m fabian success: Blog Entry 14

m fabian success: Blog Entry 14: Bottled Water Myth Versus Reality The myth of “bottled water is safer than tap water “, the reality is that with the bott...


blog

In this tutoring session i was paired with two of the students i had in the previous session, I walked in and began asking about the assignment on fast food advertisements, one student had the practice test handed back so i began with her. I was amazed to see her progress, she was very nervous the first session i met her, but improved on so many different levels. The overall qualification of her exam was passing and she had the rating 4 on structure, formation and ideas. So as i started reading over her paper, i noticed that she had some clear ideas, such as how parents want to fight back against obesity, all that needed to be done is be more specific in  the introduction. While i had her write details about how fast food advertisements were portrayed, i switched over to the other student. This student hammered away until he found the specific areas that he would be mentioning in the body paragraph, but he failed to provide a clear introduction that would support what he had to say about the matrix. I tried multiple tricks such as looping, and talking out loud, but the student just seemed unsure of the topic and was very perplexed. I seem to have some sort of trouble when it comes to dealing with thesis development because, i usually put a lot of effort into my thesis. At certain times in the session i really had no clue what to do, i followed the book, but without him having a clear understanding of the text it flopped. So i went back into areas that i thought were strong such as Neo's education and attempt to find an answer and started building on those areas.


First student (Girl)

Suggestions- You want to mention how company's, such as the bureau have advanced in their mission to provide healthier advertisements. When you are able to connect these ideas, you can then tie it to the actions that parents are taking to prevent obesity, such as healthy cooking.

Second Student (Boy)

Suggestions- When you go into the Matrix you want to clearly state who you're going to be talking about to support your opinion. Those characters Neo and Cypher support your opinion that people have different perspectives on knowledge.

In this tutoring session i was extremely confident about tutoring because i was eager to redeem myself. In this session i worked with two students, the first student was having trouble finding a topic because the assignment was confusing, while the second student needed help organizing his paper. The first student was nervous about his introduction because he knew it was crucial. I used some of the methods that was addressed in the book, such as What is the assignment? and Do you have a subject? The student pulled out the assignment which looked extremely long and grueling, but broke it down in a matter of seconds. His eyes were so glued to the screen, so i wanted to use the strategy talk out loud. I had the student face me and talk about some of the ideas that he wanted to incorporate in his assignment. As he was speaking i was writing on Microsoft word and showed him them afterwards. I found out his problem was not the thesis in general, but just the overall formation, so i taught him how to make an outline. Shortly after i moved to another student, he seemed very uneasy, but his paper taught me about history with dictators. The student had trouble tying his ideas back to his thesis, which contributed to the splurge of ideas on his paper. I went through each paragraph piece by piece, and noticed he could use some quotations to support his ideas. The student was very in tune to his felt sense, but he just needed to support his claim by using the key word Education! Overall he had some minor LOC's, but it did not affect the clarity of his work. Both students were very calm and easygoing, which helped make the tutoring session smooth and best of all i was not NERVOUS!

As i went into the tutoring session i was very nervous, but the girl i worked was very easy going and very friendly, so i adjusted well. As i began introducing myself i asked her the assignment and she brought out the topic paper, which made things a bit easier. We started going into blog 7, and i began skimming through the paper to see what needed to be revised. After i finished the paper i noticed some issues in the paper such as the sequence of introducing certain aspects of reality television, which needed to be supported by her ideas. I began reading the thesis as she claimed it was her biggest problem, but often at times i felt like i was giving her the answer. I eventually stopped because i realized it would not help the student if i was doing all the work, so i began to ask her questions and allowing her to make a diagram. This diagram was very helpful in the fact that it spawned a bunch of ideas in such a short amount of time. I knew it was successful because her essay was coming along smoothly as time went along it became more clear and supported a specific claim. This made me feel really good that i was actually preparing her for the Cat W. I felt relief in the fact that i was not nervous and i came out of my shell to help her with the assignment. I learned never to underestimate those tutors in the writing center because they do one hell of a job. It looks so easy when you watch them in the writing center, but doing it yourself is completely different. I seemed to be all over the place at times, and even re-corrected myself a couple times which felt very unprofessional. Next time i tutor i will approach the situation differently and be more professional with my work.


What happened?
2. What did you do?
3. What problems did you encounter?
4. What strategies did you use?
5. How did you know a success?
6. Did you ever feel overwhelmed?
7. What was the most positive part of the experience?
8. What did you learn?
9. What will you do next time?
10. Is there anything you won't do next time?
11. How did you navigate between students?
12. Did you find yourself focusing on one student, even when you had two?

Observation Assignment 4

As i walked into the tutoring session i was paired with the routine tutor and two other students. The tutor seemed very nice greeting her to self to me and letting it be known that i was observing the other students. The tutor begins by asking the student for the assignment and then begins skimming it quietly. After the tutor is finished reading the paper she begins to ask the student some open ended questions and the student begins responding based his own knowledge. The tutor uses collaborative learning and then asks the student what the subject or topic is, but the student is having some difficulties. What actually surprised me is then the teacher began using the three by five index card strategy and eventually helped the student find his subject. The student is curious to work on LOC's, but the tutor insists that the student fix his Higher Order Concerns before even touching on grammatical errors.

