Final Reflection

As a teacher, I am very much used to a large class. I can be teaching up to 33 students per class. Everyday, I am supposed to teach about 150+ students, and the trouble is that some students are left behind. I have taught to teach to a class, but when I teach one on one, after school, or a few students at a time, I struggle. Maybe because after a long day, I am tired, and my patience is shorter. Maybe I just do not know how to build upon a student's skills when it comes to specific issues. But I know that this area is in need of improvement.

I found that the readings and class discussions on how to deal with different types of students to be very beneficial. Most of my students play as the dependent students because they are lazy, and I just give them the answers they need to go off and complete their assignment. I never really took into account on if they are learning and building on their skills or not. Some students are very unsure about the skills they already have, and again, I find myself just giving them the answers. I know better on how to deal with these situations. I have found that I am more able to make students work towards their own conclusions. Also, what was most beneficial to me was how to questions students into developing their own skills. It was even more beneficial to me because I was able to see tutors in action practicing the theories we have learned in class. I feel as if I had internalized a great deal of that, and I hope that I am better able to facilitate learning on a more specific and individual basis.

Coming out Writing Center Theories and Practices, I feel as if I've built on my own skills as a teacher. I feel more able and capable to assist my students. This class definitely helped me to not leave my students behind.

Writing Center Field Research

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=1RjnhCNmaMskhQG8nG-KMMh1WLBVWFhxaNigDDKIcx5pBvuRGHYn0MGuCq4Fj&hl=en&authkey=CIXUimA

Writing Center Proposal

Humaira Zakaria

November 3, 2010

Engl B5600

Professor Gleason

Writing Center Research Proposal

I have been a teacher for going on four years now, and I build on my student’s skills on a classroom basis. Quite frankly, I am used to 30 or more students sitting at their desks, and none of the students can receive the individual attentions they may need to help them achieve better grades and skills. To combat the many students that need help within my high school, there are tutoring services being set up to help aid them. By observing a tutoring center, I believe I can internalize how to help students on a one-on-one basis, and may be able to aid the set up of the tutoring services that will be provided for these students.

Not far from my high school is CUNY Lehman College. CUNY Lehman is actually a 15 minute walk from my job, and is highly convenient for me to travel to for my observations of a tutoring center. I managed to find my way to the “Old Gym Building” in where the tutoring center is located. The tutoring center is titled “Academic Center for Excellence” or “ACE” for short. I had met with the director of ACE, Althea Forde, and she informed me that the tutoring services were not limited to just ACE; but there are additional tutoring centers specifically for Math and Science. ACE provides tutoring services specifically for writing, standardized test preparation for the CUNY Proficiency Exam, and for any humanities and social science courses.

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I would like to explore the center’s history. Talking to Althea Forde she has informed me that the tutoring services had only evolved within the last 10 years, and before that it was not as catering to the many aspects of help the students needed.

I would like to next focus on the layout, location and physical setting of ACE. From what I did see, there were individual rooms for specific subjects that students needed help in. I also saw that each tutoring cubby had a working computer. I would like to focus on the arrangement of the layout and how it helps foster a learning environment for the tutee.

I would also like to focus on the types of students that enter the tutoring center and for what reasons. I saw an array of students walk in and out of ACE. I saw college freshman, graduate students, non-traditional students returning to college after a leave of absence, and ESL students that varied greatly on the languages that they spoke.

Before I had my meeting with Althea Forde, I was reading the many artifacts on the wall in the waiting area. Many of these posters were informational. There was one poster that exemplified different workshops offered so that a student can hone in on a specific issue they are having and can collaboratively learn on how to better build their own skills. There was also information on the CUNY Proficiency Exam, when it will be held, who is required to take it, and how ACE can help prepare them. I would like to delve into the other workshop services they provide and how they do tackle preparation for the CPE.

I also want to focus on the training the tutors undergo so that they are prepared to tutor. What certifications are required of them? How many hours training? What support

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do they receive after certification and training? What methods and theories do they use when tutoring? And which specific type of student population are they trained for? How many hours is required of them per week?

As of now, Althea Forde has given me oral confirmation to observe her tutoring site. I must await for approval by ACE’s writing coordinator Sarah Blazer. I am hoping that I will be able to observe their center soon, since there is much to learn about and document. I know that one of my classmates is interested in Lehman College as well. I am hoping to collaboratively work with her on this research assignment so that I can make clear connections between my experience at the writing center and the theories and readings we have discussed in class.

