11/24

I've been thinking about what I wanted to write about distance tutoring and realize that I have very conflicting feelings on the subject. On one hand, it seems like such an efficient use of time. I'm a big planner and when it comes to utilizing time wisely, I get pretty excited. That's really nerdy; I'm aware. I just live a very compartmentalized life, especially when it comes to school work since I don't have a lot of free time.
On the other hand, its difficult when there is no facial expression or body language to read. I rely on this a lot in my tutoring sessions and there seems to be no discernable way to tell if the student understands what I'm telling them if they are shy, or are afraid to appear stupid. From the perspective of the student, its this kind of person that I feel would take advantage of online tutoring most, but how do I know they're getting and absorbing the information they require?

class 11/11

Very recently, I came across an issue that Ortoleva brought up, referring to trying to help someone with a biology paper. Ouch! I don't have a problem with words I don't understand because typically, grammar rules are universal. However, the way the paper was set up was so unorthodox to me that it threw me off a little. I asked a bunch of questions, making sure that he knew for sure that that was the way it should look and he seemed confident that it was. Really, the point of the visit was because of a requirement from his teacher, and he admitted that he just slapped something down on paper for me to read. I politely perused it and sent him on his way to, of course, revise. The question this brings up to me is, "Why do we need familiarity in a text in order to tutor well?" All of the things we do in the writing center don't have anything to do with the subject matter of the writing. This is evident from the articles we have read written about sexist or otherwise offensive topics.
Also, Ortoleva talks about a doctoral and grad students coming into the writing center quite a bit. I'm not sure how many doctoral students we have on campus and I know there aren't many grad students, but I found it odd that a doctoral student would come to the writing center. The only reason I say that is because all of the tutors we have are undergrads and for that reason only, I wouldn't feel like we are qualified to help someone at that education level. Maybe I'm wrong, but I know that I would feel apprehensive and a little intimidated about helping a doctoral student with his writing. Am I alone here?
I like that Ortoleva writes about when to be text-centered and when to be writer-centered instead of preaching for one correct way to do a tutoring session. After reading about how he treated all of the students as individuals, and how the upper level students had very focused goals about what they wanted accomplished, it made a little more sense to me why they would like to utilize the writing center. However, if I were a grad student, I don't know if I would want help from someone the likes of me, with less education. I guess I can't assume that just because someone graduated from college that they are good writers. I think that's sort of the point of this article; to take every situation and treat it individually only with the goal to make the writer feel like something good was accomplished because of the experience.

class 11/04

While reading the first article, I began to look back and try to remember if I had tutored someone with a learning disability so far. My next thought was how would I necessarily know? Learning disabilities come in many different varieties, some of which are not as obvious as others. When a student has dyslexia, by the time they reach college level, they have probably learned the tools they need to work around it. I believe it is important that tutors specifically, but everyone should be aware of the fact that learning disabilities are the result of a physiological problem and not because the student is unitelligent. I would like to believe that if a student were to come to the writing center and disclose the fact that he had a learning diability that we would be equipped to handle it, but I don't know that we are. I know for sure that I'm not. I'm glad we are covering this so that I will know how to be a benefit to a student with a disability that comes in for help.
The Burton article was of great interest to me, being a "thirty-something" student. I don't know if many people know this, even though its not something I try to hide. It simply doesn't come up in conversation. Having said this, it never before ocurred to me that an older student may be more comfortable if they know I'm closer to their age. I have thought about this before, and I sort thought they might think I would be less qualified to tutor them because they would wonder what I've been doing with my life all this time, besides furthering my education, and furthermore wonder, "If this person is so good at writing, why did it take her so long to go back to school?" This may totally be paranoia or insecurity on my part, but it makes me feel better that this article puts a positive spin on the fact that I am a nontraditional tutor in the writing center. Also, even though I am a notraditional student in terms of my age, I do not exhibit a lot of the characteristics most of them have, such as a family or coming back to school for a second degree, since this will be my first Bachelor's, so this article was helpful to me in terms of imagining how other older students feel. On the inside, I probably have more in common with them than I think.

class 11/04

discussion questions

I've taken a lot of Lit courses that cover all kinds of ethnic backgrounds but I don't necessarily think I have a favorite. I judge a piece of writing based on the quality of the writing. If I had to pick a favorite, I would say I prefer to read Jewish literature (is this correct?) because since before I can remember when, I have been fascinated by the holocaust: why it happened, how it happened, the stories of the people in the concentration camps. These stories are very inspirational to me considering the amazing amount of resiliance and tenacity of spirit it took to live this way. As far as the students I prefer to tutor are concerned, I have to say I have a soft spot for the Asians. They are patient, sweet, and very eager to learn.

