On Sunday the 22nd, I had a tutoring session with a continuing ed student whose name is Jennifer-she went by Jen. When I arrived at the writing center, I was about 10 minutes early, and Jen came shortly after this time. We went down to the ground floor about 5 minutes early. I asked Jen how her day was going, talking about the weather and other menial things just to break the ice. Then I asked about her status as a student (Continuing Ed.). Jen explained that she had taken a break from school for several years; one of her friends had told her about the writing center and she thought it would be useful. Jen seemed very stressed right out of the gate. In fact, she straight up told me this several times throughout the session. After the first time I asked her why she was so stressed, and she just said this was the first paper she had done in a while and she wanted it to be good. We used the space …show more content…
Jen had been scratching the surface of one, but it needed some work. I asked her if that’s what she wanted to work on first, and Jen agreed. However, she made it clear that she was kind of confused about the paper. I then asked her “If you had to explain to me what this paper was about in 2 sentences; what would you tell me it’s about.” Jen started talking a bit about the historical aspects of women’s discrimination, but then she realized that she wasn’t saying a thesis so she was stressing out. Jen then said that she wasn’t quite sure the exact point she is trying to prove. Once I heard her say this I said “no worries we are going to figure it out together.” I then used the strategy of glossing to try and get the ideas flowing. I suggested that we go through paragraph by paragraph (it was only 3 pages and the comment boxes made it longer than it really was) and I asked her to write/explain to me the purpose of each
Anna opens explaining how everyone has bad first drafts, even terrific writers. It is difficult to be able to sit down and create a perfect first draft. Even the published writers do not sit down and start flowing wonderful sentences easily. In order to get to a publishable essay is to begin with a bad rough draft. First draft is where you just get your ideas down to then revise later on. Anna wrote food reviews for a magazine. She states how even though she did it for years she would still stress when it came down to finally beginning to write the review. She would just write nonstop in her first draft. Even if it was bad she would just keep writing so that she had plenty to work with later. Her first draft would be excessively long and seem messy and boring.
Also throughout our discussion, when using evidence we added page numbers, which helps out Ms.Karhu and our classmates on where to find that specific text evidence. Although we need to keep working to improve on moving from one topic to another. We spent half the discussion talking about the same idea, while we needed to work on saying the idea and then move on. I know I need to work on asking more questions. When talking about a certain idea I have to be more detailed instead of general. What I mean is to make people think about my ideas and let my classmates ponder on what I have to
Lucy Calkins described the writing workshop as a deliberate predictable environment with three basic components: teaching time, writing time and sharing time (Rog 2). Children need structure
She specifically mentions in the article that, “Each experience of writing was like standing naked and revealing my imperfection, my “otherness.” And each new assignment was another chance to make myself over in language, reshape myself, make myself “better” in my rapidly changing image of a student in a college composition class.” This reminds me of a new stage of my life making new friends and going down a new path. In high school I had one absolute best friend the rest of the student body was hard to connect with. College gives me a new chance of finding my place and connecting with students going down the same career path. Like Barbara Mellix, I too am go through a language change in college and in my work place. I am doing what I need to succeed and not maintain the same language just to be accepted by my own
Although Sarah is only a freshman, she has completed just about one semester at the University of Miami, is quite aware of her surroundings, and is extremely honest and understanding of the position she is currently in.... ... middle of paper ... ... Not only were Sarah’s grades affected, but the way in which she perceives people, and the way in which she makes friends, also suffered.
It is well thought out from the beginning to the end. Jennifer started teaching in 1986. Since then, she has written magazine articles, textbook lessons, teacher resource books, reading programs, and picture books. Jacobson is also a literacy coach and an author-in-residence. From reading the introduction, I learned that she has accomplished a lot in the writing field. I think it is helpful to read that she started out as an ordinary teacher. I connected with her experience in the classroom when she was enthusiastic to teach her students about writing while at the same time being enthusiastic to learn from her students about writing. I am excited to teach my future students too. However, with my experience as a daycare worker, I have learned that children can also teach me a thing or two (Jacobson, 2010, p. 1-3).
