Video Project

In our ENG 220 class we were given a task of creating a video tutorial or a video that depicted what a tutoring session would look like. My group decided to create a video that depicted a session where there were two tutees and one tutor. The tutees were to be from the same class with the same assignment but with different issues in their paper. One had LOC and the other HOC in her paper. The video was to show how tutors divide their time in order to create a successful tutoring session where both tutees get an equal amount of attention and help. I think through this video we will be able to successfully communicate this and the audience will have a good idea of what goes on during a tutoring session. My only concern with this video is the whole editing process but hopefully that will change after today.

Second Tutoring Session

In this session I was fortunate enough to tutor my students from session one. They were happy to see me and despite having introduced myself last time I reintroduced myself. This time around they had written work and done the research necessary to write their papers. One thing that I found to be interesting was the change of opinion in one of the tutee's minds, she originally believe biculturalism to be a confusion more than a strength but changed her mind. I asked her what changed her mind on the subject at hand and she said that she felt that there was more research for strengths than weaknesses.She also explained that she had some additional trouble with using the databases too. This made me think about the fact that this classroom was lacking lab classroom hours, I think in a 101 class there should be some time given for the students to be shown how to do proper research. But I imagine that in the shorter sessions this must be more difficult to make a reality.
After asking the tutee why she changed her mind I gave her a task of finding her thesis and any supporting details that reinforced it. I then went over the other tutees paper and noted any issues I had with clarity or transitions. We then spent some time discussing some of the issues I saw and I asked her some ways we could address them. I had her write some things down and then I told her to go over the paper and pick any additional areas she wanted to work on, as I helped the other tutee. She had changed her mind and told me that she found more research for strengths. I did the same for this tutee as I did the other, however I did notice some issues with sequencing/transition. I had the tutee number the paragraphs in the order in which she thought they should go and rewrite an outline of the order of the points she wanted to make in a way that made sense.
Though I feel like I did help the tutees I wish that I would have been able to help further in the earlier session with their research process. I hope that through this experience they were able to learn a lot and some ways of becoming better writers.

My 3rd and 4th Observations

During my 3rd observation I experienced a very brief session between a tutor and tutee that already have an established relationship together. The tutee needed help with MLA citations for a paper he was writing about the interview he had done with an owner of a local hotel. They went over the paper together and discussed some of the main points that were to be conveyed through this paper. The tutor spotted a few questionable citations and then proceeded to take out the citations rule handbook and flip through it in order to find an example of proper citation needed. The guidelines in the book conflicted from those the tutee had found online and so they both were stumped. Ultimately the tutor decided to go with the guidelines listed in the colleges handbook. Though the session was short I liked that I was able to see a great usage of time and that the tutor didn't neglect reviewing the paper to make sure that it had no other issues. After the session the tutor was kind enough to explain the relationship between the two and also allow me to ask any questions I had about tutoring as a whole. I opted about asking about two tutees with one tutor, he explained that each tutor had their own styles but he preferred a sort of back and forth with his tutees.

During my 4th observation I experienced a first hand account of what it was like to be tutored in the writing center. I took my own research paper to have some pointers and any corrections made. I explained to the tutor what the assignment had asked, what my grade was, and what I hoped to ultimately convey through this paper. He read through the paper on his own and after told me what I felt like I already knew "its dry". He told me the paper was well written but was lacking substance and ways of showing how Moffett was such a contributor to education. I did like that we were able to go through the paper together and break down each area where there could be certain details added. It was a good session, with some positive reinforcement and I think over all was pretty helpful. I only hope that I have the chance to put all these thoughts into writing and improve my work.

School to Prison Pipeline/Restorative Justice

After having watched the two short clips about incarceration of youths,(Book 'Em:undereducated, over incarcerated & School to Prison Pipeline)I saw how over exaggerated minor offenses are in urban public school systems across the US. Its a sad realization that minor mistakes that adolescences make are being reprimanded through police force and not through having the student reflect on their actions. In having grown up and gone to school in an urban area, I myself have witnessed fellow classmates lose their cools and be expelled. In times like those I remember thinking that it was unfair the way the students were treated and wondered if anyone else would ever see their sides of the story. People fail to realize the way suspension or expulsion is very much the gateway to incarceration or worse.
As a perspective educator where do I fall into play here? What will I do when faced with instances where there are students whom are acting out, misbehaving, or having dangerous outbursts? It would be easier to have them expelled or suspended, but not the most effective. Ultimately a goal of an educator should be to have your students become independent but also know that you are there for them and to help the student. In having them suspended you would only leave them with resentment or a hatred for school. There have to be better ways to have students take account for their actions but not to the extents of involving law enforcement if really not needed. Alternatives such as those implemented in Denver where students are made accountable for their actions and aware of what they've done.

Second Observation

During this observation I was able to see what it was like for a tutor and tutee who had a prior relationship work together. My tutor Kay had been working with Xien for quite some time and they have become comfortable with how they each work. The tutor begins reading the paper to herself and the tutee looks for any additional facts from her text that could possibly be added to strengthen her paper. As shes looking through her text I happen to notice some of the writing centers worksheets for grammar in particularly, prepositions. I also happen to notice a dictionary with the student, something that is typical for an ELL student (which I found out later that was in her case true). After the tutor was done reading the essay she pointed out her main concern of the essay as a whole which was the tutees conclusion. The tutor went on to explain why the ending was lacking and they together came up with ideas for some of the details that could be put in, in order to make the conclusion filled with more substance. After working on the conclusion the tutee and the tutor go over some minor corrections such as grammar and proper word usage. Here I noticed that this is where the tutee seemed to be the most concerned and had a lot of questions about words, there meanings, and how to proper place them in her paper. The session ends with the tutee knowing what corrections that should be made and having some more clarity with grammar, etc.
At the end I asked the tutor about how she feels working with a repeating tutee. She explained that it at times can be easier because they know how they each work and have a good flow throughout the session. However she did explain that there is a downside, the student can sometimes become to dependent on your opinion and what corrections they should make before making their own attempts at it. A good idea she said to help this is to ween them off and challenge them to find their own answers and solutions especially in cases like grammatical issues. Overall I thought it was insightful to working with ELL students and the pros and cons of already having a relationship with your tutee.

