This tutor began with two tutees and he let one tutee leave 15 minutes into the session! I was shocked, it made me think of the thin line between therapist and tutor because this girl came to the session talking so much and explaining all these ideas on a research topic and he was like "you have great ideas you just need to narrow it down to one and start on that since it's due Wednesday." So she shows him this paper that was based on Edgar Allen Poo and she said she wants to find research on his poems in connection to his life and he said "I think that's a good idea you have a lot of good ideas in the paper already just find research that help you connect the poem with his life," she said "Okay thanks a lot and left." If I were the tutor I would have sent her to the lab that is in the writing center have her find at least one article and then have her write one paragraph showing how she would connect the poems with Poo's life, this guy just let her leave. I had to look at my watch to see how quick that session was and we started that session at 11:50am she was gone by 12:15-12:20pm, max.
Then he moved on to the second tutee, I thought the writing center was to help students with their paper structure. This tutor became a grammar expert. He began reading her paper out loud and he would point out every little grammar error this student had. First of all, you can clearly tell that she was not an English native speaker so her writing was not academically correct, but she was there because she needed help with her research paper not with her grammar.
While he was pointing out every grammar issue in her paper, I guess he got angry and literally stopped reading her paper to discipline her about articles. He got a blank sheet of paper and explained the difference between "the" and "a." He said "if I say I went to A store in Manhattan, I am speaking about one store out of the many stores in Manhattan, but if I say I went to THE store in Manhattan, I am referring to one specific store, so I would write, I went to THE store on 34 street in Manhattan." First of all, that was so random, second what does that have to do with her paper or her structure of the paper? Again, this guy shocked me.
He continues reading her paper out loud and the only time he gave good advised was when he said "you need to some how connect this to the topic sentence because you are getting off topic." The rest of the session he just pointed out grammar issues as if grammar issues was one of his pet-peeves.
The session was 20 minutes before finishing and he went to the office and got this poor girl grammar worksheets. SERIOUSLY? It's summer, it's bad that she has to do a research paper during the summer, It's even worse that she is taking summer classes and you're giving her grammar homework???
Then we left 15 minutes before the session was even over.
Monday, July 29, 2013
Third Observations
So last week I was undercover, I went in a session as a tutee rather than an observer. That day the tutor that was helping me on my research paper was being observed by one of his peers, so my tutor was being observed by two different people at the same time.
I want to start off by saying he has the knowledge and I think he helped the second tutee and I with our paper, but he lacked on time management. He spent so much time on the second tutee I began counting the boxes on the ceiling. I don't know if he was nervous because his peer was observing him but you can feel his nervousness through his actions. He would look at the clock continuously, shake his leg, tap his fingers it was obvious he was nervous.
While he was helping the tutee with her paper, I couldn't help but notice how quickly he let her go. He said everything was fine and everything made sense. He then began pointing out some of her grammatical errors that she had in her paper. I know that's a no-no from this class, but if you are getting observed by a senior tutor from the writing center, shouldn't that be the number one thing to avoid during that session?
He began reading my Moffett paper, he said everything was correct and what ever my professor wrote is what I am missing. I replied saying "Yeah, I know that...how can I include my thoughts in this paper without sounding repetitive or without making this paper sound like an autobiography?" I think that intimidated him because he was like "I'm sorry if that was not what you wanted to hear..." It really wasn't what I wanted to hear because I can clearly read that through the comments on my paper. Anyways, so I took control sort of and I said "I guess I'll write a paragraph that is my thoughts and stick it in the first paragraph and you can check if it makes sense or if I'm getting off topic?" and so he went on to the second tutor and helped her with more grammatical errors, then she left. So here I am writing and my tutor is drinking soda and playing with his pen because he let his second tutee leave so early.
I write my paragraph and then he said "this is perfect it has some of your thoughts and your connect it back to Moffett's theory which makes sense, how about you write another paragraph for individualism?" At that point I knew he was using me to fulfill the hour session and for his observer to keep note of that.
