Week 5 - Fei

Reading through Fei's case study, I was struck, like others have said, by the different rates of improvement in linguistic vs. logical/rhetorical areas. But I was also struck by Fei's own sense of her improvement in her writing over two years — keeping in mind that she wanted certain things out of the Writing Center that aren't necessarily what it's intended to provide — and how her own self-assessments compared / contrasted with what her tutors reported (using sources, expressing and connecting ideas, using feedback to revise globally were some areas where those assessments differed, for example). It made me think about something I've been noticing in my Writing Center students, as well as my students in Interpretation of Literature: self-awareness! Or lack thereof. Sometimes, students can absolutely point to an area that they know they need to work on, and it's just a matter of giving them the tools and advice they need to go forth and prosper, etc. Other times, not so much. They can read over a thesis statement they've written, and have no idea what about it needs to be changed; you can talk to them all day about the difference between summary and analysis, and they can theoretically "get it," but when it comes to differentiating what the two actually look like in their own work, they'll just kind of shrug. In other words, they struggle to be critical readers of their own work.

A common complaint from my WC students is that the feedback they get from their professors is so "vague" as to be unhelpful. I'm probably guilty of giving such feedback myself to my GEL students. And this question of how much to lead them (both WC and GEL) is such a theme for me right now. It's such a tricky balance, and it seems to differ so much from student to student. Sigh.

I also just really appreciated / laughed at Fei's honesty when was quoted as saying she was "too lazy" to go to the Writing Center in person when it was cold out. Honestly...understandable.

Comments

  1. KyleSeptember 25, 2019 at 12:45 PM

    I agree wholeheartedly about how hard it is to determine how much to lead students, especially when their abilities to read their own writing critically aren’t as developed as we’d hope. I’ve encountered this tension a number of times while teaching Interpretation of Literature. Some semesters I’ve provided everyone with a thesis statement to use for the first paper, so they could focus solely on analysis. Having worked with an effective thesis, then we would build toward composing individual thesis statements for later papers. I’m not convinced, though, that this method is as effective as just letting them try it on their own (with feedback and assistance, of course) a few times, ideally improving as they go.

    I’ve also been struggling with this with my writing center students as well, especially when they visibly hit a wall at an important juncture. And its especially true when you’re working in 25 minute segments and you as the tutor also feel the ticking of the clock and the need to identify areas of concern and help brainstorm solutions in such a short amount of time!

    ReplyDelete

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