DaRiAs MuSiNgS

final paper 4

2010-03-01T06:48:00.001-08:00

Discussion:
Throughout the semester, the tutor was able to research reasons why college students came to the Writing Center. The Writing Center is open to all students who need help with writing, regardless of major or profession. It is ironic to find college students helping other college students without proper certification or knowledge. As John Trimbur states in his essay “Peer Tutoring: A Contradiction in Terms?”, “…students do not possess the expertise and credentials-the professional standing- to help their peer learn to write” (Barnett 289). Often, the tutor stumbles over an example or a discussion and does not know how to help his student. The tutor needs enough knowledge of writing to help those in a higher grade level, as their problems become more precise. A tutor can easily help freshmen, as their writing problems are broad and their questions are easily answered. Freshmen come to the WC to get help understanding and starting their assignment. Upperclassmen, especially those outside of English composition classes, need help with grammar and punctuation, they understand their assignments but need someone to proof read and make their paper more concise. They collaborate with their tutor and take criticism well and take full ownership and responsibility for their work.
The most outstanding difference between freshmen and upperclassmen who came to the WC was that freshman were not prepared to write; they were timid and insecure, they need guidance in every step of their writing, while upperclassmen are prepared and know what they need help with. The three freshmen I was able to tutor expected a lot more guidance from the tutor, and more explanation. The tutor had to take the lead in the session as the freshmen were insecure and clueless. Upperclassmen were eager to work with a tutor and were prepared with the assignment already written. They wanted to focus on grammar and sentence structure and the details of their papers rather than how to write a thesis sentence.
Limitations:
As this study was conducted in about a month’s time, the tutor was only about to see seven students for sessions. With a larger sample of students, results would be more concrete. All three freshmen needed help with papers for an English composition course while upperclassmen asked for help in their own majors. Other limitations include the tutor not having the necessary knowledge or experience of helping the students, which caused the sessions to run over time, or not get a lot accomplished. Some might question the motives of ESL students in the writing center, this research is not complete with enough data to include that category.
Conclusion:
The reasons for coming to the Writing Center vary upon grade level and assignment. Freshmen come to be tutored either by requirement or a last hope to pass a course. Freshmen are insure with their writing, and often do not understand the assignment, they have to be guided through their entire paper. They ask vague questions and require more time with their tutor. Some students did not even read the required text and expect their tutor to write the paper for them.
Upperclassmen come to the writing center eager and prepared to get a paper critiqued. They know what to expect, and ask about the details of writing, such as grammar and punctuation. Very seldom did they have questions about citations or thesis statements.
One of the major differences between the two groups is that upperclassmen know what to expect from their professors, they have the experience and sureness in their writing that make them more willing to work with a tutor. As one of the case studies show, Kendra and Christine had extremely few errors, they came to the writing center to make their presentation flawless; freshmen just want to get by with a decent grade.
While one might question differences of ESL students coming to the WC and native speakers, there is no difference of writing knowledge depending on grade level. In this study however, there were not enough English as a second language students to work with, therefore, this study is not fully complete.
Overall, there are many reasons why college students come to the writing center. Through this research, one can see that freshmen motives differentiate greatly than upperclassmen. There still remains research to be done on English as a second language students coming to the Writing center, and a larger group of students would lead to greater conclusions and insight behind students reasoning. Also, if a tutor can ask his students any questions without being offensive, if this was a true study and not observation or simple questions, this project would reveal true and honest motives, not assumptions from the tutor or half answered questions from the students.