Some Flaws.

- The Tutor Often starts doing therapy, and talking about her life.
-Compliments the student too much and there by avoids the real problems.

Benefits
- The Tutor is very good at time management and takes both students into consideration.
-While one is being taken care of she makes sure the other student is improving on structure and the thesis.
- Very knowledgeable and has good communication with the students.
- Implements such strategies such as Index Cards and Speaking Out Loud.
- Shows concern for time, but wants to take her time going over everything even if it passes the time.

A.Stefany the fourth: Blog 7

A.Stefany the fourth: Blog 7: This article states the dangers of reality TV. Reality television reinforces several unsound messages which are molding the minds of young f...

 Hello my name is Aaron and today i will be commenting on your blog assignment. First i would like to say that your paper moved me on reality television and you had very strong arguments on why reality TV is so bad to society such as diminishing the educational system and future drop out rates increasing. When i started reading your paper the introduction was very scattered. When you do an introduction you want provide a general argument and capture the readers attention, but here you just seem to state facts. You need to make the intro more clear such as first defining why reality television is harmful and then following a system of steps addressing your points. When you start talking about competition you need to relate it to how its dangerous because competition can also be good for economic stability so tie it to the thesis. Your opinion comes into play when you start using quotations which need to be addressed in your paper. I would keep the second idea on image on society because you show clearly how it corrupts our minds and souls. Finally leading onto your third idea about education and the American directly ties to your thesis, but you want to condense it and make your point clear and as i said quotations would be helpful. The conclusion is very well written and you make a direct connection to the thesis statement. You have many grammatical errors, but you still make your point clear you just need to work on formulating it more correctly and adding quotations.

Aaron Chetram                                                                                                                       April 18^th 2012

Tutoring Writing                                                                                                        Blog spot Assignment

1.        The best tutoring experience that I had in the writing center was with a woman named Louis. This woman was so polite in inviting me into the tutoring session by introducing me to the other students and making sure they were comfortable with my observation.  As I studied her methods of teaching she also brought many thoughts into my head because this was my first tutoring session I was very curious. She taught the students about structure and even opened my eyes to how important the structure needed to be. By watching and taking notes I enjoyed the tutoring session and it was very pleasant.

2.        The strategy that was most used in the tutoring session was known as Collaborative learning. According to the book collaborative learning was used in an essence to promote the well connection between the teacher and the student.  Tutoring Writing states “The tutor encourages the writer, often with open-ended and probe-and-prompt questions, to engage in off the-paper, exploratory talk and to expand upon undeveloped themes in the paper” (McAndrew 26).  By working together and finding the problem they were able to formulate a guideline that the student would remember and expand upon.

3.        What makes it evident that this strategy worked was based upon a student listen and then respond. I could tell the clear distinction in her voice by just noticing how nervous she was when she entered the session. Eventually she began speaking more and she had a pleasant taste on her face of satisfaction knowing that it wasn’t so difficult if you take it step by step.

Part B

4.        The biggest problem that I witnessed during the tutoring session was the amount of pressure put on the tutor to make the students paper better. The student would come into the tutoring session expecting the tutor to give him or her all the answers which obviously is not the case. The student keeps pushing the tutor to help with specific things like grammar and constantly asks what do I write until the tutor decides to give in. By giving in the tutor is not doing his or her job and at the end of the day does not play a role in helping the student.

5.        The biggest tutoring don’t would have to be the lower order concerns. As I mentioned would have to be the Lower Order Concerns. The student would come in with questions about his or her paper and end up falling into something completely different. The tutor would point out things that are important, but aren’t the main point of the essay such as Commas, Spelling and Fragments when the time was split between two students. This had such a negative impact on the students because the connection between both tutor and student subsided. The teacher was doing most of the talking and just marking the paper while the student looked very scared and confused. According to tutoring writing “ Thus, if a tutor zeroes in only on surface errors- what we refer to as Lower Order Concerns (LOCs)- the effect on the writer may be harmful and adverse to the goals of tutoring” (McAndrew 17).

6.        What I observed when this correction was going on was a very boring tutoring session mainly the tutor in control. The student had barely any time to ask questions or talk about the structure of his essay, but watch as his paper was marked with a red pen. The tutor seemed only focused about killing time as she avoided the major issues and cut the students opinion off multiple times. Considering this was my second session I was not very concerned because I still had a positive attitude about the first session, but still it showed me what not to do.

7.        To remedy this problem the tutor would probably have to surrender his or her control about the paper. Tutoring is not about the power or about exerting it its surrender his or her control about the paper. Tutoring is not about the power or about exerting it it’s about working together in a synergistic bond to figure out the problem and approach it in a variety of ways. I also think the student should have spoken up because it’s not all the tutor fault they just want to help the best way they think possible. Collaborative learning would be a wonderful aspect to their tutoring session and it helps the assignment in so many ways.