Week 14

Casey

This week in Pegeen's class the students went over their first draft for Project 4. I really like this project because it gives the students a choice with what they want to write about, and I think in turn this will produce better written essays and more enthusiasm from the students.

It has been my experience while observing the classroom that the students in the Tuesday afternoon section are very reluctant to discuss Gladwell, mainly because they either didn't really understand his ideas or thought they didn't understand them. In class today, however, the students were much more involved in the discussion, which made me happy to see. I think this is due to most of the class choosing the same option for their last essay (#3 - Anti-success), and we read over one example of a student's essay who chose this option, which answered a lot of questions the class had about their own essays. This particular student used the phrase "Gladwell would say that..." instead of actually quoting Gladwell. Pegeen emphasized that it is important for the students to use Gladwell's actual ideas and implement them in the essay rather than guessing or assuming what Gladwell would say about a certain topic or situation.

We also read a student's paper that was doing the second option, sending a letter to Gladwell. It seemed that the common question among all students, no matter what option they chose for this essay, was using Gladwell's ideas in the correct context. We spent a lot of time in class discussing and evaluating some of the big ideas that Gladwell brings up, like cultural legacies, innate talent, and extraordinary opportunities. She suggested looking through thosed sections in the book again to make sure the students are using these ideas in the right context.

I feel that the students overall are understanding Gladwell better and more fully. This shows with them being able to use his ideas and relate them to their own experiences. I am really happy with how this assignment is going so far, so I'm excited to see what my student's paper will look like.

-Casey

Me again..

So during the past two weeks when I have met with my students from the class they have been brainstorming ideas for their final project. One of my students had a conversation with me about how she felt that this class as a whole all semester has not only made her a better writer but has prepared her for future college courses.
I was very happy to hear this and know that the tutors in the classroom program has at least benefitted one student, and I am sure more.
Coming up on their final assignment, where the students get to choose between 4 different prompts or come up with their own, I feel that at least w/ the students I see, they seem to want to do their own thing for the final.
One girl wants to incorporate her magazine journalism major into the final by writing an article on success and what she read in Gladwell. I feel like this would benefit her in a round about way.
2 more weeks! =]

This Week..

Casey and I observed the class this Tuesday and I was very surprised by what I saw. When we walked in, there were only three students in class! Pegeen gave the students their new essay assignment and it sort of connected with the absence of the students; she wanted the essay to be about what she as a college professor should do in order to make her students more successful. Halfway into the discussion, another student showed up and Pegeen used him as an example asking if it was fair to the other students who were there on time that she needed to repeat the discussion?
More than a half an hour rolled by when two more students showed up late, both of them being my students that I tutor. I was a bit disappointed in them I guess more so than the other student who walked in late; I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that maybe subconciously I could be thinking that this may reflect badly upon me as their tutor.
I noticed those who walked in late were the ones who were also not reading the assigned readings.
I am interested to read these papers the students are writing which will tell both Pegeen and I what they expect their professors to do when they come to class late, don't do the assignments, etc. Perhaps there is something we as their educators so to speak, just don't get?

Alicia

I've started about four blog posts in the past few weeks, and every week I get completely stymied because I'm not sure what to say. It seems as if everything that I want to say has been said more eloquently by someone else.
I agree with Whitney in that I've noticed overall improvement in my students' work. Though with some of them I feel that I need much more time. This has been supplemented somewhat by work in the classroom but I'm not sure that what needs to be getting done is getting done. This is compounded by the fact that a lot of my students are coming less frequently to their regular sessions. Continuity is being lost, and I think that depreciates the value of the sessions.

Update..

As I go through session after session with my students, I can honestly see an improvement in their work and their willingness to learn and attend sessions. From the beginning of this program until now (ten weeks into the semester) I feel that the students I've been working with have not only grown more comfortable with the tutoring atmosphere as a whole, but they have also become more comfortable with their own work and asking for help when they feel stuck.

