I. INtro-- I have to change the original one I wrote, it was totally wrong, it was too general. I have to be more specific.
II. Literature Review: (place annotated bibliography reading here and review of the literature)
Source: Shaw,Jessica D. Medfield High School, Medfield, Massachusetts.The Writing Lab Newsletter, Tutor's Column: How to melt an icy student, July 11-14, 2002, p.12. electronic newsletter.
"Allison waltzes into the Writing Center. With her nose in the air, she lowers herself reluctantly into a chair and gingerly hands over her paper. As the tutor reads her work. Allison asks obnoxiously, "Are you qualified to read my paper?" As the tutor makes suggestions, Allison raises her eyebrows and defends her paper, dismissing every word. At this point, several thoughts fly through the tutor's head. What's the best way to handle a student like Allison? How do you stay collected and still attempt to help her?" (Shaw 12)
"Nearly every tutor encounters students that are so apathetic that they seem frightening, annoying, infuriating, or all of the above. Icy students definitely pose a unique challenge to tutors. Regardless of the type, though, tutors should make an effort to both help the student and save their own sanity!" (Shaw 12)
Even though she starts off her article with an arrogant, impulsive student, the example the writer is trying to demonstrate is that, many times through rhetoric and questioning, a student's attitude and session will be turned around, and as a coach, one's cool is not lost, in order to continue helping the student. I wasn't sure what "icy" meant but after careful review, now see that it means hard to break like ice. Meaning a difficult person to tutor and insinuating the student has the attitude of an ice queen (ill mannered and obnoxious even though she is the one needing the help, not the coach.)
The review goes on to pinpoint (3) three options in handling such a student.
"One option for the tutor is to try to melt the student immediately. After opening with friendly small-talk, pointed question like, "What can I help you with today?" or "How would you like to revise your paper and make it better?" can encourage the student to open up and get involved in the session." (Shaw 12
"Another option for tutors is to make an effort t help icy students without doing anything extra. Tutors must be friendly, ask questions, and read the paper with care, but limit the amount of suggestions: an attitude problem does not make for receptive students!" (Shaw 12)
"At the end of the session, tutors should smile and thank the student for coming. They can also remind the student of the other resources the writing center had to offer. Handouts, written-only feedback, and a website may help the student in the future and push him or her to continue using the writing center. Encouraging the student to return helps to end a less-than-ideal session on a positive note." (Shaw 12)
"For tutors, sometimes the greatest challenge can be to remember not to take anything personally!" (Shaw 12)
"The point is, Allison may or may not be open to help. Maybe she was forced by a teacher to see a tutor, or perhaps she's afraid of writing since people have been overly critical of her work in the past. Tutors have zero control over these factors. All they can do is be patient, make an effort, and let it all go at the end." (Shaw 12)
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Brooks, Jeff. "Minimalist Tutoring: Making the Students Do All the Work. Writing Lab Newsletter 15.6 (1991): 1-4. Reprinted with permission. All Rights and Titles reserved unless permission is granted by Purdue University. Barnett, Robert W. and Jacob S. Blumner, The Longman Guide to Writing Center Theory and Practice, p. 219-224, print.
Brooks talks about tutoring in three different perspectives: basic minimalist tutoring where the student seems like he/she is in control, but the coach is guiding the session through-out. Advance Minimalist says .....blah....blah.... . And Defensive Minimalist Tutoring rebuttles with such ideals as .....blah...(write theory here).
Basic Minimalist Tutoring
"Sit beside the student, not across a desk--that is where job interviewers and other authorites sit. This first signal is important for showing that you are not the person "in charge" of their paper." (Brooks 221) "Have the student read the paper aloud to you, and suggest that he hold a pencil while doing so. ...this will accomplish three things [:]" (Brooks 222)
- "it will bypass that awkward first few moments of the session...
- this will actively involve the student in the paper...I find that many students are able to find and correct usage errors, awkward wording, even logic problems without prompting from me...