I wrote the paragraph and he just complimented the paragraph saying that it makes sense then he gave me some ideas to go home with saying that my thoughts can be based on education in general and/or my own personal experience in an urban public school. That sort of helped me at the end because when I was revising my paper I was able to explain how my education in an urban public school would have been different if I was taught the three I's.
I didn't like that he was just restating what my teacher had already wrote on the paper, I feel like rather than just restating that and giving me the ideas ahead of time I could have wrote a paragraph comparing my own public school experience and Moffett's three I's theory, but he waited till the end to tell me that so I had to work on that on my own.
I want to start off by saying he has the knowledge and I think he helped the second tutee and I with our paper, but he lacked on time management. He spent so much time on the second tutee I began counting the boxes on the ceiling. I don't know if he was nervous because his peer was observing him but you can feel his nervousness through his actions. He would look at the clock continuously, shake his leg, tap his fingers it was obvious he was nervous.
While he was helping the tutee with her paper, I couldn't help but notice how quickly he let her go. He said everything was fine and everything made sense. He then began pointing out some of her grammatical errors that she had in her paper. I know that's a no-no from this class, but if you are getting observed by a senior tutor from the writing center, shouldn't that be the number one thing to avoid during that session?
He began reading my Moffett paper, he said everything was correct and what ever my professor wrote is what I am missing. I replied saying "Yeah, I know that...how can I include my thoughts in this paper without sounding repetitive or without making this paper sound like an autobiography?" I think that intimidated him because he was like "I'm sorry if that was not what you wanted to hear..." It really wasn't what I wanted to hear because I can clearly read that through the comments on my paper. Anyways, so I took control sort of and I said "I guess I'll write a paragraph that is my thoughts and stick it in the first paragraph and you can check if it makes sense or if I'm getting off topic?" and so he went on to the second tutor and helped her with more grammatical errors, then she left. So here I am writing and my tutor is drinking soda and playing with his pen because he let his second tutee leave so early.
I write my paragraph and then he said "this is perfect it has some of your thoughts and your connect it back to Moffett's theory which makes sense, how about you write another paragraph for individualism?" At that point I knew he was using me to fulfill the hour session and for his observer to keep note of that.
I wrote the paragraph and he just complimented the paragraph saying that it makes sense then he gave me some ideas to go home with saying that my thoughts can be based on education in general and/or my own personal experience in an urban public school. That sort of helped me at the end because when I was revising my paper I was able to explain how my education in an urban public school would have been different if I was taught the three I's.
I didn't like that he was just restating what my teacher had already wrote on the paper, I feel like rather than just restating that and giving me the ideas ahead of time I could have wrote a paragraph comparing my own public school experience and Moffett's three I's theory, but he waited till the end to tell me that so I had to work on that on my own.
Friday, July 19, 2013
Second Observations
I got a different tutor this time and she recently took this course. She was a hundred times better. She read the paper out loud and she helped the student construct a better paper. She asked the tutee questions that helped the student generate a different ideas that helped her in her paper. The tutee wanted to go over some grammar issues that she was having and the tutor told her to make a mark where she felt she needed grammar help and when they got a chance at the end of the hour she would go over it.
The tutee had a good paper it was just that her ideas were scattered all around. So the tutor got a worksheet that helped the student structure her paragraphs correctly. In the worksheet there were boxes and the first line said topic sentence and then in the lines after, it is for the student to write all of the evidence to support that topic sentence. I though that was a good idea because the student was able to to take out her own ideas from the draft and then put it in the worksheet, for example if the topic sentence was for setting then the evidence would be all the sentences in her paper that referred to the setting in the text. It was helpful for the student. she got a lot done and the thesis changed in order to make the paper flow correctly.
This tutor was good at helping the student, she didn't tell her that the student's work was wrong or that that paper made no sense she was able to help the student think of her own ideas and come up with better explanation and she even help the student organize her own paper correctly by using the worksheet.