As with all sessions, sometimes I do feel like some of the students, once they hit a certain level where they become comfortable with the tutor, start to slack off, but I do not feel like this has anything to do with the pilot program. I think this may just be an issue students who attend sessions weekly may eventually find themselves falling into.

A common issue a few of my students have had is continuing to read the Gladwell book. They are completeing the assignments to my knowledge, however they have vocalized the fact that they are becoming bored with the book and the assignments, which may or may not be why some of them fall into the previous issue of becoming too comfortable and not doing their work or bringing it into sessions.

Back to the positive, since it definately has outweighed the negative this whole semester; I don't know if it's just me or if the other tutors feel the same, but this program has made me more vested in helping these students out than before. Since I am familiar with the assignments and the course material I am not relying on just the students to inform me about what is going on in class. With five weeks left in the semester, I hope I will be informed that this pilot program will continue on in the spring. =]

First Major Paper

When the assignment sheet for the first major paper was handed out I talked to my writers about choosing a focus that was interesting and relevant to them. Many of them actually wanted to choose the final focus, which asked them to point out holes in Gladwell's argument and amend them. I warned them, just as Pegeen did in class that while this topic was the most alluring, it required more critical thinking and pointed writing than some of the other prompts. Several of my writers ended up choosing this focus and those initial sessions with them were rather difficult. While they were engaged and had vigor talking about this topic, I continually had to remind them that this was not simply an excuse to criticize Gladwell or simply say what they did not like about what they read. In sessions we would write a bit and then discuss it. This sometimes kept us from forging a complete draft within a session because as we would stop to discuss the new portion inevitably we would have to weed out the Gladwell-bashing in order to get to the discussion of Gladwell's ideas.

The next week when the writers had completed their first draft of the paper I saw that many of the writers who chose the final prompt had crafted their paper as a point, counterpoint debate. The papers had forward motion and were very neat and tidy, however they were not taking Gladwell seriously. When explaining my reservations in sessions many of the writers stood their ground, feeling very confident and satisfied with their work. During class workshops I was relieved that after some writers' papers were read Pegeen gave similar feedback to them as I did in sessions.

After Tuesday's class I met with some writers who immediately wanted to change their topic but were overwhelmed by the prospect of starting over again. I went back to Pegeen's warning that these papers would not be completely organized or tightly edited and suggested free-writing in efforts to get their true ideas and interests regarding Gladwell out on the page instead of trying to force their thoughts into one of the prompts. Once they were finished we looked over the main ideas they expressed and then back to the list of focuses and tried to match the spirit of their free write to the focus. This seemed to be less daunting for them and much more freeing than writing the first essay for some. Later in the week when we met it also seemed to provide a better foundation for them to craft their final essays upon. While many writers did not end up keeping much of their first draft I feel that it is important at times to first make an enthusiastic, creative statement and then step back and objectively sort through the work to judge value and quality.

I think the value of the class workshops became very clear with this essay as well. After Thursday's class I stayed after class with one of my writers and discussed how his essay was similar to the one read in class. We compared his essay to the two read in class and I think that activity fully illustrated how the debate format does not easily translate to a full and approachable essay. I routinely framed this essay as "an exchange of ideas" in efforts to counteract the sharp debate style. When we met the next week I was stunned to read the drastic changes from the last draft. The writer said that hearing my feedback alongside Pegeen's made him strongly consider revising his paper. I think that this example illustrates how wonderfully this program can work.

I also think that the drafting of this paper has taught the class the importance of multiple drafts and has broken the notion of first drafts being perfect, precious entities that should not be altered. I think that this assignment has strengthened the relationship between my writers and I and made them more objective editors overall.

