I have decided to dedicate this blog post to possible ideas for my FAQ final project because I do not want to forget them by the time I have to start writing it (this will also serve as a sort of introduction to my blog paper). After consulting with Professor Dolson this afternoon about possible ideas I have decided that I would like to make my FAQ page about the emotional side of consulting. I have not completely narrowed down what specifically I will focus on because I have not explored enough readings quite yet but I feel that it it something that is often overlooked. Most of the readings and articles we have read in class have to do with the conventions and guidelines to running successful sessions. There is limited information on what to do when the student is stressed out, highly emotional or concerned. Some ideas I've had so far are:
1. How to deal with someone who is working close to the deadline
2. How to console someone who is having a particularly difficult time
3. How to motivate someone who has lost all hope in their writing
Although these are a few extreme situations, they are ones that should not be overlooked. I know from my own experience going to a friend or consultant for help, often all I need is a restoration of confidence. If our job as consultants is not to blatantly change elements of people's essays and instead guide them in the right direction, most people have the ability to be a good writer in the first place. Let's be honest, the students at this school for the most part have the same caliber of writing. Therefore, when UR students are having issues with their writing, often it can be because of added stress from an overbearing workload or other homework assignment. I feel that a short FAQ or Wiki addressing some of these emotional issues could seriously improve the impact consultants have on students in need.
Monday, November 29, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
The Do's and Dont's
In my experience with the Writing Center so far, I have discovered that the style of each tutor is based on the "do's" and "dont's" that most Centers employ. I have collectively worked with three separate tutors so far this semester and each one employs a different approach when it comes to running a session. The first tutor I had a session with told me that he never used a red pen because of how harsh it appeared on the page. He told me the last thing any writer needs is to see their ideas covered in red ink. The second tutor I worked with told me to overlook all grammatical errors. Unless the student was in dire need for assistance, grammatical errors were something only the writer had the authority to change. The last tutor I worked with took a completely opposite approach to that of the second tutor, telling me that grammatical errors should always be amended. She told me that by correcting this area of the writing, it would only improve on the writer's mechanics which is completely independent from their style. She said there is no right or wrong style, but there is such a thing as a right or wrong sentence.
Looking back on all of these experiences I find myself asking the question "What are the the ethics that all Centers should employ and how do we decide what those are?" To look into this further, I discovered an article by Irene Lurkis Clark entitled "Collaboration and Ethics in Writing Center Pedagogy". Click here for PDF
Clark's article explores the controversial issue of plagiarism in Writing Centers. In the beginning of the article she recalls times where she asked for assistance and opinions from her colleagues on papers and never once thought about the implications of doing so. She goes on to say, however, that "In writing labs and centers, though, the kind of assistance which occurs regularly among colleagues might raise questions, if not eyebrows, over issues of ethics." It seems there is a big difference between reading over a colleagues paper and providing suggestions and being a writing tutor and doing those things. I believe a lot of this lies in the formal nature of writing centers and their desire to be academic institutions that play by the rules. "The humanities tradition" says that the text should be produced by the sole effort of an individual, not a collaboration. Because of this, Clark explains that the founders of writing centers are constantly on the defensive when explaining the roles of the institutions in universities. She goes on further to explain that because tutors are so concerned with issues of plagiarism and students taking their advice too far can disengage the tutor from the writing and keep them at a distance from both the text and the writer.
Clark concludes her article with a plea to have tutors become more active roles in the writing of tutees. She brings up the idea of imitation, saying that this approach has a bad reputation amongst people in the world academia. They say that writing is about self discovery and is a process that students must undergo themselves through their experience in academic institutions. However, there is much to be said about the advantages of imitation. When we correct spelling or grammar in papers, it is informing and reminding writers of the rules of writing. It is training those writers to not make careless mistakes again and instead focus on larger issues having to do with context and structure. Isn't our initial approach to learning a form of imitation? We learn to speak when we are very young simply by imitating the sounds and noises we hear around us. Clark writes that similarly our style in writing did not appear out of thin air. We are constantly prompted and pushed in different directions due to the influences around us. She writes, "Sometimes the suggestion of a phrase or two can e wonderfully instructive...often a timely suggestion of a phrase can result in the student's adoption of that phrase as his or her own". Granted, tutors should always be aware that they are there to assist writers and not make direct change without any input from the writer themselves. However, when tutors take a more hands on approach and explain to their tutees why they are making such changes, it will help to train them not to make careless mistakes and employ the same correctional style.
