ENG 4070/5070: Writing Center Theory & Practice

Last Day of Class

2010-12-16T13:23:00.001-08:00

I am in my office if you need to ask questions. For details on grading, see earlier posts.

I am hoping to have your portfolios finished by Sunday night. Check your email so you can get back to me if I have made mistakes.

As we acknowledged in class - this has been an eventful term! I have been impressed with your resourcefulness and your perseverance. Good work. I have enjoyed working with each of you.

Finishing the course

2010-12-14T11:35:00.001-08:00

Both today and Thursday will be work days. Your final portfolio is due Thursday, December 16 at the end of class.

Electronic portfolio

As you set up your electronic portfolio - be sure to use the headings listed on the sample portfolio .

You will notice that I added a heading for "Research plan" on the research project page.

Additional materials

Turn in notes, permission forms, and any other documents relevant to your work for the course in class today or Thursday. They should be in a folder or binder. I will look through them as I grade your portfolio and return notes in my box in the English Department Office. I will keep the permission forms.

Notification for grades

See earlier post for details. Be sure to go through your grade sheet to make sure you agree with my calculation for the grade.

Presentations Tuesday & Thursday

2010-12-08T06:24:00.000-08:00

Monica, Angela and Karilyn presented their work (see their blogs for details). Thanks for your good feedback and for sharing data!

Thursday we will finish presentations (see previous post for criteria).

Grade for Course + Presentations on Research Projects

2010-12-04T07:55:00.000-08:00

Grades:
We re-calculated the weighting in the rubric for assigning grades (See last blog). I feel like the new numbers allocate credit more fairly with respect to the amount of work and reading you put in to the various projects.

The process for assigning grades will be as follows.

You will turn in your final portfolio by the end of class, December 16.

On or before Tuesday, December 21, I will email you a copy of the rubric with the number of points you earned for each component (and comments explaining the points). It is your responsibility for you to check your email for your grade sheet.

After receiving your grade, you should look over the points + the comments and let me know if there should be any corrections or adjustments. You will have 48 hours from receiving the email to inform me of any readjustments. Hopefully we will be able to settle any re-calculations simply and by email. negotiate them.

Once grades are agreed upon, or if I do not hear from you within 48 hours of sending you the grade sheet, I will post grades for the course on Keanwise.

I expect to have all grades posted by the evening of Thursday, December 23.

Presentations:

This week, both Tuesday and Thursday, you will give presentations on your research projects. Your presentation will be based on a draft of your project (posted on your blog). In your presentation you will cover the points listed below. You should be able to "talk through" rather than read your discussions with respect to these points.

The reason for talking rather than reading is to help you find new, more focused language through your presentation, and to allow you to use the interactive, open-thinking of talking to pull in any important ideas the writing process edited out.

Points to cover in your presentation:

1. A detailed description of what you studied. By "detailed description" I mean that you will present your focus in way that provides background material you will need to answer questions for 2=> why your research is important, the problems it solves with respect to writing center work, and how writing center personnel might apply your findings.

For example, stating that you studied "body language" is too general. A detailed statement might be - that you focused on how and to what extent students and coaches picked up (consciously and unconscioulsy) on body language cues during sessions, and that you paid particular attention to: 1) the features of the situations in which coaches (and writers) did or did not pick up on body language cues; 2) what kinds of information coaches & writers seemed to "get" from body language cues; and 3) how picking up on body language cues did (did not) create a more effective session.

2. Why your research is important, the problems it solves with respect to writing center work, and how writing center personnel might apply your findings.

3. An overview of what other researchers have found with respect to your research foucs/questions. This should include both the names of key articles and the information the did (or did not) report with respect to your focus.

4. Methods for gathering + analyzing data

5. A short summary of each "chunk" of data + the main point(s) you want to illustrate through the presentation of that data (what the data show with respect to your focus)

6. Discussion of what data show when taken as a whole

7. Conclusions + recommendations for further study

I will be reading through your blogs (hopefully you will all have feedback by the end of Saturday).

For Tuesday

Blog 19: Post the complete draft for the research essay.

After you have given your presentation, post:

Blog 20: Plan for revising research project. This should include an overview of each of the points listed above - and whether or what you need to do to make your essay stronger with respect to each of the requirements. You should also comment on any global stylistic revisions that you need to work on. For example, common revisions include:

using active as opposed to passive constructions;
clarifying referents for pronouns (and phrases such as "there are, "it is" etc);
deleting repetitive phrases, sentences, and words = when in doubt, take it out;
revising complex &/or sometimes run-on sentences into a series of simple, declarative sentences;
replacing complex noun phrases with nouns

Have a good weekend & see you Tuesday.

Grades for course + Electronic Portfolio

2010-12-01T14:41:00.000-08:00

Your grades will be assigned according to the scale set up in the course syllabus => except that the portfolio will include 425 rather than 500 points (since you will not be writing the essay on your development as a writing coach).

Participation/presentations: 300

Blog: 200

Electronic Portfolio: (500)

A model for the electronic portfolio is posted at ENG 4070 Portfolio, and points for components are as follows:

Reflection on course: 50

Writing Centers & Writing Cultures assignment 100

Writing Center Philosophy 100

Research Project 250 (includes 50 points for your evaluation of your project).

+ 25 bonus points if your grade is within 10 points of the grade I assign.

We will set up the portfolios in class on December 14. Create your work as MS word documents since pasting directly from the blog to the google.site can result in surprises.

More Analysis

2010-11-23T14:59:00.001-08:00

Tonight we talked through the analysis sections from several of your research projects. You are posting stronger & stronger notes, and the discussions helped to clarify research questions and pose strategies for presenting the body of your data in light of that research question.

Good class!

For Tuesday:

Continue working on the body of your essay. As you write - just as we did in class => return to your research question and clarify the points you want to illustrate with your data.

Blog 18: Post as much as you have written for your research essay. At a minimum you should have a drafty version of your introduction (including the literature review) + a first draft of your analysis of the data.

In class you will workshop your essays so far.

Use the sample essays as patterns.

Analysis

2010-11-16T14:45:00.000-08:00

In class tonight we looked at the introductions for the sample essays. We noted that these two particular essays integrated the review of the literature with the statement & significance of the research problem.

We also looked talked about how the introduction should set up the exploration/explanation of a particular problem for a particular audience. To set you up for the coaching sessions on your introductions - I asked you to do some writing to think about the audience & purpose for your essay. We looked briefly at some writing center journals (some links are at the bottom of this blog)and you thought about who you wanted to read your essay & what you wanted to tell them. You then worked with partners on your introductions - and I floated around to answer questions/suggest references and to listen to what you have done so far.

Great class!

For Thursday:
I will be in the writing center to work one-on-one on the research projects.

Blog 16: post the notes you will analyze for blog 17

For Tuesday:

Blog 17: Analyze the notes from Blog 16 using the following approach.

Provide a heading to state what the analysis shows with respect to your overall focus.
Summarize the aspect(s) of the observation/notes that illustrate the points you analyze
Develop detailed descriptions of what took place in the session (actors, actions, contexts + outcomes) = the evidence you will analyze
Interpret that evidence (say what it means)
Analyze the relationships within the evidence by identifying + explaining important cause and effect(and other) relationships
Discuss the relationships between your analysis and your overall point

In class Tuesday, bring any questions you have about how to write analytic discussions that provide the "evidence" to support an argument (your "case" for your answer to your research question).

I will be reading blogs over the weekend - and sending feedback on blogs 14 & 15.

Presentations on research plans

2010-11-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

Tammy, Monica, Anna, Erin, and Angela gave brief presentations on their research plans. I will be available in the WC from 4:30 until 5:45 for anyone who wants to sharpen research questions, make sure their resources work, or talk about data.

Blog 14: (for Thursday) Browse around classmates' blogs and post a section of your data that you think might be useful. Include an overview of what you see as "what your data show."

Blog 15: (for Tuesday) Write a drafty version of the introduction to your essay. This introduction should include: your research question; the problem/issues in WC work that your question will answer/provide new ideas about; the importance/relevance of your research to WC work. If you are feeling ambitions you might make a list of the kind of data you will need to study this problem/answer your research question.

Read: continue reading research relevant to your project

In class Tuesday we will continue working on the research project. You will conduct coaching sessions with one another to review your research plans + introductions, and we will talk as a class about the organization of research essays + where you might publish your work.

Research Plan for November 9

2010-11-02T15:51:00.000-07:00

In class tonight you went through your focus for your projects and about half the class presented their annotated bibliographies (and contributed some good references for the rest of us). It sounds like all of you are moving forward => finding your focus. And that is the way it usually goes. Keep taking notes and looking for patterns like we did the other week.

At the very end of class we looked at the assignment sheet for the research plan. The first three numerals are writing exercises to help you discover your research question and develop ideas about how to answer that question. Numeral 4 lists the points to cover in your research plan. For sample research plans - look at:

http://sheerahg.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-18-research-plan-revised.html

I will be available in the WC on Thursday to talk over your projecst or to help brainstorm ideas for references. Otherwise - keep on gathering notes + attending sessions, and see you on Tuesday, November 9. I will be reading through your blogs (starting today for those of you who have posted annotated bibliographies) and hope to give you some feedback by the weekend.

Blog 12.2: (for Thursday): Annotated bibliography (for those of you who have not yet posted of if you want to make revisions, additions, etc)

Blog 13: Research Plan

Class Discussion: Annotated Bibilography + Research Questions

2010-10-27T06:56:00.001-07:00

Tonight we looked through the calendar to get the big picture for where we were going with this research project. As we saw from the calendar, the course is set up so that you do your project in parts - and through using the blogs - so that you share your thinking, data, writing and resources with classmates as you develop them. This practice will allow us to work together.

Overview of due dates for November (first approximation)

Annotated bibliography: November 2

Research plan: November 9

Rough draft - "problem " (your research question) + review of the literature: November 16

Rough draft - presentation of data: November 23

For the next several weeks we will be meeting as a class on Tuesdays, you will be observing (and then coaching) in the writing center, and I will be available in the Writing Center during class time on Thursday. On Thursdays we can work one-on-one or as a class on research/writing issues of your choice.

Annotated bibliography

A sample annotated bibliography is listed to the right. For this assignment, I am looking for a (tentative) list of references for your research paper. As in the sample - I am looking for a short, clear statement of the main focus of the work. In addition, I will be looking for a statement of how you plan to use this reference in your research.

For example, if you were going to do a study of power issues involved in setting the agenda for what writing issues students end up working on in their sessions - you might ask a research question such as: what "authorities" do coaches/students invoke to "persuade" one another with respect to what they will work on during a writing session? How does the choice of "authorities" correlate with the chosen focus, and with student satisfaction with respect to the session? (authorities might include: teacher's expectations stated in class; assignment sheet; genre characteristics; evidence from the paper itself (there may be several categories for this) ; student's feelings about what s/he needs help with; and so on).