- this will help establish the sometimes slippery principlethat good writing should sound good." (Brooks 222)
Advanced Minimalist Tutoring
"As always, the main goal is to keep the student active and involved in the paper. I have three suggesstions: " (Brooks 222)
- "Concentrate on success in the paper, not failure. Make it a practice to find something nice to say about every paper, no matter how hard you have to search. ...But by pointing, out to a student when he is doing something rght, you reinforce behavior thatmy have started as felicitous accident.
- Get the student to talk. ...When there are sentence-level problems, make the student find and (if possible) correct them. When something is unclear, don't say, "This is unclear"; rather say, "What do you mean by this?" Instead of saying, "You dont have a thesis," ask the student," Can you show me your thesis?" "What's your reason for putting Q before N?" is more effective than "N should have come before Q." It is much easieer to point out mistakes than it is to point the student toward finding them, but your questions will do much more to establish the student as sole owner of the paper and you as merely an interested outsider.
- If you have time during your session, gie the student a discrete writing task, then go away for a few minutes and let him do it." (Brooks 223) For example, if the student has to complete a task, have him write a blurp or a mere continuation of what they are missig in their paper or thesis. This will allow the student to start thinking of how he/she wants to direct this paper and take a look back at what thoughts they want to relay to their audience. Then what Brooks suggests is to leave the student and his/her thoughts and revisit the scenario the student is being confronted with. This type of confrontational or pressure cooker writing results in most writers, but caution would take heed for ESL or students with disabilities, where as their function and performance are separate examples altogether. "Any experienced writer knows that a deadline is the ultimate energizer. Creating that energy for a small part of the paper is almost th best favor you can do for a student." (Brooks 223) Although keeping in mind that ESL students and those with disability not only learn and deal with issues at their own pace, yet brings about another issues altogether, that which in turn was not the focus of this study.
Defensive Minimalist Tutoring
(write here from page 223...from white book)
"There are many students who fight a non-editing tutor all the way. They know you know how to fix their paper, and that is what they came to have done. Some find ingenious ways of forcing you into the role of editor: some withdraw from the paper, leaving it in front of you; some refuse to write anything down until yo tell them word for word what to write; others will keep asking you questions ("What should I do here? Is this part okay?"). Don't underestimate the abilities of these students; they wyou into submission if they can." (Brooks 223)
"To fight back, I would suggest we learn some techniques from the experts: the uncooperative students themselves [:]
- Borrow student language.
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McAndrew, Donald A. and Thomas J. Reigstad. Tutoring Writing: A Practical Guide for Conferences. CHapter 6: Pgs. 42-69. Portsmouth, New Hampshire: Boynton/Cook Publishers: 2001. print.
Effective Questions and What works
"A student wrote about a lacquered wooden box that her granfather had made for her grandmother. The piece opened with a detailed description of the box, talked about how her grandfather had made it, then described how much her grandfather and grandmother were in love. The piece finished wit how her grandmother uses the box today. The tutor drew out to find which of the four issues she really wanted to foreground. ... Once the tutor helped her clarify that showing the box was important, he moved on t development strategies to help the student develop her descriptin of the box so that she would not feel the need to fill the piece out with unrelated information." (McAndrew & Reigstad 45)
"Effective tutorials on thesis/focus are a combination of using a strategy and conversing about the results of that strategy." (McAndrew & Reigstad 45)
(Place here the effective questioning on pages 42, 43, 44) Little book Chapter 6
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(go to chapter 4 on "THe tutoring process" the little book, pgs. 25
-The priority of Concerns
-Three tutoring options
A. Student-Centered Tutoring p.25
B. Collaborative Tutoring p.26
C. Teacher-centered tutoring, p26
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Look at 2 other sources from writing lab newsletter ...
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The 2 Sigma Problem: The Search for Methods of Group Instruction as Effective as One-to-One Tutoring
III. Methodology (put detail on how got data & why)
A. HOw my research was conducted?
B. Writing Center Sessions
C. Peer Tutors at Kean
D. All types of students I observed who came to the Writing Center for help: ESL students, freshman, juniors, English majors, History majors, or just walk in students needing a little help with revising a paper already handed in and graded.
