Final Reflection

My question for the research project regarding resistance in the writing center received lots of varying feedback. Some students suggested drawing many comparisons from my literature review. There are those who mentioned questioning who was required to come to the reading and writing center, but considering that was one of the special topic suggestions from project two, I likely won’t consider that suggestion as much. One of the suggestions I enjoyed most was recognizing patterns, though this wouldn’t quite illuminate on resistance as a whole, I think it might work in terms of identifying different resistance responses. I’m not sure who wrote this specific suggestion, but one student emphasized the recognition of resistance as more important than techniques. I agree most with this suggestion because we have reviewed a multiplicity of techniques to counter resistance in class, and a more interesting paper would draw upon how tutors recognize the initial responses. Some people wrote comments about imploring body language questions further, which I do plan to do. I’m not sure if I will get a significant amount of feedback from those whom I interview on body language, because I personally haven’t paid much attention to my own while tutoring, but I do hope that there will be some information as I think it will be an intriguing subtopic. All together I enjoyed the feedback I received from my classmates, it gave me good insight on topics that would be most interesting to people, and those which have been covered time and time again and would likely result in a boring paper. I’m really looking forward to begin analyzing my data, I think I will likely interview three people rather than two, because I would prefer a wider range of results as far as tutors personal observations. I will be looking into further research about body language and it’s role in tutoring, especially it’s role in countering resistance. I think most of my annotations were well done so I plan to integrate that research into my questions, and keep most of that information in mind before my interviews, so that I can make coherent comparisons and contrasts to the works.

Feedback

I thought the feedback I received was very helpful. I find myself to be sort of struggling with the direction I’m going with as my topic of resumes. I also found it kind of difficult to decide what my concentration was going to be. One idea I will use as I continue with my project is to go to the career center to see what they do that the writing center does not or things that they do have in common. The employees at the career center are trained to help students on specific topics such as creating a resume. I’m not sure if there are tutors that are specifically trained to do the same. 

Something many students in class thought would be interesting to know was the background knowledge of the tutors I will be interviewing. I have included that as a question in my interview to know more about their own experiences with professional writing. Someone mentioned maybe speaking to multiple tutors (possibly through a survey) to find out how many tutors have been approached with this particular session. I don’t think I will take this last piece of advice because that doesn’t really help me solve my research question, but maybe I can find out how many people have come in just by looking at client reports online. 

I’m interested to do more research and see what answers I can find. I’m hoping that the interviews don’t contradict each other and help me answer my questions.

Feedback

There wasn't much of a variance to my feedback in that they all pretty much stated the same thing. However, a lot of it was positive in regards to the data and my analysis of it. Since I didn't have to go out and collect the data, because it was provided by you, I am able to do a more thorough analysis of it. I have the time to really sit and compare studios and find trends  within the data. As I stated during  my presentation, I did not have a main question that I wanted to answer. Maybe it was because my tactic was opposite of everyone else's that they were unable to help much with that part, I don't know. I just know that I was kind of left off where I started, without much advice on how to move forward.

Although I didn't get much help in the way of my essential question, at least I know I am on some kind of track. My data was clear and showed obvious signs of trends. I was able to deduce which majors were visiting the digital studio, for which projects, using which programs, and even in some cases, for which professors. In some of my feedback, people raised questions about what this means for the digital studio and for the students-- that is the question I am essentially trying to answer. Other feedback were about my question in regards to why we don't see a lot of returning students. The only returning students that I was able to find were those who were working on a post card research project with a professor. I think that this may be part of the larger question that I want to answer.

Feedback Response

Overall, I received a lot of positive feedback about the direction of my project. From everyone's comments and suggestions, I feel very confident about my observations and my thesis. Many people noted that they liked my idea of comparing and contrasting the two tutoring styles that I divulged from my data. I was hesitant at first to include that in my paper because the names and concepts were of my own creation but according to my feedback I should include it in my paper. Another student suggested that I draw comparisons from my literature review write about how they measure up to the actually tutoring sessions that I observed. There are many theories that I've read about concerning working with student athletes but not all those on paper turn out to be efficient in practice and I think that would be an interest concept to unpack.

