9/25 Response

I observed Jonathan Mundell in Strozier from 7:30-9.  Jonathan explained that a lot of his students are student athletes.  The first student was a freshman golf student who had to write a political poem.  He also stated that he was happy he was with Jonathan that day because he doesn't really like his other tutors.  To start off, Jonathan asked the student if he had any political feelings.  The student didn't have any but showed Jonathan an example poem the professor had shown in class.  Jonathan then asked the student to think of something that upsets him, because it didn't seem like it had to be political.  This example poem was useful because everyone involved was having trouble understanding what the teacher really wanted.  The student didn't want to write about something that only occasionally made him angry, but rather, something that constantly bothered him.  To this, Jonathan asked him to describe his schedule and stop when he reached the part of his day that bothered him.  This was a good question because it turns out what the student hates the most is his schedule.  As a student athlete, his whole day from 5 AM- 9 PM is already planned for him.  After one month of school, he is already tired of it.
        But then the student was a little confused.  While he hates his schedule, he does think it's worth it because he does love his sport.  Jonathan then explained that one poem can contain both positive and negative emotions.  It was also helpful that Jonathan is actually a poet, so he could really help the student out with the conceptual parts of poetry.  The student then began writing down some lines for the poem and let Jonathan look over past poems they had worked on and see how they had turned out.  Jonathan also suggested a poem for the student to read to help him with this poem.  Jonathan then looked over the first stanza the student had written.  Jonathan suggested getting more specific.  "If you could cut anything from your day, what would it be? Use concrete things."  Jonathan also explained that you don't have to write in complete sentences for poetry to be coherent.  This prompted the student to then start listing parts of his day in his poem.  This was definitely effective and really worked for the poem.  Jonathan then asked if the hectic schedule was worth it.  Why was he putting himself through this?  These were questions that the student could also answer in his poem.
      By the end of the session, the student had a full first draft of the poem and was very happy with it.  The student and Jonathan then made plans for what they would work on at their next session together.  Overall, the session was very productive.  Jonathan and the student worked very well together.