Alina Vamanu, Blog post #1, Discussion Questions


1) There are many ideas I enjoyed reading about in the first two chapters of the Bedford Guide. Some have confirmed the strategies I used as a writing tutor at Rutgers, while others are new to me and interesting to reflect on. At Rutgers, I would ask students questions about their paper drafts to help them articulate their thoughts and organize them into compelling arguments. The Bedford Guide suggests a similar approach: "use guiding questions and comments to help writers recognize areas for improvement and come up with their own solutions for revising their texts" (3). On the other hand, there are interesting ideas I haven't quite thought about before. Using silence and wait time to allow writers to process questions and come up with thoughtful answers is particularly intriguing to me. As a tutor, I have always made efforts to use time wisely so students would get the most out of their allotted time period. However, the Bedford Guide is a useful reminder that silence can be just as productive as lively dialogue. In this context, my question, then, has to do with the appropriate boundary between dialogue and quiet time. How much quiet time should we allow in our tutoring sessions? When would it be advisable to attempt a new conversation thread?

2) I have explored the Writing Center web site with great interest and was particularly drawn to the section on ESL resources. At Rutgers, I worked with a variety of students, including native speakers, bilingual students, and students for whom English was a second language. I think it is wonderful that so many useful resources have been compiled and made available to ESL students. One question that I had, though, refers to the degree of specialization of some of these resources. I was an English major in college, then taught English language and literature to students from various departments in my home country. As a Ph.D. student at Rutgers, I taught Expository Writing to incoming freshmen and served as a writing tutor for both undergraduate and graduate students. Thus, I have had the wonderful opportunity to work with and get to know different kinds of students, and I am wondering whether many of them might find some of the ESL resources (e.g., the Glossary of English Grammar Terms) a little too specialized? How do we negotiate the tension between having many resources available for students and ensuring knowledge accessibility? Does the Center request feedback from students in regard to the resources posted on its web site? I am fascinated by this and other topics, so I look forward to our discussion!


Comments

  1. Carol SeverinoJanuary 23, 2019 at 6:14 AM

    Over the years, tutors have developed diplomatic and face-saving quiet time tactics so students learn not to become over-dependent on the tutor. If after some collaborative dialogue and instruction, they want students to think, brainstorm, or write on their own, tutors often make that suggestion and then get up to get a drink of water or go to the bathroom. Shorter pauses involve the tutors taking a long sip of their coffee or tea. Or just say to the student, "I'm going to leave you to work on that introduction for 10 minutes and then we'll touch base." You can sit there and work on your own lap top for those 10 minutes and then check in to see what the student has written.

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  2. Carol SeverinoJanuary 23, 2019 at 6:18 AM

    Good question. Some of those resources are for tutors to use to work with their ESL students and some (e.g. the Purdue OWL), the students can use on their own. International students usually have better knowledge of grammar terms than bilingual US residents educated in US high schools. I'd wait to get to know students' levels of second language proficiency and knowledge of grammar terms, and then choose resources appropriate for their level.

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