Week 7: Thoughts on Reading Strategies as TA and Tutor

This chapter inspired some sympathy and patience for the students I TA (class: Anthropology & Contemporary World Problems), many of whom complained that there's "too much" reading (two articles, less than 30 pages, a week) or that they want me to "explain the reading more" during discussion section. I'm aghast. No textbook and so few pages-- I never had it so good! My indignation is chastened by Bean when I think of the multiple choice-only tests that reward "surface reading." While these are tied to an academic labor issue-- there's not time or money enough to pay qualified people to correct 300 short answer exams-- it's hurting the students. As much as I like many of Bean's suggestions for helping students, I'm afraid I don't have the resources to make writing guides as a humble TA. Are their any time-saving tricks that minimize lesson prep but add these strategies to any day?

I will continue to refuse to "lecture over" the reading material and be more conscious how, up until the first seminar I took as an undergraduate upper class person, I also "assume[d] that it is the teacher's job is to explain the text to" me. Grad school's discussion heavy format forces students to unpack meanings for themselves and has been a rude awakening even more an avid reader of many genres like me. The "discussion section" format of large classes like the one I TA for must be similarly bizarre.

Bean's point #8, "difficulty seeing themselves in conversation with the author," explained a hiccup in my most recent tutoring session. My student was struggling with choosing the correct tense for explaining Aristophanes' argument. "Present tense?" she hazarded, and said of course. Since he's been dead quite awhile, she looked confused, so I added, "He wrote plays that are still performed. His words, and all texts, are ALIVE!" I've missed the implication of text's animacy myself and hope to take advantage of the Halloween season to remind students that text, like Frankenstein, functions better with some kindly dialoguing (and some scribbled curses in the margins during stubborn moments.)

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