To develop a annotated bibliography for this topic you might consider essays on agenda setting, power dynamics in sessions, discourse analysis of tutoring/conferencing/writing center sessions; and so on.

A sample entry might be:

Entry: Newkirk, Thomas. "The First Five Minutes: Setting the Agenda in a AWriting Conference." Writing and Response: Theory, Practice. and Research. Ed. Chris Anson. Urban, IL: NCTE P, 1989. 317-331.

Overview: A description of the dynamics of agenda setting in conferences for a freshman English course.

Use: I can use Newkirk's transcripts & analysis of the three sample "agenda settings' to identify key references to authority in the negotiation of the focus for the conference. This will show that these references are wide-spread moves - and not just in the sessions I observe.

Your annotated bibliography should have the minimum number of entries required for your research essay.

As I said in class - these bibliographies often become a communal source, and student frequently find that essays from classmates bibliographies will be important to their research. By the time projects are complete - students usually have "borrowed" reference from several classmates - and that is exactly the point of asking you to post your bibliography on your blog.

Finding sources.

We spend about half the class identifying and testing strategies for finding references. Suggestions included:

using amazon to identify books (and some articles) - and reading the bibliographies for recent publications if possible
using google scholar - noting how many times articles that come up have been cited, and checking out related references (and, of course, mining the bibliographies of all relevant articles)
using Rebecca Moore Howard's bibliographies (& searching her lists using control F for dates + keywords)
checking out writing center journals + the IWCA (NOT the international window cleaning association)
searching by author for leading scholars in your field (using Kean databases + google.scholar &etc)

Sample essays:

There are two sample essays posted with the Annotated bibliography: one qualitative, and one hybrid qualitative-quantitative. I chose these two as samples since they both follow the more-or-less standard form for composition research essays. We discussed the (surprising) results for the study of correlations between WC satisfaction and grades as a way to think about both how you might design a study - and how you might explain your results. Either of these essays would serve as a satisfactory model for this assignment.

Observations in the center:

We spent the rest of class talking about what struck you about observations in the center - and then speculating about what kind of questions/explorations you might develop to follow-through on those observations. There were lots of solid ideas for projects in this discussion. I am very excited about reading through your findings!

If you will miss your time in the center - or if you want to re-schedule: send an email to wcenterkean7@gmail.com.

Blog 12: messy discussion of what you are reading and ideas for your project (to get some ideas out there for classmates)

Read: essays for your research (candidates for your annotated bibliography)

See you on Thursday (or not). The assignments for Thursday (due Tuesday, November 2) will be:

Blog 13: Draft annotated bibliography

Read: Sample research essays posted on blog

In class on Tuesday, November 2 we will discuss the form of the sample research essays, share references, and talk about developing a research plan.

October 21

2010-10-23T08:40:00.000-07:00

We spent today's class brainstorming ideas for the research project. I encouraged you to keep an open mind as you observed your first several sessions, and to remember that you need to frame your study so that it answers some specific questions with respect to writing center work.

In addition to the research project assignment sheet, I have posted two sample research essays that have a form similar to the work you will be doing. As we discussed in class, because of your brief window for observation - your data will necessarily be "thin." That's OK. The real purpose of the project is for you to get your feet wet in using the observational-reflective processes that are frequently applied both in writing centers and in writing classrooms.

For Tuesday:

Blog 11: brainstorming for research project

Read: use the "research plan" sheet (posted to the right) to do some in-depth thinking about your project. Specifically, begin to identify + check out research essays that will be useful for your project.

For the next couple of weeks, we will have class on Tuesday, and then we will have optional meetings in the WC for one-on-one or group work on your projects on Thursdays.

For those of you who showed up but were unsure about what we were doing, (I was late) sorry for the confusion about this Thursday's class.

October 12: Permission forms + taking & analyzing notes

2010-10-13T06:13:00.000-07:00

We talked through the permission forms (posted to the right) and I provided each of you with a copy that has my signature. You will need to copy the signed forms, date them, and add your information. We talked through the protocol for presenting the permission forms and following up with the debriefing forms. Subjects have their own motivations for taking part in our research - but it is often out of generosity and a wish to help, so remember to thank them. Study of how writing and coaching work is an essential part of writing center work - and by conducting and publishing research in our center - theories about writing will account for the writers and coaches at our University.

Basic protocol for requesting permission to observe a session:

1) Approach coach before session begins to ask if it will be OK to observe. If s/he agrees, provide/explain permission form to coach,and obtain signature.

2) Approach student as s/he checks in at the receptionist desk. If s/he agrees, provide/explain permission form to writer, and obtain signature.

3) Request that receptionist make copies of the signed forms.

4) Position your self to observe the session so that you have a clear view, but so that you do not interfere with the work of the session. DO NOT sit at the same table as the session you are observing.

5) Take notes.

6) As session closes, thank coach and writer for their partication and provide debriefing forms.

7) Make sure writer and coach each receive a copy of the signed permission forms.

8) Keep a copy of the signed permission form for your records.

We spent most of class onserving, taking notes on, and discussing a coaching session focused on Erin's Writing Center Philosophy and facilitated by Eric. This session modeled how the permission /notetaking fits into the pattern of coaching, and gave us an opportunity to develop a set of notes from observation - and to talk about how we would use those notes to discover, explore, and theorize a research topic. (unedited notes are posted to the right) The approach we talked through is presented in more detail in Barney Glazer and Anselm Strauss - The Discovery of Grounded Theory (1967), Anselm Strauss and Juliet Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research (2007); and by Ian Dey, Grounding Grounded Theory: Guidelines for Qualitative Inquiry (1999). The first two books provide systematic, step by step approaches for using qualitative data as a basis for describing and theorizing the interactive dynamics within local contexts - like in a writing center. The third explores the assumptions and limitations of the approach.

I briefly discussed my note-taking strategies (moving between description of what I saw, what I heard, and what I inferred), and talked about strategies for analyzing notes. At the beginning, before you have a research topic, notes serve as representations of "what happens" that you can look at, think about, and look at again. This looking allows you to look for patterns, curious happenings, or anything that strikes you as interesting. After taking "open" notes on a series of sessions - you may "discover" a pattern or something that interests you = and you will shift the focus of what you write down.

Simple ways to begin to see what is of interest in a session are to note: beginnings and endings, points of transition, repeated language or behaviors, patterns that "chunk" the session into "scenes" - as if it were a play, turning points (ie when the writer "gets it") and the behaviors/language associated with turning points . As you look at these points, you will begin to look for actions, contexts, interactions, relationships, and outcomes that are repeated - and you will give them names - so you can "see" them in your data. These names or "categories" are the language you will use to identify, describe and theorize the focus for your research.

For Thursday: no class => go to the writing center and take notes on one session between now and Tuesday. Spend some time analyzing your notes and come to class prepared to talk about ideas for a research project.

Blog 10: Describe your note-taking practices=> what is working? what do you want to work on? What references, resources, in-class exercises would help you develop your note-taking (data collection ) process?

In class Tuesday, October 19, we will talk some more about notes and take a look at the criteria for the research project and the portfolio. Also, I will return your Writing Center Philosophies, and we can talk a little about where you stand with those.

Have a good weekend.

Late post for Thursday, Oct 7.

2010-10-12T11:46:00.000-07:00

I graded and returned your writing culture drafts, and will be looking for your Writing Center Philosophy drafts in the course email today, October 12.

In class today you will sign up for the times you want to coach at the writing center, and we will go over the permission forms, and practices for observing.

We will also have some more practice taking notes + analyzing notes.

October 5: Writing Center Philosohpy!

2010-10-05T14:28:00.000-07:00

We discussed Lunsford's essay - both to think about collaboration and the idea fo writing center - and to explore the different philosophies that underlie writing center (see 3 models handout posted under course documents).

From there - we revisited the assignment sheet - and filled in some of the missing requirements. The philosophy statement should be suitable for publication on a web site for a particular institution, and it should be directed toward a particular audience for a particular purpose. The sample philosophies ranged from about 500 - 750 words - so your philosophy should fit in that ballpark for length.

For the second part of the assignment - y0u will write a separate document where you discuss the practical consequences your philosophy will have for the coaching practices, physical space, administrative policies, identity of the staff, and so on.

You spent the rest of class conducting a paractice coaching session. You worked with the same partner you worked with in the last session - only you switched roles. Hopefully this exercise gave you some practice both with coaching and with taking notes.

For Thursday:
Blog 8: brainstorming/drafty writing for writing center philosophy
Read: Shamoon & Burns

September 30 Writing Center Philosophies

2010-10-01T06:59:00.000-07:00

We spent most of class applying talk from Tuesday in a discussion of Writing Center philosophies (see assignment sheet posted on the right). As we talked through the language choices in the WC philosophy statements at the links on the assignment sheet, we were able to make some informed guesses about the the statement's audience and purpose, as well as about how the center operated, and why. As stated on the assignment sheet, your WC philosophy will include your statement AND an analysis of the connections between theory and practice your philosophy implies. The first draft for your WC philosophy is due on your blog for class discussion, October 7. The revised WC philosophy will be turned in as an attachment (and a blog post) October 12. And the final document (for the grade) will be turned in with your portfolio. I expect MLA format, but I did not develop a length requirement. As you noticed from the sample WC philosophies - in many ways the length of your statement is rhetorical and will connect to choices about audience & purpose.

We will spend some time in class Tuesday discussing the criteria for this assignment.

We spent what little time was left first characterizing and then "acting out" the coaching philosophies described in the two readings. If we had had time - we would have had a more in-depth discussion of connections between the authors' theories about learning - and the tutoring approaches. Because all learners are different -it is useful to have a range of coaching strategies to draw from. These two are a start.

For Tuesday:

Blog 8: Post your draft Writing Cultures assignment; at the top of your post make any requests for feedback/comments that you think might be useful for you.

Read: Guide, Andrea Lunsford, 92.

In class we will talk about Lunsford's classification for the different kinds of writing centers - including conversations about the philosophies/assumptions that underlie these different centers - we will continue to discuss the WC philosophy assignment - and if I can do a little better with my time-management skills - you will conduct some practice coaching sessions (and take notes) to develop the WC philosopy & analysis.

Enjoy the rain.

Tuesday, September 28

2010-09-29T06:08:00.000-07:00

Stephen North's essay.

"The Idea of a Writing Center" has long been a defining work for writing centers. In some ways, it was our declaration of identity, and I don't know about other writing center workers, but for me it felt good to have so many of the frustrations arising from how WCs were represented (by "others") put into clear, compelling language. Even if it is on the idealistic side, it is an important point of departure for considering what WCs are and what they do.

