Happy Halloween!

If any of you guys are board this weekend and have nothing to do, go to this website and play some Halloween Hangman. If possible, play at a computer that has sound. The hangman guy talks. Have a Happy Halloween, everyone!

http://www.dedge.com/flash/hangman/

APA and Biomed and ESL -- oh my!

I am going to tell you something that may shock you. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Once upon a time in a distant land called Bountiful, someone labeled me a smarmy know-it-all. I know! Surprising, huh? (I was mildly disappointed in her insult. After all, she had to revert to the Harry Potter series to find that one. And who uses the word "smarmy" these days, anyway?) She said I acted like I knew everything -- and on occasion, I may have acted that way. In my defense, I was still in high school and almost everyone acted like that on occasion. But even when I assumed such an act, I knew that I didn't know everything. I still don't know everything. And here is a Q&A based on real tutoring sessions I've had that prove it.

Q. What is Crohn's disease?
A. Something that isn't good for your health.

Q. Is this information about cell phones correct?
A. I work at a writing center.
Q. So?
A. So I don't know anything about cell phones. I don't even own one.

Q. What can you tell me about APA format?
A. The health sciences use it often and I can provide you with a handout we can review together. (I've actually been tempted to say, "Correct me if I'm wrong . . ." but it seems as though the student would lose all confidence in me if I said something like that.)

Q. Why do you put articles in front of nouns?
A. I don't know who made the rule. I just know the rule. Some things are what they are.

Q. Do you know who wrote this article about cloning?
A. I'm afraid not. I haven't read up on cloning recently.

Q. Why do I need to arrange this in paragraphs anyway?
A. I don't know. Because it's convention and it's easy on a reader's eyes. The arrangement is especially helpful when a reader only has one good eye left.

I have had a couple of sessions where I felt dumber and dumber by the minute because I relied so heavily on the student and on Hacker to learn things as I went. And the more dumb I feel, the more inadequate I feel. And the more inadequate I feel, the more I want to crawl under the table. And the more I want to crawl under the table, the more I want to learn everything so I have no need to crawl under the table. I would also like a sign that says, "Contrary to what you believe, I do not know everything."

Of course, it's equally hard to tutor topics I know about because I constantly worry about crossing the line. Did I say too much? Was that question genuine or was it rhetorical? And the whole time I'm in such tutoring sessions, two voices in my head constantly quarrel: "Help more, help more" and "shut up, shut up" become an odd sort of refrain. I also worry that I begin talking like the tutoring session has become a means of proving my intellectual capabilities.

In any case, if you ever feel like I'm trying to prove I'm so smart to you when we're having a conversation, feel free to say: "Katie, stop being such a smarmy know-it-all."

question for the ladies...

so, after class i was thinking about all this he/she controversy and i am just wondering if women really do get offended by writers who only use "he," because in spanish speaking cultures a lot of women actually don't care, and some even get a little offended if you try to invent feminine words for their occupations which normally use the masculine form of the word.

for example, i've heard of a lot of women who, instead of calling themselves "abogadAs (lawyers)" will call themselves, "mujeres abogadOs."

of course i'm a guy, and an ignorant one at that, so i don't really know how it all works.

what do those of you "affected" by this "controversy" think? should we just use "he" or do that awkward "he/she" thing? or should we just use "she" all the time?

Where are we going, eh?

Tutors should "set an agenda" of some sort, right? Well, lately I feel like I am discovering a gap between what the student wants to accomplish in a tutoring session and what I want to accomplish. I'm afraid that I might be missing an important step in the negotiation process. But I don't think so. I ask what the assignment is, who the teacher is... what the student would like to talk about... I ask questions... I give options. This is good; is it not?

Well, what if I have already worked with a student before? Does that mean that the student and I should go through the "setting the agenda for the next 30 minutes" thing again? To answer my own question: YES. I think so. Otherwise you could experience the same session again. I know because I've done it. What happens if you don't set the agenda? Either hardly anything productive and much confusion on my part (was I any good at all? We didn't have a goal so we didn't get anywhere) or you fall back to the goal you had last time and you achieve it like you did last time.