IV. Data: Results on Analysis (Describe from notes & how relates to focus question on top)
A. Case Study 1: The fix it Kid, how did effective questioning helped this particular student who wanted "to fix" her paper? What did the tutor ask? How did the student respond?
Case Study 1:
Session 1: October 19, 2010
Coach: female (Maria)*
Student: female (Curly)*
*= real names have been made up to protect individual's privacy.
The student walked in coming from an English 1030 class, saying, "I need to fix my paper."
The coach eased into conversation, and began asking what she can do to help. Yet the student was persistent, and said "I need to fix it, need to rewrite for tomorrow"
Coach Maria: "You want to read [it] together," the coach said pointing to a paper already corrected with markings all over the copy.
The tutor came closer to student by strolling her seat closer to the student. They started to read together the highlighted comments of what the student's professor wrote. "Curly" became frustrated by putting her hand on her head and sighed. The student took out a pencil.
Coach: "She [professor] wants details." Student seemed a little frustrated but as the session continued writing paper aloud, "You're good..."
Coach: "What are you trying to say?"
Student: "What do you mean normal?
Coach: "Why don't you say :"In that way..." and motioned for student to fill in the blanks on the paper.
When the student resisted, and said "Okay," yet her body language with her hand on her head with the elbow to the table mostly said the contrary and that she was not comfortable with what the tutor was saying. Then the coach said, "Your paper...your choice...the way you said it, it's not the way you meant it..."
With this tutorly move, the coach was able to get the student talking about what the student's paper was all about and what she [the writer] was trying to get across.
Good questions overall was seen in this session--with the student resistant at first, because the tutor's initial reaction was the thought that the tutor was going to fix her paper. In not doing so, the session was an effective one, allowing the tutor to control the progress of the session.
B. Case Study 2: Coach keeps asking questions but tutor not responding...how did the tutor "turn-around" the student? or was the session effective?
Tutor (female) = “Madeline”
Student (female) = “Rebecca”
Tutor laid back in chair with a calm and soothing voice. The Student was quiet, though articulated voice. Seemed like an ESL student (had an accent and trouble with language.
Tutor Madeline: What is your assignment?
Student Rebecca: What do you mean?
Tutor Madeline explained throwing back her words...yet with a different approach at the same meaning of what she just asked. Rephrasing her question, now asking, “This is what you said what do you mean?”
Rebecca took a glance--and sat back while still holding her pen, but overall seemed like she understoood.
“How will I continue?” She was stuck,but Madeline helped her get unstuck by explaining what Rebecca said versus what she meant.
Writer: "Can I say? ... this on my paper?"
Tutor looked at assignment notations--picked up student paper and placed it back on the table.
In the meantime, student was trying to figure out 2-3 sentences (I think for her conclusion).
The session is totally lost at this point, seems that both the writer and the coach are literary at both opposing sides of the spectrum. The coach lost the session by not keeping the writer on their toes, and not consistently following the session. As if the coach was allowing the student to control the session. If the questioning was not affective at this point, I felt that the tutor needed to form a hypothesis of the progress and formulate another game plan. The writer was there to be instructed and guided, because obviously Rebecca was lost, and Madeline didn't seem to have the answers or the questions for that matter.
Tutor rebutted a few minutes too late, "It's not so much about appearance?!
Student: "It's suppose to be 4 pages or 1,000 words...I already did the four pages so I'm okay with that...
Coach: "You don't want to do too much counter argument--the strongest argument should be what you agree with."
The student was continuously getting stuck on the 2-3 sentences in her paper. Rebecca was worried about quantity versus the tutor was worried about quality. Making better writers seemed like it was embedded in the coach's brain, but she really wanted to help the ESL student.
The student pulled out her laptop to begin to write her paper formally, or fix her paper on her computer.
Tutor (still on the sidelines): "The best thing to do is ask your teacher (I'm assuming) not sure if your teacher wants to go into too much detail...
The student starts to say Ah-hum's, Ah-ha, ah-huh, like in reponding yes, either to ignore or just get Madeline out of her hair.