According to North's original essay, WCs are student centered, about writing process, and neutral places driven by participant-observation. What is more, WCs have their own purpose and agendas, as he puts it "we are not here to serve, suppolement, back up, complement, reinforce or otherwise be defined by any external curriculum." What is more, in addition to functioning as places where motivated writers work (with interest and excitement) on their writing, WCs are also centers for teaching and research.

"The Writing Center Revisited" backs off on some of these original declarations, and acknowledges the romanticism of the original piece.

Connections between Ideas and Actions.

The second part of class was devoted to thinking about how assumptions or ideas about what a writing center is and what it does shape what the practical, real-world writing center is and does.

Everyday practices and relationships that might be shaped by these underlying assumptions include:

the WC's administrative structure and policies;
training programs for staff;
behaviors for interacting with writers;
language choices and activities that "stand for" the center in PR materials & events;
the focus of research projects (or whether a WC includes research);
and relationships to other departments and units within the institution.

Writing Center Philosophies.

After a rather idealistic discussion of practices and relationships arising from the "ideas" in North's original writing center, I asked you to do some thinking about where you stood in terms of the ideas that you would use to guide the administration of a WC, if you were a director. You then did some thinking with your feet to consider where you "stood" on issues including:

coaching strategies (minimalist => therapist)
policy "enforcement" & control of staff + center activities ( fixed rules => contextual consideration)
definition of writing (product => process)
ideological commitment (institution-centered=> student-centered)
administrative structure (hierarchical => collaborative)

Although we engaged in this exercise as if these choices were "either/or" - that may not always be the best way to think about the different positions you, as the director, will need to take. I organized this exercise to highlight the conflicts - and so you could watch yourself move from side to side (or not) along a scale roughly associated with clarity and control. So that was your introduction to thinking about a "writing center philosophy." I confess that running through the ideas and all the decisions WC directors make based on those ideas still feels like a real puzzle to me. What I think is "best" ideally does not always match up with the way it turns out in the real world - and vice versa. There is a lot to think about here.

For Thursday:

Blog 7: What writing center philosophy (list of assumptions) do you think Bouquet supports? North 1? North 2?

By WC philosophy I mean ideas (along the lines of the bullet points under the WC philosophies heading) that shape the policies, structures & behaviors within a writing center. I know you don't have a lot to go on in Bouquet, and I know we talked about North - so in some sense this post is both too easy and too hard - do what you can. The point is to tease out these writer's assumptions as a way to get practice that will help you identify your own assumptions.

Read: Guide, Bruffee, 206; Brooks, 219. (Hint: you will know much more about minimalist tutoring & coaching as conversation after you read these two essays).

On Thursday, we will do some in-class modeling" for each of these approaches - conversational v minimalist. Model sessions will focus on your coaching philosophy paper. Do some thinking about which "style" you would like to model. Be prepared to switch-up your delivery.

Good class today!

Thursday, September 23

2010-09-24T07:11:00.000-07:00

Important Reminder: Students who participate in research involving human subjects at Kean University must provide proof to the Kean University Institutional Review board that they have completed NIH training. As stated in class, I requested that certificates needed to be submitted by September 14. Any student who does not submit evidence that they have completed training by September 28, will not be able to conduct research in the Writing Center, and will need to withdraw from the course. These are Federal Regulations and there is simply no way around them. If you are having difficulties - please let me know so we can resolve them.

What we did in class: We used tonight's class as a workshop for you to work on your papers, as practice for coaching WC sessions, and as an introduction to using note-taking as a way to document and reflect on coaching practices. The notes you take on WC sessions - either by reconstructing what happened in your own sessions (as you did tonight), or by requesting permission to observe and taking notes as the session unfolds - will be the basis of your research project.

Documenting work at the writing center: In our discussion of note-taking we pointed out that there were three kinds of observations that it was important to include.

The "facts" of the session - information that is directly observable. The time, place, setting. The physical descriptions of the individuals involved. How and where they are seated. It is important to note time not only at the beginning of the session - but also at selected points as the session unfolds. Inserting time-notes will document how much time was spent in the sessions different parts.
Description - description might be considered a kind of fact, since in some sense it is "there" and it is created through careful observation. At the same time, it is much more detailed and more carefully elaborated. What makes it description is that the observer's word choices have a much more powerful effect in its characaterization than does "fact" writing. The difference here is between stating that the session took place at the computer near the window in the KU writing center and the student sat with his back to the window (facts), and pointing out that the light on the screen made the documents "fuzzy" and hard to see and that the writer was constantly leaning forward, holding up his hand to make a shadow, or a description of the writer's behavior while waiting for the document to appear on the screen.
Inferences and reflections - are statements that are clearly interpretations. Stating that the student in the last scenario was frustrated is an interpretation. It may seem like a fact, but it involves some speculation on the part of the observer. If the student says "I am frustrated" and the observer writes down the short quotation => then it is description. Reflections about your feelings, (being nervous, being unsure about what to say next and resorting to "what do you think?) are sometimes combinations of reflections and description. Documenting your internal state is important - because sometimes, when you go back to notes after a week or so - you might discover that the observations on the page do NOT evoke the same feelings.

It is important to include some of each kind of observation. Student note-takers (with the exception of storytellers and writers) often skip directly to the interpretations - leaving out the facts and descriptions that are the "proof" of their conclusions. Be sure to include sufficient descriptions to support your inference that a student is "satisfied with the session," "frustrated," "confused" and so on.

You turned in some sample notes, which I will read through and get back to you on Tuesday with some very general comments about how to strengthen your notes so they will better support your research essay.

We also noted that the calendar has been revised, and that the draft for the Writing Cultures paper is now due October 5. If you have questions, need references, or just want to make sure you are moving in the right direction - try the writing center - or schedule a conference with me.

For Tuesday:

Blog 6: Discussion of your Writing Cultures essay. Be sure to include:

the aspect of academic writing culture that is your focus (the values, expectations, un-stated "rules" of academic writing that direct how writing is received in the academy)
the identity/culture of the group who has a problem with academic writing
a description of the values, expectations, & un-stated beliefs about what writing is and how it is used that associated with your group
the problems the aspect of writing culture causes for your group of writers
what these writers want when they come to the writing center

Yes - this is a kind of "map" for your paper. By posting this you will do some thinking and put yourself in a position to get some feedback from me and your peers before you invest too much effort in writing the papers.

Read: North "The Idea of a Writing Center," and "Revising the Idea of a Writing Center," pp. 63-92.

In class Tuesday we will start talking about writing center philosophies.

Tuesday, September 21

2010-09-22T11:48:00.000-07:00

Tonight, we used work on the assignment on the writing culture at Kean University as a way to model and practice coaching sessions where writers do not have a draft. In these sessions some of you were working on finding a focus, some were working on figuring out what the assignment required, and some were working on understanding what we meant by academic (Kean) expectations for "writing culture." From checking in and selective observations of your sessions it sounds like all of you made progress - which was the point. It also sounds like those of you who don't have much experience with writing centers got a taste of the kind of work that writing centers do. Good.

For Thursday:

Blog 5 (I know it says Blog 4 on the calendar I handed out - I am going to make some revisions + re-post): Post a draft for the writing centers and cultures assignment. Post what you have, as far as you get. The more writing you post, the easier it will be for coaches to participate in your writing process.

Read: Review McAndrew and Reigstad, 42-56 - strategies for working with writers who have a draft. You might also look over the section that begins on 64 where the authors sum up overall sessions (the sections on 66 & 67 might be particulary useful for the in-class sessions you conduct for Thursday's class).

In class on Thursday you will work in pairs to coach one another on your essays. Make sure to establish where the writer is in the writing process before you begin. The object of the session is to move the writer forward in the writing process. This may invole a little talk and lots of writing by the writer - or it may involve a lot of talk. It will depend on your writer.

In Thursday's class - we will begin to do some reflecting and note-taking on your sessions. I know it stated on the calendar that we were going to start on the journals in class on Tuesday - but it seemed like there was already enough going on and introducing one more task would have been counterproductive. So come to class ready to work on your essay, coach, and to begin reflecting on your coaching process.

Though tonight was a little loose - I was really pleased with the progress we made. Good work - and good writing on your drafts! See you Thursday.

Thursday, September 16

2010-09-17T07:32:00.001-07:00

We began class by examining the master narratives Bouquet identified as influencing the perception and use of writing centers throughout their history. We started by taking a look at her classification of the stories and what they implied for writing center work - and then took a closer look at the defining stories associated with each time period.

Master narratives. We found that throughout their history, writing centers/labs have been defined by several sets of conflicting identity stories = one set of stories features the WC both as a place and as a method; a second set of stories casts WCs both as authoritative, storehouses of information that provide (deficient) students with answers about + examples of "correct" writing - and as places where collaborative support enables students to discover their own best writing practices and create their own best work; a third set of stories casts writing centers as either an agent of enforcing institutional standards for writing (dominant discourses) or a scene of counter-hegemonic activism (a place where students discover their own interests and identities and resist being homogenized by institutional pressures. Our discussion allowed that the stories may be either/or in terms of content - but in terms of how they played out in defining particular writing centers (at least our writing center) => they were often "both/and" in that WC practices move back and forth between the poles of the defining stories.

Connections between WC stories, the culture at large, and WC work. We found that these tensions + complicated movements between the story sets was reiterated in almost every period of writing center history - from its autonomous beginnings - to its post-open admissions present. We also noticed how how shifting theoretical assumptions within Composition Studies (writing) and political, economic, and other larger cultural movements shaped what happened at writing centers as we moved from period to period.

This discussion set the stage for your first writing assignment (see assignment sheet posted at the right): an essay on The Writing Center and Writing Culture. We talked through assignment requirements (if you have questions bring them up in class) and pointed out that the draft is not due until Tuseday, September 28, and that the final (graded) copy of the assignment will not be due until you turn in your porfolio at the end of the term.

For class Tuesday:

Blog 4: Rhetorical analysis of the assignment sheet for The Writing Center and Writing Culture. This might include an analysis of the audience, purpose, & form of the assignment. A list of ideas you might write about (along with some reality checking about how well each topic would meet the requirements of the assignment. A proposed focus. Listing (a speculative list) about references or information you might need to write on your proposed focus. Random freewriting or associations to develop points coupled with reflective writing about how well those points will meet the assignment. Etc.***

Read: Review the sections of McAndrew and Reigstad that cover how to coach writers who do not have drafts.

*** DO NOT WRITE A DRAFT FOR YOUR ESSAY - AND DON'T GET TOO INVESTED IN A PATICULAR APPROACH OR TOPIC. As you might have guessed from the implications of these assignments - in class on Tuesday you will coach one another on finding a focus, organizing ideas, and making sure the draft you eventually write will meet the requirements of the assignment.