Tutee Report

Humaira Zakaria

Professor Gleason

ENGL B5600

Being a Tutee

October 27, 2010

I have managed to not step foot in a writing center throughout my whole undergraduate career. Throughout my undergraduate years, I would write, edit, and re-write my papers to then hand in the final product directly to my professor. I rarely ever shared my work with any of my peers, and when I did, it was under forced circumstances of peer editing. Me sharing my work was not by choice. I usually am very possessive and secretive about my writing. I do not want my peers to judge me, or tell me something is wrong with what I had written. A critique of my work is direct criticism of me, and that is hard to handle.

Now nearing the end of my graduate studies, I finally stepped into a writing center. Still, it was not by choice, but I am grateful for the experience. I figured, because I am a high school English teacher, that I would not need to observe and learn through my experience with a writing tutor. I was set in my ways, and I didn’t want to change any aspects of my writing process.

The situation was most definitely uncomfortable for me at the start of my session. I did not know what to expect. I am the one that usually gives out the instruction on what to do for an assignment and give lessons on how to improve writing, since that is expected of me as an English teacher. Since the role has been reversed for me, I realized In retrospect that I was guarded as soon as I sat down.

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I brought in an introduction to a letter that I would write to Dr. Gibbons, thanking him for his presentation, and following the introduction I had jotted notes on everything I would have liked to of included in my letter. I was thinking in my head, that I could write this extravagant letter, with an academic tone which would also incorporate the reading by Irene Clarke that was assigned to us in class.

I was used to being the authoritative figure within my classroom. Students sit, and I stand in front of them. My tutor did not establish herself as an authoritative figure. Instead, she sat next to me, with her pen and scrap paper in hand. At that moment, I felt more at ease, and I felt that she was not there to judge my work. The Bedford Guide for Writing Tutors states that “arrangement conveys a nonverbal message,” and by “sitting in a relaxed and comfortable manner… demonstrates interest in the writer’s words by leaning forward and making eye contact” (18). I realized that since my tension was eased just by my tutor sitting next to me, on my level, that I need to somehow incorporate this type of body language within my classroom. My students will feel less anxious about their own writing process, since they are still trying to establish what it means to be a writer.

My tutor never moved my intro/outline away from me either. She kept my paper in front of my at all times and leaned over and asked me questions. As a teacher, it is easier for me to tell the students what’s wrong with their papers, and what they need to fix so that they can get a better grade; but that is ineffective, because they do not build on their skills, and they will have the same issues for their next assignment. A tutor should “indicate patterns of error and ask leading probing questions that will require the writer to

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take control of their paper when he or she reads” (Ryan and Zimmerelli 18); but through my tutors questions, I came to my own conclusions about my assignment. I realized that I was too ambitious with this letter. I was focusing more on the information I learned in class through my readings and Dr. Gibbons’ presentation. This letter was supposed to be personal, and instead I was writing an academic paper with “Dear Dr. Gibbons” written at the top of the text. I had lost focus on what a letter is supposed to be when I am thanking someone for their time and effort. For the past near two years I have been adjusting myself to be able to write academic papers more easily.

My experience with my tutor was collaborative. She put herself in a position as if she were my equal and did not instruct me on how to make my paper better, but she actively engaged in conversation with me. I was on my pre-writing stage. We discussed the focus of my letter and what I wanted Dr. Gibbons to take away from my letter, and we both explored the purpose of my paper. I became unsure, because I thought I had a my focus and a clear plan on executing my letter. To help a tutee on the pre-writing stage so that they may start their draft a tutor will need to help brainstorm which “involves focusing on a topic and tossing out, thinking through, and refining ideas to find ways to approach it” (Ryan and Zimmerelli 42). By the end of my session I had edited down my original ideas of having to write a five page paper that would have been paraded as a letter, to a one page letter focusing on the key aspects of Dr. Gibbons’ presentation that I personally had benefited from and what I appreciated the most.

I do not always write to the best of my abilities because I refused to get help for my writing and I end up hindering myself. Since I had a more clear focus, my

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tutor had instructed me to write my first draft of the letter, and if I needed more help to come back and see her. I went in not thinking I needed any help. After my session, I realized that I more likely need help than not. If I want to take my writing seriously, which is why I was an English major to begin with, I need to let people in to help me develop my skills. I do not believe that anyone is so perfect in their skills that they never need help, there are always mistakes to be corrected on a local level and continuity errors on a global level that need to be adjusted.