final paper 3

2010-03-01T06:47:00.002-08:00

Data Analysis:
I want to concentrate and analyze three sessions. The first tutoring session was with a freshman girl that we will call Molly. Molly was nervous coming to the Writing Center, and did not know what to expect from the tutor. It was her first time coming to the WC.
After brief introduction:
T: So, Molly, what do you want to work on today?
M: Um, I don’t know. I have to do a persuasive essay.
T: Do you have an assignment sheet? What class is this for?
M: It’s my English comp class, the teacher didn’t give us an assignment sheet, but I have notes from class.
T: Very good, so do you understand the assignment?
M: Not really, I never had to do this before.
Here the tutor pauses, trying to decipher the students notes, and what she needs help with. Her notes are detailed, probably written straight from the board or from a book.
T: Have you thought of a topic yet? Anything that interests you?
M: I was thinking of doing it on the war.
T: Hmm?
M: Like on why we should not be in the war. My brother is in Iraq.
T: Oh, well I’m sorry to hear that. I’m guessing your anti-war?
M: Yeah.
T: Okay, lets start by listing some pros and cons. Why are you anti war, and back it with some facts.
M: Okay. (Molly stares at the paper for about 2 minutes). I guess because a lot of soldiers died.
The tutor is frustrated by this weak statement, and tries to redirect Molly’s focus on her notes.
T: How about you start with, “The war on terror has taken many lives, so we should not send more troops there?”.
Molly smiles, “ I get it”. The tutor is then able to help the student with the introduction, but comes to a standstill after a sentence or two. Molly is just typing what the tutor says, and needs a lot of prompting. The tutor realizes that Molly wants the tutor to write the paper. Molly gave up ownership of her paper, allowing the tutor to give her own ideas. “Writers should feel welcome to explore their own ideas and find their own ways to express them,”(McAndrew 19), however, Molly was either too timid or unprepared to write her assignment.
T: Molly, I can’t write this paper for you, this is your assignment, however, I can guide you and help you with some ideas.
In this session, the tutor was frustrated with Molly’s lack of interest or knowledge of her paper. Collaboration was not an issue in this session, as Molly gave the tutor all ownership to the paper. The tutor felt that she had to guide Molly along every step, and when Molly said something, the tutor had to encourage a lot and give false praise to keep the conversation flowing. While McAndrew and Reigstad said “Writers need honest feedback, not empty flattery” (Tutoring Writing 17), the tutor hoped that to an insecure freshman who had no background knowledge of writing persuasive essays false praise might make the writer surer about her writing. This session demonstrated the frustration of tutoring freshmen, who come unprepared, unsure, and with little knowledge of the subject matter. The tutor was able to help Molly was an introduction, and three main sentences, and encouraged Molly to come back to the tutoring center.
While freshmen are harder to tutor because of their insecurity and little knowledge of assignments, upperclassmen need help with small details. A second example of a tutoring session comes from a sophomore college student, who needs help with a history paper. Kelly came into the tutoring center and threw her books and folders on the desk, unzipped her coat, and started talking to the tutor immediately. With little prompting, she told the tutor her assignment; a history paper on the novel “Flags of Our Fathers”.
T: I never read the book, can you tell me about it?
K: It’s a memoir about this guy and his friends and their story about rising the flag in Iwo Jima and the struggles they went through.
T: Okay, so what did you have to do for this assignment?
K: Ummm… (some hesitation).. find two things in your life to relate to the story, compare and contrast.
T: Wow, that sounds hard. What did you write so far?
Here, the tutor makes the student read her paper out loud, while the tutor takes notes on several mistakes, including thesis statement, diction, and some grammatical errors.
T: Is English your second language?
K: No, oh my god I know its bad right? I’m such a terrible writer. I don’t know why I picked to major in history…
The tutor offends the student, and while the student does have weak sentences, it is significantly better than an ESL student, though not as good as a native speaker. The tutor apologizes, and changes the subject to some things she noticed in the paper. Kelly has a very weak thesis, which is easily fixed with stronger, more concise vocabulary. There are several “fluff” sentences that had nothing to do with the main topic, and were erased. The tutor spent several minutes explaining comma rules, and had the student look up a website to help her understand. Whenever the tutor pointed out another punctuation mistake, the student got embarrassed, knowing that she should know punctuation, however, she took all criticism with a smile and needed little encouragement. Kelly is a high level writer, she focused first on her paper in general, rewrote the thesis, fixed some sentences with the help or the tutor, but most importantly, after a few minutes, understood comma rules. The tutor sat back and let Kelly fix her errors, and praise such as “You got it! Good job”, boosted Kelly’s self esteem and the tutor saw how confident Kelly fixed her paper. Lastly, the tutor spent a large amount of time on MLA citations, which the student never learned properly. Overall, the session was only 25 minutes because the student knew what she was doing and needed little help. The tutor let the student leave early but asked Kelly to have a peer proof read or come back to the WC before turning the paper in.
Finally, the last session I want to concentrate on was for two students who were partners for a presentation. These two students, who we will call Kendra and Christine, are seniors. They are nursing majors, and this is their presentation to the head of the department in order to graduate. They are both from Nigeria, and have been in ESL classes for everything but their major courses.
T: Okay, so what do you want to do today?
K: (in heavy accented English) We made a power point for class. We want you to proof it with us. It is a very important presentation. (Notice that Kendra said “with us”. )
T: Do you have an assignment sheet or any instructions from your professor.
C: No, this is our senior presentation. We can do what we want. We printed out the presentation for you. (hands presentation to tutor)
K: I hope it’s good. Do you think so?
T: Let’s see what we have here first, do want to go through the slides with me and discuss anything you’re not sure about?
Kendra and Christine gather around the printed out slides and take out red pens, allowing the tutor to practice minimalist tutoring. The tutor does not know anything about the subject matter, instead points out citation mistakes and punctuation. Both students ponder over any errors and ask why it has to be corrected. The tutor has no teaching experience, and directs them to a citation website, where all three read the proper way of citing in a presentation.
T: Good job! See, you have very few errors, and I hope you get a good grade on this.
(K & C laugh) C: This is not for grade, this is to graduate.
T: Oh, I think you know what you are writing, just get confused with all these English rules. I had the same problem. Sometimes it’s easier when someone looks it over because you can’t always catch your mistakes. But I think you’re ok with this presentation.
After several more minutes of questions, the session was over, and the students went to class. Kendra and Christine were more knowledgeable about the subject than the tutor; the tutor could not correct the truthfulness of the statements, rather, few grammatical and structural mistakes. Both girls took ownership of the presentation, and after a few minutes started to correct the slides themselves, which proves that they learned what was wrong in their presentation, and hopefully, will remember that in their future presentations. Though the tutor did not know Kendra and Christine’s writing abilities in previous years, they were high ability writers and took the tutors advise to further their development.
Freshmen have trouble starting a paper and the big picture of writing. Just like Molly, who did not know what to write about and came unprepared, she needed to be guided through her entire paper, from brainstorming to conclusion. Molly was insecure and unsure of her writing ability, and expected her tutor to watch her write every sentence. The tutor had to use a lot of encouragement and reinforcement, “You got it!” “You know this!” in order to keep the session moving. Upperclassmen such as Kelly, Kendra, and Christine were prepared for their tutoring sessions, knew what they needed help with, and corrected their work themselves. They were more sure of their writing, and asked the tutor specific questions.