Have a great weekend and see you on Tuesday.

Tuesday, September 14

2010-09-14T15:23:00.001-07:00

Tonight you got to "practice what you read" in the coaching handbook. As I said in class, these chapters have many good tips & strategies for work in all stages of the writing process. You may want to check back on them when you start work in the center.

After getting a taste of coaching - we had a too-short discussion of how institutional cultures - the assumptions, values, beliefs and practices that are the "way it is" at schools and universities. We made a quick list of characteristics of the culture of writing here at Kean University. This is important to reflect on because the culture of writing drives many of the "problems" that walk into a writing center. Some of the features of the academy's culture of writing that we listed on the board include:

valuing (privileging) if dominant cultural forms for language and genre
emphasis on correctness
school writing is valued as a means to a "grade" or a "job" => for it's use (rather than for pleasure or its art)
teacher centered in terms of content and form (hierarchical, top-down systems for evaluating writing content and form)
must be "clear" where clear is code for in the dominant language forms

Admittedly, this list focuses on the power relationships within the academic writing culture - and as we pointed out in class - academic writing culture is not really all one thing - it is "both and" for a lot of practices and concepts.

For Thursday:

Blog 3: Write a description of Kean University's culture of writing. I suggested in class that you lurk around one another's blogs - and feel free to riff of ideas you find there. Report your impressions + experiences with what is expected for academic writing, how it is used, what is valued (and de-valued).

For example - at the English Department Retreat it was suggested that we make a department policy to forbid the use of laptops in classes (except when students were working on papers). What values for digital writing are implied by that suggestion?

Read: Guide, Bouquet, p. 41. This is a history of writing centers/labs -and it tells us something about our heritage - and our culture. I said I was going to post the tough words - but now I am thinking I would rather you brought those words to class and we can work out more interactive definitions/explorations through talk.

On Thursday we will dig deeper into connections among writing, institutional culture and what happens in writing centers.

Things are moving right along! Thanks for your good work and see you Thursday.

September 9

2010-09-10T06:38:00.000-07:00

The assigned reading was about writing process and tutoring process. In class, we drew from scholars' descriptions of these processes as a way to think where, when and how writing coaches can work with writers. We characterized the writing process in terms of three stages with full acknowledgment of the fact it is recursive - and chaotic (a complex social process that interacts with individual circumstances and psychology). Even though the stages are a linear sequence, there are particular kinds of moves that writers make within the different stages - and we listed some of the moves within each stage.

You then brainstormed a list of "tutorly moves" - strategies or actions coaches might make to support writers at points of impasse or confusion.

During the last moments of class (and this is the part I meant to spend the most time on - but we ran out of time) we began making connections between points in the writing process, characteristic problems that arise at that point - and tutorly moves (I need a better word for that).

Writing Process & Coaching Ideas Sheets. I've typed up three charts - one for each stage - with the beginning of your input. They are posted at google.docs - anyone with the link should be able to edit these documents (Angela told me the link doesn't work - give me a day or so to fix this). Go take a look - add your groups (and your own) observations & strategies. I am 100% aware that the formatting is not the best - any revisions/rearrangements to make this document easier to use would be appreciated. The idea is that we will begin to put together - as a class - a list of strategies to use for some of the many issues that arise at different points in the writing process. Through creating this list you have a chance to "rehearse" some of the moves you might make in a session- that way, those moves might be available to you when you need them.

Thanks for your good contributions to the class discussion - and please solidify some of that good work by putting it on the Idea Sheet.

For Tuesday:

Blog 2: Describe your writing process. So you write the same way for "school" as the way you write for your self? What points in each of your processes might benefit from coaching?

Read: McAndrew and Reigstad, 30-69.

September 7: What did she ask us to post?

2010-09-08T05:38:00.000-07:00

After setting up blogs, we worked on understanding how the first three chapters in McAndrew and Reigstad might deepen understanding of what writing centers do.

You started by writing down a set of connections between points from the chapters - and what those points implied about how writing centers work, and what writing centers do. I gave an example about the section on reader response theory:

Sample writing for a post: Reader response theory points out that meanings are NOT entirely in texts - they are created by the reader (with respect to the post => this is the principle - what follows are my reflections on what this principle implies for writing center work ). With respect to what writing centers do, this tells us that the texts students read and write are only a starting place for understanding how to structure coaching sessions. For coaches, this means much of the work will take place in terms of: learning how the writer understands writing assignments and what s/he has read or written and and checking to see if the writer's understanding matches what the coach knows about writing genre's, expectations of academic audiences, and so on. To make this even more complicated - the coach will need to be aware that his/her perceptions will also be shaped by his/her particular reading history and experiences. So overall - this theory implies that good writing center work will required good listening, careful examination of the assumptions we bring to coaching sessions, and on-going communication between the coach, the writer - and the texts they are working with.

After you did some writing - you worked in groups to fill out, expand on, and deepen your thinking about this list.

Writing versus talking. We then spent some time reflecting on how these two different processes - writing and talking - helped generate, organize, deepen, and consolidate ideas. The list we generated is posted at the right under course documents. It seems (unsurprisingly) that talking and writing contribute to the writing process in different ways. Understanding the different strengths of the two processes (and realizing that different writers will relate to these strengths in different ways) is very important for writing coaches - since talk and writing are coaches primary tools for working on writing with their clients.

We didn't really have time to reflect on the lists you created so I have posted them on the right for you to take a look at.

So, what did she ask us to post?
And that brought us to the topic for your first blog post. We revised the prompt from the calendar so that instead of writing about what writing centers do - you were asked to list and write about the connections between the readings and what you are learning about what writing centers do.

Some of the important points that you might respond to include implications for writing centers with respect to:

social constructionism
reader response

talk and writing (we sort of did this one in class)
collaborative learning

feminism

research on peer groups (what have they found - what does it imply about coaching writing?)

research on conferences

research on coaching

studies of literacy coaching

studies of coaching writing

"mistaken" theories for coaching

Write in to your increased understanding of coaching in terms of this writing.

For Thursday:

Blog 1: Use the textbook's first three chapters to identify principles that shape work at writing centers - and write into/ describe/reflect on what you are learning about these principles.

Create a link list of your classmates' blogs.

Read: McAndrew and Reigstad, 21-30.

Blog list

2010-09-08T05:29:00.001-07:00

The first part of class was devoted to setting up blogs. The list is pasted in below:

Angela http://ac5070.blogspot.com/

Benito beninieves@gmail.com

Dayna daynasmith1988@gmail.com

Eric cortes.e@gmail.com

Erin kriege@kean.edu>

Jennifer jeniferflinton@gmail.com

Karilyn karilynward@comcast.net

Monica jironica67@aol.com

Tammy http://tammyronkowitz.blogspot.com/

To create a link list, click on design, select link list from add a gadget, and follow the directions (and don't forget to save!) If you have problems, stop by the writing center or send me an email.

September 2: Introductions - talking, writing, and reflecting

2010-09-03T06:39:00.000-07:00

Tonight's class was about getting a feel for what we will do in the class, getting to know one another, and walking through some of the activities that are central to writing center practice. You talked to each about who you are and your relationships to writing, and you wrote about and reflected on experience associated with learning. Talking (listening), writing and reflecting are at the heart of what makes Writing Centers work. You will read writing center theory and learn approaches for working with writers - but if you just keep in mind that it is really the power of sharing ideas and experiences through putting them into words that makes writing center conferences work - you have it down.

Your stories about learning illustrated many of the approaches you will read about in the text books: modeling, providing information at the point of need, sharing in the excitement of the back and forth for exploring ideas, inviting the writer to "taste" her/his work, speaking to the writer's motivation and desire, or simply being there as an interested participant. Writing coaches do all these things. If we look at this list - we might notice that much of it calls upon social awareness and interest in others - rather than expertise in writing. You will need to have a strong understanding of writing process - but mastering the many rules and expectations of all writing genres is not required for good writing coaches. You just have to know how to figure out what the rules are - and how to look up models and practices for following them.

Thanks for sharing your stories - they were the best part of the class.

For Tuesday:

1. Work on (and complete if possible) the IRB training: http://phrp.nihtraining.com/users/login.php class. Email a copy of your certificate to ENG4070@gmail.com.

2. Read McAndrew and Reigstad, 1-21.

Note: we will meet in CAS 307, and you will set up your blog.

Happy Labor Day - and see you on Tuesday.

First day of class

2010-08-27T16:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome to ENG 4070/5070: Writing Center Theory and Practice. This should be an exciting class - and with any luck it should be fun as well. The links on this page connect you to course documents, important journals for writing center research, sites for some of the leading writing centers across the country, and most importantly - to your classmates' blogs.

I will use my posts to respond to and sum up class discussions, note changes in the course calendar, and generally reflect on the ideas and events that come up throughout the term.

We will spend today's class getting to know one another and discussing the overall plan for the course. After class - I will update this blog with a post describing what we did in class - and an overview of what to do for our next meeting. So welcome to the course - and here we go!

December 14

2009-12-14T14:41:00.000-08:00

Tunring in your work + final grades.

I will be in my office to help burn portfolio CDs on Wednesday at 4:30. You may aslso drop off your Portfolio (burned to a CD) in my mailbox (in the room next to the English Department, CAS 301).

I will read through your work - hopefully before the weekend - and send a gradesheet to your email address with feedback and your grade. Read through the gradesheet and if you have questions or objections - let me know. If I do not hear from you I will assume you are OK with the grade and I will post it to Keanwise on Monday, December 21.

Last Blog: post your reflections.

You have been a wonderful class. Thank you for all your good work!

Course reflections

2009-12-14T10:49:00.001-08:00

1. What did you notice about your writing process during this course?
Did your writing process change? If so, how?
If your writing process changed, what course assignments/interactions supported that change?

2. What have you noticed about your finished essays?
Did the quality of your essays change as a result of this course? If so how?
If your final products changed, what do you think led to those changes?

3. What did you notice about the way you coach writing students? Did your approach to coaching change during the term? If so, how? Were any course assignments/interactions useful in facilitating this learning? Describe.

4. What have your experiences coaching writng students shown you about effective strategies for talking/communicating to others? Were any course assignments/interactions useful in facilitating this learning? Describe.

5. How has your work coaching writing students changed the way you learn? Were any course assignments/interactions useful in facilitating this learning? Describe.

Wednesday, December 9

2009-12-09T15:22:00.001-08:00

Kevin and Musheerah presented their drafts for their projects.

In class Monday you will do some reflective writing on the course - and work on creating your portfolios. Keep working on your revisions for your research essays, and if you have questions, please be in touch.

Last week we did some in-class writing to develop your final writing center philosophy. Post what you have come up with for Blog 22.

Blog 22: Writing Center Philosophy.

Have a good weekend and see you in class on Monday.