Click here for PDF
Looking back on all of these experiences I find myself asking the question "What are the the ethics that all Centers should employ and how do we decide what those are?" To look into this further, I discovered an article by Irene Lurkis Clark entitled "Collaboration and Ethics in Writing Center Pedagogy". Click here for PDF
Clark's article explores the controversial issue of plagiarism in Writing Centers. In the beginning of the article she recalls times where she asked for assistance and opinions from her colleagues on papers and never once thought about the implications of doing so. She goes on to say, however, that "In writing labs and centers, though, the kind of assistance which occurs regularly among colleagues might raise questions, if not eyebrows, over issues of ethics." It seems there is a big difference between reading over a colleagues paper and providing suggestions and being a writing tutor and doing those things. I believe a lot of this lies in the formal nature of writing centers and their desire to be academic institutions that play by the rules. "The humanities tradition" says that the text should be produced by the sole effort of an individual, not a collaboration. Because of this, Clark explains that the founders of writing centers are constantly on the defensive when explaining the roles of the institutions in universities. She goes on further to explain that because tutors are so concerned with issues of plagiarism and students taking their advice too far can disengage the tutor from the writing and keep them at a distance from both the text and the writer.
Clark concludes her article with a plea to have tutors become more active roles in the writing of tutees. She brings up the idea of imitation, saying that this approach has a bad reputation amongst people in the world academia. They say that writing is about self discovery and is a process that students must undergo themselves through their experience in academic institutions. However, there is much to be said about the advantages of imitation. When we correct spelling or grammar in papers, it is informing and reminding writers of the rules of writing. It is training those writers to not make careless mistakes again and instead focus on larger issues having to do with context and structure. Isn't our initial approach to learning a form of imitation? We learn to speak when we are very young simply by imitating the sounds and noises we hear around us. Clark writes that similarly our style in writing did not appear out of thin air. We are constantly prompted and pushed in different directions due to the influences around us. She writes, "Sometimes the suggestion of a phrase or two can e wonderfully instructive...often a timely suggestion of a phrase can result in the student's adoption of that phrase as his or her own". Granted, tutors should always be aware that they are there to assist writers and not make direct change without any input from the writer themselves. However, when tutors take a more hands on approach and explain to their tutees why they are making such changes, it will help to train them not to make careless mistakes and employ the same correctional style.
Click here for PDF
Friday, November 19, 2010
The one's who can't be helped..
I had a very interesting session today shadowing my friend who is a fellow for a FYS this semester. She showed the paper before the student came in and I was appalled to say the least. There were endless grammatical errors and incoherent moments in the paper (not to mention a plethora of colloquial language). We could not help but laugh at some of the errors the student was making, despite how bad we felt about it.
Eventually the student arrived and I immediately felt guilty about what we had been amused by moments before. He walked in looking nervous, frazzled, and overall confused. I especially felt bad for my friend because she did not even know where to begin with editing; there was so much to be done yet she did not want to overwhelm him and make it seem like she was writing the paper herself. She took a very good approach by first making him read the paper aloud and pause every time he noticed something wrong. By just reading the paper out loud he noticed how many careless errors he had made. Granted, she had to intervene quite often to add additional points and suggestions but he was doing a lot of the work himself.
This experience taught me that even though as consultants we will be presented with students who seem like they cannot be helped, there is always a way to help them no matter how lost they are. Even if in the session you only get one point across or change one thing in their paper, it is the fact that they will most likely never make that mistake again that counts.
Eventually the student arrived and I immediately felt guilty about what we had been amused by moments before. He walked in looking nervous, frazzled, and overall confused. I especially felt bad for my friend because she did not even know where to begin with editing; there was so much to be done yet she did not want to overwhelm him and make it seem like she was writing the paper herself. She took a very good approach by first making him read the paper aloud and pause every time he noticed something wrong. By just reading the paper out loud he noticed how many careless errors he had made. Granted, she had to intervene quite often to add additional points and suggestions but he was doing a lot of the work himself.
This experience taught me that even though as consultants we will be presented with students who seem like they cannot be helped, there is always a way to help them no matter how lost they are. Even if in the session you only get one point across or change one thing in their paper, it is the fact that they will most likely never make that mistake again that counts.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Second Visit to B&G Club
I am very pleased to say that my second visit with the Boys and Girls club was much more successful than the last. The last girl I worked with, Latia, decided to withdraw from the program which discouraged me in the beginning. However I was assigned to work with another girl, Star, and she was much more enthusiastic about the whole project.