Ralph Fletcher’s story in the beginning of the introduction quickly grabbed my attention. Although the story was humorous, I found there to be a lot of truth in it. In the story, the young students realize that their teacher will take anything and make them write about it. It seems to be that the teacher does this so often, that the students are afraid to take joy in the simple things. The students don’t want to assigned another writing prompt. Fletcher then says that teacher need to be sure “not to get too evangelical about teaching writing.” I agree with this statement. It is very important to teach students how to write, but as a teacher we need to know when we should take a break so the students do not get burnt out. Once students get tired
...eft for writer’s anxiety, my instructor explain to us that it was our writing assignment and that she would not do it for us. Generally speaking, her hard core style of teaching was in the least inviting, thus ended up being my favorite class. Most all of our class time was spent learning in a much assorted variety of styles that it was never boring. Each assignment plan and process brought me into the focus of writing allowing time to etch some learned values into my college agenda proving that my anxiety had been overcome and English 111 has made its mark on my life.
I was assigned a student that is deaf and has a learning disability, Kerri. Kerri struggles with understanding what she needs to learn in class and has to have all of what is said typed out in notes for her to go through later on at home. While helping her, at first she was extremely resistant to having me as her aid, after the first week she was excited to see me which was something enjoyable for myself. I spend an hour each day in class with her and an hour out of class with Kerri. During our time outside of class I was asked to try to connect on “at home issues” with her since she struggles to care about her
However, it was a very short meeting, for I was only able to pull Sergio away from instruction during the last 10-minute of class. There was not enough time to explain the purpose of the meeting, discuss possible writing topics, and write about a topic that Sergio enjoyed. Once Sergio and I found a topic that Sergio was excited to write about, his new baby chicks that he and his mother picked up from the post office that morning, it was already time to pack up for the day. As a result, Sergio was only able to start a sentence for his writing. He did not even have the opportunity to finish
Over the past semester, I have found the most challenging part of this course to simply be the transition from high school composition classes to college. Because writing expectations are so different in college than in high school, even with AP and Dual Enrollment “college level” classes, I first found myself being overwhelmed with the pressure to write the perfect first draft. The pressure came from knowing how much a final draft of a paper contributed to my grade. This left me sitting in front of my computer for hours at a time with thoughts of what I wanted to say racing through my head, but unable to deliver these thoughts into organized, structured sentences. I learned, through writing my persuasive essay, that instead of trying to write the paper start to finish and already in its perfect form, it is easier for me to look at the paper through its different components and focus on them individually, then work to best organize my ideas fluently.
My critical response paper will be on the video “Dear daddy”. This video was based on the violence projected onto women throughout their lifetime. The five minute video clip is filmed from the perspective of an unborn girl as she faces difficulties being born a female. The video is targeted towards fathers and would-be fathers everywhere, urging them to help protect their daughters by showing zero tolerance to rape and rape culture. This narrated film lists all of the horrific experiences the daughters of many may face throughout their life at the hands of men.
This being my first year of teaching I feel there are so many things that I have learned, and have helped me too become a good teacher. Yet I have so much more to learn, I still believe that students have the ability to learn and as a teacher it is my job to find ways to help them to become the best person they can be. Through being a reflective teacher, using professionalism, respecting diversity and having collaboration and community connecting this can be accomplished. When I am having fun teaching the student will have learning that material, this will help them to be relaxed and engaged in that lesson. I feel it is important to connect what they are learning to things that they have experienced in the real-world.
It’s not like educators make their students feel dumb when they assist or correct their papers, it’s more the pressure of it all. This is obviously just my own perspective and experience with schooling, but this is why I chose to write my research paper on the importance of writing centers. I thought about the ways in which writing centers benefit students compared to the traditional classroom. As I’ve been tutoring students, there’s a similar vibe with each session: the students never fully know what their instructors are expecting from them. Okay, ready for the rant?
The writing class session I observed is a packaged program in which the students have been participating in for 5 months. They all know the routine of the reading and writing workshop and understand “the Daily 5.” The student’s movements are purposeful and there is little time wasted in transitions. The books used by students become more complicated as the students ability strengthens. At the end of the workshop, Mrs. Rammond praised those students who used their time efficiently during “the Daily 5.” She spoke directly to the students who wrote in their journals and asked them to share their entries. The students learned some new trivia about insects, practiced writing and then had some time for art.