Discussion Questions!

As far as cultural preferences go, I suppose I would just prefer to work with someone who is tolerant. I intend to inform my ESL students of the expectations that professors have here and what would most likely please them. However, I want to avoid robbing students of their creativity by making them fit perfectly into the American writing category. They are not just Americans; they have other backgrounds and another culture. This culture cannot be ignored in their life; it will cause them to feel like part of their self is being restricted. Therefore, I feel like I should not restrict their writing from showing their cultural heritage. I would like my ESL students to also be tolerant of my suggestions and be interested in learning about American culture. If they can at least consider my suggestions and try to understand that I only mean to benefit them, we'll get along just fine.
So, here's a confession of a big mistake I made: I had an ESL student who had written a paper, and it was obvious that he had uses outside sources, and even told me so. However, I did not find a works cited page or any in-text citations. I barely mentioned this issue. I thought maybe he was going to work on it later. I simply said, as we were wrapping up the session, "It looks good! Just look at those issues we talked about and work on your works cited and you should be finished." I know I always save my works cited for last. However, I heard one of the ESL students mention in the video we watched in class that they did not have to worry about citations. Here, they are very, very important! After I heard this, I could have died! I wonder if he even knew that he needed to include citations! I will not be making that mistake again though.
I think the hardest thing I struggle with in ESL papers is the different structure. I am a slave to the standard structure of our papers, and straying from it just about drives me crazy. I find that ESL essays often have a quite different structure. Before we watched that video in class, I would often suggest outlining to help the student restructure the paper. I had one student who had some adversary to this, which I always try to welcome. I gave him my suggestions, but I told him in the end it is his call on whether or not he wanted to make the changes. He thanked me, but informed me this is how he wanted his paper to be structured. I understand his decision better after seeing that video.

Lack of Confidence in the Writing Room

Low confidence is a problem in the writing room in general, but it is extremely profound in ESL students. They seem both shy and ashamed of their writing abilities. This problem often keeps the students very quiet and reserved during tutoring sessions. The best way to encourage an open and comfortable session is to make a plan, as suggested in the article “Breaking Ice and Setting Goals” by Shanti Bruce. Each session needs set goals that a tutor plans to meet by the end of session. Students also need to feel comfortable. Things to make them feel comfortable can include talking to them about what they want to say, accomplish, or learn. These types of questions do not have straight-forward answers and are subjective. The student can feel like they are more open to express his or herself and can be more open to discussion, which will facilitate the whole session.
I find it interesting the ways that some ESL students word their expressions. They are not typical and not something that we often use in our culture. However, I have always been taught that clichés in writing were something you wanted to stay far away from. Therefore, shouldn’t we embrace this new and different way of expression? The article mentions that a girl says she “shrinks” when she finds out that one of her classmates will be her writing tutor. This phrase is not incorrect, and someone who hears it can understand well what she means. If this type of phrasing is found in her paper, shouldn’t we encourage it? Instead of saying, "We don't say things this way," shouldn't we say, "That's an interesting way to express your feelings"?

Writing Activities

I really like the writing activities that Dr. Hawkins introduced to the class. I completed the writing assignment where I analyzed the most important event in the session. I wrote about the event, describing it in detail. This exercise helped to transform my entire paper. I noticed how much more exciting and interesting the paper sounded if I used a narrative approach and described the events I witnessed during my tutor observation. My first draft included statements like, “The student found this information very difficult.” After I added descriptive writing, I had sentences such as, “The student looked from the floor to the computer screen before uttering ‘Um, I’m not sure’”. I think this type of writing makes the paper much more interesting to read because the reader can truly relate to these descriptions.
It is funny how we become so focused on improving other students’ papers that sometimes we forget how much we can improve our own. For instance, I knew when I wrote the first draft of this paper that I even became bored as I read over it. I more or less proofread my own paper, which is not as important as looking to improve or enhance it. I can look at someone else’s paper and give them ideas to enhance it or make it more interesting. I cannot believe when I had my own writing (which I was not satisfied with) I did not take the same steps that I take when I have clients. I hope I can (re)learn to remember to step back after I complete a writing assignment to see how it can be enhanced.

Super Tutors!

I enjoyed the super tutor exercise we did in class. We got to express some creativity, which is always a wonderful release from everyday life. In my group, we chose the figure of Iron Man to represent our super tutor. We named it the Iron Maiden, a play on words based on how tutors are described as midwives in our book. Our super tutor had the power of patience, the ability to understand writing processes, a sense of humor, lots of writing strategies, strong writing skills, and knowledge of grammar rules. I believe that these are great powers for a tutor to have. Patience is necessary to effectively work with clients. Clients are often struggling to express themselves, and are frustrated. It would be that much more difficult if the consultant becomes impatient with the client. It is also very important to understand writing processes, so that the tutor may assist the client in the steps of writing such as planning, drafting, writing, etc. A sense of humor is also key because it removes humility from the client and gives the session a nice and comfortable tone. Writers are often sensitive about their work, and it is hard to sit down and be analyzed by a stranger for thirty minutes or more. Therefore, a joke here and there will lighten the mood and make the client feel much more at ease. Knowledge of many writing styles is very important because not everyone has the same way of composing a paper, and also sometimes different styles are needed for different assignments. A super tutor can master all of these styles and be able to help each student with each assignment. Strong writing skills are needed to be able to guide clients in their writing. Knowledge of grammar rules will keep papers mechanically correct.
This project made me think of what attributes would be needed to be a really good tutor. I hope I have the tools to be an effective and useful tutor… if not super! :)