The student started to look up her research--"the word Endorsements", glanced up quickly at the tutor for her approval, then Madeline said, "Okay, go..." as if to agree with what she was doing or what else could she say at this point when the student took over the session. And maybe, just maybe, she could of kept up the effective questioning or just shifted to another move in her session. Yet no, tutor was getting beat up on and just was standing there taking it.
Rebecca: "I think I'm going to delete sentence." (pointing to her paper on the laptop)
Madeline: "I would do the same thing," the tutor said. "Everything's okay." (nodding with her head down as in defeat)
Rebecca stood up, like almost leaving, and started to pack up her scholarly supplies. "2nd rough draft should be fine."
Rebecca placed her bookbag on shoulder and left.
Effective questioning is tutor's move which is suppose to work but obviously was not the scenario in this session. The tutor definetely lost out, and needed to rectify the situation, access it, then get back into action. Instead, she accepted defeat, allowed the student to run the session, and acted as if it didn't matter. Maybe because of time, or not caring on the position at hand, not sure, I guess we will never know. Without the ability of asking the tutor questions after the session was over, did not allow to come to a complete conclusion in my research, therefore, if conducted future human experiments such as these, I would change the plan of action and attempt the ability of interviewing the coach and student (if applicable) to get the perspective in full circle of the session, without guessing or trying to decode body language. Because one person's actions can be perceived either way, whether it be positive or negative, or just done unconciously. Therefore, a more conclusive research analysis of this case, would have been to allow to interview the tutor and/or student to get a 360 angle of the situation.
Being inconclusive, in this case 2, whether the objectivity of the session was to really get the rough draft in sync, give pointers or merely was the tutor trying to figure out how I can make the subject a better writer. If we though that the student happens to be ESL, or not (not being able to verify the information with the subject), we are traveling an uphill battle accessing information or guessing data that we do not have. Not causing the situation to be inconclusive rather the lack there of facts, allows us to conclude in this manner.
C. Case Study 3: Student asked effective questions instead of the tutor, and even though she took over the session, it thus proved to be a much effective session due to the questioning of the student to the tutor.
Session 4: November 30, 2010 3:00pm
As the student continued to read their paper with all the markings from the professor, the Coach pointed to sentence structure and attempted to fix ...by asking,
Coach: "What do you want to say here?
Student: (just glanced and nodded at coach)
Coach: "Help? now you don't need help, write can."
Student: (just starred at paper)
Coach: "This is a period." (pointing with finger directive for student to write on paper.
Student approved directions given by continuing to look at paper--and lifting her pen then writing corrections as she went along.
Coach: "Did you write this?"
Student: (Student agreeing) "Yea I did."
3:09 pm
Coach became extremely comfortable slouching in her seat, and placed elbow on her head, while the student kept reading her already written paper. Student glanced at her, shifting her head from sideways to straight looking for the coach's approval.
Coach: "You're a lot more comfortable with periods now."
Student: "Ha-ha!" (let out a burst of laughter)
3:11 pm
At this point in session, both student and coach are truly comfortable with each other; thus meaning they are getting comfortable in their session. It seems as if the student has received other tutoring sessions from this same coach. The rapport was more on a friendly basis as if they knew each other years on end.
This session seems way more natural than other sessions I have observed. The student accepts constructive criticism in a plausible, positive manner.
Although the coach keeps correcting her sentence structure and punctuation, the student takes all the advise in stride and even seems very calm and collective.
3:13 pm
As the student reads, she starts to fumble with her fingers and pen--pausing and swallowing hard with pursed lips. During this time, the student seems a little worried or eager to finish the session or paper. (Seems like she was uneasy in her chair and kept playing with her pen in hand--like "I want to finish this" mindset.)
The Coach asked the Student a question about what she was writing and her subject matter: "What does he have ADD?"
This is when student took over the session and answered, "Oh god, he has way more isues than that," (explained subject of her paper) then hurriedly she switched gears (subject of question)--lead the session by going back to her paper, continued reading until the end.
Coach: (just listened and did not interrupt as she read her paper outloud.)
Then, Student fired, "Thank God I fixed it!" the student responded as she shuffled her stapled multi-page paper back to page 1. Student pushed the paper to the side and produced another stapled paper in a matter of seconds.