December 7

2009-12-08T11:00:00.001-08:00

Some of you gave your presentations this evening - and a little more than half of you will be presenting on Wednesday. If you need additional conferencing - send me an email or speak to me in class and we will set up a time.

I think the presentations were well done - and it was exciting looking at your papers and thinking about what your data show (even if we don't really have enough in-depth material - we have some small case study indicators. . .).

See you Wednesday.

December 2

2009-12-02T13:28:00.000-08:00

Tonight you workshopped the data sections of your research essay (very briefly), and we talked (VERY briefly) about conventions for introducing and closing essays.

We also re-visited writing center philosophies and talked about what (if anything) had changed in your perspective on how a writing center should operate. We then set forward the information we thought should be addressed in a comprehensive writing center philosophy, as will as a general form for presenting that information. We came up with the following categories you would use to organize your philosophy.

1. A statement of overarching principles: the "rules of thumb" or guiding assumptions that underlie the practices and policies stated under the following categories.

2. Student responsibilities

3. Tutor responsibilities

4. Director responsibilities

5. Faculty responsibilities

6. Institutional responsibilities

Blog 21: Post your draft Research Essay. Come to class prepared to present your essay to your classmates. If you have a particular request for help/feedback = write this statement at the top of your post.

I will be reading blogs 15-20 over the weekend and providing you with feedback. We have been discussing these posts as we worked through developing your essay, so I may not be telling you anything new - but it will be all in one place and in time for you to do your final revisions to your essay.

Have a great weekend and see you on Monday.

November 30

2009-11-30T13:49:00.000-08:00

In class tonight you workshopped the sections from your essay that you have written so far: the literature review, your methods section, and the analysis of data.

You worked with a partner, one section at a time, after we reviewed what each section needs to do.

Literature review: sets up the question you will explore=> point out what has been established as "fact" & identify what your research contributes to this area of investigation. Name the authors + articles - leave out the "data" => focus on the findings. Your essay may relate to the literature review by "correcting" a mistaken assumption, by combining two previously un-connected areas of study (like Ryan + Daria); by focusing on a detail that is in the literature but which has not been explored for its own sake (Laura); by looking at the research from a new perspective, and so on. Point out HOW your work connects to the literature.

Methods: Use the methods section to describe how you collected and analyzed your data; this section does not include findings, though it does explain your logic, and present your context. It should provide enough information so a reader could do what you did, and so s/he understands why you did your study the way you did it. Novice tutors and their ESL tutees has an exemplary methods section.

Data Analysi Think of this section as a place where explain the connections between your conclusions and the evidence. Use the "sandwich method " (as in presenting quotations from literature): say what your data shows (briefly) present the data - explain the connections in the data - then re-state what the data shows in more detail and with respect to the overall focus.

For Wednesday:
Blog 20: More data analysis => write through to the end of this section if you can.

In class on Wednesday we will work through the data analysis and set you up to write the introduction, your discussion of findings and the conclusion.

Next week you will give presentations on your projects (to receive feedback so you can work on the final draft).

Good class tonight and see you on Wednesday.

November 23, 2009

2009-11-23T12:52:00.000-08:00

In class tonight you gave presentations (and got some feedback) on your research plans. At this point, you should be well positioned to begin writing on your project. As we discussed last week, it is now time for you to begin writing - though not from the beginning.

Blog 19: Post drafts for the literature review, the methods section + the presentation (analysis) of your data.

Do the best you can with these - the point is to get the writing started and allow yourself to receive some feedback before you turn in your final essay. Use the discussion from Nov. 16 & the sample essays (+ the assignment on roles & novice tutors) as models for what is expected in each section. If you still need more data at this point - make a note of what kind of data you need - and perhaps one of your classmates will have notes from a session that you can have access to.

Good luck on your writing and have a Happy Thanksgiving.

November 18

2009-11-18T12:34:00.000-08:00

Conduct sessions + add to your notes. Musheerah & Kenneischa - I will not be in the Center on Saturday, and I am assuming that by this point in the term that will be OK.

Have a great weekend and see you on Monday.

November 16

2009-11-16T14:49:00.000-08:00

We began class by reviewing the overall structure of a research paper, with attention to the kind of information that goes in each section.

We came up with the following general description:

Introduction:
research focus – what you will study + statement of your findings

review of the literature:
state what has been observed regarding yoru topic
define important terms
justify choice of method
point out what you will do differently

methods:
context- where, from whom? Under what circumstances?
how you collected your data
how classified your data – what you looked for
measurement – what markers did you use to identify the features you are studying
anything relevant to your study that is characteristic of the session
size of your sample
justification of your representative sessions
identification of important categories for anlaysis

Data analysis:
General intro to section
General background about particular session
Move back and forth between providing specific evidence from your notes – and supporting discussion that sets up and explains your point

Organize list examples in terms of your categories for analysis
Primarily describing what you saw => make connections among related features
Small observations => about particular sessions observed

Discussion:
Make larger theory
Connect to other research
Generalize what you observed in sessions to tutoring in general
Point out limitations

Conclusions:
Overall summary of findings
Point out implications of limitations for discipline in general
What further research remains to be done

We than took a brief look at the document on what to include inyour final portfolio (posted on this site) and discussed your research plans.

Continue to work on your data collection & analysis.

Come to class Wednesday to conduct your sessions. I will give you an update as to whether I will be there or not.

For Monday, November 23, post your completed research plan (Blog 18). Come to class prepared to give a brief presentation on your completed research plan. This discussion should include a discussion of how data collection is going, and any requests from assistance.

November 11

2009-11-11T14:50:00.000-08:00

In class tonight several of you had sessions or took notes, and the rest of us talked about your different research projects. We focused on identifying the purpose of the study, thinking about the research question, and discussing what your observations showed with respect to the purpose + questions.

For Monday:

Blog 17: Post your draft research plan. Your research plan should include:

Statement of purpose (what you hope to show/discover)
Detailed statement of your research question
List of the information you need to gather
A preliminary list of sources
Plan for gathering your information

The more you write in to these 5 points the better prepared you will be to write your essay. The statement of purpose & the research question(s) will provide you with language for your introduction. The list of sources + discussion of information you need to study answer your question is the basis for your review of the literature. Your plan for gathering information (how you will collect and analyze your data) is the language for your methods section.

Looking ahead, you will begin drafting and turning in sections of your essay (along with any necessary revisions to your research plan) on your blog for November 23.

If you need more observations to gather data - let me know. Wednesday, November 18 is the last night we will spend in the writing center as a class. You are only required to conduct sessions during your assigned times through the end of November. If you need to continue coaching during the first week of December to finish gathering your data - let Ryan know so he can keep you on the schedule; otherwise, you will be "retired" after November 30.

In class on Monday, in addition to going over the research plans, we will go over what to put in your portfolio & how to create it.

Have a good weekend, and see you Monday.

November 9

2009-11-09T15:09:00.000-08:00

In class tonight we discussed the essay on how novice tutors negotiated their roles with their ESL writers. We used a discussion of this piece to explore the general pattern for writing a research essay[abstract, introduction, methods, presentation of data, data discussion, conclusions]; to explore some of the issues that arise in ESL sessions; to develop a deeper understanding of methods for collecting data for your projects; and to walk through a method for analysis commonly used in case studies such as the projects you are doing.

I passed out copies of the evaluation form from your book for you to use as part of your feedback & record keeping for your sessions. If you were not in class and need copies, let me know.

Blog 16: Sum up your understanding of what this evenings discussion revealed about data collection. Begin a list of detailed observations regarding with descriptions of interactions, conditions, causes, connections, etc relevant to your work.

You will build your list describing looking at descriptions from your notes, and organizing them in terms of features they have in common.

For example:

Below is a partial description of point where a tutor gets stuck:
Dr. Chandler asks Daria about the assignment sheet; pushes sheet across the table towards Daria and writes on it, underlining, as she (Dr. Chandler, continues to talk)

Daria "We had to use three techniques from New Criticism; I did allusion (and she names another technique but can't remember the other"

Chandler: did you use your discussion to make a coherent point - did you use it to develop an interpretation?

Daria indicates that that wasn't in the assignment

Dr. Chandler is stuck (body language description - compresses her lips, sighs, stops talking) is reading assignment sheet.

Dr. Chandler: it isn't on the assignment sheet.

You would use these notes to name/characterize features of (this kind of)getting stuck. You might analyze this description in terms of the conditions, causes, connections & outcomes: What set up getting stuck? Why did I get stuck? What did I have to decide/do to get unstuck? What was the resolution?

Once you have analyzed a number of sections from your notes - you might find that you have started to find the same features (in both similar & different relationships). Keep going with your naming + classifying until you have identified features that determine the relationships.

We will be working on this for a while. Continue taking notes and begin to dig in on the analysis + categorization.

Heads up on long term due dates: Your draft research plan is due Monday November 16; the final research plan is due Monday, November 23.

Drafts for the first sections of your research essay ( a rough of the introduction, the review of the literature & your methods section will be due Monday, November 30.

November 4

2009-11-04T14:52:00.001-08:00

Those of you who were not observing or conducting sessions talked through your reflections on sessions in light of your proposed ideas for your research projects. If you heard one of your classmates reporting on issues relevant to your project - feel free to request access to the notes on the session. You are encouraged to share data with one another(so long as your essay credits your classmate as the source of the observation).

In class on Monday we decided that more readings on coaching ESL students would be useful, so for this coming Monday, read the Judith Powers essay in your text. I have also gathered the following references that may be useful. Read through these (I realize this is a lot of reading - so spend more or less time on them as they relate to your research project and/or tutoring).

Tutoring and Revision: Second Language Writers in the Writing Center

The Writing Center and Second Language Writers

Novice Tutors and their ESL Tutees

Blog 15: Write into the discussion we had tonight about your project, your sessions, your notes on your sessions and your reflections.

I will be reading your blogs over the weekend. Keep thinking about what kind of references you will need to develop your research plan. In class we will spend some time talking over coaching ESL students, and then you will work on your research plans.

Great class tonight!

November 2

2009-11-02T14:21:00.000-08:00

Most classes from now to the end of the term will be focused on supporting you in your work in the writing center (reading + discussing issues that come up in your sessions) and working on your research projects.

Tonight we began by listing some of the issues from your sessions to make sure we will cover those issues in the readings assigned for the rest of the course. How to work with ESL learners - and how to deal with requests for "correcting grammar" in constructive ways were two issues that came up.

you then read through your classmates' posts about their research projects, and took a look at the sheet to help you develop your research plan (posted on this blog as "Developing a research plan"). The initial writing and reading are to deepen your knowledge and help you define your focus. The writing you will turn in is under point 4. We talked through what kind of information you would post for each section of your research plan. I will post a sample reasearch plan for next class.