There is a somebody who hangs out in the Writing Center a lot. He signs up to work with tutors (not just me) to work on his presentation project. That's not a problem--- that's what we're here for: to help students with their writing projects. The problem that I'm seeing is that he doesn't like to go through the negotiation process. I have to constantly ask: "what do you want to do for the next 20 minutes?" and "what do you want me to look at? What questions do you have for me?" He avoids answering my questions and leaps into the session without setting a clear goal with me. I don't really know what he wants to accomplish, but he has jumped into it--- he must know what he wants to get done, right? I decide that I will just dive in with him and find out where he is taking me. In some tutoring sessions this is okay... it works---ish. I establish a goal by discovering what the student is thinking along the way and then I confirm the goal with the student and I'm in the game. But what if I never figure out the writer's thinking? What if I can't follow to wherever the heck he or she is taking me? The writer might want to be going to a beach in California and I'm lost in the mountains... in Alaska. How do I find my way back?

I know it was a while ago when we talked about setting the agenda, and don't think that I just barely get it. Don't think, "oh, gees, Kassie. You can't set the agenda? We talked about that so long ago." I can--- I negotiate the best that I can anyway. But I can't do it alone. What I'm getting at is....Negotiation: it takes more than one person. Tutors can't negotiate a session alone. I understand a student might want control of the session; he or she knows what they want to accomplish, but I'm getting paid to help them... can't the student and I come to a compromised goal? I feel like saying, "At least let me know where you're going; let me see if I can help you. Isn't that why you signed up for a session?"

On the flip side, tutors don't want to "take-over," especially right from the start. There needs to be common ground. I think that is where I am finding the gap. It's a communication gap. If the student doesn't want to find common ground and I can't convince the writer to let me in on the objective of the session so we can work together... then what? Should I be like Tyler and say "NEXT PLEASE!" ? We're obviously not working together if I'm playing with polar bears and penguins in Alaska and he is avoiding sharks while surfing in California.

Finding Common Ground

I enjoyed Rafoth’s ideas in the reading assignment this week about finding common ground in a tutoring session. He seemed to be saying that it is critical for both tutor and student to find common ground before the session can really get started—it is a starting place for all the work that needs to be done.

In the Writing Center, the student is in the tutor’s territory—at best, he may feel like a welcome guest or a friend; at worst, he may feel out of place, unwelcome, or even threatened. (Think of the last time you felt out of place or like you didn’t belong. Did someone help you and put you at ease? Or were you left alone in your awkwardness? Do students feel the same way in the Writing Center?) Since the student is in “tutor territory,” it is the tutor’s responsibility to search for common ground and initiate the process of understanding. One of a tutor’s main objectives, in fact, is to understand the student—what he is thinking, what he is trying to write, how he intends to do it, and what he wants help with. But as the tutor seeks to understand the student, he can also help the student to better understand the Writing Center and the tutor’s own role--the understanding can be mutual.

When tutor and student reach a mutual understanding, the real work can begin. Ideas can be more freely discussed, questions can be more openly raised, and the issues that lie at the heart of the paper can be brought into the open. On the other hand, two of the biggest pitfalls in tutoring can be misunderstanding and miscommunication. Usually these two go hand-in-hand. Do tutors try to force their advice, opinions, ideas, and suggestions on students before they try to understand them? Do they try to solve the problem before they even know what the problem is? Sometimes a tutor has to step outside his role of “tutor” and understand the student as a regular person before offering advice as a tutor.

Rafoth suggests that tutors offer students a new, fresh perspective of their work and ideas. But tutors can do this only after they first find common ground with the student and understand his starting point and where he wants to go.

I can only Pick One?

I guess there are several different types of papers I have a bit of a challenge approaching. In all honesty, each paper presents different challenges for me, but specifically, I have a hard time seeing the same asssigned papers over and over again. I understand the mentality that this ouight to make the process easier and faster, but based on the way I try to look at each paper--a new experience with each individual student--when I see the same paper multiple times it causes me problems.