-Brian

This Week

This week Pegeen's students and I have been getting in to the meat and potatoes of critical analysis. I've found that at first most of the students tend to take broad, defensive views of Gladwell's work, and I've attempted to steer them in a more rational direction. Which isn't to say that I've tried to change their minds but rather that I've been trying to get them to express their feelings and views in a more constructive way. They also seem to feel the need to "choose a side," and their papers are evident of a desire to refute his work completely. I've rarely seen a student agree with Gladwell though even these students have trouble expressing why and speak in absolutes. Students on both side of the argument tend to give examples from their personal life that seem to either suppose or oppose his statements. I haven't been discouraging this but I have been trying to get them to analyze his choice of wording to pick up on the nuances of the work and to speak in generalities while remaining magnanimous and unbiased. I've also been encouraging them to write in a manner that speaks to their authority and credibility.
I write this because I'm curious as to the issues that some of the other tutors are seeing in sessions with their students.

I'd like to apologize again for missing class as now I feel totally out of the loop, and I'm unsure of how much of this was covered in class.


Alicia Allyn Bobcheck

Week 7

Today in class the students had to have some of their 5 page essay about Gladwell's idea of success done in class and we spent the time doing some peer editing. We used this technique to help the students identify the focus they want to use for this particular essay and ways to "take Gladwell seriously." For this paper she wants the students not to worry so much about the organization of their essay, but more on the development of their thoughts and the words they choose that express their thoughts.

I think sitting in on the classroom was helpful because I know that a lot of the time I am emphasizing the importance of organization with my students in our sessions, but I think I will use the techniques Pegeen used in class to help my student identify her focus. I agree that this is a really complicated subject matter to deal with and the ideas that the students want to bring up will not be able to conform into a "neat package" like in a typical essay. My student did not come to her session yesterday and was not in class today, so I am anticipating going through the draft that she has and helping her develop her ideas and questions of Gladwell, and to make sure she stays with a focus rather than "rambling."

Weeks 4 & 5

Hello,

I'm afraid to say that I really don't have anything to report about week four. Sessions were completed as usual without much consequence. I was a bit disappointed about the lack of communication between the tutors and the classroom. Fortunately, nearly all of my reservations were eased in week five when I received the message from Pegeen.
Once I heard that tutors were allowed to observe as many classes as they wished I made a point of sitting in on both the Tuesday and Thursday classes. After a full week of observations I must say I feel that the continued observation of the tutors is integral to the program. While I was not having difficulty understanding Pegeen's assignments, the observations provided me with more information about the class dynamic and structure, which can be used to organize some sessions and connect the work in the WC to the course goals and activities.
I was especially happy to see Thursday's class (10/8/'09) in which Pegeen guided the writers through an exercise to learn how to analyze their own sentences. This practice directly matched what I like to do in sessions. I felt that this class activity was in perfect harmony with the work the tutors do in the Writing Center and I hope that it helped to bridge any gaps felt between the two. In my session after that class my writer commented on the similarities between what we had talked about previously and what Pegeen was guiding them through in class. Witnessing that overlap was very exhilarating.

-Brian

Week 5

Hi all,

I just found out this week that all of us are allowed to sit in on all of the classes and not just the ones that we were assigned to in the syllabus. This, I believe, will be an immense help to the program. I have had no problems interpreting the assignments the way that I believe Pegeen wants, but now I will not have to just interpret based on the assignment sheet or the way the students describe it. The only issue that I am still having at the moment would be that of attendance by the students. I only have one or two from the class that are consistently coming to their sessions now. Other than that, everything is going all right and I think that because of the weekly participation in the classroom that I will be doing, everything will just start to get better.

Notes from Pegeen

Hi all,

Thanks for your ongoing efforts to make this project work. This is new for me, too, and since I signed on to this project at the very last minute, I'm learning as I go. In fact, one thing I've learned--and this is a note for Dolly and Kyle for their report at the end--I believe that for this kind of set-up to work, there has to be a lot more deliberate preparation on the part of the instructor to integrate tutors into the classroom, while she's designing the course, the assignments, the daily schedule etc. As it is, I'm making this up as I go, and I appreciate your patience with me!

