2nd Tutoring Writing

During my second tutoring session with the English 101 students, i was fortunate enough to have been able to work with one student instead of two. during this tutoring session i only worked with Kelvin, i reintroduced myself , asked him how he was doing and if he found any difficulties in the assignment. Kelvin was very confident in his writing and once i saw his final draft, his confidence was made clear to me. after taking out his draft, i proceeded to read his draft out loud with him and in the process i found many Low order Concerns (LOC) and one High Order Concern (HOC). there were some grammatical errors which were easily taken care on the second time i read the paper but on my first reading i concentrated more on HOC, while reading i asked several questions i thought were important as a reader to ask, i asked "who is the author referring to ?" or what does this word mean?" his draft needed more details and like i said to him, you the writer are aware of the sources and subject; but the writer is not and therefore you need to explain so the audience is able to fully understand your paper. another major issue i discovered was the tutee in certain paragraphs he wrote like he spoke and i corrected that by making him aware of the situation and asking him to write in academic english. after guiding him through corrections, i felt his paper was developed into a better draft, through my feedback he was able to see his mistakes and correct them.

Final Reflection

                I will be using the Text for the Final Reflection The role Tutoring has in educational development is crucial to the academic success of the student. Tutoring can alleviate any writer’s blocks the student is experiencing, thus practicing with the student literacy skills that were attained in class lectures. My efficiency as a tutor plays an important role in my teaching philosophy; the strategies used to help a tutee start an essay will also serve to help my future students when struggling with an assignment. Books like Tutoring Writing has helped me further my understanding on how to develop a thesis or construct a paper without taking ownership of the paper, and academic journals like Rigid Rules by Mike Rose has modified my writing process by taking a heuristic or adaptable approach to writing assignments. It is my duty as a future teacher to use the skills I have acquired and perfect them to become a contributing member of society. With these newly acquired skills I plan to impart literacy skills among working class students that will help them break free from becoming the oppressed or the oppressor. In the article Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, the author explains But almost always, during the initial stage of the struggle, the oppressed, instead of striving for liberation, tend themselves to become oppressors, or "sub-oppressors." The very structure of their thought has been conditioned by the contradictions of the concrete, existential situation by which they were shaped. (Freire 45) Freire demonstrates how society has radically dehumanized, striped of our humanity to the point that we also have become oppressors. We live in a profoundly sick society in which we do not acknowledge that many of us are in the working class and not middle class, we the people have developed a culture in which we conform to government’s rules and do not ask questions creating a world in which inequality has been the highest since the 1970’s. Like Freire, author Michael Argyle of Culture and Social Class has similar beliefs. Argyle states, “Do people know what class they are in? Not really, at least not in America. Most working class Americans believe they are middle class, and American political discourse emphasizes the idea that “regular people” are middle class” (Argyle 3). Social class is classified by three components, education level, occupation and income, due to politicians giving misinformation on how people are classified, many come to believe they are part of the middle class which causes any representation for the working class in politics. Due to our misguided perception, we have affected others as well, especially the coming generations in this country. we have unfortunately supported illiteracy among our children by conforming to the still segregated schools in our community. Nothing has changed much since the civil rights movement, and in the article Savage Inequalities by Jonathan Kozol, the author informs readers on how we can still see segregated schools through out the country like St. Louis in Missouri where there is an extreme lack of funding in schools which only generates drop out, teen pregnancy and illiterate children which ultimately become working class members of society. In Kozol’s search for different perspectives of the education issues he asks students from a upper middle class school their opinion on integration and he states, “ A student named Jennifer, whose manner of speech is somewhat less refined than others, tells me her parents came here from New York. ‘ … I don’t think it’s our responsibility to pay our taxes to provide for them.’” (Kozol 86). She is a clear example of the oppressed becoming the oppressor she does not wish to help others because she believes it is in them to help themselves not the government. She believes the government has no responsibility in your education or in your social economic status. I believe as a future teacher I can change the generations to come, by installing critical thinking I will make them question conformity in our country