In regards to the advice that I probably won't take, someone suggested that I ask the student athletes specific questions about their opinions about working as a registered student. I originally included that idea in my data collection but I didn't want to overwhelm myself with subjects and so I wanted to focus on my personal observations only. If I interviewed actual students that could provide valuable information for a different angle.  Another difficulty with interviewing students would be biases, as a registered student they are required to come visit the RWC and so many of their attitudes about the center itself might already be less than stellar. If they happen to have a personal vendetta against a specific tutor that could come out in the interview. My data is to strictly focus on the physical aspect of the tutoring session and different methods that are used as well as their actual effectiveness. The majority of the feedback that I received confirmed the direction that my project is going and I plan to continue and hopefully produce an effective research paper.

“What feedback did you receive? What advice will you take? What advice won’t you take? Why?”

I received a lot of good feedback from my fellow students. I liked the way we presented our ideas and had our class critique what they thought was working and what they thought was not working.

From what I heard back from everyone was they said it was a good idea for me to be doing observations, rather than interviews. That way, I can see a tutor in action, rather than just have them tell me what they do to help students brainstorm thesis topics. Only around two people said I should either interview the tutor or the student after the sessions, which I probably will not do. I believe I can get enough information from observing sessions.

The question I had asked the class is if I should observe “revising” sessions. My main concern is that I am not finding enough “brainstorming freshman” sessions. What I said to back it up was that a lot of freshman students would come into the writing center and have an entire paper written, but no thesis. Regardless if the student makes a session specifically for “revising,” they still might have to brainstorm a thesis. With my lack of time/sessions left to observe, four people in the class agreed with me, four had no comment, and one disagreed. I don’t see how observing revising sessions would hurt me—I can simply add it into my question. If I observe both, I will be able to have enough information to support my question. Otherwise, I do not think my project will be successful, which people in the class agree with.

So, the advice I will take is to consider observing revising appointments, in addition to observing appointments with freshman. The advice I will probably not take is interviewing a student or a tutor. I will not have enough time to do that and I want my information for my projects to be real and honest. If I do interviews, I do not know how honest people will be. And personally, if I got interviewed after an appointment, I would not know what to say as a student or as a tutor. It’s sometimes difficult to be put on the spot.

Key Concepts

I've used multiple techniques that we've discussed in class in my tutoring sessions, but what they all seem to come down to is reflection. Yancey, in her piece "On Reflection," describes reflection as a "growth of consciousness," (4). Essentially, she claims reflection (in the context of writing) is the process of both looking back at what we have accomplished, as well as looking forward towards a goal, and then putting those perspectives into conversation with each other, thus creating knowledge and insight. When I ask my students to tell me what their essay/paper/etc. is about, they are reflecting on what it is they have already written (or think they have written) by summarizing their thoughts and arguments. When we begin to read their piece aloud and catch mistakes or areas that need improvement, they are participating in another aspect of reflection: revision. When we near the end of the session, and we look at everything we've changed or fixed in the paper, we take part in reflection again as the student looks forward to how the piece will be improved after they make the necessary revisions. After the student leaves, having put their previous work and their future work into conversation with my help, they have gained knowledge about themselves as writers, as well as about their writing. If you think about it, the entire peer tutoring process consists of reflection; Yancey was definitely right on the money when she wrote, "reflection is a critical component of learning and of writing specifically" (7).

