Quiz 3 Review

Direction: In the language of Tutoring Writing Chapter 3, evaluate the following tutor-writer conferences.

1. The writer comes in with a paper. The tutor reads it over and immediately notices the grammar is full of errors. She realizes she must set about correcting the errors and explaining to the writer what good grammar looks like.[correcting errors page 17 --- lower order concerns (17) --- editor journalist (14)

2. A writer comes in and hands a tutor his paper. The tutor reads it over and sees it is full of problems on every level: it has sentences which are often grammatically incorrect and are at times unreadable, and has no discernible thesis or organizational pattern. After reading the paper, the tutor says to the writer, “Okay, in this paper I see a few different issues we could work on. I think it is going to need a lot of work, so you may want to come back for a second or third visit. But for today the first thing we need to work on is your opening paragraph. What do you know about opening paragraphs? What are the most important elements that need to be included in a good opening paragraph?” [correcting errors (17) – being an expert (19) – editor-journalist (14) – responding too late (20)

3.      The tutor decides after 15 minutes in conference that the writer is a great writer and does not need tutoring. However, since the schedule insists that they sit there together for an hour, she decides to ask him how things are going in his life, and how things are going in school. He says he is doing great, so they move on eventually to talking about what they are doing this weekend. [therapy (18)] – cheerleading (17)

4. The tutor notices her tutee is working with English as a second language. The tutee seems to have things she wants to say in her paper, but doesn’t have the words for it. But the tutor feels she knows what the tutee wants to say so she says, “I know what you can say that will be good for this paper.” Then the tutor takes the paper and begins writing out ideas for the tutee to type out when she gets home. [usurping ownership 19--- ] [being an expert (19)

Final Reflection

1. Write in Microsoft Word and email to me as an attachment. Save a copy on your blog for safe-keeping.

2. Compositions must approach 600 words to qualify for an "A."

3. The use of texts for the reflection are: "The Pedagogy of the Oppressed," "Savage Inequalities," and "Psychology of Social Class." Points or terms or examples from each of these texts must be present to qualify for an "A."

4. In general, you are writing a reflection based on your answers to the following three questions, with the texts used to support or oppose your points. Your answer to these questions should be in the introduction as a quasi-thesis statement.

5. Questions

What are your reflections upon the role of tutoring in educational development and learning? How does tutoring fit into your larger teaching philosophy? How does tutoring and your teaching philosophy fit into your broader reflections about the issues within our contemporary educational system?

Case Study

3 full pages (min for an A)

This assignment asks you to do the following:

Begin your case study by articulating your tutoring philosophy. Introduce yourself to readers, and to the texts you'll be drawing upon, and to your main principles of tutoring. Draw upon course texts and readings by mentioning up front the major ideas you plan to cite, who wrote them, and what texts they're from.

For your statement, consider: what is tutoring? what does it do? why does it matter? Your answers to these questions could help you form your tutoring philosophy. You'll want to ultimately be able to explain the different principles of your philosophy to your readers.

When you consider your principals of tutoring, consider what theories/strategies/texts they come from. That will give you an idea about how to connect your principals to the intellectual foundations of your principals. 

Develop examples of how your tutoring experience has helped you develop this philosophy. Let your work with students demonstrate and illustrate different principles of your philosophy. In each example, give details about your work with students: what were the challenges, and how did you overcome them? How did you approach your work with students? How did you find out what worked and what didn't? Supplement your discussion with regular references to course texts.

The "case study" aspect of this assignments asks you to show your tutoring principals (the foundation of your tutoring philosophy) at work in your interactions with students while tutoring. 

In your conclusion, consider some of the more philosophical discussions we've had about the context of tutoring. What are your reflections upon the role of tutoring in education? What are your broader reflections about the role of education itself?

Class Agenda 8.5

1. Announcements
Case Study

2. Go over midterm
3. Go over Kozol
4. Go over Culture and Social Class
5. Refer to "ESL Writers" by Bruce and Rafoth
6. Edit videos

Class Agenda 8.1

1. In-class blog: discuss how the filming process went yesterday. Remember you're writing to an outside reader. Explain what you did, why you were doing it, and whether or not you were effective. Discuss the goal of the project and whether you think that goal was met. Relate what you believe an audience will take from the project.

2. Email assessment of project to me. In a confidential email, discuss the following:

a. Please take a moment to note all the things you've done to produce your video: communications, planning, drafting, writing, reading, traveling, reporting to professor, playing a large role in the filming, and playing a large role in the editing (also consider if you helped other people produce their videos, and how). Now please rank which of these activities you did the most, in a ranked scale of 1-10 (1 being the thing you did the most, 10 being the thing you did least or not at all).

b. Please reflect on how much work you did in your group compared to your classmates. Honestly speaking, do you think you did more work on average, less work on average, or the same amount work on average? Without necessarily identifying other group members (though you're allowed to, as these reports are confidential), please rate yourself as more, same, or less and explain why.

c. Please consider how the filming went yesterday. Are you satisfied with how you believe your filming process went? Why or why not? Is there anything you would do differently? If so, what and why?

d. What grade do you think you personally deserve for this project (not the entire class)? Provide two reasons why you believe you deserve this grade. The reasons should relate to the work you did on the project.

e. Are there any issues that you'd like to bring to our attention as we assign grades? For example, did you have group members drop out of the project? Please let me know about anything you feel we need to know at this time. Remember, we won't share your writing with anyone else.

3. video editing.

iMovie
iMovie Basics

Extra Credit: respond to Chomsky

Points

For extra credit, students will write a blog (title: Extra Credit) on the Chomsky video we partially watched in class. For every 100 words, you write, you will be awarded ONE point extra credit on your quiz grade, up to five points. For every 100 words you write beyond 500 words, you will be awarded extra credit on your midterm exam, up to five points.

Task

First, summarize what you believe to be the most important three points of Chomsky's interview; these can be the points you found most interesting. React to each point by reflecting on what you find valuable, challenging, or interesting about it. You could agree, disagree, or both.

Then, reflect on how your own educational experiences compared to Chomsky's: what was most memorable about your own education? What teachers influenced you, and why?

Finally, Chomsky makes connections between his pedagogical philosophy and the larger importance of education to American culture and democracy. After defining yours, can you connect your pedagogical philosophy to these larger dimensions of life? What is this all for? What should we be doing and why?

Class Agenda 7.29

1. midterm
2. rehearsals
3. letter to bert review