You then did some writing to think about your purpose + research question, and we talked some more.

Read: the worksheet on developing a research plan + any materials relevant to your project
Blog 14: Post your purpose + your research question. Do some brainstormy writing about what you will observe at sessions to gather data for your project.

See you in the writing center. Bring your signed permission forms and turn them in to me.

October 28

2009-10-28T17:28:00.000-07:00

You talked through Newkirk's examples (good job) and then Daria (thank you, Daria) and I were provided an opportunity for you to practice taking notes to document the aspects of coaching sessions that you are thinking about for your research project. From your talk in class, it sounded like each of you are working toward a focus, and that you are beginning to think about how to identify & collect data to explore that focus. Good.

In class on Monday, you will get started on developing your research plans. Your work in class will build on the thinking/writing for your blog assignment.

Blog 13: Post your (tentative) focus for your project. Make a list of what you have been reading for your research project - and describe how you will used the different readings for your project. Include links (when appropriate) and a short summary of what the articles/references.

Keep taking notes on your sessions.

October 26

2009-10-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

Tonight we reviewed what McAndrew & Reigstad had to say about body language. After listing common features of body language on the board (gestures, posture, facial expression, distance and etc) we developed some lists of the particular features of body language that can indicate comfort or discomfort. As we made this list we noted that the same feature - for example knit brows, or direct eye contact - can have different interpretations depending on the other cues it is associated with. Knit brows can mean anger or confusion; and direct eye contact can indicate engagement - but it is also associated with dominance.

After listing features of body language that might connect to being comfortable - we posed a research project where a tutor might be examining whether or how direct v indirect tutoring methods affected student comfort levels (and the success of the session). We made a list of features to look for to describe whether the coach was using directive or nondirective strategies. For directive, we listed that the coach might talk more (both more "turns" and longer talk), that the coach's talk might contain "you" statements, or imperatives (such as "do this"), and so on. Laura (thank you Laura!) then volunteered (sort of) tutor me in a mock session.

I played the role of a student who was extremely uncomfortable with non-directive methods. I needed LOTS of support, and could not/would not respond to open-ended questioning. Only when Laura provided part of the language/idea was I able to respond. You took notes - and hopefully you noted specific features of our body language (NOT whether we were comfortable or uncomfortable - but whether we were looking at each other, who spoke and for how long, who controlled/initiated conversation - and how the student responded in terms of body language and talk). We then discussed your notes - and how we might further refine our research question in light of observations from this session. We considered the possibility that it was not always lack of domain knowledge that made students uncomfortable with nondirective methods, but rather the demand to answer a question they had not yet thought through. In other words - they chose NOT to think out loud and risk saying something they were not yet ready to say. We might observe future sessions with this tentative, more focused hypothesis in mind - and see what they might add to our ideas.

You then did some writing to plan how you might take notes for your unfolding/in-process ideas about your projects. In this writing you stated your (tentative) focus; made a list of what you would need to observe to explore your idea; and then listed specific features/actions/behaviors that would serve as evidence of what you are observing. For example, if you wanted to observe how goal setting in the "first five minutes" affects the outcome of the session you would need to identify how goals are set - you would need to notice who introduced the goal that was actually worked on; whether it was introduced with or without prompting by the coach; the clarity of the goal; whether & how much the goal changed; the degree to which it was worked on - etc. AND you would need measures of "effectivenss" - probably including what the student's body indicated about "satisfaction" along with a completed student feedback form for the session.

For Wednesday:
Read: Newkirk, "The first five minutes: Setting the agenda in a writing conference
Blog 12: Continue writing for your plan for data collection

October 21

2009-10-21T16:23:00.000-07:00

Tonight was our first night at the writing center - and tutortrac was down. So - we re-grouped and you did a group observation of a conference between me and Sam (thank you, Sam). You got some practice observing - and if there was something that interested you or gave you and idea for your project - keep it in mind!

To go into Tutortrac to see if you have students - go the http://www.kean.edu/~cas/ and click on the tutortrac symbol at the bottom left. Then click the top tutortrac symbol to the right. This should take you to a login page: your username is your last name, and your password is the six digits from your Kean University ID not including the initial zeros.

If you can't get in to Tutortrac - stop by the receptionist's desk before your session & the receptionist will help you.

When you come to CAS to work - be sure to sign in at the receptionist desk. You will sign the sheet for our class that you all signed this evening.

On Monday, in class we will answer any questions about notetaking (bring your notes from tonight's session to class); discuss the assigned readings (see below) & think about interpreting/documenting/responding to body language; if there is any time left we will do some more talking about research projects.

Blog 11: More brainstorming for your research project. Choose 3 ideas from your list and do some freewriting/brainstorming to explore how you might develop each idea.

Read: Murphy, "Freud in the Writing Center," 296 in Barnett and Blumer; Review body language, 28-30 in McAndrew and Reigstad

Have a good weekend.

Monday, October 19

2009-10-19T14:57:00.000-07:00

Tonight we went through the forms you will need to present to student if you are going to collect data on their sessions. We decided that you need to introduce the idea of collecting data at the beginning of the session, that it they seem positive, that you will then talk them through the form and ask if they have questions. You will sign two forms; you will then keep one copy and give them one copy. Give the signed permission forms to me during the next class. At the end of the session, give the student a Debriefing form.

We talked briefly about your research project. We are at the very beginning - and I would like you to (try to) keep an open mind about the focus of your project until you have conducted a couple of sessions. You are going to invest some time and energy in this project - so it is important to find something that feels exciting.

I meant to go over filling out evaluation forms at the end of sessions - but I think you have enough on your hands. If you think making yourself a "cheatsheet" or guide for how to conduct your session would help you focus - do it. I suggest thinking through what you will do in the following "phases" of the session.

Introductions
- research project
-get to know you talk

finding a focus for the session
- clarifying assignment/writing task (audience, purpose + form)
- setting goals/what to work on

the main work of the session will depend on what the writer is working on. within this section consider:
Making sure to:
- accurately understand the writer (did you say back, ask clarifying questions? leave silences / listen?

-provide opportunities for the writer to talk about his/her writing issues - in as many different ways as it takes

- provide opportunities for the writer to write

- provide opportunities for the writer to state HOW s/he will work on the paper (by brainstorming, listing, detailed listing, associating, mapping, freewriting - or the other more specific techniques listed for different writing issues in the readings) If the writer needs to accomplish a particular writing task - you can direct him/her to the writing process that will help him/her accomplish that task.

- provide opportunities for the writer to get started on the process + report back how it is going

- if the writer has more than one issue - allot appropriate time to each

concluding the session
- have the writer review what was accomplished
- provide encouragement in pursuing appropriate writing strategies
- suggest a follow-up session if appropriate

Blog 10: Post any final thoughts on your coaching strategy. Think through what you think your strengths will be, and what you will need to think through ahead of time.

See you in the writing center on Wednesday! Be sure to bring your permission/debriefing forms + appropriate materials for note taking.

Wednesday, October 14

2009-10-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

You signed up for coaching times - they are posted at google.docs.
I have made you all collaborators - so you can change your times online and everyone can see them. (Click here to go to the document. After you edit - be sure to save). You can adjust and re-assign yourselves by editing your hours. (If you have trouble send me an email and I will change them.) Hopefully you will have everything figured out by Friday - at which point Ryan will put the hours in the system & I will send them out to instructors so they can tell their students.

We spent most of the class talking about Shamoon and Burns' discussion of when to deviate from writing center "orthodoxy" and take more directive approaches. They pointed out that directing students to models, using "master class" approaches, and providing "edits" may be appropriate when students are not "experts," when they need to learn a new "subject position" (way of representing themselves - a new "persona"), or when they are new to academic literacies (or any other set of conventions for writing). In our wrap-up discussion we identified groups/individuals who might benefit from more directive approaches as including:
- ESL learners
- returning adult students
- new students
- students from "non-mainstream" cultures
- differently abled students who might need more information or cues in social or academic conventions

For Monday:
Blog 9: Do some writing about what interests you in terms of a research project.

Look through the Barnett & Blumer text (all of those essays are about "writing center research") and check out the sample reserch papers and the writing center publications (links at the bottom of this blog). Hopefully you will be able to choose something that interests you.

In class we will go over how to set up a session, and review the forms you need to present to the student (if you are taking data). I will also introduce your research project and we will get started on the planning process.

Have a great weekend.

writing center philosophies

2009-10-14T13:25:00.000-07:00

Fullerton

Endicott

U of Michigan

Michigan State

Wednesday, October 6

2009-10-07T15:13:00.000-07:00

Tonight we started out by talking about minimalist tutoring and coaching different types of people. We did not go through the particular lists of strategies (though we did characterize minimalist tutoring) => the focus of our discussion was on how to make decisions about what approach to take. How do we determine if a writer is "high ability" and suitable for minimalist approaches? Unfamiliar with mainstream U.S. culture to an extent that might suggest ESL strategies? While introductory talk is essential for making these decisions, we noted that so are the writers' responses to the different moves you might try out. There is not set formula - but it is a good idea to have some possibilities in mind for different kinds of writers.

We then talked about developing writing checklists. We noted that writing checklists can be used for different purposes: for evaluating sessions in terms of tutor effectiveness; for keeping records that will be part of the students' file; and documentation of center practices; and for collecting data on what happens in sessions. The particular entries on the checklist will correlate with the lists' purpose. There are several sample checklists - for several different purposes - at the back of your book.

For Blog 8 you are to create and post a checklist that will be useful to you - either in terms of helping you document your session for your project - or in terms of evaluating how well you are doing as a tutor (to establish what you want to work on). Although I am assuming you will prefer to create a checklist you can use for your own work - if you choose - you may document a checklist that would be suitable for inclusion in student files - so all the tutors who work with a particular student will have record. Be sure to state the purpose of your checklist at the top of the form.

We spent the last portion of class working on reflective documentation of sessions. Reflective documentation of your own sessions is different from taking notes on sessions conducted by other writing coaches - because you cannot write notes as you are conducting sessions. After your sessions you created your notes on "what happened" and we then put the list of what you wrote on the board. We then developed a set of cues (a checklist) you could use to help you reconstruct your sessions. This set of cues was chronological - and provided you with prompts on what to note during each section of the session.

We noted that our set of cues was like a standard essay in that you needed to note what happened in the introduction of the session (the getting to know you, goal setting, strategy selecting, what to work on talk), what happened in each of the "body paragraphs' where writing coach + writer worked on various aspects of the writing - and the conclusion - where the coach worked through whatever wrapping up protocols + drew the session to a close. In addition to the documentation - I suggested that you might want to raise questions, offer interpretations, or speculate about what happened. This writing might not be your final take on the session - but it is important to have a record of what you were thinking right after the session took place.