I don't say this to boast: this individual attention causes many problems with my tutoring. The biggest problem I see is that at times I have a hard time connecting the paper to the student. To explain: I tend to look at the mechanics of a student's paper at one time, and then when I'm done looking at the paper then I pull myself out and address the student seperately.

In addition to the assigned papers, I would have to agree with several of my fellow writing tutors in saying that APA research papers are difficult for me. Luckiliy, I haven't had to face one head on yet. At times, MLA confuses me, and APA seems so much more complex and obscure. On top of that, it seems like often when students with research papers come to the writing center, they don't have a clear understanding of their assignments. It makes it very difficult to help them when we don't know what the professor is trying to teach them. At times, I'm afraid that I'm butting heads against what the student thinks his/her professor has said and what I know to be the general rule.

For example, I don't know if enyone else has run into students who say their professors have told them to not include a thesis statement in a research paper; that they were supposed to simply introduce the paper in a general (might I call wishy washy) fashion.

In general though, things have gotten better. Who knows: maybe at some point I'll be able to face each type of paper with the utmost ease. I'm afraid, I'm a ways away yet, however.

Just Move On

So far, I haven’t really used defensive minimalist techniques in my turoring––it doesn’t feel like my style. Maybe, like Kassie wrote, I do it instinctively sometimes. However, I don’t sit back in my chair and intentionally mimic the student, or consciously try to copy him.

A while ago in class, tutoring was described as a negotiation between the tutor and the student writer. Both need to be involved in setting goals, discussing ideas, and improving the paper for the session to be productive. If one or the other doesn’t participate, the session stalls and fails to be effective.

As a tutor, I feel like I feed off of the student’s involvement in the session. If she is excited and involved and interested, so am I. But if she is disinterested or distracted during the session, I find it difficult to do my best. Although at times I am tempted to “take over” a session, it is more natural for me to put the same amount of effort into a session as the student (maybe this is a subtle form of defensive minimalism?). When a student doesn’t seem interested in a session I try to ask questions and get the conversation started. But if the she remains unresponsive, instead of trying to get her attention by using defensive minimalism techniques, I prefer to just move on—move on to the next paragraph, the next question, the next student.

I get the impression that defensive minimalism is too confrontational for me. Honestly, I’m no good at confrontation—I don’t like it, it doesn’t come naturally, and I certainly can’t use it to my advantage. When I have tried to be confrontational in the past, it has never been helpful. Usually, the person can sense my complete awkwardness and lack of comfort and the situation gets worse than it already was. I would rather act naturally and speak sincerely to try and win the student over. Sometimes it works, but sometimes you just have to move on--NEXT PLEASE!

Topics Topics Topics

Simple question for this week: what kinds of topics/disciplines do you find you have difficulty tutoring? Political papers? Science topics? The same topic over and over again?

Adventures in Documentary Picture Taking

I have been exploring some great begining classes this semester for my major, which is Art, and one of them happens to be Basic Photography. It's not something I have been particularly drawn to but I sure have been having fun with it so far. We started with Photograms and then moved on to "Light", then explored the effects of our medium by giving our prints nonliteral names (if that makes any sense). I have had more fun with this than I have had with any other beginning class aside from Ceramics. Others have not enjoyed this class like I have. Some have been very frustrated to the point of tearing up and have made some expensive mistakes, like exposing 100 sheets of paper before it's been printed and ruining their film during the developing process. I ruined my first role when I tried to rewind it without pushing in the button on the bottom of my camera and ripped the sides up about half the length of my 36 exposures. I'm not too torn up about it. I am a beginner after all. As with any other art class, the day the assignment is due, we pin our work up on the wall and let all its onlookers rip it to shreds with critique. Our current assignment is a documentary of ourselves.

Every three hours we are to take a picture of our "self" in whatever place we are in doing whatever it is we do as naturally as we can do it. After two days we are to develop our film and make prints before we repeat the procedure taking pitures of our "alter ego" instead. These two, the natural self and the alter ego self, are, I am told, often interchangeable and usually thought of as more accurately portayed when they are flipped. I have yet to discover myself from this perspective and I think it will be embarrassing but fun.