To address a couple of concerns:
Tutors are welcome in my class at any time, even on days they're not scheduled, and for as much of the class as they like. I may not have something for you to do every day, but there should always be conversations and instruction for you to observe. When I made the tutor schedule, I was trying to imagine those days when there would be more hands-on work and/or more explicit instructions about the assignments the students were working on. I was worried that you would feel like you were wasting your time just watching the students and me talk. But if you think this would be useful, then by all means, please come!

The piece of this that I'm still working out is how, and to what extent, to invite tutors to participate in the class discussions. As a teacher, I work really, really hard to make students accountable to the rest of the class by showing up prepared and willing to participate in conversation. Any teacher will tell you that the classroom dynamic is one of the trickiest and least predictable parts of teaching a course like this. I still worry that these students in particular will start to "shut down" if tutors are participating in the discussions. Not only do they see you as older, but also wiser--better readers, better writers, better students (after all, you're the tutors!) I'm not sure what to do about this, but I'm thinking about it, and would appreciate feedback.

During the next couple of weeks, we're still reading the first part of Outliers, they'll be writing a summary of Ch. 2 this week, and then we'll start working on the next major essay assignment. As I said above, you are welcome to attend my class whenever you like!

Pegeen

I agree with Casey in that I believe having more classroom time would be helpful. At the Learning Studio, we are encouraged to build a rapport with our students to aid in our tutoring. I've found that this is essential to building a strong tutor-writer relationship. As such, I think that in addition to being more present in the classroom it would be to everyone's benefit and comfort if the tutors were able to participate in class more. While I understand Pegeen's concerns as explained to me by Kyle, I think our role as passive observers rather than participant observers might give the impression that we are in class to judge the students rather than to help them. If our intentions for this pilot are not understood clearly by the students then I believe that they, perhaps already overwhelmed by college life, might feel pressured and alienated from the classroom experience.

I do believe that this pilot has instilled in the writers a sense of personal responsibility. I find that Pegeen's students are more likely to bring their assignments to the sessions and work on them while they are there. This has been particularly impressive to me, and I've found my sessions with her students to be some of the most productive. I've also gotten the sense that my students of hers also feel this way and are more confident in their ability to think critically.

Recap: Weeks 2 and 3

Very sorry for the lapse in postings. Following the assignments has been fairly easy since the majority of my weekly appointments are from Pegeen's class. I find that very little time each session is devoted to reviewing the previous week's work or re-reading the assignment, which is helpful.

Week 2 I sat in on the Thursday class and listened to the group revision discussion. I appreciated being invited to watch this process because it gave me further insight into what Pegeen's goals were for the class and it also allowed me to see how the writers were responding to her teaching style. After watching the group discussion I mirrored some of Pegeen's techniques in the cubicle, which the writers responded to positively.

After the group revision Pegeen broke up the writers into small groups to finish the revision process for everyone's essays. I was placed with three writers and Pegeen asked me to offer feedback on each essay. This proved to be a bit difficult because there was not much time available to give a full reading to each paper. Furthermore, when it came to sharing our views on the writing, I felt a bit pressed for time and ultimately had to provide bullet point-style feedback, which I do not like to do. The writers heard what the strengths and weaknesses were in their essays but we did not get to fully discuss how to begin the revision process. No doubt this was most likely covered with Pegeen in class, but I would have liked to give full feedback to each writer as well.

I feel very positive and optimistic about the program from my sessions in week 3. I noticed considerable revisions in some of the writers' final essays with better understanding of why they made their decisions on the page.

My only concerns are with the small group work. I felt a bit uncomfortable that Thursday when I attended class because I was alone and only one group of writers was able to meet with me. I know that scheduling has been difficult but I feel that a second tutor would provide more balance to the tutor-student dynamic in class. Also, the limited time affected the quality of feedback I was able to provide the writers. If possible I would like to sit in on the entire class so that my presence is not viewed as a disruption and there is no need to brief me on what the class has been working on before I arrive. This might also provide more time for feedback as well.