By being a tutee, I put myself in a position of my students. As a teacher, I learned that being an authoritative figure (which seems “scary”) to young adult students may perpetuate writing anxiety. Anxiety is obviously not a productive process in completing an assignment to the best of their abilities. By my anxiety eased, I let my tutor help me. I am assuming that by easing my students fear of me and their own dilemmas of writing, I could help them more positively. I believe that was the most valuable conclusion I had come to through my experience in the writing center.

Works Cited

Leigh, Ryan and Lisa Zimmerelli. The Bedord Guide for Writing Tutors. Boston: Massachusetts. 2010. Print.

Earth AChes By Midnight

Humaira Z said...

Stacy,
I agree with you. I taught students how to write thesis statements by having them identify thesis statements in other peoples' writing. I also had them underline supporting evidence and details that supported the thesis. I had them mimic other writers and it slowly but surely started to pay off. By them practicing this they were able to fine tune their own writing skills.

Reading an ESL writer's text

Humaira Z said...

It's hard to not be biased, especially because there is a standard to uphold in our education. But I believe that Cox and Matsuda highlighted the issues we have as readers of ESL papers. We are unaware of the standards of other countries and we judge these ESL students as remedial. I found it interesting that some ESL writers may never get to their thesis until the end of the paper... but because we do not understand the standards of other cultures we find these students to be "deficient." These students have to switch and re-learn for a whole new language and standard, and they are seen as inadequate for it. For the reader it is necessary to "realize that differences are not necessarily signs of deficiency. In fact, some of the differences may reflect the writer's advanced knowledge of conventions in other languages...(40)."

Group Discussion

Group 4 (Humaira, Jane and Natasha) focused our discussion around Kristin Walker’s article, “Difficult Clients and Tutor Dependency: Helping Overly Dependent Clients Become More Independent Writers.”

Initially we summarized Walker’s points: the dependent tutee is overly insecure and latches onto the tutor for the whole writing process and thus the tutor and the writing center become a crutch for the student. Another point Walker made is not to speak of the tutee as dependent; the goal is to help them become independent and feel more self confident with writing. Writers at all levels of ability benefit from seeking help from another writer. We are not ever independent but inter-dependent.

Walker seemed to be primarily looking at adult learners returning to school and feeling uncertain about how to perform academically and also about their ability to perform. They don’t know how to judge what instructors want and are afraid of failing at being a student. At the same time these adult learners are highly motivated, thus in their anxiety and fear of failing they latch onto their tutor.

It was at this point that our discussion began to veer off track (or perhaps to evolve) as ideas stimulated by Walker’s article sprang into our conversation. Jane brought up a particular tutee of hers at the Writing Center where she works as a writing consultant. For the past few weeks, the student writer is coming to her with increasing regularity for help with her papers. The student appears to be very shy and insecure about her writing, so Jane, remembering what this uncertainty and insecurity feels like, is concerned she overcompensated and “did too much of the work.” Now the tutee seems to expect to be hand fed.

Responding to Jane's concern about her over dependent tutee, Natasha brought up Walker’s discussion of providing nourishment for students so that they can become self-sufficient. Walker suggests tutors complement and encourage students on their strong points and work with them to edit their own writing. In addition, Natasha commented, it is the role of the tutor to help format and develop a system for the student so they will not be so dependent on the tutor and the writing center. This can be done through encouragement and skill developing. If the student learns how to format her own paper and make her own corrections and revisions she will be less dependent on the tutor and writing center.

Humaira then pointed out that Walker covered only the students who really care about learning to write but don’t do well and become fearful. There are several typical types of dependent writers that were not covered. Humaria mentioned first the entitled writer who doesn’t bring anything with him (no assignment, no draft, nothing but his attitude) to his tutoring session and appears to assume everyone in the writing center is there to take care of him. A second example is the lazy writer who is content to just scrape by with an attitude of “just tell me what I need to do, don’t make me work for it.” And last, Humaira continued, there is the belligerent student with a chip on her shoulder that demands service and gets angry if you say “I won’t edit it for you but I will help you edit your paper.” We all agreed that these types of dependent tutees are difficult to deal with and we would have liked Walker to cover these types of dependent writers as well. Unfortunately our conversation ended before we could offer each other some suitable responses for each other.