9/9 Reflection

The first thing I would identify with my tutees would be the exigence or the reason why they came to the writing center in the first place. I believe this term is the base of a tutoring session because by discovering the problem, a writer can take the proper steps to figure out how they want to create a solution for it. Critical incident would also be helpful in the initial steps of a writing process. It can help writers at any stage better their current writing from anything they had priorly done. A critical incident allows writers to acknowledge their mistakes and find a way to change what it is that is not working for them.

Another key term which can fit into the initial steps of a tutoring session, as well as the final ones, is reflection. In the beginning, both the tutor and the tutee can reflect on what it is that must be done. What are the goals the writing is to achieve or what messages do we hope it conveys? Reflection, more frequently, is done at the end of the process as well. It is important to reflect on what changes have been made and the reasons why some parts of the paper were kept or others were heavily touched upon. 

After a reflection, one can decide if the expectations that were hoped to be achieved were met. I believe expectations is somewhat like setting the main goals and making sure it is achieved in a correct manner. Expectations set a base for writers with the hopes of voicing their thoughts. Within the reflection, the writer can also think about the expectations they had when they originally began their writing process compared to those that came about as they went through the process. 

Lastly, the idea of learning vs. acquiring is important when working within a writing center. As tutors, we must remind the tutees the difference between the two and which is the proper one to be using in a paper. It is also important for us tutors to notice them within the students to understand who they are, how they write, and how we can or should approach them in order to best help their writing flourish.

9/9 Response

1. Prior Knowledge: In the "Writing Across Contexts" text on Blackboard we discussed in class how not only a student's prior knowledge of a subject can be essential to the writing process but also how the tutor may use his/her prior knowledge to assist during the tutoring process. Since we are in a college setting it is possible that the student may not have any prior knowledge before enrolling in their respective class on the topic that they are writing on and that is somewhat the tutor should be aware of. In addition to prior knowledge on topics, and preconceived ideas about peer tutoring that a student might have from previous experiences can influence the tutoring session. They might have had  negative experience with a previous tutor and that could cause a standoffish or reluctant attitude when it's time to review their paper. Maybe tutors should ask students who enter the Writing center about their previous experience with writing and tutoring in order to gauge how to approach interacting with the student.
2. Voice: The Longman text repeatedly mentions that a Writing center is more than a space for students to come in to have the grammar in their papers analyzed. It only offers quick and immediate altercations without address the root of a student's issue in regards to writing. As a tutor it is important to be cognizant that we are not trying to just edit papers or make the student sound "smarter." We are there to help students better understand the process of writing, to make them feel unintimidated by it, to help them more effectively answer essay questions. Tutors should remember that other than the topics themselves, the voice is what separates papers from each other. We should want to help students find their original voice.
3. Observe: Observation from the tutor is crucial because it can help to identify nonverbal cues like body language or nervousness during the tutoring session. I want the student coming to me to feel as comfortable as possible so noticing things like a student trailing off in their voice, crossing their arms or even looking down when they are talking might influence the way I interact with the student.
4. Reflection: On both the part of the student, reflection at the end of the session or right before submitting their final draft is something that I would recommend to a student coming to me for help. Not only to reflect on how their paper has changed through the various drafts but rather if their understanding of their individual writing process has improved, their opinions of the writing center as a whole and how confident they are in their own writing. On my part, reflecting after each tutoring session and how I can improve or alter my techniques could be helpful for future students that I encounter.
5. Community:  This last term is a sort of encompassment of what the previous terms create when they are used together. Like previously stated, writing centers are not solely focused on checking grammar but a space where learning and understanding is cultivated. By utilizing prior knowledge, observation, and reflection the tutoring space can become a community of both students and tutors that equally work together to help each other. A writing center should not feel intimidating or overwhelming and if a sense of community is emphasized during each session I believe that more students will be willing to visit as well becoming more active during their tutoring session.

9/9

The first of the five key terms we discussed in class last week that really interested me was the one assigned to my group: critical incident. I thought it was such an intriguing idea; I could remember myself experiencing a few “critical incidents” during the writing process and now having a name for the experiences really adds value to this turning point. We summed up this incident as a sort of sink-or-swim moment in which the student realizes that the approach he or she is currently taking is not allowing them to properly convey a message. From this moment the student must not only determine what isn’t working but develop a new technique to improve the overall quality of writing. I also like the term “conceptual breakthrough” which is closely associated with the critical incident in that it is (in the best cases) what follows the realization that something isn’t working and sheds new light on a subject. Transfer is an important term as well because it has to do with the way in which a student uses his or her knowledge of past experiences as a tool in writing. The information a student decides to transfer into the paper can either help or hinder the writing process but the wonderful thing is that because a students knowledge continues to grow so, too, will their writing skills. Exigence is an important term to keep in mind; it is, after all, the driving force of discourse itself. And lastly, I want to keep reflection in mind. The writing process is a reflective process, whether you write fiction or research papers. They are all meditations on a specific topic. Not only does writing reflect what a writer has learned or experienced, it can also reflect the very passion that a writer possesses for the topic about which he or she is writing.     

