the session was so rewarding because I was able to see real potential.
I think that the “quiet” kid of the class can be overlooked by the teacher/professor and is sometimes regarded as unenthused or uninterested in the material.  Honestly, I felt like my advisee could really fit this description.  Although I don’t know his level of participation in the classroom, he was very quiet, and quite shy.  With that said, I could tell that he was really eager to answer my questions and produce a quality paper.  He was a very deep thinker, and I soon discovered that his ideas were really great.  It was just difficult to for him to get them down on paper.  I felt like the entire session had to be a delicate balance of encouragement and direction.  At times, the silence lasted for what seemed like an eternity.  The whole time I was praying that Mike didn’t walk by and wonder why my advisee and I were just staring at his paper! J

I previously hinted about my epiphany—being a Writing Center tutor is even more rewarding than I previously thought.  As I worked with the 101 student, I realized that he truly wanted to produce a great paper, but he was an inexperienced writer.  However, my student was surprisingly knowledgeable about the novel feed and I could tell that he really did have some great ideas for examples/ points in his paper.  The issue was simply his ability to transpose his thoughts onto the paper.  I don’t want to lead too much into my session and the strategy I used, but I did want to make it clear that I learned a lot from the meeting. 

I realized that our role is so important and incredibly rewarding.  We can be the person that helps a student increase their confidence—probably one of the most important things you could help an individual gain.  For me, the session was about taking a series of thoughts, and showing the student how to bring them to life.  It was about breaking down the barriers, and letting his truly abilities shine through.

Oh shoot, I like too much of what I said.  This reflection is going to be tricky to write!            

Strategies for Tomorrow

I’m not sure about you folks, but I am super excited for tomorrow’s session with the English 101 students.  I think it will be a great opportunity to build confidence, and witness the tremendous progress we’ve made as soon-to-be tutors.  I have no doubt that each one of us has become more comfortable in the advising setting, and have learned more about ourselves and what strategies work best for us.  With that said, I can’t predict how the 101 students will respond, but I know exactly what I need to focus on: clarity of the assignment/ more pretextual discussion.

In a perfect world, the student would come in excited about sharing their work, and would, in a sense, lead the session.  My role would be to ask questions as a reader, and do my best to facilitate a comfortable exchange of ideas.  I would love for the writer to leave the session very confident and excited about making the necessary changes in their work.  Again, this is my description of a perfect session.  As we all know, perfect advising sessions do not exist.  However, I am always in control of both my actions, and my speech.  I hope that tomorrow demonstrates my love of helping writers grow and feel confident in their writing, and also demonstrates that I am capable of asking the right, thought-provoking questions.  Thus, I have created a short list of things I hope to accomplish tomorrow—they focus primarily on the pre-textual aspects of tutoring.

1.  Always be incredibly enthusiastic and positive.  As tutors, we must understand that it may not be easy for a student to bring in their paper.  At times, the writer may feel very vulnerable, and unsure of their ideas.  Thus, we must always be very positive and encouraging.  The first greeting/handshake will set the tone for the rest of the session.  Moreover, there will certainly be papers that make no sense to us at all, so we must control our body language and speech.  It’s OK to tell a writer about your confusion with the text, but we should never degrade their writing skills.  With regard to tomorrow’s session, I hope the writer feels very comfortable and leaves the session feeling like our time together was very beneficial.

2.  (This is a personal strategy.)  As briefly mentioned, I fear getting ahead of myself in an advising session.  Although it is perfectly acceptable to “restart” and clarify the prompt mid-session, I really want to try and let the session flow without such interruption.  Mike has already given us some information about their prompt, so I would really like to try and get some good information about my writer’s paper before we begin reading.  I want to say, “I’ve briefly heard about your prompt.  There needs to be a clear thesis, evidence/examples, counterevidence, etc.  Can you please tell me what you’ve discussed in your paper about each of these criteria?”  I think this type of discussion will really help me understand their paper, and also see if their ideas are well represented in the text.

3.  Lastly, I want to end the session on a strong note.  The session reflections have been a bit tricky for me, so I really want to get some good ideas down.  I think a combination of summary/suggestions would be very helpful for the reader, and would not suggest that the paper was perfect.  I’ve learned that strong adjectives like “good” and “great” can be utilized to my disadvantage, and I should really focus on specific ideas or organizational aspects of the paper that are “good/great.”

Well, I think this is a great starting point for me.  Feel free to add any other ideas you may have, and best of luck to everyone tomorrow!