This experience is not unlike the experience most students have during college writing. It starts out kind of fun, maybe frustrating to some, and an interesting learning experience. As students get further involved, they can get a little frustrated if writing doesn't come easy. Or a lot frustrated as the case may be. And then, if they come to the Writing Center, they find themselves feeling "pictured" or "taken". Maybe they feel embarrassed to be exposed and critiqued by their peers, but still find some enjoyment when inevitably positive comments are said in their favor and they realize that all their hard work is paying off as they learn how to write for an "A".

Writing is very much a creative proccess. It requires a plan, a structure, a purpose, and an outcome. And practice. Just like taking pictures, writing must have a solution that is agitated just right so not to over expose or underexpose the writer's ideas. There are several tries with each exposure time, shown to the tutor, before a final print is ready to turn in. And I suppose that process is what keeps us working or makes us decide to give up. The grade sometimes is the only motivation to keep students creating and the classes are taken only because they are required, but the achievement is always worth while. And the document tells a story of the student through its medium.

LEAN BACK AND PUT DOWN YOUR PEN

Passive aggressiveness in a tutoring session can sometimes be an incredibly useful tactic. I have found that most students end up feeling somewhat awkward and feel more obligated to participate in a session. I’ve never felt like I was mocking a student by using defensive minimalism. I try not to do exactly what the student is doing; I just reflect part of their attitude while remaining aware that my job is to encourage the student to be involved. I tend naturally to lean back in my chair if the student is leaning back in their chair. If I feel a student isn’t participating at the level I would like them to be, I’ll put down my pen and start asking them more questions. Most of the time, these tactics work to my advantage and the student understands what I want them to do and they do it.

But sometimes when I use defensive minimalism, I worry that what I’m doing might turn disastrous and when I lean back in my chair and put down my pen, the student will think I’m also disinterested. I’m worried that they think I’m there to force them to participate, and when I mimic their actions, they’ll feel like I don’t care about the session, so they might as well leave. On the other hand, they might instead feel like I’m not doing what they wanted me to do for the session, so they’ll change their actions and initiate discussion. I guess it’s just a matter of judging each session and gauging how to best go about engaging the student.

I wonder, though, about what other tactics to use before it comes to having to mimic the student to get them to participate. I generally like to use the “Offer the student some questions she can ask herself” method if they’re not willing to give me a lot of information on their concerns about the paper. This has helped when a student comes in and only asks me if their paper flows. I think that people have a lot of definitions about what “flow” means, so I like to ask about different aspects of what they’ve written, and that way we might both understand each others’ expectations of the session and I won’t have to worry about mimicking anyone’s body language.

blog for last week

A girl came in with one of the gossip papers-yuck!- and she was talking about how text messaging is often interpreted the wrong way. Which brings me to my question: Did I text Nathan back or did I texted him back? Did he text me, or did he texted me? I know the answer to the second set of question, I think. But the first is where my confusion lies.
Although I do it more than I would like to, slouching is bad. It is not good for your health, and it is not good for you appearance or confidence. Why should I sacrifice my health for someone else’s
If someone were to be txt (no ‘e’) messaging throughout the session, I would have to ask if there was an emergency, and if not then to either stop the distractions or to please reschedule the session. I’ve never been in this situation, so I don’t know how well I would really do, but I know I would like it to be handled.
After reading Young’s essay and following the advice to take a gander at the appendix, I found wonderful ways to improve my writing.
I honesty would love to come to the writing center for help when I’m stuck, but it goes against all my ‘pride’ as a tutor, and another because I can’t stand the way the center is structured. No, no we do a great job and stuff like that. It’s the whole ‘reading together’. I like to have two copies, one for them to read by themselves, and one for me to read backwards to myself. Once their done, we’ll come together and talk. Basically, all the talking that is done at the beginning of the session will still be the same and in the same place, but the commentary that happens throughout the session would take place at the end.
Season of Learning? Do y’all have one? Are you in the season of learning at all times, or do you do better in school over the summer rather than fall? Or vise versa? Do y’all take the summer off from school like you would public school, or go straight through?

And I totally agree with Marks comments at the tail end (that's all I read) anout Rogers class helping us with my other classes.