The tutee had a good paper it was just that her ideas were scattered all around. So the tutor got a worksheet that helped the student structure her paragraphs correctly. In the worksheet there were boxes and the first line said topic sentence and then in the lines after, it is for the student to write all of the evidence to support that topic sentence. I though that was a good idea because the student was able to to take out her own ideas from the draft and then put it in the worksheet, for example if the topic sentence was for setting then the evidence would be all the sentences in her paper that referred to the setting in the text. It was helpful for the student. she got a lot done and the thesis changed in order to make the paper flow correctly.
This tutor was good at helping the student, she didn't tell her that the student's work was wrong or that that paper made no sense she was able to help the student think of her own ideas and come up with better explanation and she even help the student organize her own paper correctly by using the worksheet.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Tutoring Reflection
Today, during my first tutoring session my tutees were pretty cool. I had to help two students who were doing two different arguments about biculturalism. I asked them to define it and they looked at me as if I had five heads. One girl, DeeDee, kept talking about how she was going to write her paper, so I assumed she was going to do an outline, well I was wrong. She was writing like irrelevant stuff like "don't forget to show evidence...check grammar" and she really thought she had something going. So I was like "Hey that's pretty good, but lets try finding evidence from the text since you don't have research now."That's when I knew she did not read the text.
Moving on to the second tutee, CeeCee, she was really good she knew the story like the back of her hand, she was able to tell me what she wanted to write about and she was telling me how she was going to prove it, the only thing that she wasn't doing was writing it down. So I was like "Hey that's an awesome idea, you should write that down before you forget it and then you're going to be like oh no what did I tell Jamie!" so she wrote it down.
Then I moved on to DeeDee, she was still writing nonsense, she was just telling me "you really helped me out" and I was like "I tried, so what do you have so far?" and she was like beating around the bush not saying anything. I told her that maybe she should write her first paragraph on how the Chinese girl helps her mom translate and how that is strength because she is bilingual, and she wrote that down so then I was like okay so start from there what can you research that will help prove that biculturalism is a strength rather than a confusion. She began to write, finally.
CeeCee had her 3 body paragraphs and her conclusion set up she just needed her intro and her thesis. It was time for us to leave so I tried listening to her thoughts and at the end she told me her thesis, I don't know if she wrote it down though, I really hope she did. She told me she was going to define biculturalism in her own words by explaining how it is a confusion for college students, and her definition would be her thesis. I thought that was a interesting way for her to start her paper, hopefully the professor is cool with that.
DeeDee finished her outline and then I asked her about her intro and thesis and she said, "I'm going to define biculturalism but as a strength," she copied CeeCee's idea, but I guess they worked off of each other.
It was pretty fun though, we didn't have any downtime. They were talking, reading and writing the whole time, pretty proud of myself.
Moving on to the second tutee, CeeCee, she was really good she knew the story like the back of her hand, she was able to tell me what she wanted to write about and she was telling me how she was going to prove it, the only thing that she wasn't doing was writing it down. So I was like "Hey that's an awesome idea, you should write that down before you forget it and then you're going to be like oh no what did I tell Jamie!" so she wrote it down.
Then I moved on to DeeDee, she was still writing nonsense, she was just telling me "you really helped me out" and I was like "I tried, so what do you have so far?" and she was like beating around the bush not saying anything. I told her that maybe she should write her first paragraph on how the Chinese girl helps her mom translate and how that is strength because she is bilingual, and she wrote that down so then I was like okay so start from there what can you research that will help prove that biculturalism is a strength rather than a confusion. She began to write, finally.
CeeCee had her 3 body paragraphs and her conclusion set up she just needed her intro and her thesis. It was time for us to leave so I tried listening to her thoughts and at the end she told me her thesis, I don't know if she wrote it down though, I really hope she did. She told me she was going to define biculturalism in her own words by explaining how it is a confusion for college students, and her definition would be her thesis. I thought that was a interesting way for her to start her paper, hopefully the professor is cool with that.