11/20

In the last tutoring session, I had three 30 minute sessions with students who were all working on the same paper. I believe their teacher required them to come to the RWC at least three times before they turned in this paper. According to the students, the structure/style of the paper didn't really matter as long as the content was strong and they answered the questions that he presented in the rubric. I spoke to each of them about whether or not he wanted them to create a thesis statement, whether he ever required them to create one in any of their previous papers, and they said no. Two of the students weren't even sure exactly how to create a thesis statement. I am so surprised by the amount of students who don't know how to create a thesis statement or have never been required to do so in any of their papers. I asked the students to describe their previous papers, what worked and what didn't work, and focused on those aspects when we discussed the new paper. Their task was to interview three different generations about food: how they acquire/acquired it, preparation, consumption, cost, etc., and to use this information to analyze how these generations interacted with food and how these interactions have changed throughout the years. I thought it was a very interesting project and one that could say a lot about our society. The students all had the same sort of plan: they wanted to interview their grandparents, parents, and friends. There would be quite a difference between the way our grandparents acquired and prepared food and the way our parents did. One of the biggest things I encouraged the students to do was ask the people they interview about the state of the economy, historical context, and how these things effected the way interact with food, how the prices of food has changed, what has been available to them throughout the years. Has the quality of a certain food improved? How often do they go out to eat? And told them Thanksgiving break would be a perfect time to ask them all of these questions. It would be interesting to ask them about past Thanksgivings and what they prepared for those meals, if they are more traditional or if the dishes change every year and why. All of the students had very good ideas and were only in the brainstorming stages of the paper but seemed to have a good grip on what was required of them. I tried to point out what I believed would be very useful to them in the rubric and what they should pay attention to. I encouraged them to keep the questions consistent for every interview in order to really see the differences between generations.

Response 11/20

The most common key concept that comes up while I’m working is reflection. I generally start every tutoring session by reading the paper or excerpt with the students. After that I ask the student “Where do you think the strengths are in your paper?” followed by “And where do you think the weaknesses are?” I like to start this way to get a general feel for the student’s awareness of their own writing and to see if the student and I are on the same page. I feel like this is a great way to start every session because the first question generally seems to improve the mood of the meeting as the student gets to reflect on their own success and may get to hear other successes they hadn’t consider before. The second question usually gets the student to talk a little more and open up about issues other than “grammar” or “this just sounds weird.” I also like to end the session with some reflection by looking at what we’ve talked about in the session and what we’ve improved/changed over the course of the session. Overall I feel that this process gets students to open up a little more during the session and to feel better about their writing.

The second key concept that comes up the most in my sessions is the rhetorical canon. I like to take time to ask about the specifics of the class (what are the key terms used, what’s the general attitude of the professor, did the professor emphasize anything). I take time to remind the student that they’re writing to both their professor and possibly to the community of the school of academics the particular class falls in. I then shift focus to talk about their overall argument (I usually ask “what’s your point in writing this essay”) and then I check this against their thesis statement and overall essay to see if the two line up. Finally we talk about any other issues that may have come up during the session until about the last 5 minutes where I stop and ask if they had anything else that we haven’t looked at that they want me to give a quick look at.  

11/19 response

A key concept that always comes into my head at the end of every tutoring session is reflection. I find that one can reflect over a paper at basically any stage of the writing process. It’s necessary to reflect in the beginning to make sure you know what your process will be or what your goal is. In the middle of your paper, it is important to reflect on the work that has already been done; do you like the work so far? is it getting you towards achieving your goal? And of course, at the end of the paper reflection is necessary to make sure your work meets your standards and can be presented to the audience in a way that they would understand it. 

I think along with reflection, observation is an important concept. It can almost relate back to reflection because they have some similarities. Observing can help a writer find those places where some extra work needs to be done. I think its important for multiple people to observe my paper and my writing process. I, alone, cannot catch mistakes that I have made; they can be caught with the help of a couple of other eyes. 

As a tutor, I feel like I have spent most of my tutoring hours helping ESL students. For the most part, they all come in wanting specific help. I try to focus on that help they ask for- usually it something like spelling or grammar. Sometimes I find further problems. I’m also glad students come into the writing center and learn that there are other problems in their writing than what they see. It’s interesting when they find the problems even before I bring them up. The important term seen in all students is the need for conversation. Conversation allows students to share their goals with the tutors, help students find their audience, and make sure that their message as writers is getting across. 