final paper 2

2010-03-01T06:47:00.001-08:00

Methods:
Context: This research took place at the Kean University CAS tutoring center. While the tutoring center does not currently have a Writing Center, students of a peer tutoring class helped fellow students in writing various assignments.
Procedure: This study was conducted on human subjects for a university class; therefore, all tutors had to pass a certification demonstrating safety knowledge, and had their students sign waiver forms before each session. After one month of tutoring, the peer tutoring class was able to compile information for their personal research and compare notes with other tutors.
Over the course of one month, students of a peer tutoring class researched fellow students at the Kean University tutoring center. Students were assigned to the tutors; tutors had no prior knowledge of their students or what subject matter they will discuss in a session. My topic of study was why do students come to the WC, and if their grade level gives an insight of what help they need. I was able to ask all my students their grade and background without seeming too nosey, and I developed an easy working relationship with all my students very quickly.
When a new student came to be tutored, I always introduced myself, and asked how their day was. I asked them what year they were in, what their major was, and why they chose it. By this time both student and tutor are familiar with each other and prepared with materials on the desk. Depending on how nervous the student is, I might ask a couple more questions or go into a quick conversation so that the student will be more comfortable. This way, even though it seemed like small talk, I gathered my information.
All three freshmen were insecure and shy when they came in. They all had questions about their assignment which was for the basic English composition course, and had nothing written besides class notes. Luckily, I was able to look over the assignment sheet with all three students, however, they were not helpful in anything that was not written on the sheet. One student did not know what format to write a formal paper in. After a couple minutes with one freshman, whose second language was English, I realized that he did not even read the story he was supposed to analyze. After that, I asked all my students if they understood the assignment and did the required reading before we started working on the paper. All of the freshmen could not relate to the tutor what their writing problems were; the tutor had to ask many detailed questions in order to set an agenda for the session. Freshman needed more prompting and time to get thoughts down on paper, and a lot more clarification from the tutor.
Upperclassmen were more confident coming to the Writing Center, and their reasons for coming were personal, rather than forced to by the professor. They clearly demonstrated what their problems were, and were eager to start the session. One student, however, surprised the tutor by showing up late, with a poorly written paper, and no assignment sheet. I made a mistake by asking if she was a freshman, and if English was her second language, which was offensive to her since she only knows English. Upperclassmen concentrated on grammatical errors, and especially punctuation and diction. All of them had the paper to work on already written, but needed to concentrate to the details as well as more sophisticated criteria such as headers, work citied pages, and quotations.
I always took notes at the end of the session, or as the student was brainstorming, or, in some occasions, when the student said or did something that I thought was unusual and I felt was important. Most importantly, if I did not have an assignment sheet to work from, I asked the student to read the paper out loud while I jotted notes on what to help the student with or any other problems I found. My research was uncomplicated because I was able to ask my students what they needed help on, what grade they were in etc, my project revolved around asking, not observing.

Final Paper... and my hypothesis was right!!!

2010-03-01T06:45:00.001-08:00

Introduction:
When a student walks into the Writing Center (WC), he has expectations that his tutor must fulfill in order for him to be satisfied with the session. Many students come to the WC because they were forced by their professors or to receive a participation grade. Some students come to the WC because they are just about failing the course and it is their last attempt to bring a grade up. Even fewer students come for personal learning reasons; they have a paper due and are not sure how to rewrite a sentence, or want to make sure their grammar or diction is correct.
Throughout the semester working in the Writing Center, I had the opportunity to tutor several students in different areas of study, backgrounds, and education levels and determine if there is a solid, common reason for college students to come to the writing center. I put my students into two categories; freshman, and upperclassman. I studied their writing and assignments, asked many questions, and tried to understand their problems in writing and why they came to the writing center. My goal was to find why students come to the Writing Center, and if their grade level determines what their problems are. I was able to tutor seven students, three freshmen, and four upperclassmen. While some of them were English as a Second Language students, they have been in America long enough to be fluent. I discovered that the differences of freshman and upperclassman coming to the WC are few, but dramatic. Freshmen come to the Writing Center because they are unsure of the assignments. Their questions are broad, “How do I start this paper?”, “How do I quote this?”, and the tutor has to guide them rather than just explain. Freshmen seem to be more insecure about their writing and teachers expectations and allow the tutor to have the upper hand on the assignment. Upperclassmen, on the other hand, come to the writing center to have a paper proof read, they already know the assignment and what to write, but they have concerns in sentence structure and grammar. Overall, the differences of students coming to the WC vary upon their grade and knowledge.