# 3 and 4 Writing Center Observations

Third Observation 



         During my Third Observation at the Writing Center, i was able to observe what collaborative learning is. During a conversation about the assignment , the tutor and tutee communicated and exchanged ideas which narrowed the focus of the assignment,producing an outline for the paper. the tutor asked questions based on the assignment and it was also of use to have previous knowledge of what the professor looks for in your paper. the tutor was an experienced faculty member of LAGCC in which enabled him to know what the tutee's professor required in the paper. the tutor asked questions and most importantly listened to the tutee's answers in which he composed new ones based on the information given. the tutor wrote an outline with her help on organizing and constructing the paper. the tutor was able to compose a thesis also with the tutee. after the tutoring session was over , the tutor recognized it was highly important to have a tutee understand the assignment and its sources in order to effectively help them in their assignment. a confused tutee about the subject can only cause misguided direction on the paper.


Final Observation

   I was pleased to have met such effective and dedicated tutor for my Last Observation. the tutor i observed established a student-canter environment for the tutee, in which the tutee was able to effectively communicate with the tutor about her assignment, it was the first time she was at the writing center and she has never written a research paper before, therefore the tutee did not know what the objective of a research paper was and what it contained. the tutor was able to refine her thesis which she already had a draft and from there narrow it down to a specific subject, once he narrowed the focus of her paper,  from her thesis he then  constructed 4 paragraphs in which will support her thesis. once he finished creating an outline for her he explained the essentials to writing a research paper, he demonstrated what a int  text citation is , works cited page and most importantly what MLA is. not only did he explain this to her but took out a Key for Writers  to show an example of each concept and if that was not enough, he then proceeded to take out a folder in which he personally printed out from the Perdue website to further guide her with constructing a MLA research paper. once the session was over he taught me the importance of doing your own research to further help a student. not only was he able to explain these concepts, but was also able to give reliable sources to the tutee.

Filming Project

In English 220 we were required to produce a video related to the Writing center and also class discussions. my group was made of two members in which we interchanged ideas on what we wanted to portray to the audience with our five minute video. after coming to an agreement, we broke our video into three segments with different main points of tutoring DON'Ts. each member was given a segment to produce and direct, once we had setting, directions, and dialogue we were able to execute by going to the location and filming with the professor. i believe the film project was an effective method of demonstrating our thorough understanding of the subject. we were able to portray what we have learning through readings, class discussions and observations. we now know the necessary components needed to make a successful writing center

School to Prison Pipeline

It is very disturbing to see Police officers used in Public Schools to maintain order among students and also to know this is only happening in the poorest neighborhoods.We do not need any handcuffs around a child's hands to reprimand them of incidents that could have easily have been resolved with attention and discipline. This Video  Demonstrates a bold alternative, The capital of Colorado has implemented in their schools, by which I agree with. The Restorative Justice program is an effective method when dealing with student issues, not only will it  diminish their chances of going to jail but holding the student accountable of their own decisions. as a community, it is hard to see this problem is only happening within public schools not Private.

My First Tutoring Session

July 18 2013



      In today's English 220 class, we were able to go tutor English 101 students, I had the pleasure of meeting two very different individuals Nolan and Kelvin. Their assignment consisted of writing whether they believe Biculturalism was a strength to students or did it just produce confusion. both Nolan and Kelvin's perspective of Biculturalism was positive; however, they did not have the evidence from a text or a  CUNY source to provide for their essay.
     Since both Nolan and Kelvin had not researched their sources I proceeded to help them with an outline for their paper. i directed Kelvin to read again the assignment and the text he had in mind and write down bullet points of what he wants to portray in his paper, while i helped Nolan clarify his point of view on paper. i also asked Nolan to give me a suggestion of the text he would use and how it relates to the assignment and his point of view. after Nolan was busy looking for information from the text to write down i started helping Kelvin with his outline, i asked him why he thought Biculturalism was a strength and he told me several important reasons and afterwards i expanded on some of the reasons he talked about which i felt would enormously contribute to his paper.  i then asked Kelvin which story he would tie his paper to and he chose " Mother Tongue " and i told him to write down why he thought this would be a good source and he later composed a thesis of what he wrote.  Nolan was a different story. after viewing the text he wanted to use for his paper i decided the text was more against Biculturalism, once i questioned Neil on how he would connect the text to his point of view , he could not think of any idea so he eliminated that as a choice and decided to instead later look for a CUNY article. I was only able to provide an outline with Nolan and a brief introduction to his paper since he did not have his sources yet.
  It was an exciting and new experience, i discovered how eclectic your tutoring has to be, what might work with one student might not work for another. although Nolan followed my instructions on creating an outline he was absent minded in which i had to keep motivating him to spark critical thinking. Kelvin was an easy going student i mainly had to just guide him with the paper he wanted to create. Overall it was good way to build experience for future teaching.

