Conference
Are we submitting ideas for the conference that is coming up? Who has the information on that, or is it far enough away that we are not worrying about it until next semester?
I am interested in going and/or presenting—is anyone else planning to go as well? Perhaps we will talk about it in class, but I was just trying to come up with some ideas for a presentation that might also have something to do with my bibliographic essay.
I heard that the title or theme for the conference is “Returning to Our Roots”—or at least something closely approximating that—but I haven’t a clue as to what that’s supposed to mean. Returning to the roots of what? Have writing centers been around that long, and if so, what was the original intention or setup they are alluding to? Is it a return of style, setup, method, outlook/philosophy?
Also, I thought what Tammy noticed with a specific ESL student noticeably improving over the course of the semester was a really great observation. I don’t think I had taken the time to notice, but after reading her blog a few days ago I started to think about what she had said, noticing the handful of ESL students that I usually see every week or two—both in the writing center and the university village. Their ability to write has noticeably changed for the better. A student from Germany I see at the UV every other week has just about doubled his vocabulary, greatly varying his word choice. Also, a few specific ESL students I see often in the writing center no longer have issues with plural and singular nouns, only have a couple article placement mistakes per paper, and most importantly, their ideas are much more organized. They are able to form their thoughts into English and put them on to the page in a way that doesn’t sound, for lack of a better description, like it is obviously translated. Their papers simply sound better to the native speaker’s ear. Anyway, Tammy’s blog got me thinking, and I started to realize what kind of a difference our sessions can make, even if they are frustrating at times.
I am interested in going and/or presenting—is anyone else planning to go as well? Perhaps we will talk about it in class, but I was just trying to come up with some ideas for a presentation that might also have something to do with my bibliographic essay.
I heard that the title or theme for the conference is “Returning to Our Roots”—or at least something closely approximating that—but I haven’t a clue as to what that’s supposed to mean. Returning to the roots of what? Have writing centers been around that long, and if so, what was the original intention or setup they are alluding to? Is it a return of style, setup, method, outlook/philosophy?
Also, I thought what Tammy noticed with a specific ESL student noticeably improving over the course of the semester was a really great observation. I don’t think I had taken the time to notice, but after reading her blog a few days ago I started to think about what she had said, noticing the handful of ESL students that I usually see every week or two—both in the writing center and the university village. Their ability to write has noticeably changed for the better. A student from Germany I see at the UV every other week has just about doubled his vocabulary, greatly varying his word choice. Also, a few specific ESL students I see often in the writing center no longer have issues with plural and singular nouns, only have a couple article placement mistakes per paper, and most importantly, their ideas are much more organized. They are able to form their thoughts into English and put them on to the page in a way that doesn’t sound, for lack of a better description, like it is obviously translated. Their papers simply sound better to the native speaker’s ear. Anyway, Tammy’s blog got me thinking, and I started to realize what kind of a difference our sessions can make, even if they are frustrating at times.
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