Review of Literature:
As this was research conducted for a peer tutoring class, the tutors were not certified and did not have prior knowledge or experience on tutoring. Tutoring Writing, A Practical Guide for Conferences was a great help in tutoring students. McAndrew and Reinstad state many guidelines and examples for tutors as they may come across challenging students. Cheerleading and assignment ownership issues are stated, as well as a chapter on tutoring students with different learning styles and abilities. However, they did not have much on students of various grade levels and how a tutor might differ his way of facilitating a session. A chapter on ability levels aided with this research and reminded the tutor that some student might not have learned the proper writing methods. Some students might be new to writing assignment, which from this research, freshman seem to come across a lot of new writing styles and ideas. McAndrew and Reigstad mention Freedman and Sperlings theory on high ability and low ability writers. High ability writers demonstrate positive attitude on writing, a confidence when working with tutors, and focus on discourse level topics. Low ability writers focus on discourse and correctness issues. Discourse-level focus is the character of the revision that is most improved after a tutoring session (91). Through this research, one will be able to identify high ability writers from low ability writers, but most importantly, classify these two categories as freshmen, or upperclassmen.
The Longman Guide to Writing Center Theory and Practice by Robert Barnett and Jacob Blumner focuses on the Writing Center as a microcosm. The WC is where students come to fix mistakes, but also learn outside the classroom. Barnett and Blumners chapter on minimalism was helpful for this research, as the tutor encouraged students to take ownership of their papers, by the end of a session the student was able to correct his work with little guidance from the tutor. Minimalist tutoring refers to the tutor guiding the student with an idea or simple correction, and the student LEARNING to use that idea to make it his own, or LEARNING to apply that correction to other papers. The tutor’s job is not to edit, but to teach how to fix ones mistakes. The tutors job is not to improve a paper, but to improve the writer (219). A minimalist approach is most helpful to freshmen, who need the skills and guidance to write similar papers in the future without a tutor.
Persons in Process by Anne Herrington and Marcia Curtis is a case study of four students of various backgrounds and levels of development. Nam, Steven, Rachel, and Francois are all college students who participated on a long term study. Herrington and Curtis’ study show the personal and private struggles of these students and how their writing changed over time. Herrington and Curtis address issues of ESL writers in the WC and problems college students encounter with their writing. It is important to note that this was a formal study conducted between one and four years to exemplify each students journey to become better writers, not by college students tutoring other college students for a month with little training or experience. Development in this study is stated as positive change, where all students improved their writing. This study parallels the students development, with their personal experiences, that their writing improved as they matured.
John Harbords article Minimalist tutoring--an exportable model?, asks the question “does the writing center teach students by minimalist tutoring”? By making students do all the work, is it helping them develop the skills to do work by themselves? Harbord states that the role of the tutor is to listen to students, set goals, guide the student through problems, help the student develop a thinking process to enable them to be better writers in the future. Harbord exemplifies a colleagues thoughts by the metaphor of product and processing. Product and Processing refers to a piece of paper and how its made; its not what the product looks like in the end, but why it looks like that. Similarly, a student can write a well written paper if he went through the process of developing himself into a good writer. Minimalist tutoring helps to develop critical thinking, making the student be accountable for his work, and learn, rather than have the tutor edit.

Categories for Analysis:

2009-12-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

Qualities of tutor:
patient
communicator
listener
team worker/ participant
leader
flexible
open minded

Training:
note taking
communication
ESL
multi cultural
team work
attitude

Academic levels of students/ tutors:
materials needed
community involvement
different majors

Materials needed/ used/ space:
books
resources
faculty
area for writing center

Involvement:
should teachers be involved or only the tutor?
should teachers give the tutor the assignment sheet?

students responsibilities
tutor responsibilities
director responsibilities
faculty responsibilities
institutional responsibilities

2009-11-22T18:46:00.000-08:00

Introduction:
I will be studying the reason of why students come to the writing center and if there are difference between their grade level and their writing problems. I have had mostly ESL students which make my research alot more difficult, but it seems that even english speaking students have the same problems as ESL, ie: grammer, sentence structure, understanding the assignment, knowing how a formal paper is written.

review of the literature:
occurding to several books, freshman are most interested in looking at the structure and understanding the assignment, while upperclassman want to focus on the grammar and sentence structure.

methods:
i always asked the student first about their day, the class, the teacher, the subject, if they have any other work that the professor graded. i also ask them if they have an assignment, and if they even read the material, and if they understood it. i then quickly go over the assignment with the student, taking notes for myself to structure the paper. i ask the student if they have any questions, and what they want to go over with their paper. most students just shrug and nonchalantly say "everything, i really don't know what im doing", some are more assertive and will say " i need help with ....", making my job a lot easier. i usually ask the student to read the first paragraph, or first sentence, asking if they see any problems, and of course, they ALWAYS say no, until i point out a punctuation mistake, or that a word doesn't belong. By making the student read outloud, they can almost always pick out mistakes, most of the time, the student reads what he means to say, but doesnt write it correctly. By going over a few mistakes, students are able to realize problems throughout their paper. ive had 6 sessions with 5 undergraduate students, at least one student per grade level in the past month.

