Field Report #1: Mock Tutoring Session with Peer

Note: 
This assignment has been directly copied from the original post in order to correct formatting issues. This assignment was first published on September 14. The author was UNAWARE of formatting issues until recently reviewing the post, and creatively fixing the issue. 

 Summary: In the first few minutes of Asia being tutee, and my assigned part as tutor, Asia jumped right into describing her paper writing assignment for her English class. She started with describing how the paper was about a specific book she was reading in class, and that she didn’t have a thesis yet, but knew which direction she wanted to take the paper in. She said she wanted to have the paper look at the female perspective of a major character in the Shakespearian novel, rather than focus on the male leads the professor was always discussing in class. After talking about the main female character for some time, together we generated some thematic elements that she could explore and find supporting evidence through quotations and passages. In the first few minutes of being tutee, and Asia’s assigned part as tutor, I showed her my lab report that I completed for my Mammalian Physiology course. After showing my lab report, and after she spent a few minutes reading the first page, she asked me to summarize what the lab report was about. After summarizing it, she asked me what the requirements of the lab report entailed. I pulled up another document that contained the outline required for the lab report. We went back and forth discussing the lab report, and then she asked me what my biggest concerns were. I told her that the length of the lab report was bothering me, and she gave me a few suggestions about how to break down, for example, the abstract of the lab report into parts that model after the lab expectations document I showed her, and fill it in as parts, and make sure that each part has a few sentences of explanation.

Pre-session Questions:

How do you help a writer brainstorm about a topic you don’t know anything about?

In addition to the previous question, how do you strengthen a thesis if you aren’t familiar with the topic?

Preliminary Answers to Questions: Brainstorming can occur through simple explanations of the topic that the student writer can explain to the tutor. Asking open-ended questions, like the what, when, where, why, and how can help with the brainstorming. As for the thesis, the thesis can be modified after the brainstorming is complete.

 Post-Session Questions:

What seemed to work?  I think asking about the assignment and discussing it in great detail within the first few minutes of the session is imperative. If there was no writing down for the assignment yet, brainstorming was essential to the tutoring session, and the tutoring session focused on that instead.·      Allowing the tutee to explain what direction they wanted the assignment to head

What didn’t work?

Brainstorming about an unfamiliar topic.. NO prep?

What did the “tutor” say/do that was effective?

Asia did a really great job of giving me suggestions about how to complete the assignment for a professor that grades strictly. She recommended that I approach other professors, and ask them to look over my lab report and mention the professor that I am taking. I thought that was a really great idea that can contribute to a solid second lab report. She also suggested that I try to rewrite/edit the lab report before getting back the graded lab report to see what corrections the professor may have made to the graded lab report. This will allow me to see the mistakes before being told what they are. The last recommendation Asia made was to ask the professor for a previous lab report that was an “A-grade.” Asia’s ideas were fabulous, and I definitely will look into utilizing them.   

What did the “student-writer” say/do that was effective?

I’m not sure how I can possibly answer this question because this requires Asia’s POV and her feedback for me to know my effectiveness in the tutoring session. I think I may have helped with brainstorming...

When you stepped into the tutor’s shoes, what did it feel like?  Describe the interaction. I didn’t know if my word choice was good. I caught myself saying “you should focus on this or that...” and didn’t let the student writer come to that epiphany on their own.

·      I was really struggling with formulating a plan for the student because I was unfamiliar with that particular book/genre.

When you stepped into the student-writer’s shoes, what did it feel like?

      I felt better about my writing because the tutor gave really nice encouragement.

·    My tutor mentioned creative suggestions on how to get feedback for a strict grading professor that I never thought to explore.

Assigned Readings Connection: All of our assigned readings discussed strategies during the session, such as spending a few minutes and breaking down the writing in stages (Bedford Guide). When Asia was the student and I was the tutor, we spent the majority of the time in the "pre writing" stage.

Week 5 Reading Response

Black, “Power and Talk”

            Black begins the passage by discussing the power difference between teacher and student, highlighting how the very set up of the classroom is a power dynamic.

Students usually accept the rephrasing done by teachers. Black notes how conferences help shape a student-teacher relationship, and can help the student speak more discourse. Discourse markers during conversation can help manipulate how the conversation will be. Rephrasing the retort so that it first starts with “I agree, but...” allows for the rest of thought to be heard rather than let opposition occur before the thought it finished. The rest of the chapter focuses on specific verbal cues that shape how the conversation goes. I think this reading highlights how easy it is for people to lose meaning during a conversation because they chose to use the wrong markers. This can happen a lot with teacher-student relationships, in which the student can lose original thought in favor of “safety” and immunity from being told they’re wrong by the teacher.