For the "body paragraphs" we noted that coaches might want to remember:
what was said + how it was said(who initiated conversations, tone of voice, volume, expression etc)
body language, proximity, silences
tutoring strategies
the coach's overall style (minimalist, teacher-centered, etc.)
whether + when writing was done
some documentation of features associated with effectiveness
and more - (+ we had lists under each of these features).

Creating a set of cues for use in re-constructing sessions helps you to be systematic, and it helps you remember more.

In our discussion this evening, we also began to do some talking + thinking about what you might want to do your research project on. We will keep talking about this - pointing out how what goes on in sessions might become a focus for your research.

Good class tonight and have a great (long) weekend.

For Monday (October 12)
Post Blog 8: checklist

For Wednseday (October 14)
Read: "A critique of pure tutoring" by Shamoon + Burns, 225 in Barnett & Blumer.

October 4

2009-10-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

I returned your response essays - you did a great job on these - and we talked over talked through the kinds of difficulties students generally have when composing response essays. I also pointed out that response essays are a model of one of the primary moves academic writers make - where they create a conversation with another text. Ryan and Musheerah have consented to let me post their essays as models - so they will be available (for a limited time only) as links on this site.

We then talked briefly about how to take good notes on coaching sessions. Your purpose for taking notes it to provide "evidence" for new theories about how and why writers develop their writing - and how coaching affects the process. To gather this evidence - you need to write down the particulars about the actors, actions, contexts and consequences of writing center sessions. After developing a quick list of some of the observations you might note - you conducted short sessions on developing a response to North's 2nd essay - "Revisiting 'the idea of a writing center'." We talked briefly about in between sessions and you seem to be doing a great job of taking detailed, descriptive notes.

For Wednesday:
Blog 7: What was your experience of taking notes on a writing session? What do you think it is most important to write down about what happens in a writing session?
Read: McAndrew and Reigstad, 89-102, "Tutoring different people," & "Minimalist Tutoring" by Jeff Brooks, 219-224.
Write: A draft response to North.

Good class and see you on Wednesday.

September 30

2009-09-30T15:03:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of class I invited you to participate in the Kean University English Department events for the National Day of Writing on October 20, 2009 at Liberty Hall. If you are interested or have questions - stop by my office or send me an email.

Tonight we discussed Stephen North's "The Idea of a Writing Center" and "'The Idea of a Writing Center' Revisited." we focused on conflicts between how the public perceives writing centers, and how North represents writing centers in terms of: who comes to writing centers (struggling students v all writers); why individuals come to writing centers (because they are sent by teacher v because they want to); and what happens at writing centers (drills & skills centered correction v 'holistic' participant observation by tutors who respond to particular writers interests/issues). We also considered North's revisions on these positions, as well as his changing position with respect to relationships between the university (and this mostly meant teachers)and the writing center; and the purpose/function of the center. According to North the center's most important function is to be a place where writers talk about writing - and he tags a few other purposes onto this central purpose.

Thanks for your interesting discussion of these rather abstract articles.

Make sure you have turned in an electronic copy of your response to Lunsford. I will read these over the weekend and return them via email by Monday night class.

For Blog 6: Create a writing center philosophy from the perspective of the director of a writing center. This version needs to address the issues identified by North: the center's purpose, who comes there, why they come, what they do => as well as the assumptions and "reasons" that underlie the practical answers to these questions. For example, assuming that knowledge is created through conversation mandates certain coaching practices, and assuming that knowledge will be created differently in different contexts, or that it is apprehended entirely in the mind of the learner may mandate different coaching practices. In this version of your philosophy make clear connections between what your center will DO - and your assumptions about learning, knowledge, and the political realities of writing centers. I am looking forward to reading these posts!

In class, we will talk about practices for observing and taking notes on writing sessions - and then you will practice some of these techniques while on in-class sessions between classmates.

Have a good weekend and see you Monday.

September 28

2009-09-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

In class tonight you used the techniques outlined in McAndrew and Reigstad to coach a classmate on his/her response essay for Lunsford. After your sessions we reflected on what the writer brings to the session and what the writing coach brings to the session. Writers generally took responsibility for what they wanted to work on - writing coaches generally asked questions + suggested processes to help students figure out HOW to work on their writing issues. As noted by several of you - coaches need to know something about different writing genres, they need to know how to read assignment sheets, and they need to be able to suggest different strategies to brainstorm, organize, develop, and focus ideas as writing.

For Wednesday:
Blog 5: write a description of what you did in your coaching session; you might also want to consolidate or reflect on some of what other students reported as taking place in their sessions. Use this post to write down some of the ideas and approaches you are exploring. What are you learning? What would you like more experience doing?
Read: Stephen North "The Idea of a Writing Center" and "Revisiting 'The Idea of a Writing Center'" 63-92.

Note: The information about the final research paper on your course syllabus is incorrect. You are not writing two 5-page essays. You will be writing one 7-10 page research essay (graduate students will write a 10-12 page paper). The reflective writing will be informal, and part of the short essays for homework. This will be more clear when we get to that part of the course. I apologize for any confusion.

Good class tonight - and see you Wednesday.

September 23 - Tutoring without a draft

2009-09-23T14:48:00.000-07:00

You started out by reading classmates' posts about writing center philosophies. You posted comments to classmates in your group. As we looked over the posts, we thought about the following:

What do you need to include in a WC philosophy?
Different audiences = different statements
A writing center philosophy tells what center does
WC philosophy = public document = needs commitment + enthusiasm
We got more ideas from reading classmates’ work
Making your philosophy concrete – giving examples makes it easier to follow
Does it make a difference what kind of language you use? (yes)
Tutoring versus coaching?
Writing lab v writing center versus tutoring center?
We all seemed to have the same Object = to make students comfortable
 But different individuals took different approaches

Hmmmm. There is food for thought here.

You spent the rest of the class putting into practice what you read about for coaching students who don't have a draft. I am hoping you made some conscious decisions about what approach to use (did you?) - and at the same time - that you were responsive to the particular writing needs of your student.

For Blog 4: Reflect on your experiences as a tutor and a student. For each role, think about: who did the most talking? Who asked the most questions? Who was most focused on the assignment sheet (understanding the directions)? Who contributed the most information about "what to write about"? What happened when there were different interpretations of the assignment? the reading? After you answer these questions - think about how or whether they reflect your philosophy about how students & writing coaches should interact.

Write: A response to Lunsford. Be sure to check out the assignment sheet. Writing to the assignment is KEY for successful academic writing.

Read: Models and strategies: responding to writers' work McAndrew and Reigstad 42 - 69.

In class on Monday, we will briefly discuss the strategies for working with writers; you will then work with each other - as coach and student - to decide how to revise your essay.

Over the weekend I will read through your blogs and provide you feed back + a grade for Blogs 1-3. Thanks for the great class this evening - and see you on Monday.

September 21

2009-09-21T14:54:00.001-07:00

We discussed Andrea Lunsford's "Collaboration, Control, and the Idea of a Writing Center". We started out by identifying terms that would need to be included in a complete summary of her text.

Although it is pretty hard to model how to coach a writer on careful reading stratgeies when you are standing in front of a classroom with a marker in your hand - I gave it a shot. I asked questions, and responded with further questions that took discussion in the direction your answers. I directed you to the text, and asked you to help me find the information in Lunsford that you were using to support your interpretation. We came up with a pretty solid list of terms and ideas from this article.

You then worked in pairs to strategize how you would organize this material into a summary. Groups came up with at least three different patters - all of which made sense. My teacherly comment was to point out that summaries are focused around the author's main point - so the summary needs to set up that point in the beginning, and come back to it at the end, and the material in the middle needs to connect to that main point.

We then talked about writing center philosophies. While talking about Lunsford's article, we identified features of each of the three models for writing centers(Storehouse, Garret, and Burkean Parlor). Those features were:
- an image or model to represent the exchange of knowledge;
- who "owns" or has knowledge;
- how learners gain knowledge;
- and a description of what knowledge is.

For example, in the Storehouse model, the writing center is like a bank (with knowledge stored inside); the tutor (as a representative of the university) has knowledge that the student needs to "get;" learners are "told" or given knowledge by teachers/tutors; and knowledge itself is fixed in that there is a right or a wrong - it has a form outside of context or the person who has it.

For Blog 3: write your writing center philosophy.

For this post, identify:
- your position on what a writing center should be like (an image or model such as storehouse, garret, burkean parlor - or an image of your own.)
- where knowledge is (who owns it, or has the right to say what it is)
-how learners gain knowledge
- and what knowledge is (is it fixed & objective? subjective and inside the learner? created through conversation?)

These are your assumptions about learning and teaching. After you've stated these - do some writing to explore what your assumptions imply for:

- the role of the tutor (how sessions should be conducted, what authority tutors should have within the center)
- the physical set up for tutoring sessions + the center itself
- power relations between the director & tutors, tutors and students, between the center and the University, teachers and tutors - and so on.

This is going to be a draft. These relationships are complicated. As stated in class - part of the purpose for writing a philosophy, now, at the beginning of the term - is for you to think about what your assumptions are, so you can be conscious of them, and watch for how the unconscious assumptions will sneak up on you and direct your sessions.

Also for class Wednesday: Read Coaching when the writer does not have a draft - McAndrew and Reigstad, 31-42.

In class on Wednesday we will look at your writing center philosophies (you are going to comment on one another's blogs), and you will coach each other on writing a response essay. To prepare for the in-class coaching, you can do any pre-writing, reading you would like - but do NOT write a draft response essay.

Great class tonight, and see you Wednseday.

Wednesday, September 16

2009-09-16T17:56:00.000-07:00

Tonight we talked through the reading from McAndrew and Reigstad; as we talked we made connections between writing process, tutoring process(es) and language/conversational moves you might actually use in a writing session.

We started by talking about writing process as consisting of three parts: pre-writing, drafting, and revising - and we talked about how you could tell where a writer was in his/her process, and what you might work on with writers in different parts of their process. We also noted that writing process is recursive - in that writers cycle through gathering information in the pre-writing stage, getting information on the page in the drafting stage, and getting the forus, organization, development + language right in the revising stage.

We also talked about what goes on in writers heads, decided that chaos is OK, observed that language meanings depend on who is talking and under what circumstances, and discussed student centered, collaborative, & teacher centered approaches to coaching writing (with the observation that student centered is the preferred method in our text book).

We checked out methods and conventions for summaries (handout listed as a link to the right), and you did some role playing coaching students who are having trouble getting the meainings from texts. You came up with a great set of strategies for helping students see the text in new ways. After making sure they could state the "what happened" of the text, strategies to move them to think about ideas include: chunking the matierial into sections; asking students to state the purpose, themes, or what the author was doing; asking them to state one idea that says what a reading is about; getting them to look at the title + headings, introduction/conclusion, topic sentences, itialicized words, terms that are defined or repeated; listening to students questions and providing them with resources to find their own answers, and so on. I am thinking you don't really need me to teach this class!