Data analysis:
My ESL students always came to me about grammatical problems. Surprisingly, my only english native speaker had the same problems. I mistakenly asked her if english was her first language, and she got very offended. As a junior, her writing was equal to or worse than an ESL. I still have to look over my notes, but it seemed like all my students have grammatical concerns, and most need to learn how to write a strong sentence.

* look at google books/ bibme.org for extra resources!

draft of mt research plan (blog 17)

2009-11-22T18:09:00.000-08:00

Statement of purpose:
I hope to dissect the differences that students according to their grade level come to the writing center.

Detailed statement of research question: Does a students academic level determine what they go to the writing center for?

Information to gather: Detailed analysis of what the tutor found problems with in a students work, the grade level of student, and what the student thinks they need help with.

Preliminary list of sources:
Persons in Process by Anne Herrington and Marcia Curtis
observation of students

Plan for gathering information:
Asking the student why they came to the writing center for, trying to see what their writing problems are, and seeing if a senior student comes to the writing center for the same reason as a freshman student.

Blog 16:

2009-11-02T21:03:00.000-08:00

well guess what! i finally did my first tutoring session today. the girl was in ESL and came in for help with a marketing paper that she already wrote. she wanted help with her grammer, but on reading her paper, i realized she needed ALOT of help with structure and organization, her grammer was fine, it was also plagiarized. reading what she wrote as opposed to what she copied and pasted there was a definite difference. her structure was ok, since the professor didnt have a clear assignment sheet (basically it said 5-10 pages, include this and that- economy, resources, politics etc 12 pt. font) i didnt know if this was an official paper, had to be cited, footnoted, titled etc. She came in with no introduction or conclusion (guess she couldnt plagiarize that) and didnt know how to write one either. surprisingly, her paper was ok, but had no organization whatsoever. there were sentences that did not belong at all, (ex: colombia has one of the most dense countries with 123e4sdf823sdee4 people per square mile. religion: roman catholic 94.5%. ... next paragraph) she went from speaking of geography to history to location to resources to culture without any way of leading into the next paragraph.
when dr. chandler pointed out that her entire paper was plargrized, she completely SHUT DOWN! it was amazing how her body language changed so quickly and turned against us! it was easier to give her concrete ideas and examples, rules of linguistics (some tips i learned from being in ESL myself) rather than explaining that it doesnt sound right and why did you write it that way? i had to repeat some things i felt a million times because she didn't write them down as i said them, and i felt like she didnt understand alot of what i said, even though i used the most simple language and used tips i learned from my teachers.
i went over the time by 10 minutes, so i have to pay attention to the time. i dont think i ever did not know what to do, i was surprised how easy tutoring actually was, but she was a harder student than i was anticipating.

Blog 14/15:

2009-11-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

ok so this is a hard blog..lets see.....
i will definantly use my books for this...and these sites, if applicable:

Peer Tutoring in a Graduate Writing Centre: Identity, Expertise, and Advice Resisting.Citation Only AvailableBy: Hansun Zhang Waring. Applied Linguistics, Jun2005, Vol. 26 Issue 2, p141-168, 28p; (AN 20123074)
this site is for students that are graduates, helping undergrads

Persons and Progress by Martha Curtis, if a copy can be found (thanks Dr. Chandler!)

i think ill try to do my paper also on gender differences, to see if males and females go to the WC for the same reasons and if their progress through the grade levels is different

im still looking for a good site or book for problems in the WC, what grade level goes to the WC and for what? and does gender play a role in who goes to the WC?

Blog 13:

2009-11-02T20:04:00.000-08:00

Body language is extremely important during a tutoring session, no, thats an under statement, its one of the things you should always pay attention too. It one of those things that you unconscienclessly notice, but when you REALLY pay attention to it, you can find that body language can say more than a thousand words. I would really like to do my paper on body language, however, it seems like too much could be said bc its such a broad topic. Body language is an unspoken answer to alot of questions in the tutoring center. I know i will definitly be looking at body language when i tutor!

blog 12:

2009-11-02T13:39:00.000-08:00

so during a conversation with Dr. Chandler, ive decided to do my final paper on the different problems students come to the writing center for. I realized that fresh mens needs and problems are very different than the more experienced upperclassmen. i think that freshman come to the writing center for topics, paper structure, form, and ideas, while upperclassman come for the grammatical and proofreading "stuff" . Is this true? Who knows. But ill try to find out!!!
Ill try to do this by asking the student to fill out the questionare at the back of the book, instead of directly asking them about their age or educational background.