9/9 Response

Prior Knowledge- The reading on Transfer really struck a chord with me.  I could see myself in each student mentioned. During class discussion, my group was challenged with defining prior knowledge in relation to the rest of the Transfer essay.  I think Prior Knowledge is actually a really helpful term to keep in mind when tutoring other students.  As an RWC tutor, I'm going to meet with students with wildly varying levels of prior knowledge.  Because of this, these same students will also have wildly varying levels of absence [of prior knowledge].  This is where I come in.  It will be my job to use terms and hints that fit the level of prior knowledge of the student.  I can't whip out all the fancy terms I've been learning in this class if the student with whom I'm working doesn't yet understand the difference between summarizing and synthesizing.  As a tutor, I've got to take these fancy terms and make them accessible to each student with whom I work.  If the student happens to know these crazy terms already, then I've still got to make sure the student is willing to adapt and learn from whatever I might suggest.  One of the examples in the Transfer essay highlighted a student who had a relatively stellar writing background.  Unfortunately because of this, the student was unwillingly to adapt and grow to fit the college sphere of writing.  As a tutor, I will need to congratulate this student on what he/she already knows and how it is working for him/ her while also ensuring that he/she is open to constructive criticism.
Exigence- As defined by Bitzer, this is the problem that must be addressed by discourse.  On a smaller scale, this could simply be the prompt brought into the RWC by a student.  Sometimes students deliver  creatively articulated response but still somehow end up with a poor grade to show for it.  In my experience, this generally occurs when the student misunderstands the prompt.  As a writer, this is exasperating.  You just pumped out an 8 page paper, but received a less than average grade simply because you did not aptly address the topic assigned by the instructor.  As a tutor, I hope to guide the student through the prompt, stopping to make sure that the student understands each point of the prompt.  When the student is further along in his/her essay, I hope to keep them on track by continuously referring back to the prompt.  It is easy as a writer to stray off topic.  I think the "backwards outline" method highlighted in class could easily help with this problem.  This technique shows the writer what he/she is truly writing.  Hopefully what is emphasized is what the writer wished to convey.
Social activity-  Gee and Bruffee emphasized writing as a "social activity."  This is critical to the RWC.  The tutor cannot simply tell the writer what to write.  The tutor cannot tell the writer everything he/she must do.  Simply put, the RWC is not a one-way street.  The writer and the tutor must discuss ideas.  At times the writer needs to talk.  At other times the writer needs to listen.  These same rules also apply to the tutor.  Through discussion, writing becomes a social activity.
Reflection-  As discussed by Yancey, reflection is a means for writers to learn from their writing, "to help students learn about writing as they learn to write (Yancey 20)."  Reflection closely mirrors the work done at the RWC.  Students come in with their writing, and tutors force them to analyze their work.  With the help of the tutors, students learn what is working in their writing and why it works.  Conversely, these students learn what isn't working and why it isn't.  While the tutors help in finding these writing successes and writing failures, it is ultimately up to the student to learn from them.  Again, the RWC is a two-way street.  The tutor can only help the student so much.  The student must be willing to reflect, analyze, and repair his/her writing.
Expression- In the Transfer essay, every student defined writing as a form of expression.  Furthermore, the study showed that how students defined writing outside of the classroom influenced how they wrote inside  the classroom.  An easy question I could ask as a tutor is, "Do you think writing and expression are related. If so, how?" Another being, "how do you used writing to express yourself?"  If students have a form of writing that they enjoy because it allows them to express themselves, I can then encourage them to incorporate that style into the seemingly rigid college essay.  Each student's writing style is different, as it should be.  Instructors don't want to read the same essay 50 times.  Allowing students to incorporate their individual modes of expression breeds creative and unique essays.