The second question is tricky. I have noticed cultural differences in the way that some other races sometimes write the way the would speak. I just talk to them about the type of language used in a paper as opposed to being used while speaking. Everyone, including myself, has to polish up the way they write things so that they read better. This is not to say the way we talk is wrong, only that scholarly writing is a little more serious.

class 10/28

I have found the readings over the past two weeks that we've had to be so amazingly invaluable! It's seriously feel like they have been written just for me. The two readings this week, as opposed to last week don't only focus on ESL students, but students in general. That being said however, I felt like some of the things that were mentioned in the Staben and Nordhaus article were repetetive of what we've read before. Talking to the student, purposefully reading their paper, and not directing correction after correction are just a few of the things that have been discussed a lot and are dully noted. This is not to say that they aren't great pointers at all, I'm just saying that some of these suggestions seem second nature by now, although I don't know if they always were or if I've learned that much since the beginning of the semester? I would like to think the latter is true, always.

The article by Linville is written as a guide, which I very much appreciate and will probably incorporate into my sessions from now on, should these problems arise (they almost always do). The writing about the tutoring session with Tang is kind of unrealistic. I would love to focus on more pressing matters in a paper than grammar all the time, but I can't because that's not what the client wants. Linville writes about Tang possibly becoming "angry, depressed, or difficult (120)", but still conceding to doing what the tutor wants. This may be true, but what are the chances Tang will come back? I think there is a fine line here, and I know that all the authors are careful to address that not all methods work on everyone all the time and that there is no wrong method as long as the session is effective, but I have a hard time picturing some of the scenarios unfolding in the articles the way they do. Sorry if I seem ultra critical today. Its been long and arduous! Also, it seems as though I've done a complete 180 in my opinion of the articles from the beginning of my post. I do think that most of the points discussed are invaluable.

I was helping a girl the other day and I felt like the only thing she needed to do was proofread better. I could tell this isn't what she wanted to hear, but otherwise I would have just been fixing silly mistakes for the next twenty minutes that I knew she was capable of fixing. Any thoughts on this? I was super nice and encouraging but she didn't seem pleased.

class 10/21

The assigned readings for this week were definitely up my ally for what I have been experiencing in the writing center recently. For every 1 NES student I tutor, I tutor 2 ESL students. I have found this week as opposed to last week, that I am more comfortable than I was, which is nice because I project what I'm feeling a lot and if I'm nervous, I know they are. The readings suggested that there are certain ESL students that may be more apprehensive about going to the writing center than NES students because of cultural differences, particularly pertaining to men. I have not found this to be the case, however, I don't discount the possibility that this may happen in the future. I do believe very much in breaking the ice, which is true for anyone, but especially ESL students because they are out their element entirely. On the other hand, I don't want to discount their resilience because if they weren't extremely bright and independent thinking, they wouldn't be studying here in the first place. This is to say that I think there is a fine line between how differently we treat ESL students from NES ones. Dr. Shaw brought up something very important the other day in class when he said that a lot of ESL students have better vocabularies and rudimentary grammar skills than NES students; they can just have a hard time with their verb tense and placement. This is spot on to what I've been seeing lately and directly in accordance with Matsuda and Cox's idea about avoiding taking an assimilationist's stance. One girl in particular that I was helping with a paper used unusual, yet very poignant ways to describe things that I would never use because I have been using and repeating the same words for so long in the same way. These authors encourage tutors to praise ESL students on their word choice, as long as its correct, because it is often so unique and displays more of the student's personality. Also, I found it refreshing when I read that professors often don't penalize ESL students for minor article and tense issues as long as their ideas are understandable and well conveyed. I hope this is true, as it would make tutoring these students even more effective if I know that I don't have to focus on the small errors.