Writing Center Observations

July 11 2012
1 hour

     During my first observation at the writing center, i was paired with former LaGuardia Community College student, he had also taken ENG 220 and is now a tutor. although he was friendly to me, i couldn't help notice all the DONT'S he was doing with the student he was helping. he offered me a chair, sat down with her and automatically started correcting Low Order Concerns ( LOC) and while he was helping her with the paper , he was distracted several times looking outside the cubical. During the tutoring session i observed the tutor taking ownership of the paper, through hastily feedback he told the student what to correct and what the student should write instead; although the tutor told me she is a regular English Language Learner  who comes to see him, i wonder if it was correct to give her the answers instead of guiding her to her own interpretations of the word. i believe what the student did was a quick fix and i wonder if that is what is needed from future tutors. what i did like about my tutoring observation, was how the tutor had built a relationship with the student and knew about other assignments the student had on other subjects. they had a conversation about her assignments and after the session was over they agreed to see each other again to revise another paper.

What is the Purpose of Education

In today's class, we observed two different videos in which discussed education and the value of creativity in the classroom. 

What is Pedagogy?

   it is the art of education, derived from the greek word meaning " to lead a child". it is a mental process where evaluation, understanding , analyzing and reflection are scaffolded. pedagogy's purpose is also to develop metacognition in children as well. 

TED: Sir Ken Robinson

    In the 2006 TED conference, Sir Ken Robinson spoke about the importance of fostering creativity in children, not diluting it. He believes that everyone is born creative, they do not remain so through out adulthood due to education. Robinson also mentions that due to an over emphasize of the subjects in education taught ( ex. English, Math, Science ) , they are not taught the arts, in which many are able to express themselves. Academic inflation is a direct result of living in a society that encourages education and not the arts. 

   there are three Factors of intelligence Robinson mentions. 

• Diversity: Original/different thinking
• Dynamic: interaction
• Distinct: talent

I agree with Sir Ken Robinson, creativity is very important in a child's life to foster individuality and originality.  The education system needs to be modified since it has not changed its structured learning style since 19th century industrial era. it is time for a change since society is rapidly morphing into something new.we should emphasize the arts for the sake of people trying to reach for a higher education due to academic inflation. 

Writing Center Innovations

             This Blog post will be discussing what a beneficial writing center for students consist of, using the videos we saw in class. it is important as a tutor to have good communication skills and adequate body language that demonstrates accessibility to help. In video 3 produced by Teaching & Learning Centre, OUIT demonstrates the DON'T's of what to do in a Writing Center. It is important for the tutor not to give negative feedback, have a teacher- centered session with student, and have the wrong body language that communicates to the student disinterest. Video 2, produced by WhatCom Community College is the perfect example of what a Writing Center should consist of. The video demonstrates the routine a tutor  has with a student, how beneficial it is to create an outline, in which the professor can be aware of the direction their student is taking. the tutors in this video also make students aware that they will NOT be Profreading their work, their priority as a tutor are High-Order Concerns. this video helped us visually understand how they facilitate help for students by also using technology, if students can't come in they make it easy for them to still have help with their paper.