DeeDee finished her outline and then I asked her about her intro and thesis and she said, "I'm going to define biculturalism but as a strength," she copied CeeCee's idea, but I guess they worked off of each other.
It was pretty fun though, we didn't have any downtime. They were talking, reading and writing the whole time, pretty proud of myself.
Friday, July 12, 2013
First Observations
So on Monday, I went to the writing center to observe a tutor, tutor a tutee. I did not like my mentor at all. I felt like he was annoyed by the student's work and I think the student also felt the tutor's annoyance. The tutor was literally slouching on the table, playing with his fingers and he literally told the student, "why would you write this as your thesis?" Honestly, I thought tutors were there to help the students better their work not tease them about what they have written already. He continued telling the student how his paragraphs didn't connect to the thesis and the student sort of replied with attitude saying "Okay I understand that but I'm here to get a better grade on the paper not for you to tell me what I did wrong." I would never get my paper revised by this man if I were that student because he was no help at all. He was just pointing out every mistake out on his paper, rather than helping the student organize the paper. He was also restating all of the teacher's comments which was, in my opinion, not necessary because I'm pretty sure the student had already read the comments so I don't understand why he would restate them or point them out again. This tutor literally did everything the "Do's and Don'ts" video said not to do.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Sir Kin Robinson -Ted 2006 and the "What is pedagogy?" video
Hi, my name is Jamie and I'm taking ENG220 which is a course on how to teach students how to write and we've watched two videos on the importance of pedagogy in the educational system and I am explaining the significance of the videos.
The main point of the "What is pedagogy?" is to explain how teachers can use certain assignments, strategies and lesson plans to help students cognitively think on their own. This video touches Sir Kin Robinson's points on "Ted Talks" (2006), which he stresses the importance of creativity in connection to the student's success of thinking. Robinson explains his three main points that are effective and necessary for academic inflation in the public school system, diversity, dynamic and distinct. Diversity, examines the students' way of thinking, emphasizing our original perspective. Dynamic, represents the interaction within the student. Robinson explains that creativity is the original idea of a student that has value which connects the interaction of the students thought with their creativity. The last point is to be distinct, which is recognizing ones' talent. Robinson explains that one has to "move to think," in other words in order to think on our own, we have to be creative and not be afraid to be wrong.
I agree with Robinson, I do believe that the public school system are training the students in becoming little robots, where it's bad to be wrong and to be different. In the video he said, "we don't grow into it [creativity], we grow out of creativity," thus explaining how the educational system deprives students from embracing their talent and focuses more on training the students on how to get a job in the workforce. Robinson's video and the "what is Pedagogy?" video both touch on how the education system should challenge the students' way of thinking as an individual rather than teaching students to think in one certain way.
The main point of the "What is pedagogy?" is to explain how teachers can use certain assignments, strategies and lesson plans to help students cognitively think on their own. This video touches Sir Kin Robinson's points on "Ted Talks" (2006), which he stresses the importance of creativity in connection to the student's success of thinking. Robinson explains his three main points that are effective and necessary for academic inflation in the public school system, diversity, dynamic and distinct. Diversity, examines the students' way of thinking, emphasizing our original perspective. Dynamic, represents the interaction within the student. Robinson explains that creativity is the original idea of a student that has value which connects the interaction of the students thought with their creativity. The last point is to be distinct, which is recognizing ones' talent. Robinson explains that one has to "move to think," in other words in order to think on our own, we have to be creative and not be afraid to be wrong.
I agree with Robinson, I do believe that the public school system are training the students in becoming little robots, where it's bad to be wrong and to be different. In the video he said, "we don't grow into it [creativity], we grow out of creativity," thus explaining how the educational system deprives students from embracing their talent and focuses more on training the students on how to get a job in the workforce. Robinson's video and the "what is Pedagogy?" video both touch on how the education system should challenge the students' way of thinking as an individual rather than teaching students to think in one certain way.
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