blog 11:

2009-10-26T14:31:00.000-07:00

During Dr. Chandlers and Lauras tutoring session, i took notes on their body language more then the language because i think i will be doing my final paper on body language. i will definantly have to pay more attention to the indirect gestures but they are so common i dont noticed them; like the nodding. i noticed that at first Dr. was very withdrawn, hand on chin, shoulders in, didnt want to answer questions, but with a little guidence and more direct questions opened up and was more responsive. dr. chandler was eager to look at the computer and books rather than come up with answers on her own. laura gestured with downward hands at first, then started gesturing palm up. over all, i think i have to look at how language changed the gestures and body language. i was paying attention so much to the gestures rather then the tone that changed the session.

classnotes 10/26

2009-10-26T13:36:00.000-07:00

posture-
open/ closed
interested disconnect

relaxed tense
discomfort uncomfortable
confidence uncertain
comfort nervous

gestures-
can be distravting
for emphasis
touching
nodding

distance-
indication of engagement
intention

eye contact-
facial expression-

direct-
talked most
# of turns
talks the longest
questions
you" statements
silence

indirect-

student behavior-
how much student talks

Blog 9/ 10:

2009-10-19T14:25:00.000-07:00

ideas for a research topic

(first of all- does anyone know how to edit blogs after you post them???)

i would like to do my research paper on the body language of tutor and student, how they interact and relate to each other, their communication
or another interesting topic would be communication or methods between tutor and a freshman, tutor and upperclassmen

Blog 9:

2009-10-18T21:07:00.000-07:00

During a first tutoring session, a tutor has to decide what method would be best in tutoring a student. I would probably sit side by side and go over the syllabus and the assignment, ask questions, and ask what the student wants to work on. I would come up with a goal with the student, whether it is to write the first paragraph, a thesis, or just work on citations. If the student doesnt know what hes doing, it would be a little harder, but i would have to figure out if the students being lazy, or truly does not understand. Different questions would help me figure out the students skill level and would give me a path of how to tutor that student.
if a student just does not want to do the paper, i would have to figure out a motivation for them, to get a passing on a paper, or to graduate etc. Overall, i think collaboration would be the best, most students should know how to write, they just need guidance and correction.

Blog 8:

2009-10-18T20:57:00.000-07:00

My checklist:
opening
was the student comfortable with the tutor?
did the tutor ask questions to let the student open up?
is the tutor prepared?
is the student prepared?

does the tutor/ student understand the assignment?
was there a syllabus or assignment sheet available, or did the student just tell the tutor the assignment?
did the student ask questions?
did the tutor guide the student?
did the tutor ask the appropriate questions?
did the student understand the questions?
did the tutor have to restate the question different ways?
did the tutor allow the student to speak?
did the student allow the tutor to speak?

body language
what was the body language of the tutor?/ the student?
did the body language change through out the session?
was there eye contact?
were both parties comfortable?

what method did the tutor use?
did the student work well with the method?
did the tutor have to explain things a different way or try new methods?
who talked? more/less
understand eachother?
did the tutor allow the student to do own work?
did the tutor direct the student to other sources?

closing
is the student now able to do work?
will there be another tutoring session?
was the student comfortable with session/ tutor?
does the student have better understanding of assignment?
was the tutor able to help correct students mistakes?
did the student learn anything?
how was the body language at the end of the session?

Blog 7:

2009-10-18T20:52:00.001-07:00

When I took notes on the tutoring session, the thing i noticed the most was the communication and body language between tutor and student. Both were leaning into each other and making eye contact. They asked intelligent questions and were eager to help each other out. I also noticed that they went through the syllabus, and made sure they understood the assignment. My notes are very scattered, because i would be writing something down, and then realize something else that was going on and start writing about that.

Blog 6:

2009-10-18T20:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, so heres something else that ive been thinking about. There are many different models a tutor can use to coach someone. Because every one has a different learning style, it is important for the tutor to be flexiable, understanding, and patient with their student. Some students might just be lazy, and the tutor just has to encourage them to write and motivate them by relating the work to something that interests them. Other student might just really not understand the material, and the tutor has to allow them to think, and also ask the right questions. Sometimes the tutor will just have to sit and guide the student in the process to write a strong paper.

Blog 5: similar to blog 4

2009-10-18T20:46:00.000-07:00

In my tutoring session, we looked at the syllabus to make sure we got the assignment right. Then talked about the main points of the essay and analyzed it. Lundsford essay was somewhat disorganized, but Ryan helped me get through all that confusion. It seemed that the tutor and student spoke about the same amount, and both were understanding eachother. :)

Blog 4:

2009-10-18T20:35:00.000-07:00

In my tutoring session I worked with Ryan to write Lunsfords essay. It was a fun session, mostly because we acted as difficult students who had no idea what they were doing. We didnt have problems because we were able to answer each others questions. We looked online at the syllabus, then talked about the main ideas for the paper. Lundsfords essay has alot of ideas, some of them not clearly defined so there are a lot of different ideas of what is important. I picked 3, and then wrote about those because they were the most important to me.