Star and I went into the computer lab to go over her interview and begin assembling a script. I nearly jumped with excitement when I found out that she had not only completed the interview, but she also had a detailed biography given to her by the woman she interviewed. This made my job much easier. We read through the notes and biography together and decided the most important points to include in the script. What surprised me was how much of the interview Star recalled off of the top her head. She was able to recite to me most of the information that was on the sheet which let me know that she was interested and genuinely cared about writing about the woman.
When we got to writing the script it was a piece of cake. I had Star read over the notes I had written and pick out the key points. She had a good sense of how to write the script, going in chronological order and finding a general theme. There were 4 "pearls of wisdom" given to Star from the woman that she got to choose from. I told her that she should read over all of them and tell me which one stood out to her the most from the interview. She picked the one about God and we talked about the importance of God in not only the woman's life, but in her life. This gave us ample thing to talk about in the rest of the script and gave it a nice overall tone.
I am very pleased with the experience I had today and I am look forward to going back on Monday to do the recording with Star!
Star and I went into the computer lab to go over her interview and begin assembling a script. I nearly jumped with excitement when I found out that she had not only completed the interview, but she also had a detailed biography given to her by the woman she interviewed. This made my job much easier. We read through the notes and biography together and decided the most important points to include in the script. What surprised me was how much of the interview Star recalled off of the top her head. She was able to recite to me most of the information that was on the sheet which let me know that she was interested and genuinely cared about writing about the woman.
When we got to writing the script it was a piece of cake. I had Star read over the notes I had written and pick out the key points. She had a good sense of how to write the script, going in chronological order and finding a general theme. There were 4 "pearls of wisdom" given to Star from the woman that she got to choose from. I told her that she should read over all of them and tell me which one stood out to her the most from the interview. She picked the one about God and we talked about the importance of God in not only the woman's life, but in her life. This gave us ample thing to talk about in the rest of the script and gave it a nice overall tone.
I am very pleased with the experience I had today and I am look forward to going back on Monday to do the recording with Star!
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Literacy: It's not just about reading and writing
Christie Johnson's thesis on literate awareness is one of the most interesting pieces of writing I have read in awhile. She explores so many different types of literacy in the attempt to answer the question, what does it mean to be literate? She does this by examining a student named Tina that she tutors at a local high school. Something I found very interesting that she did after reading a paper by Tina was finding the places of understanding, or literate awareness. She also had her write reflections and notes down about an interview she had with a carptentar.
What I found to be by far the most compelling element of this paper was how different our definition of literacy is compared to people who come from a different socio-economic background. Johnson read a paper written by Tina before meeting her that had ample grammatical errors, poor word choice and a heap of other problems. She was then surprised to see that the paper received a "B". She then thought to herself that a "B" was not the correct grade for the paper and seemed confused. However, she began to realize that the standard for students in her high school was probably significantly lower than that of her own high school. Johnson grew up in an affluent neighborhood and received constant support through out her education. Not only that, but she always knew that the end goal was to attend college. It was never a question whether or not she would receive a higher education: it was understood. This naturally made me think of my own experience of high school.
I also grew up in an affluent family and received a far above par private education throughout my entire life. Even though I grew up in London, I still was presented with the same end goals: to graduate high school with a good GPA and attend an established university. For a second, I imagined what it would be like to not have those goals. What if going to high school was the end goal? What if actually graduating, despite the level of grades, was considered to be the best accomplishment?
The point of all of this reflection is this: literacy is defined as being able to read and write, but the reality is that it has a much deeper meaning for those of different backgrounds. Literacy, like Johnson says, is defined by those people who read TIME and The New Yorker and spend their days having intellectual conversations. The standards of what it means to be "educated" are in fact defined by those who are educated. Although I do agree with the importance of having our country's (and my other country's) citizens be well educated, the experiences we have in our lifetime are much more important. There is something to be said about those whose biggest dilemmas are what they will choose to wear in the morning and those whose issues are more serious. People who grow up in a rough neighborhood or with less money have a level of experience that most white-collar families cannot even come close to (and no, doing 'service' trips does not count).
What I mean by all of this (I am aware I went on a rant for a bit) is that to be literate is not just about reading and writing. In order to be literate, you have to be able to communicate those ideas not only by writing, but by speaking. Tina could talk about the issues behind teen pregnancy, drugs, alcohol, and many other things because they are issues she sees first hand. She is not hesitant to put her opinion out there and make what she thinks known. We at Richmond spend most of our time writing essays, research papers, lab reports, and tend to avoid these somewhat controversial issues. Keeping all of that in mind, who is more literate?