11/19 Response

conversation- I may not always know what to say to a student to help their writing, but writing is a conversation, and I need to keep the conversation going.  It's ok to ask questions to keep the conversation going.  When the student answers your question, the tutor learns something and most of the time, so does the student
reading backwards- I got the idea for this from the reverse outline.  I started to realize that I wasn't really able to make thoughtful comments on a student's project just by looking at it.  Most of the time I had to read through each paragraph and understand the meaning.  Once I've read through everything, I start making sense of each paragraph, starting with the last one.  I have the student clarify what they meant, and make comments.  By the time we get up to the top, most of the time the student has a clearer idea of what they're paper is actually about, and consequently, what their thesis should really state.  Once we've figured out what the whole paper says, we can sum it up nicely in the thesis.
critical incident- A student is always going to hear what you want them to hear.  A lot of times, they are going to hear what they want to hear.  I am also guilty of this.  Sometimes, no matter how expertly you deliver advice to the student, the student will not take it.  Sometimes a light bulb has to go off within the student's head for any real change to occur.
reflection- On some days I hate reflecting on my work, but on others, I love it.  Reflection is proven to be helpful, but the trick is you also have to leave time for reflection.  Writing can't be a one and done process.  If you finish your first draft the night before the paper is due and consider a quick read through for grammar issues to be your reflection, reflection is never going to get you anywhere.  For reflection to be meaningful, you've got to let your writing sit and marinate for a little while.  You've got to come back to it when you're a little less attached.  If a writer is too attached, they won't be willing to make the necessary changes.  I appreciate it when students come into the RWC multiple times because this shows they really planned out a time table for their writing.

Key Concepts

Two main concepts that I have found to be extremely helpful in my tutoring thus far are the idea of reading aloud and writing as a conversation. It was surprising to me that the majority of  students that I worked with had never read their papers out loud to themselves or someone else. A practice that seemed so commonplace in my writing experience is in reality, not so common. So many students come in the RWC looking for "grammar help" and "line editing" although that is not the primary purpose of a Reading and Writing Center, by just reading the paper aloud, many of the grammatical errors that students seemed so overwhelmingly concerned with are easily solved.

The second concept that I find to be recurring in my sessions is the idea of conversation and writing as a social aspect. In the beginning of my tutoring sessions I try to ask the student what their understanding of the prompt is and then compare that to my understanding as well as what content they have already written. Often times just transferring the information the student has written on paper into a conversation where they put into words their ideas clarifies their thesis as well as the rest of their paper. In this way it also helps to check if their spoken ideas match what they have written down. I find these two practices to be extremely helpful in the tutoring process so that students better understand how to approach their own writing and also learn concepts they can use on their own to review and revise their work.

Some Key Terms

The key concept that has helped me the most in the writing center has been reflection. Almost every time I have tutored, someone has asked me something like, “does my thesis make sense?” “is my argument clear?” “did I answer the prompt?” I think reflection has played a big role in my experience as a tutor. As a writer, you consider your intention for the paper, consider the prompt, read it, and reflect on it. But, as a tutor, you consider the prompt, read the paper, and you compare the two. The tutor perspective is more difficult because you are missing a few steps in the writing process. But it’s also easier because you can view the writing objectively and critically. I think that having this perspective as a tutor has enabled me to better reflect on my own writing. 

Another important concept has been constraints. I’ve been working with a lot of international students and it’s impossible to approach their work without a constraint: the language barrier between us, the language barrier on paper, the cultural influences of the international student. Some things are just hard to translate into English and it’s hard to help them when you don’t understand their language! It’s frustrating. The constraint remains no matter the audience.

Collaboration and conversation are two concepts that I think go together well. Collaboration I see as a little negative in the writing center. Sometimes I feel like I’m putting myself into their writing—while we are re-constructing sentences and re-phrasing and brainstorming, I feel like I’m infringing just a little bit on their original writing. But conversation is good. I love talking about writing. My favorite tutoring sessions have been the ones where we brainstorm and talk about their draft and their ideas. I think conversation is so important when it comes to writing because I feel like sometimes students in other disciplines don’t know that there is a community of people who write and care about good writing and talk about good writing. I also like to know that I’m part of that community.