First Tutoring Session

During today's class we were able to go into an ENG 101 class and tutor two students with their writing assignments. The students task were to describe biculturalism as either a strength or confusion. They had read prior about accounts of bicultural people and the role it played on their lives. My tutees today did not have anything written but by the end at least had an outline of how they would like their papers to be. In talking to both students I found out that they were both bicultural and both felt that being bicultural was more of a confusion that a strength. At first I was unclear of what the assignment was asking but was able to get a copy of the task at hand and break down the task for my tutees. "I' usually am unsure of what hes asking in his assignments and that's where I feel the most difficulty for me is". I did explain that if they had anymore questions they should ask their professor and explain the way they interpreted the task and ask if that is not how he meant it to explain it again for them.
They both seemed very eager and excited to start their tasks but worried because they didn't have a thesis quite ready. I explained to them that they could start their papers without it so long as they knew what they wanted their body paragraphs to consist of and how they wanted to make those transitions. The two also explained that they were unsure of where to get their research from and I explained to them some of the websites they could go to and how they would use key words in order to sort out information that was applicable to their papers. Though the two seemed more confident than before I do question if I could have done more for them, but without any writing done or any sources I felt that just giving them directions of where to start was alright. I had them explain to me their plans of action and they both explained that they were going to start working on the assignment tonight and then revision. Before leaving I thanked them and wished them the best of luck. I told them I would be back next week and hopefully from there we could make any other needed editing after their peer revisions.
Ultimately the session went better than I had expected but I still feel that there was more that could have been done on my part. I do hope that I was able to give the tutees more positive reinforcement and guidance. I'm anticipating to see their works next week and seeing how my bits of input helped them.

First Observation

On Monday I participated in my first observation session of tutoring at the writing center. It was something like I had imagined it, but was more of a tight fit. During the session though I had kept my distance I still felt as though I was invading their session, but thankfully the tutee didn't mind my presence there. Other than the feeling of being invasive, the session was insightful and was a prime example of the "do's" of tutoring. The tutor was very polite and clear in expressing his points. Something I did like was that he was able to clarify that the writing centers responsibility is not to fix grammatical issues but to help students with their structuring, transitions, and clarity in their works. After expressing this to the tutee, they went over the paper together aloud and he gave some positive feedback. He then asked to go skim over the paper again and then offered his thoughts. The tutor found points where there were some clarity issues and some details that took away from some of the really powerful ideas she had in her paper. He even found instances in her paper that she could insert some additional information that would strengthen her arguments. At the end of the session the tutor found exercises for the tutee to do on her own to strengthen the areas of grammar she had trouble with. I found this to be really thoughtful and showed that the tutor did take in to consideration what the tutee was really worried about. After giving her the exercises, she took down his schedule and told him that she would be back if she needed any additional help and thanked him for his time. He wished her a good day and the best of luck. I feel that I was fortunate to have had such a good experience and see how being polite and welcoming goes a long way in order to build a relationship with the tutee, I do hope my next session will be this great but if not, its just another learning experience and time for self reflection.

Pedagogy, What Is It?

During today's ENG 220 class we watched two brief videos, one  by Dr. Sonwalkar which covered the topic of what pedagogy is and the other by Sir Ken Robinson who discussed the ideas of what the public education system. Dr. Sonwalkar described the general definition of pedagogy as the art of teaching children. He then goes on to explain that teaching should be towards the students cognitive learning and creating lesson plans that create cognitive learning. What is cognitive learning? Its learning in which students are doing thinking on more than a literal level but on a critical level. 

Sir Ken Robinson would argue that today's public education system does not do this. He believes that creativity today is squandered in children and that there is a hierarchy in what students do learn. At the top of this hierarchy is Math, Science, English and at the bottom is Humanities and the Arts. Within their education students are taught that mistakes are damaging and this crushes the possibilities of original ideas for fear of being "wrong".

Students are taught to certain skill sets and environments, and when they are met with something outside of their comfort zones are unable to come up with solutions. Their intelligence becomes something that is not their own. The way in which Sir Ken Robinson describes intelligence should be realized as is: diverse-each person is different and doesn't think the same, dynamic-original ideas and interactive,and distinct-everyone has unique talents, and there are multiple forms of intelligence.

My own personal belief is that Sir Robinson has an accurate description of education systems today. Creativity should be celebrated and embraced in the school system, something which I feel it does not do today. Testing starts from early as third grade and takes away from the child's essence of what is childhood.Every one person is unique and learns differently, something which has started to be acknowledged but has far to go through the education system.Examples of teaching that teaches to the individual is student centered learning. This is where the students are the leader in the process of their learning.They are the ones who are the primary focus and with some aid from the teachers are able to create deeper connections to their own personal experiences and their learning. Such ideas are what I believe are strides to the education system celebrating and focusing on the needs of individuals.

Links to the videos mention are below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkoRR670fj8
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html

This is the video I discussed in class yesterday and the same one my characters in my dialogue assignment will be discussing.

http://youtu.be/w-WMn_zHCVo