What I found to be by far the most compelling element of this paper was how different our definition of literacy is compared to people who come from a different socio-economic background. Johnson read a paper written by Tina before meeting her that had ample grammatical errors, poor word choice and a heap of other problems. She was then surprised to see that the paper received a "B". She then thought to herself that a "B" was not the correct grade for the paper and seemed confused. However, she began to realize that the standard for students in her high school was probably significantly lower than that of her own high school. Johnson grew up in an affluent neighborhood and received constant support through out her education. Not only that, but she always knew that the end goal was to attend college. It was never a question whether or not she would receive a higher education: it was understood. This naturally made me think of my own experience of high school.
I also grew up in an affluent family and received a far above par private education throughout my entire life. Even though I grew up in London, I still was presented with the same end goals: to graduate high school with a good GPA and attend an established university. For a second, I imagined what it would be like to not have those goals. What if going to high school was the end goal? What if actually graduating, despite the level of grades, was considered to be the best accomplishment?
The point of all of this reflection is this: literacy is defined as being able to read and write, but the reality is that it has a much deeper meaning for those of different backgrounds. Literacy, like Johnson says, is defined by those people who read TIME and The New Yorker and spend their days having intellectual conversations. The standards of what it means to be "educated" are in fact defined by those who are educated. Although I do agree with the importance of having our country's (and my other country's) citizens be well educated, the experiences we have in our lifetime are much more important. There is something to be said about those whose biggest dilemmas are what they will choose to wear in the morning and those whose issues are more serious. People who grow up in a rough neighborhood or with less money have a level of experience that most white-collar families cannot even come close to (and no, doing 'service' trips does not count).
What I mean by all of this (I am aware I went on a rant for a bit) is that to be literate is not just about reading and writing. In order to be literate, you have to be able to communicate those ideas not only by writing, but by speaking. Tina could talk about the issues behind teen pregnancy, drugs, alcohol, and many other things because they are issues she sees first hand. She is not hesitant to put her opinion out there and make what she thinks known. We at Richmond spend most of our time writing essays, research papers, lab reports, and tend to avoid these somewhat controversial issues. Keeping all of that in mind, who is more literate?
What is the point?
After going to the BGC on Monday, reading the most recent blog post on Professor Dolson's blog, and discussing our visit in class, the same question has been hovering around in my mind: what is the point of our visit?
In a most basic sense you could say that the point is to help the students make a digital story. On Monday I met with a girl named Latia who was timid at first but opened up to Fed and I towards the end of the hour. Unfortunately for us (and her), she had yet to do an interview with someone in the community and had not even chosen someone to work with. Because of the lack of information to work with, we ended up watching YouTube videos of her older brother for most of the session. Her brother is a student at VCU and is very interested in the arts. He has a YouTube account and uploads music videos and videos of him singing on a regular basis. Although I did not realize it until class today, her brother would be a perfect candidate for this project. She would be perfectly comfortable interviewing her own brother and already has a ton of admiration for his vocal and dance abilities. Isn't that what this project is about anyways?
This all got me thinking about why we are even visiting the kids at the BCG. Yes, on the surface, the original plan was to help them make a digital story but as of today, we are not doing that anymore (definitely the right decision). Now, our job is to get them to take the notes from their interview and turn it into a script, a video, or in my opinion, any medium through which they can express their opinion. Because..isn't that what all of this is about? It's not about spending 10 hours teaching them how to use Flickr, avoid copyright issues, or edit their voice in Audacity. This project is about establishing a common ground with the kids and helping them understand that they do have an opinion and no matter how they express it, it's worth hearing.
In a most basic sense you could say that the point is to help the students make a digital story. On Monday I met with a girl named Latia who was timid at first but opened up to Fed and I towards the end of the hour. Unfortunately for us (and her), she had yet to do an interview with someone in the community and had not even chosen someone to work with. Because of the lack of information to work with, we ended up watching YouTube videos of her older brother for most of the session. Her brother is a student at VCU and is very interested in the arts. He has a YouTube account and uploads music videos and videos of him singing on a regular basis. Although I did not realize it until class today, her brother would be a perfect candidate for this project. She would be perfectly comfortable interviewing her own brother and already has a ton of admiration for his vocal and dance abilities. Isn't that what this project is about anyways?
