Self-Reflective Commentary

I would like to write a little about my reflections of the Writing Center Theory and Practice course. It has truly been a learning experience for me, especially as an experienced writing center tutor. The projects we had to do this semester: the tutee experience at the CCNY Writing Center, the ethnographic research at St. John’s University Institute for Writing, and the visit to the library in the beginning with Dr. Gibbons all worked together to make this course a very memorable one indeed. Of course, I have definitely learned a lot from the theoretical section of the course as well. In fact, during the course of the semester, I have been trying to implement my tutoring sessions by using some of the tutoring strategies we have studied and will continue to do so.

I would like especially highlight the tutee experience gave me a delightful insight to the variety of tutors at the writing center. It opened my eyes to the reality of getting a second opinion from peers and not just from the teacher. I noticed that later on in the semester, I was able to collaborate with my classmates to revise my papers. In fact, it was a lot easier for me. This is one thing I have really learned that I value very greatly for it has broken the insecure feelings I may have had before about sharing my writing process with “an outsider” i.e. someone other than myself.

Ethnographic Research Paper

Finally, here's my Ethnographic research paper on google docs.

Ethnographic Research Proposal

Here is the link to my Ethnographic Research proposal google doc.

My WC Tutee Experience

Here's the link to my Writing Center Tutee Experience report google doc.

Comments 6-10

Blog Comment #6: (Nov. 24)

Although I don't get many ESL students at the writing center at Lagcc, because of the fact that there is a separate writing center for them in particular, I do sometimes get students who have made it to Eng 99 or the Freshman Comp who really do have trouble with English as their second language. Although I agree fully with Matsuda and Cox's analysis that if readers just learn how to read an ESL writer's paper i.e. reading only for meaning and context instead of the small local errors, I am sometimes not sure if that can work in every scenario. The reason for this is that some professors just really care about every comma being in the right place and every preposition being correct. And as a writing tutor, it is my responsibility to follow what the professor wants from the student and try to focus on those grammar features that have been marked up in the student's paper. So, I wonder, what can I do in such a situation??

Blog Comment #7: (Nov. 24)

As I was reading this chapter and the steps that one has to take to tutor ESL writers, I was also reminded of the otheer article we read about "tutee dependency". I don't recall the exact title of that article but I think that a problem that can arise from the 5th step of "asking writers to participate in reformation decisions" is training tutees to depend on the tutor to "reformulate" their papers. It is also very dangerous in a way to have anybody in that center who falls into the trap of appropriating ESL students' essays because then they become accustomed to it and sort of expect it from all other tutors and starts asking questions like: "what do you think it should say, my thesis statement" and etc.

Blog Comment #8: (Dec. 1)

Viki, I think it all boils down to what Stacy said about balance. When I was in High School, our teachers who asked us to do research papers always asked for both a print and digital source. In this way, we were forced to go to the library and "physically" pick out a book, read it and use it as a source AND go to online databases and research. At times, teachers just give up I think and don't take the time to actually teach the students how to search for databases (I'm talking about high-school level) which is in a way understandable because there is already so much in their workload that adding instruction of researching is just out of the question. This is when it is helpful to take a trip with the class to the library as we did as a class and have someone present to the students.

I, too liked the new innovative ways that the teachers used iPads and smartphones for reading for the students and etc. In a way, it grabs the attention of students because they are using this media in their everyday life. Thus, they see that they can have use these to do their "big research paper" for school. And that of course there can be educational uses of technology as well and just how easy it is.

Blog Comment #9 (Dec.9)

I do agree with you professor, but like all other things I guess it is just important to have a limit. For instance, in the writing center, I see a lot of students where students just feel so disheartened by their work and feel so discouraged and I feel like it is my responsibility to cheer them back and put aside the tutoring for an instance if I must, so that I can help in the best way I can. However, in that instance that Daryl wrote with a (male) student who just started crying in my session who has been repeatedly failing the ACT test, I was really caught off-guard. No matter what I was trying to tell him to not give up and so on, it wasn't helping his case. For this reason, I went out and told my supervisor and he spoke to him instead in his calm way. However, he was more professional about it saying that listen it's a process, we'll try our best and so on but if it doesn't happen it is ok and that no one is responsible and etc.

As a tutor, I learned that I shouldn't try to be so sympathetic and let my personality present itself too much because of this urge I feel to give this endless and sometimes unrealistic hope to students. As a practicing teacher, I'm more aware and pragmatic about students' abilities and so on.

