Inside of the Writers' Room last week, I sat and witnessed one consultant work with two clients. Both of them were in an introductory writing class and, instead of having their work read and "work shopped," they opted to have the consultant read it and sign it and then leave.
I am aware that not every tutoring session is going to be the most invigorating experience I've ever had. The consultant, however, chose to tell his/her boss, ten minutes after the two students left in a nagging tone I'd often associate with a little sister, about how these kids just didn't respect him/her. He/She barked about how they didn't want to let him/her improve their work, so they wasted his/her time and their own time.
This made me wonder about what kind of people we have currently reading over other peoples work in the room itself. So what if they only wanted you to read it and sign it, let them. Not everyone is going to be as gung-ho about bullshit essays they are forced to write. If you can't accept that the people you're dealing with aren't A+ English majors, then you are a failing tutor. But, I may be jumping to conclusions about this consultant. They could have had a bad day and maybe just needed to vent about something nonconsequential.
Either way, she acted similar to the example used in the Censorship essay we read, in terms of their aggitation towards another opinion. Honestly, I can't help anyone unless I toss my opinion into another part of my brain and let their opinion come over and hang out in my little head apartment. Once they leave, or once things are safe enough, I open the closet and let both of our opinions exist together, even if they don't change.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
tooter
I had the pleasure of tutoring someone the last time I was in the Writers Room. We worked on grammar worksheets and I learned that I didn't like how simple it was. I imagined that I was in the classroom with the student and I had just received the worksheets as an assignment. I thought about how I would have read the directions and thought about how dumb the people handing the assignment to me must have thought I was. I imagined ways I could avoid doing it.
Putting myself into my clients classroom and imagining my own reaction helps me understand where the client may be coming from. They aren't necessarily stupid or lazy, they don't necessarily hate school, they just think about things differently than me. This is an important lesson to learn before trying to tutor someone.
In, "The Tutor's Role: Developing and Informed Practice," Murphy places lessons like this in pre-textual, the first stage of developing a tutoring method. Probably the best time to implement empathy would be towards the beginning of the conversation to best ensure that you both are equals in the tutoring session. When I let my client know that I too, thought the grammar worksheets were stupid, we became more than just consultant and client. We became two people tasked with the same problem. When two people share the same problem, that's when the conversation begins.
Murphy, Christina and Steve Sherwood. The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008.
Putting myself into my clients classroom and imagining my own reaction helps me understand where the client may be coming from. They aren't necessarily stupid or lazy, they don't necessarily hate school, they just think about things differently than me. This is an important lesson to learn before trying to tutor someone.
In, "The Tutor's Role: Developing and Informed Practice," Murphy places lessons like this in pre-textual, the first stage of developing a tutoring method. Probably the best time to implement empathy would be towards the beginning of the conversation to best ensure that you both are equals in the tutoring session. When I let my client know that I too, thought the grammar worksheets were stupid, we became more than just consultant and client. We became two people tasked with the same problem. When two people share the same problem, that's when the conversation begins.
Murphy, Christina and Steve Sherwood. The St. Martin's Sourcebook for Writing Tutors. 3rd ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Color
As I was sitting in the Writers' Room last week I realized why I haven't ever spent time in there. You'd think that a senior English major would have at least taken some interest in a room dedicated to improving/helping/guiding/playing Socrates with a piece of literature but I never have. It's not because I don't think I need the help or that students don't need the help. It is because the room itself is helpless.
For example, I am going to write something and I think it needs to be looked at by someone else before I turn it in because I'm unsure about how to get started, do I want to take my paper to a comfortable room where I can relax and talk with someone personally about a project, or do I want to walk into a gray room with gray walls and gray tutors far away from the English dept. and feel pressured to make sure the time I spend with my tutor is used "effectively?" The latter is the feeling I got when I sat at a table in the middle of the room.
When I watched the consultants on duty deal with two ESL students last Thursday I understood why the room was so empty. ESL students are the only ones who aren't lying to themselves about the purpose/effectiveness of the room. They understand that if they walk into the Writers' Room they'll spend fifty minutes having someone read over their shoulder and edit for grammar and logic. "Oh yes, that's right," and, "Okay," are what I heard as the consultants plucked away at the keyboards for them.
While the consultants may have felt they were helping the students, all they were really doing is helping to ensure a better grade. This could be due, in part, by the fact that the Writers' Room is a good walk from the Liberal Arts building and that the separation puts English under the roof of other disciplines like Science and Math and both types of thinking don't mesh well for a room designed for colorful conversations about writing.
But what the Writers' Room really needs is some energy and some interpersonal dialogue. I'm not talking, "What are you doing this weekend?" or, "I like your hair." I'm talking more about free thinking and the free sharing of ideas. Even when I was talking with the consultants in the room, I didn't feel like they thought of me as their equal. Although they didn't know anything about me, they were still in the mood to fix things. If the attitude switched from fixing to helping, the room could make more use of itself, but as is, I don't blame students for wanting to shy away from the room.
For example, I am going to write something and I think it needs to be looked at by someone else before I turn it in because I'm unsure about how to get started, do I want to take my paper to a comfortable room where I can relax and talk with someone personally about a project, or do I want to walk into a gray room with gray walls and gray tutors far away from the English dept. and feel pressured to make sure the time I spend with my tutor is used "effectively?" The latter is the feeling I got when I sat at a table in the middle of the room.
When I watched the consultants on duty deal with two ESL students last Thursday I understood why the room was so empty. ESL students are the only ones who aren't lying to themselves about the purpose/effectiveness of the room. They understand that if they walk into the Writers' Room they'll spend fifty minutes having someone read over their shoulder and edit for grammar and logic. "Oh yes, that's right," and, "Okay," are what I heard as the consultants plucked away at the keyboards for them.
While the consultants may have felt they were helping the students, all they were really doing is helping to ensure a better grade. This could be due, in part, by the fact that the Writers' Room is a good walk from the Liberal Arts building and that the separation puts English under the roof of other disciplines like Science and Math and both types of thinking don't mesh well for a room designed for colorful conversations about writing.
But what the Writers' Room really needs is some energy and some interpersonal dialogue. I'm not talking, "What are you doing this weekend?" or, "I like your hair." I'm talking more about free thinking and the free sharing of ideas. Even when I was talking with the consultants in the room, I didn't feel like they thought of me as their equal. Although they didn't know anything about me, they were still in the mood to fix things. If the attitude switched from fixing to helping, the room could make more use of itself, but as is, I don't blame students for wanting to shy away from the room.
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