Response 9/9

     The five key terms that we have discussed in class so far and that have had the biggest impact on me, regarding my views on peer tutoring, were: expectations, audience, reflection-in-action, constructive reflection, and reflection-in-presentation.
     The term expectations was one that I took special notice of because so much of successful writing revolves around expectations. What does your audience expect? What do you expect from your audience? Are there certain standards you must meet with your writing regarding the points you are making and what your audience understands about the topic? Expectations are guidelines for good writing as well as efficient peer tutoring. If you know what the expectations are of the person you are tutoring and what they are trying to communicate with their audience, you, as a peer tutor, will have a much easier time guiding them in the direction they want to go.
     The term 'audience' is broad, but, in the world of peer tutoring, extremely crucial. Your audience determines your piece of writing. More importantly, the audience that your tutee is reaching out to will determine the tactics you can use to help your tutee write a stronger piece. You must know the type of audience your tutee is targeting in order to help them make a valid point and communicate it efficiently. The audience is the deciding factor in regards to the path you plan to take in order to help you tutee to the fullest extent.
     Reflection-in-action ("the process of reviewing and projecting and revising") is extremely important in writing and in tutoring because it is the essence of the most important step in both writing and peer tutoring: revision. In order to really reach the goals both you and your tutee have set, you must review what you have so far, project what else you need, and revise the combination of the two. This will put you one step closer to your goal of a finished and polished piece. Without review there is no projection, and without projection there is no revision.
     Constructive reflection ("the process of developing a cumulative, multi-selved, multi-voiced identity") is another crucial term because you must have an open mind and a somewhat open point of view to make your claim most valid. In order to support a point you are making, you must also see the other side of the argument and know why it is wrong and why your side is right. This is so important in writing because often opinions become one-sided and biased, losing their validity. Constructive reflection can help you, as a peer tutor, make a clearer effort to help your tutee avoid a biased opinion.
     Reflection-in-presentation ("the process of articulating the relationships between and among the multiple variable of writing and the writer in a specific context for a specific audience") is, in my opinion, one of the most important terms in peer tutoring because the foundation for good writing is a good connection. The writer must feel connected and inspired by what they are writing about, otherwise the writing would not feel alive. As a peer tutor, it is your job to make sure that your tutee is passionate and can relate to what they are writing about, and if they are not, it is your job to help them become passionate about it.

9/9 Response

Point of departure was one of the terms that stuck the strongest in my head from class. I had always thought that the tutor would consider the tutee’s former writing experience but it had not occurred to me to extend this thought to the tutee. It makes sense that the tutor should make the point of departure obvious so that the student is taking the whole process in as it happens in front of them.

Revision was used interestingly by Yancey to reference restructuring the essay’s main points to better serve the purpose of the essay. It seems very important to make this distinction between revision and editing clear for the student. The Longman suggests that your average student will come in expecting the tutor to edit the paper for them and that will greatly improve the essay. This can be a problem as most students will be using well enough grammar to pass but may require some foundational restructuring to make a better paper. The connection needs to be made to the idea of rereading the work to discern if all aspects are working toward the goal of the paper.

Reverse Outline ties directly with revision but can also be used in a theoretical sense to immediately improve writing. If it can be explained to the student that if they examine the writing and then paraphrase the work back, they can examine the main points of each section and restructure them in the most logical way. This can be done as a literal outline on paper or simply by walking through the essay with the student and analyzing each section individually then giving the analysis to the student to organize.

Reflection seems most important as it makes students “agents of their own learning” by including them in the entire revision process of the essay. This goes back to the idea of teaching students in real time with their own work. Using established knowledge to build a better writer. 

9/9 Response

Point of Departure: Knowing where a student is coming from in their writing can be very informative when it comes to tutoring them. If a tutor can gain an understanding of a student's past writing experiences and what they know in terms of writing, the tutor can then find a good starting point for their tutoring experience. In other words, if a particular student hasn't had much experience with writing in high school, or doesn't feel confident about their own writing skills, the tutor can start by explaining some of the fundamentals of college writing and what professors expect. On the other hand, if a student has had a good amount of writing practice in high school and feels very confident about their writing abilities, the tutor can then go deeper into the student's writing and go over more specific details of writing.

Remix: For example, if a student's prior understanding of writing mainly stems from the standardized five-paragraph essay structure, then the tutor may have to incorporate some new ideas into the student's thinking and in a way change the way they think about writing. If successful in doing so, the student will then begin to value the difference in perspective on writing and in turn will begin to revise their own method of writing.

Critical Incident: This is very similar to the concept of remix, in that it involves a student changing their viewpoints and practices of writing into something new. As for the tutor, it is very important for a tutor to recognize if a particular student has reached a critical incident. Back to the five-paragraph example, if a student comes to the realization that this model of writing isn't cutting it on the college level, and the tutor recognizes this, the tutor can then begin work on reshaping the student's views on writing.

Revision: After a student has completed a draft for a writing assignment, the tutor can go through it and use end points in their draft and make suggestions for revision. This process can be done with subsequent drafts of the assignment and the tutor can point out, to the student, the improvements that have been made on each.

Reflection: Gaining insight in a student's writing not only helps in terms of remix and critical incident, but it also helps give the student a better understanding of their own end goals in writing. When a tutor asks a student to reflect upon their own writing, it will also allow them to see the progress and improvements they have made, and help the student recognize that they have learned something about writing. Once the student has recognized their own growth of consciousness, the tutor can then move on to other areas of the student's writing that may need improvement, while the student can incorporate what they have already learned in their future writing.