questions on Bedford Guide and WC

Hello! Here are two questions, one abstract and one very concrete:

1) In both the Bedford Guide and the Writing Center Tutor's Guide, I was intrigued by being very neutral with regards to students' teachers and the grades they give them. But I do wonder how to handle a situation in which a student may have improved a lot but still don't get a grade commensurate with their effort. In particular, I've heard that some teachers grade based on improvement over the semester and others grade based on innate abilities, which seems unfair given that some students come from language or socioeconomic backgrounds that prevent them from succeeding as much as their peers who come from more privileged learning environments. Is there any way to even this disparity, or even prioritize students from certain backgrounds in the Writing Center? I'm curious about the Writing for Academic Success program.

2) About the Writing Center itself, I'm curious how to make it seem more welcoming and intimate as a one-on-one tutoring environment. Can the university allow the Writing Center to use different non-fluorescent lighting, for example, which often makes a big difference in ambience, or provide small screen dividers between tables for more privacy?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Within my readings for this week, I was particularly struck by the chapter on voice and audience. I was actually thinking about the same quote Lei did in her post: " “Good readers usually recognize a problem, though they may not always be able to explain it technically." Since I grew up only speaking English, this is a problem I've run into in my own life, and with my own students. So, I just want to second that thought as well! My question is actually quite similar to hers: What do we do if we have a student actually asking us for more technical grammatical advice, and while we are able to tell them what the fix is, what would you recommend aside from, "Oh, it just works"? I've found saying "Oh, this sounds more natural" is good enough for students, or asking them to read their work aloud, but that definitely doesn't hold up in terms of how grammar works. If it did, the English language would be far less messy! Another thing as well: If we h...
Read more

Asynchronous Tutoring

I appreciated Remington's piece immensely. While I understand Kyle's concerns about establishing rapport, the beauty of asynchronous tutoring in that such rapport is of a different timbre. There's less pressure to perform the "tutor" or "writing expert" role and more time to shift between being a reader, a modeler, a focused professional, a sympathetic fellow student or peer. I experienced a shade of this difference when I tutor appointment students, compared to returning Enrollment tutees. More rides on the Enrollment tutoring relationship because of its development over time. If I say something stupid, it means we may both be uncomfortable for weeks to come. The relational aspects of appointment tutoring allows me to get down to business more quickly. If the student thinks I'm a weirdo, it won't haunt us at every assignment we gather over together. As long as I attend to the student as writer, the student as acquaintance is happy and recedes....
Read more

Week 2 Posting - Randazzo - UI WC and Bedford Guide Questions / Thoughts

Hello, everyone! I hope you all had a lovely Labor Day weekend. Today is my first day on the job for the WC, and I am super excited! However, like Rachel, I seem to have misplaced my syllabus. Still, my gushing aside, Here are my thoughts on both readings: Within The Bedford Guide to Writing Tutors, I did, in fact, find much of the advice to be helpful. However, I would also like to echo Kyle's question about laptop usage as a tutor. I tend to do my work digitally, and it is also far easier to edit things in terms of writing things and moving around paragraphs if need be. Meanwhile, one thing that struck me is the fact that try as a student may, we may not give them grade appraisals. Seconding Rachel, I was greatly surprised by the kind of detachment they seem to laud for "professionalism," when the process of tutoring, as they rightfully point out in the "many hats" section, contains so much personal interaction. When in my experience at The College of Woos...
Read more