Madill, “Interviews and Interviewing Techniques”

            An interview is a conversation with a purpose. There are many different types of interviews. The unconstructed interview is without construct, and doesn’t follow a certain questionnaire style like that of a structured interview. The narrative style interview uses personal stories, and the free-association style narrative uses biographical and psychoanalytical. Biographical interviews focus on family and may implement the narrative style. The semi-structured interview is the most popular. One technique used in semi structured interview is the asking of nonleading questions. Nonleading questions don’t follow a pattern that would steer the interviewee towards specific answers. Either-or-questions are leading, and so are questions that take the form of a statement. An open question cannot be answered with a yes/no. The rest of the passage describes different interviews that Madill conducted and critiques of them. I like how Madill emphasizes word choice, and the idea that word choice and line of questioning influences what type of interview it is. I think this assigned reading is too long and full of too much information, and Madill should have split the information in two.

Brown, “Circular Questioning.”

Circular questioning during an interview can help stimulate new ways of viewing a problem, and finding an answer/solution. Problem definitions, sequence of interaction, compare and classification, and intervention are types of questioning techniques. This article seemed to generate a lot of ideas about one line of topic, but not really make sense of it. Brown discussed models for questioning, but didn’t really explore the organization in which to present the information. I found the organization of the text to be confusing, and thus, hard to follow or even comment about. As you can see from my summary, it is very short (and for the reason stated above). In the abstract, Brown mentions that the Milan model of questioning will be “presented within the context of other models...” I think that may be a reason why this reading was hard to follow.

Week 4 Reading Response

" How to Read Like a Writer":

Bunn makes note about the broad idea about writing: each word, each sentence, each paragraph is a choice made by the writer. In order to read like a writer, it is recommended that the reader first understand what choices the author made in the selected text. The way to understand the choices a writer made is to look at the reader’s own response. To take it one step further, the writer should focus on what changes they can make to the text, and how the change would affect the reader. Bunn includes a passage from Allen Tate, in which Tate describes two ways to read. One way is to read as a historian, and the other way is to read like an architect. Bunn says reading as an architect focuses on understanding the very construction of the text, rather than the content of the text. Some contextual matters to focus on include understanding the writer’s purpose and the intended audience of the piece. The genre of the text is the next important thing. Genre can mean a few things. Genre can mean the type of writing or whether it is student or published writing. Taking apart each sentence and looking at the syntax and diction help understand the author’s style of writing, and link it to the genre.

Week 3 Reading Response

ESL Chapter 3:

One of the first suggestions this chapter makes is “breaking the ice” between tutor and tutee is initiating a friendly greeting and being welcoming. It is stressed that tutors must know how to make the first move, and it is important to know how to plan, prioritize, goal set, and stick to the schedule. The chapter points out that the latter is very much an American custom. Grammar should not be completely dismissed although it may not be considered high-order concerns. It is better to see a pattern of errors in grammar and focus on understanding how to fix those, rather than edit every sentence within the paper. The first question to ask is what the student knows about the writing center. Next, ask about the student’s writing as well as the writing assignment. Visual representations can help get the higher-order across to ESL students.

ESL Chapter 5:

Appropriation in writing is described as a loss of voice or ownership of original text. Chapter 5 recommends that teachers relinquish some of their authority about bending a student’s writing towards their tastes. A way to preserve a student’s voice is to ask the student to participate in the editing changes being made. The tutor is encouraged to revise “with” the student, rather than “for” them. Another helpful point is to avoid raising the level of language in a ESL student’s paper via over-correcting. It is best to select particular passages to work on. Appropriation can also be avoided if the tutor considers the type of writing—for example, the purpose or the genre.

“When Responding to Student Writing, More is Better”:

Harris notes that the over-graded paper is of little to no value in regards to educating the student in his/her writing abilities. An over-graded paper just overwhelms the student, and is a waste of time for the teacher. Harris mentions that reading online reduces comprehension and memory of the material. Too often, teachers end up using useless jargon that confuses the student, and it is the teacher and student’s best interest to omit such vocabulary when leaving comments on student work. Teacher feedback also lacks a hierarchy in its commentary. Harris states that not all writing has to be graded, and this refers to the fact that the student should be directed to focus on just a few issues at a time that would improve the student’s writing over time.     

ESL Chapter 7:

            There are cultural conceptions concerning US writing standards that ESL students often struggle to master.  The Socratic method includes the use of open-ended questions that allow a conversation between tutor and tutee. Good writing is not the same as correct writing. The tutor is encouraged to ask the student what their paper is about. It is better for the tutor to show rather than tell. Brainstorming is important for generating a solid thesis.