Key concepts that proved helpful

I feel as though I have had an interesting array of students so far, so each session was different than the last. However, I found that I was not working with many freshman students as proposed at the start of class. In this way, the key concepts that we've learned in class that have been most helpful to me were ones that didn't have to do with the transferring and remixing of old ideas. Many of the students that I worked with had a good grasp on collegiate level writing. I found that I was revising more paper than I was brainstorming. I believe that I enjoyed this more because it allowed the student and I to go further in depth with their paper. With that being said, perhaps the key concept/s that I found the most helpful were the ones that talked about looking at the bigger picture of the paper rather than the little things.
What I found myself doing with a couple of my students was starting broadly and then narrowing it in as the session went on. What I mean by this is that we would first read the paper in its entirety and discuss what was being said, and in some cases what was not being said. We would then go through the paper and see where the message was clear and where it was not so clear. Then we would work on ways to strengthen the message. Once we got all the main things done, then we would narrow it in a little. We would look at sentence arrangement, fluidity, and overall structure. Finally, if we had time, then we would look at word choice and grammar.
This key concept of focusing on the general bigger picture first is something that I utilized in every one of my sessions. I also noticed that the session was the most productive when we tackled the bigger issues first because it then allows for an easier transition and a clear view on the smaller issues.

“What key concepts in the course have, thus far, been most helpful for your tutoring in the writing center?”

There is a few concepts that have been helpful to me when tutoring in the reading and writing center. I wanted to go off of what happened in my appointment two weeks ago—I worked with an ESL student for the first time. Doing those readings and discussing the topic in class definitely helped me work through the appointment, but it was still hard. She spoke good English; however, I had a hard time with her accent. What was funny was she told me she wanted to learn how to speak like a native speaker—she wants to learn English slang. This was partly my fault because I speak so carelessly sometimes, compared to how I write. I had to use words she would understand. But the ESL book had mentioned that ESL students would say that!! I couldn’t believe it actually happened. What I had a hard time with (something I don’t think the book really went over) was her not being open to what I had to say. For example, she used the word “methods” when she meant to say “beliefs.” I told her that I knew what she meant, but “beliefs” may work better here. But she didn’t want to change the word. And this being my first ESL appointment, I didn’t know what to say. I tried to explain “context” to her, but I was having a hard time with that. Do you have any suggestions we can go over in class?

Another strategy I have used a lot is revising and not changing a student’s work. That has been a HUGE thing to me. It’s so hard to not change things because I’m in the Advanced Writing & Editing class and we’re supposed to copyedit and do endnotes about what to change or add for one student in the class. In the writing center, it’s all like DO LESS. So working with students and what they already have to offer has been difficult, but rewarding. The student always feels good when they leave the appointment because they are more confident with the essay they have written. That’s the best feeling to me. 

Tutoring Observations

This past Friday, I had no-shows for both of my students. This was actually the first time I've had a student stand me up, let alone two students, so needless to say I was a bit surprised. I used the time to reflect on my research topic for project 3, the effect of gender on tutor-to-student communication. For two weeks, I've had only girls as students; this past Friday would've been the first time in quite a while that I had a male student. This causes me to question whether or not these female students consciously choose their same gender when they are signing up for tutoring, perhaps because they feel more comfortable conversing one-on-one with another female. Particularly in collegiate settings, women are often made to feel academically inferior to men; this might contribute to why girls could be more likely to choose a fellow female as their tutor. I actually spoke with one of the male tutors and asked his permission to observe him on a few sessions for my research, but I have yet to ask a female tutor.
I also used my empty hour and a half to explore the idea of teaching as a traditionally feminine act; because women are considered more nurturing and approachable than men, it's possible that people might be more inclined to choose female tutors, as they feel more comfortable being taught by females in such a close setting. However, on the other hand, as men are viewed by society as more intelligent and capable than women, there's a chance that some people might be more privy to male tutors. These are all concepts I'll be exploring in my final research paper.

Key Concepts

Some of the key concepts that have been the most helpful over the course of this entire tutoring process has definitely been the concepts brought along by Bitzer. The whole idea of exigence is an important factor to consider when working with students in the RWC because it helps you to identify what the student is trying to do with their writing.  By identifying the exigence  behind a piece of writing, you can better help the student tailor that piece to match their intended final product. Most of the time in the RWC,  the student brings in a piece of writing that they are able to 'make their own' so to speak. By identifying what need they are trying to satisfy you can help tailor their writing to make it the best it can be.