-Brian

Week 4

I know we are supposed to be posting every week to talk about our experiences in the classroom, but the reason why I personally have not been posting is because I haven't been in the classroom since the first day of school. Unfortunately, the people going into the classroom on Tuesdays are not scheduled to come in as often, which has proven to be a disadvantage during the sessions with my student from the class. There have been a few times when the student has tried to explain to me what they did during class, or what Pegeen expected the class to do with their assignments. The student didn't fully understand it herself in the first place, which in turn confused me as well when she tried to relay it back. I often feel that my sessions are not as successful due to my absence in the classroom, and that I could have better serviced my student if I had been there to understand the expectations of them.

I really love the idea of this program, and I loved going into the classroom on the first day getting to know the dynamic of the class. I hope that maybe something will be amended to the schedule so that the Tuesday people will get more of a chance to sit in on the classroom and get to know the students. I look forward to seeing everyone for the meeting on Wednesday!

Casey

First Week

Aside from the Timetrade mishap I think the first week of in-class tutoring went well. Meeting at the pre-semester meeting was very helpful, however there were a few moments this week where I was a bit unclear about the process.
It was wonderful meeting Pegeen's Tuesday morning class and listening to the explanation of the syllabus. This overview gave me a good idea of the course goals, which I feel will be beneficial to my tutoring sessions this semester. I was able to meet with two students after sitting in on the first class and our sessions mainly consisted of brainstorming and discussing what success meant to them. Getting the essay started was difficult for them, so we mainly wrote outlines and rough drafts of the reflection.
When Thursday came I was a bit unsure what I was supposed to do in class that day. Nita also said that she wanted to send another tutor with me and suggested that Kendra accompany me and become part of this project. When we arrived at the morning class Pegeen briefly explained the revision process to Kendra and I and gave us a copy of the student writing we would be reviewing in class. After the students read their papers aloud I was a bit unsure how much Pegeen wanted Kendra and I to contribute to the discussion. I recalled Pegeen mentioning at the pre-semester meeting that the tutors would be contributing to group discussions so I felt it was expected of Kendra and I to contribute. When I felt that the conversation was losing steam I offered my opinion hoping to keep the momentum going. I commented once on two different pieces and I think Kendra commented once on another. Listening to Pegeen's instructions for the revising process was helpful, especially since she wanted to emphasize that the goal was to make the second draft different, not necessarily better than the first one.
After class Pegeen told Kendra and I that she wanted the tutors to mainly observe during these group readings for the first part of the semester and maybe gradually begin contributing. She also wanted Kendra and I to pass the word along to all of the tutors to be aware of the "different, not necessarily better" rule for this first essay.
After sitting in on the class I met with one of the writers and we mainly focused on defining the difference between an accomplishment and a success. I stressed that once they had decided upon that they would know whether or not to continue writing about this same topic, re-tell the situation from a different point of view and so on. The concept of writing a "different" essay came up when the writer proposed different points of view to tell the story from and I questioned whether or not those other points of view would differ much from that in the first draft. At the end of the session the writer still had many questions but knew what to do in order to start the next draft.

I suppose for the upcoming weeks I would like to know ahead of time when the tutors are allowed to contribute to the group discussions, in order to avoid the confusion of this first week. When that time comes it might be good for the tutors to meet with Pegeen ahead of time to share our views and be sure we're on the same page. Other than that I am very excited about this project.

-Brian

1st day

Brian and I got through the first day of the program with a little bit of frustration due to a Timetrade issue. That aside, it really seems like the semester will go smoothly. Pegeen really seems to want to involve the tutors directly and is keeping us well informed. Despite that little issue with Timetrade, I'm pretty optimistic right now.

Just checkin' it out...

I can't believe I remembered my old password. Yea! for not having to create a new one.