3:18 pm
Coach: "You don't need quotations." coach started to explain what she needed in her 2nd paper and regain the session back, but student said "Okay" multiple times then shook her head, and said, "Nooo-ohh."
Questions fired back and forth but student kept saying "Yeah" as if brushing off the questions the tutor was asking and the student ignored her and continued reading her paper.
3:21pm
The student was totally guiding the session at this point: stopping when she choose and pausing to ask the coach questions. The student starts the questioning now.
The coach became silent at this point--and merely served as an ear to listen.
Is this what some students want, expect, or need? I was confused or lost in translation.
I feel that at this point in the process, the coach completely lost control of the situation, or is it merely a tutor's move--to allow the student to continue? Maybe? Maybe not?
Coach: (Almost jumping out of seat exclaimed) "I see the font here."
Student: "What!?" exclaimed back the student.
Then the student recognized the tutor was in control.
Coach: "What are you talking about strong women?"
Student: "I'll take this out, I'm not sure."
Coach: "Isn't your subject a man?"
Student: "Yeah, you're right--I wasn't sure where I was going with this?"
3:25 pm
Coach took control of the session, she got the session back, yet effective questioning was apparent through out the session, and even though in the middle of the session the student took over the session and started to ask the question, it still proved effective.
And the reason this was proven, was because in the end the student looking almost embarrassed and guilt stricken to have taken control in the middle of the process, having a worried faced with lined lips, at this time shestood upright and rotated her eyes back and forth horizontally without looking at the coach while the tutor rubbed her hands together, as to say with her body language let's wrap this up, kid.
Student suddenly responded, "That's it!"
Coach: "Again don't be afraid to use periods, I feel this paper you took your time."
Student: (She felt pleased as she broke a smile between her cheeks.)
Student: "Yeah I have to do that and stop doing that [not using periods.]"
Student: "Thank you so much I appreciate it. Have a nice day."
V. Discussion: Will take the 3 cases and examples in relation to focus, and explain how data answer research question and why is qestioning effective in a tutoring session---based on data.
VI. Conclusion & Recommendations: Final thoughts and recommendations based on data, suggests ....such and such and how this research will assist in training other tutors.
A. Does the data have a note of caution?
B. Does the data say this e.g. (place example here) but it's inconclusive.
C. Does the study bring questions? suggest answers?
D. How does this study help future coaches; "This kind of observation might be useful to assist in training workshops for future coaches in a university Writing Center.
VII. Works Cited
(THis goes under discussion)
"A Writing Center worst case scenario: A student comes in with a draft of a paper. ... You point out the mechanical erros and suggest a number of improvements that could be made in the paper's organization; the student agrees and makes the changes. ... You work hard, enjoy yourself, and when the studen leaves, the paper is much improved. A week later, the student returns to the writing center to see you: "I got an A! Thanks for all your help!" (Brooks 219) Just the same way we observe in Case 3, the session was quite effective with the overall great questions asked by the coach, yet did the writer really learn anything, or became a more effective writer thus? I don't think so, Case 3 unlike the fix it kid in Case 1 was more receptive, outspoken, and even more involved--yet the results are the same. Receive a better letter grade for personal gratification rather than deserve recognition for a much improved written piece.
"This scenario is hard to avoid, because it makes everyone involved feel good...That this is bad points out the central difficulty we confront as tutors: we sit down with imperfect papers, but our job is to improve their writers." (Brooks 219) Although in my mind all 3 cases were examples of effective sessions, maybe except for Case 2, because the end result was positive and students were pleased. But what happens to a writing center that is geared to producing better writers and not a "fix-it" shop. We still have not resolved these answers. And with this kind of research, hope that along the way answers will be produced to common questions we all have about the fix it kid, the take- over student, and the complete toe-to-toe pow-wow session where both are equal participants.
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My own notes:
Need to brush up here....get intro after formulate body of paper, finish analysing case studies, have more lit review w/ more sources, and focus more on tying the discussions, and the conclusion w/ the data and the focus of paper: effective questioning during a tutoring session. Almost done...hang in there, Jackie ;-0
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