Blog 3:

2009-10-18T20:22:00.001-07:00

My writing center philosophy:

My writing center philosophy is that the tutor should be willing and able to help and assist the student in the best way possible. The student should be willing and able to learn. Most importantly, the student should be focused and prepared to be tutored. Alot of students go to a writing center because a teacher forces them to or because it is a class requirement, a student should go to a writing center because they want to, or they realize that they have to.
A tutor should be trained in tutoring and able to assist the student in their needs. The tutor has to be able to listen to the student, so patience is very important. A tutor should also be trained with a lot of different individuals, such as disabled, ESL, or someone of a different education background. It is important that the tutor recognizes the education level of the student by asking the right questions that are not too difficult for the student, or expecting too much from the student.
The writing director should be able to guide the tutors and answer their question. Also, to handle difficult situations or difficult students.

Blog 2:

2009-10-18T20:12:00.000-07:00

Andrea Lundsfords main points:
garret house- the knowledge is in the student
store house centers- the knowledge is in the center and is transferred to the student
collaboration- exchange of knowledge and ideas between tutor and student
collaboration aids in learning abstractions
finding problems
helps applying knowledge to other things
critical thinking
higher achievement- student to please tutor, tutor to please writing center
excellence in community
engages whole student in thinking, reading, writing, applying

collaboration is helping the student and tutor with their work simultaneously

Blog 1:

2009-10-18T19:45:00.000-07:00

Im writing my blogs again because i want to make sure i have solid notes for my final project and not have to reread all the chapters.

A writing center is a place for students to come and learn how to write. Not only they can come up with ideas for a strong paper, but be tutored in the process of writing, so that eventually they can write by themselves. It is also a place for the student to learn to fix their mistakes, and also do some critical thinking. Tutors have many different ways of helping students. However, they should not give false praise (cheerleading), go through a paper and correct all the errors themselves, or give the student all the ideas, and defiantly NOT write the paper, or alot of the paper, for the student. A tutor should work side by side their student, not as a teacher or someone of authority. It is the students paper, not the tutors. Asking constructive questions leads to critical thinking and the answers the tutor wants. Tutor does not need to be a expert, just needs to ask the correct questions.

10.14.09 class notes

2009-10-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

Pure Tutoring:

active participation from writers
too much tutor talk- dependency
tutor not expert
socratic questions

10.7.09 class notes

2009-10-07T13:34:00.000-07:00

minimalist tutoring: generally high ability students
student should do all the work
student has materials
sit beside student, not in front of
body language- student close to paper
be about honest about students responsibilities

take into consideration:
ability
gender
culture native languafe
learning disability
style: personality

ask questions, why did they come? what grade do they want? what is the teacher like?

Check list for tutoring:
- think about your effectiveness- coach effectively in session
- students response/ satisfaction
- what you did/ what student worked on/ what they learned
- coaching strategies
- what worked/ what didn't work
- general information about session- time, place, person

blog- make checklist

writing center..class notes

2009-09-30T13:49:00.000-07:00

who goes to WC? students go to WC to get "errors" fixed
Why? usually sent, need help, struggling writers, special needs
What happens when they go?

-use language students can relate to
-tutors need tutors too, can become students
- STUDENTS NEED TO COME TO WRITING CENTERS BECAUSE THEY WANT TO
- need to gain skills& drills
-holism,everything is acted to everything else
-coach- watches, makes decisions based on observation about what to do

relation between writing center and teacher:
students responsibility to communicate with teachers
dont second guess assignments
center advocates its own pedagogy

make workload of writing center lighter!!

function of WC
-talk about writing
-research the WC

philosophy-
what i think about writing centers...
writing centers have to be open to all students and aware that students dont want to be there and not pressure them, however, it has to be an inviting place where they can walk out and plan about the next time they "have" to go there
tutors have to be experienced, patient, and understanding
students have to be willing to learn, and prepared with guide sheet or have background knowledge of material, a student cant come in to the WC writing about a novel and expect the tutor to know all the subject material
tutors have to have knowledge about people with special needs
get teachers, principals, students willing to make a WC

revising responses...loving the alliteration there :)

2009-09-30T12:59:00.000-07:00

Last class i worked with Talisha and also Laura and Tim to do revisions of our responses. Working with Talisha was easy, i think because she was so clear in what to change. I had a problem with not being concise enough and having too broad of a topic for my response. I think we used the garret house method, because she asked me questions to make me see what i was doing wrong. She had a couple structural problems (lists :) ) so she just had to combine the sentences into paragraphs.
I also worked with laura and tim, just watching them showed me alot. Tim asked all the right questions, but never gave the answers, just suggestions and sometimes even told her to take note of something (write that down!!!). laura was a good student and tried to understand what Tim was advising her about. Laura really didnt know what to write her response on, but Tim guided her through the steps, allowing her to come up with the main ideas by herself. I think everyone should watch a tutoring session, to pick up on different methods and styles.

