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