Comment #10 (Dec. 18)

I found this chapter especially useful for me, a writing center tutor at LaGuardia CC. The suggested "goals" for the tutor seemed fair. However, I think the first one is almost unrealistic for teaching the student how to become a proficient self-editor. I mean, in this case, it really depends on the student's ability and how much he or she really knows in terms of grammar. Well, in our writing center actually, we don't get very low levels of ESL since there is a separate ESL lab for them. The ones that we do get from time to time are in a very high level of ESL where they can at least write if not speak well but have a lot of grammatical errors. Thus, it is then important to at least recognize the "6 major error types" and try to address those one by one before getting to anything else. It is as our supervisor says at Lagcc: "wherever you start is a start."

Comments 1-5

Blog Comment #1: (Oct 4) Blog Comment #2:

Professor Gibbon's presentation was very informative for all of us, but what I really enjoyed from his way of explaining the different search engines was that he truly broke it down. I have been to several "library presentations" since high school when the librarian would have a big screen and we would all sit down, bored out of our minds, while the libraries explained how there are all these places one can go into to do research. However, they always made it so difficult to understand that I never really learned the techniques needed to research for a specific topic.

If only all teachers/librarians were this patient and willing to go through the research process step by step.

Blog Comment #2: (Oct. 24)

This "bad" tutoring session only reminded me of my own so-called tutoring sessions that I used to have with my sister. When I was in high school I would sometimes refer to her about helping me with my paper because she was older and in college and my parents urged me to do so. However, in the end of our "session", I would always feel like my paper has been changed, and it's no longer my voice but hers. This is probably one of the reasons I stopped going to her and am sometimes so afraid of going to anyone to talk about my paper just in case he/she tries to do the same thing.

In the video, the tutor stole complete ownership of the paper from the tutee and changed his voice to hers. Indeed, this goes against all beliefs and ethics of tutoring in a writing center.

Oh and yes the background music was quite disturbing and I could not find its connection to the video itself, seriously.

Blog Comment #3: (Nov. 6)

I know exactly how you feel Jane. Except that some of my students are overly dependent right from the start at times. The thing is, as soon as one of the tutors in the WC staff offer "too much guidance" as you put it, they expect all the other tutors to be the same way. And I have to tell you, sometimes it is just easier to help them with that one paper. The weird thing is, ever since I've been reading up on these writing center theories, I've become more and more aware and conscious of my tutoring! It is good because I now try to implement my sessions by using advices from the texts we've been reading. For instance, I would really like to use this sheet that Kristin Walker offered in her article about finding out what one's assignment really is and whether the student has covered all the points or not. In fact, I think I'm going to make copies of the article and give it to the rest of the tutors to check out because it really offers some practical advices for such situations.

Blog Comment #4: (Nov. 19)

Though I really enjoyed the presentations by Lynn Reid and Mary Kerwin, there were many aspects of the writing centers taht I was very skeptical about primarily because of my experience as a writing tutor. For one thing, I'm not sure how effective 30-minute sessions can really be. In fact, even the 50-55 minute sessions that we have with each student in most writing centers is barely enough to get through the paper AND help the students to become better writers. I am skeptical about this approach but I would be very interested to see how it can really play out and would really like to visit Brookdale Community College to see how it works exactly. The way I see it is, in a 30-minute session, the most a tutor can do is "check" the tutee's paper. Also, when they have no breaks in between sessions, that can really not only affect the mental minds of tutors but also the amount of energy they give to students. In fact, if one sesson goes badly, the next session may be affected by that because there is no break to breathe and go on to the next session with a fresher mind. However, I do appreciate that the students in remedial classes are required to go to the writing center for a certain amount of times to see the tutors instead of having class-room settings of "labs" (which is what we do at Lagcc). This proves that they are funded greatly. Overall, it was interesting to hear them speak about the two different settings of writing centers and compare it in my mind with where I work at and where I have visited or read about in this class thus far.

Blog Comment #5:

Thank you so much for posting this beautiful poem Viktoriia! It is definitely inspiring! I know how stressed you must be feeling from the overload of work and school but just hang in there as we all should! There are only 4 weeks remaining and as long as we push a bit harder, I'm sure we can overcome this "battle" of life in graduate school!

-Mahla