This all got me thinking about why we are even visiting the kids at the BCG. Yes, on the surface, the original plan was to help them make a digital story but as of today, we are not doing that anymore (definitely the right decision). Now, our job is to get them to take the notes from their interview and turn it into a script, a video, or in my opinion, any medium through which they can express their opinion. Because..isn't that what all of this is about? It's not about spending 10 hours teaching them how to use Flickr, avoid copyright issues, or edit their voice in Audacity. This project is about establishing a common ground with the kids and helping them understand that they do have an opinion and no matter how they express it, it's worth hearing.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Boys & Girls Club: Pre-Session
Before going downtown to the Boys & Girls club we were prompted with a few questions by Professor Dolson. They were as follows:
1. What helped you the most in the making of your digital story?
2. What makes a story?
What helped me the most in the making of my digital story was mainly the fact that I had done it before. This project was much easier to accomplish because of the experience I had from doing it last year. The way I went about doing my digital story this year was not much different from the previous time except I knew exactly what needed to get done in order for the story to come out well. For example, I knew this time around that having a plethora of photos to choose from is essential before putting the whole story together. It can be difficult and frustrating to have every element of your story completed in iMovie or Photostage and to still have to go back onto the Creative Commons to find photos. In order for things to run smoothly it's imperative to have everything in the pre-production stage to be done before moving on to the production stage.
In terms of writing the script, what helped me most was the way I decided to conduct the interview. I chose broad questions to ask my professor and wrote down meticulous notes during the interview. I knew that if I had specific questions and answers at the stage it would be difficult to come up with a good script in the writing stage. What I mean by this is that when you're conducting your interview, you have no idea how it will go and what your professor will say. Therefor it is unclear what direction you will take your story in at that point in the process. After the interview I was able to go through all of my notes and pick out the ideas and points that would be cohesive in a story.
This leads into the last question: what makes a story? There are a lot of elements that can be found in a traditional story. From plot, characters, themes, there are a ton of things that make up a story. A digital story on the other hand has elements that are not as straightforward. In this story in particular we had a protagonist or "main character", but in most digital stories, they are more conceptual. It's more important to know exactly what the theme is before the direction of the story because that is what you are trying to convey.
Below I have posted my digital story along with a couple of links to different photo websites and tutorials.
My story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF9-yF5VxCE
Digital Storytelling Concepts
http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html
Creative Commons
http://www.creativecommons.com
Flickr
http://www.flickr.com
Flickr Storm
http://www.zoo‐m.com/flickr‐storm/
Audacity Download
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
1. What helped you the most in the making of your digital story?
2. What makes a story?
What helped me the most in the making of my digital story was mainly the fact that I had done it before. This project was much easier to accomplish because of the experience I had from doing it last year. The way I went about doing my digital story this year was not much different from the previous time except I knew exactly what needed to get done in order for the story to come out well. For example, I knew this time around that having a plethora of photos to choose from is essential before putting the whole story together. It can be difficult and frustrating to have every element of your story completed in iMovie or Photostage and to still have to go back onto the Creative Commons to find photos. In order for things to run smoothly it's imperative to have everything in the pre-production stage to be done before moving on to the production stage.
In terms of writing the script, what helped me most was the way I decided to conduct the interview. I chose broad questions to ask my professor and wrote down meticulous notes during the interview. I knew that if I had specific questions and answers at the stage it would be difficult to come up with a good script in the writing stage. What I mean by this is that when you're conducting your interview, you have no idea how it will go and what your professor will say. Therefor it is unclear what direction you will take your story in at that point in the process. After the interview I was able to go through all of my notes and pick out the ideas and points that would be cohesive in a story.
This leads into the last question: what makes a story? There are a lot of elements that can be found in a traditional story. From plot, characters, themes, there are a ton of things that make up a story. A digital story on the other hand has elements that are not as straightforward. In this story in particular we had a protagonist or "main character", but in most digital stories, they are more conceptual. It's more important to know exactly what the theme is before the direction of the story because that is what you are trying to convey.
Below I have posted my digital story along with a couple of links to different photo websites and tutorials.
My story
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uF9-yF5VxCE
Digital Storytelling Concepts
http://www.storycenter.org/index1.html
Creative Commons
http://www.creativecommons.com
Flickr
http://www.flickr.com
Flickr Storm
http://www.zoo‐m.com/flickr‐storm/
Audacity Download
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
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