Another Bitzer concept that has been helpful is being able to identify the constraints associated with each session and trying to get through them the best way you can. Many times, the student will bring me a piece of writing that is much too long to read and edit over the course of 30 minutes. Time is consistently a constraint within the RWC and I think that being able to recognize it as a constraint is helpful. When I get a long paper that I don't feel I will be able to get through, I ask the student what they specifically want me to look at. The student will then identify parts of the paper that need more attention than others which helps cut down on wasted time and effort.

Lastly, I think that the 'Hands-off' approach is a helpful concept when tutoring in the RWC. This approach helps the student feel more comfortable and not overwhelmed once they come into the RWC. The 'hands-off' approach allows students to work for themselves and catch errors while reading outloud instead of the tutor just telling them. This concept helps students think for themselves which is why I feel as if it's such a valuable concept.

I only had one appointment today, with a boy named Steve. It was my first hour-long appointment so I had a little apprehension walking into Johnston but I found that it wasn't any more difficult than half hour appointments. In some ways, I found it was even easier. 

My one concern was that I wouldn't have enough to talk about and we would get through the appointment rather quickly. I wanted the appointment to last the full hour so that the student would be able to get the most out of the appointment that he could. What made it very easy for me to help Steven was his good listening skills. I've found that I feel encouraged to talk more during appointments when the student is friendly and shows me that they are eager to hear what I have to say. I was grateful that this was the case with Steven.

He came in with only a prompt for his LIT2020 class, which was topics in English involving short stories. He had to write a topical analysis about four stories in particular. He didn't have a draft, nor had he read the stories very thoroughly, so I decided it would be a good idea to go through each story individually to start with, in order to find common themes between them. We read through the sparknote summary in order to get a better understanding of the stories, although he had a general idea what the plots involved. Doing this, we were both on the same page and were able to brainstorm ideas for his essay. 

It was nice not being as limited on time as with shorter appointments and I felt less pressure to come up with ideas on the spot. Without this added pressure it was easier to relax and let ideas flow between us. By the end, he had a paper full of notes and an outline with the potential to be a great paper. Time seemed to fly and I felt like we had accomplished all that needed to be accomplished in the meeting. 

Response 11/13

            The most important key concepts that we have discussed in this course to me personally, based on the tutoring that I have completed thus far in the Reading and Writing Center, were “Reflection” and “Observation.” These key concepts shaped many of my tutoring sessions because both are crucial in order to reach maximum productivity in each tutoring session, no matter what it is your tutee wants to accomplish.

            Observation is important in every tutoring session because you have to familiarize yourself with your tutee and their specific needs, given the fact that each tutoring session will be completely different from the last. Observation will help you, as a tutor, understand your tutee’s background, relationship with writing, and goals that they need you to help them reach. Observation is a key concept that is most beneficial in regards to advice for tutors on knowing exactly how to reach these unique and specific goals.

            Reflection is an important key concept to know because reflection helps increase communication between you and your tutee. If you proofread or help brainstorm or even just polish a paper, reflecting on everything you fixed or every suggestion you have will help make your tutee more comfortable in the session and also give them more of an opportunity to strengthen and emphasize their personal voice. Reflection will help you as a tutor to divide the responsibility evenly in each session, allowing your tutee to be in control while you step back and only help when needed.

            I found that in my past tutoring sessions, observing my tutees has helped me better decide what tactics I will use to help them, such as reading their paper aloud, or skimming over it, stopping only for minor grammatical errors, or simply focusing on MLA or APA formatting or how to cite sources. Reflecting with my tutees has helped me personalize each session, figuring out what it is that my tutee wants and what suggestions I have made that most satisfy them. Asking questions like, “what do you think about changing this word here, or putting a comma here,” has helped me feel more confident in my suggestions and more comfortable as far as steering the tutoring session in the way that my tutee would want it to go.