2009-09-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

Last class i worked with Ryan as tutor and student to write Lunsfords essay. The overall experience was fun, mainly because we acted as students who had no idea what they were doing for the assignment. I dont think we had a problem speaking because as the tutor role, we asked questions, and the "student" answered; no one really had to do detailed explanations of anything. We both went online to look at the syllabus to get the right instructions, and then talked about the main ideas for the paper. Because Lunsford had a lot of different ideas and points, not everyones essay will be the same, so the tutor has to be flexible and adjust their interpretation to the students; unless of course, the student is completely wrong.

Collaberation draft

2009-09-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

In Lunsford essay, he states that collaboration is a beneficial experience for both tutor and student, however, when used incorrectly can cause both persons to be confused on their roles and make the learning experience more confusing for the student. He emphasizes that while tutors can share ideas with the student, they should let the student learn on their own.
General Ideas;
problem solving
learning abstractions
transfer and assimilation
critical thinking
coffee helps the student stay awake :)
higher achievement

storehouse -gives skills to individual students
garret-

Critical thinking involves the student(s) to figure out their own problems rather than making the tutor give them the answers.

Collaboration class notes

2009-09-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

store house- resource center, tutor etc. like a bank---- ask tutor/school -- fixed meaning
garret center- one who is receiving knowledge, internal knowledge in the student
Burkean Parlor- social constructivism, collaboration, culture situation participants in the conversation, critical thinking, collaboration, shared co-created, contextual
social constructed knowledge- words that could mean something different to other people

collaboration- work with others with each model

in list- what collaboration does/helps

control verse collaboration
tutor takes control and doesnt let student to do own work- only there for guidance
can be confused

problems with collaboration- not valued
difficult
not clear goals/outcomes
wrong environment/ background experience
threatens status quo

use collaboration- but be cautious so you dont take control

benefits of collaboration- problem solving
learning abstractions
transfer and assimilation
critical thinking
higher achievement
promotes excellence
engages the student

model for your center, where is/who has knowledge, how does student learn, what the nature of meanings, whats the role of the tutor/ setting/ power- role of direction, tutor training, relationships

Collaboration is a beneficial experience for both tutor and student, however, when used incorrectly can cause both persons to be confused on their roles and make the learning experience more confusing for the student ???

philosophy?

2009-09-19T10:53:00.000-07:00

Philosophy- noun, plural -phies.

1.	the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct.

2.	any of the three branches, namely natural philosophy, moral philosophy, and metaphysical philosophy, that are accepted as composing this study.

3.	a system of philosophical doctrine: the philosophy of Spinoza.

4.	the critical study of the basic principles and concepts of a particular branch of knowledge, esp. with a view to improving or reconstituting them: the philosophy of science.

5.	a system of principles for guidance in practical affairs.

a philosophical attitude, as one of composure and calm in the presence of troubles or annoyances.

hmmm very intersting, so...what do i think? i think that psychology is fleeing.. therefore, so is philosophy..as more learning disorders pop up, and as new diseases and behaviors become prevalent philosophy cannot remain stable... i dont know why i just wrote this blog, its been on my mind because we were talking in one of my classes and it became intertwined with using different approaches to tutor someone.

9/14/09 overflow of thoughts

2009-09-14T17:14:00.000-07:00

so todays assignment was just to talk about writing; tutoring and coaching. first i want to say that i never kept a blog before, not only that, i am basically computer illiterate... i know word and powerpoint and the internet pretty well, but basically making my own website!!! that people can read and comment on is scary..btw, i will be very proud of myself if/when this is actually posted..hopefully all you guys will be able to read it
i am actually a tutor, but not the type that we all will be at the end of this class, i happen to tutor visually impaired and deaf students..talk about not being able to communicate!! i never put much thought into what i tutored, as a english major correcting their papers or helping on a research paper was easy...now im starting to rethink it LOL
umm..ok so MY fundamentals for tutoring..
patience- most people come to you because they dont know something..ive had to repeat myself in 4 or 5 different ways before
motivation- this stuff gets HARD ("meaning challenging) you need the motivation to keep going
i dont know what this falls under, but you have to remember that you are impacting peoples lives, grades, college experience
i think a writing center not only gives u the opportunity to interact with students, its also very rewarding the way you learn so much about yourself, and it helps you in the future if you want to be a teacher or private tutor. its so awesome that we have a writing center here at kean because its such a great thing to have for the students.
ok, its getting pretty late and i still have more hw to do..so peace..see u wednesday!!

Notes 9/14/09

2009-09-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

notes on tutoring:

no cheering/ false praise
editor/ journalist approach- never write on the students paper
therapy
judging
don't do the work for the students
don't pose as an expert

first blog

2009-09-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

blog for 4070 english class