For Monday:
Blog 2: list Lunsford’s main points
Read: Barnett and Blumer, "Collaboration, Control, and the Idea of a Writing Center" by Andrea Lunsford

In class, we will talk over writing center philosophies, do some more thinking about how to write summaries for different rhetorical purposes.

Have a great weekend and see you Monday.

Revised Calendar

2009-09-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

The link to the calendar now provides a document with assignments that will actually correspond to the dates we meet. There may be additional revisions - but this is a closer approximation than the first draft!

Bring Barnett & Blumer to class tonight - we are going to work through pre-reading activities as a way to set you up for reading this essay. See you soon.

Class Monday, September 14

2009-09-14T15:05:00.000-07:00

You set up your blogs, pasted in links to your classmates' blogs, and we got started talking about why peer to peer writing coaching works - and what tutoring isn't. Too bad we didn't get to the role-playing, that is really the heart of where learning takes place.

About blogs:

To change your layout or add gadgets, click customize (upper right of your page).

To create a new post - click new post. Once you are in "new post" you can click "edit posts" to go back and revise or delete an older post. You can also click the tabs for settings + layout to make other changes.

I have updated the blog list entry (after this one) and everyone's address should be on it. If I have misspelled or otherwise messed up your link, let me know. For next class, do your best to have a link to your classmates' blogs + mine.

Good work on the training certificates. Those of you who are finishing up, try to turn them in asap and I will turn them in to the Kean University IRB.

Good class tonight!

For Wednesday:
Post Blog 1: Your response to the readings so far. Any questions? Anything nnew or surprising? Anything you would like to learn more about?
Read: McAndrew & Reigstad, 21 -30.

I will fix the dates on the calendar. . . see you Wednesday.

Blog addresses

2009-09-14T13:59:00.000-07:00

http://dariarieker.blogspot.com/ Daria

http://timblog4070.blogspot.com/ Tim

http://sheerahg.blogspot.com/ Musheerah

http://rleigh-robinsclass.blogspot.com/ Robin

http://laneave.blogspot.com/ Laura

http://eng5070ryan.blogspot.com/ Ryan

http://kevin4070.blogspot.com/ Kevin

http://intelligentlisa.blogspot.com/ Talisha

http://dannyswrittingclass.blogspot.com Daniela

http://samuikamui.blogspot.com/ Sam

What we did in class, September 8

2009-09-09T17:51:00.001-07:00

For our first class, we introduced ourselves, went over the syllabus and the calendar, and talked about the course blog and IRB training. Most importantly, we got started on thinking about what makes good learning happen. You told stories about times when you had a good experience with learning - and we identified features of those experiences and listed them on the board. Your stories were strong examples of what motivates and sustains learners as do the scary work that accompanies trying to do something new. Features we noticed were: having concrete examples (with lots of different examples); having assurance, encouragement, and models (predictable routines and patterns); having connections to the learner's interest and motivation; good listening; getting step-by-step information about process (how to do something instead of what needs to be done); getting help with stepping back so the learner can "see" his or her self (like when Daniela's father video-taped her); working on a team and having opportunities to practice; getting one-on-one feedback; being able to ask questions - and some that I forgot.

Features of learning that are most important will vary from learner to learner and from situation to situation - but this list provides us with a good place to start thinking about how writing coaches can support learners as they work on their writing.

For next class:
Take the IRB training (linked from the right side of this page)and send me a copy of your certificate.

Read: in McAndrew and Reigstad, 8-21

Those of you who have laptops - bring them to class. I will see what I can do to get computers for the 5 students who said they do not have access to a laptop. In class you will set up your blogs, and we will continue writing and thinking about how writing centers and general - and writing coaches in particular- can support writers.

Thanks for your good participation in tonight's class. I am looking forward to working with each of you.

Peer Tutoring - Fall 2009

2009-08-25T04:44:00.001-07:00

Welcome to ENG 4070/5070! This should be an exciting class - and with any luck it should be fun as well. The links on this page will connect you to course documents, important journals for writing center research, sites for some of the leading writing centers across the country, and most importantly - to your classmates' blogs.

I will use my posts to respond to and sum up class discussions, note changes in the course calendar, and generally reflect on the ideas and events that come up throughout the term.

Grades and picking up your writing journals

2008-12-18T07:02:00.001-08:00

I have emailed your grades and if I do not hear from you (to correct my math or contest my evaluation) I will post your final grades to Keanwise on Decemeber 22.

Thank you for your good work and your good attitude throughout the term. As I confessed early on, this was the first time I taught this as an undergraduate course - and as you let me know - the material was challenging. Our "re-thinking the course" talk during the last class was extremely valuable, and I have lots to work with to get this course running a little more smoothly.

You were a GREAT class; I felt lucky to have a group of students who got along so well - and who were so comfortable working together. As you know from the writing center literature - such class dynamics are really the best in terms of facilitating learning - and from my observation, each of you acquired important knowledge (and practices) that should contribute to your continued growth as writers.

Thanks again for a great semester - and keep in touch!

Monday, December 8

2008-12-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

Vanessa, Stephanie and Erin gave presentations in class, and Marie and Angela scheduled conferences after class so we would be able (or at least stand a chance) to give feedback for everyone on Wednesday (Camille, Molly, Nick and Kevin). Students gave one another constructive suggestions, and the revising/re-writing/re-drafting process seems to be going very well.

In class Wednesday, in addition to participating in the remaining presentations on your research projects, I will give a brief presentation on creating your portfolios and turning in your work for the semester. The Portfolio guidelines are posted (in alphabetical order - to the right of this post) and should be self explanatory, but in case they aren't we will talk about them in class. For those of you who are unsure how to burn a CD, if you organize your folders on your jumpdrive exactly as they are described in the guidelines (I will show you a sample in class) and bring a blank Read only CD to class (NOT a read - write), you can burn it in class on one of the course computers.

On Monday, December 15, you will turn in your portfolios and do some reflective writing on the course.

Wednesday, December 3

2008-12-03T16:45:00.001-08:00

In class today we went over drafts - with particular focus on the data section. For those of you who missed class - come to CAS 314 on Monday prepared to give a presentation on your essay to your classmates. Post your essay on your blog, and give us a brief overview of each section:

Introduction (where you set up your findings);

Review of the literature (state what each author/publication presents on your subject and how it is relevant to your findings);

Methods (brief description of your data collection circumstances (where you were, how many sessions you observed etc) strategy (what your notes focused on & maybe how you discovered that focus) and how you analyzed your data);

Presentation of your data (narrative descriptions of relevant actions, interactions, consequences etc in the sessions you observed)& interpretation;

Conclusions

Research papers (as you can see) are rather formulaic - hopefully this will make your writing easier.

Your class presentations will be an opportunity for feedback + revision. Good luck with your writing and see you in class Monday.

Monday, December 1

2008-12-02T05:48:00.000-08:00

I looked at the handouts for the research essay and the calendar - and it is a complete draft of the DATA section that is due on Wednesday, December 3 (not the complete essay). In class we will work through your data sections and re-think the purpose/statement of your research question in light of what your data are showing. On Monday, December 8 we will resume meeting in CAS 314, and the complete draft for the research project will be due(as stated on the assignment sheet). You will be giving presentations (for feedback) on your complete project on Monday and Wednesday, December 8 & 10.

Stephanie and Vanessa discussed some of their data in conferences on Monday - and judging by their work - the projects seem to be going well. Good work - and see you on Wednesday.

Monday, November 24

2008-11-25T06:15:00.000-08:00

NO CLASS ON WEDNESDAY.

Continue to work on your research projects. The draft for the complete paper will be due Wednesday, December 3. You can sign up for conferences on December 1 at Google Docs (or send me an email and I will sign you up).

Have a great Thanksgiving!

If you want a tutoring session Tuesday 11/25

2008-11-24T06:44:00.001-08:00

My ENG 1031-1032 class will be working on using paraphrasing and quotation tomorrow. We will work on paraphrasing and quotation in general in class from 9:30 - 11:00 (see the guidelines posted under course information) and from 11 - 12:20 students will work on integrating quotations into their papers. Unless my whole class is absent, there should be an opportunity for you to work with at least two students during this period. It also might be an opportunity to set up additional sessions during the times you tutor at CAS. Class is in CAS 307.

These will need to be tutoring sessions (not observations), since IRB requirements generally prohibit primary investigators from conducting research on students in their own classes. At the same time, although you cannot take notes on students, you are allowed to reflect on your experience tutoring, and to use that experience as a basis for your thinking in your research paper.

Have a great Thanksgiving, and good luck with your research papers. The due date for the draft is December 3 (by midnight - so you have one last chance to talk about it in class). Send it as an attachment.

Wednesday, November 19

2008-11-19T07:22:00.000-08:00

Today you each took stock of how many observations you had, and briefly reflected on how those observations connected to your project.

I revised the blog assignments - from what is listed on the calendar - to posting reflections on what you are finding in your observations + tutoring sessions. Post an overview of what you observed + some analysis of materials that connect to your session. This way - if your session connects to one of your classmate's projects - that individual can contact you for a copy of your notes. By analyzing each others' observations - hopefully - you will each be able to come up with enough material for your projects. The object is for you to come up with about five posts documenting your sessions. You can use these posts to: let your classmates know what you are working on; do some brainstorming about which sections of your data you will analyze in depth; write short sections that you can use in your papers. These blogs should be posted at the rate of 2 a week from now until the beginning of December.

We also took a look at the New England Writing Center Association's call for papers for their spring conference. Their theme is "reduce-reuse-recycle" which connects to many of your research projects - in that you are looking at how writing center pedagogy is applied in new situations and new contexts. We can talk about putting a panel more towards the end of the term.

You may have noticed that I did not do the presentation on the reflective paper; I have decided I would rather have you put your energy into your research projects. The reflective writing will be short and informal, and we will work on it as a class as you put together your portfolios.

You need to take not that the draft for your research essay should be posted on your blog December 3. This is a real deadline. At the end of the term, I have a lot of grading and am not able to be flexible about deadlines. Throughout the term I have been pretty easy about deadlines, but this will not be the case in December. If the draft for the research essay is late (not posted on the due date) you will lose credit.

Monday, November 17

2008-11-17T10:41:00.000-08:00

In class today I conducted two sessions for observation: one on Camille's research plan, and one on Erin's paper on Margaret Fuller.

You need to observe some sessions this week - hopefully before Wednesday. I will be giving you some feedback to your posted (complete) research plans (which should include the annotated bibliography).

In class Wednesday we will work on analyzing your data. Bring complete notes from at least one session so we can get started.

No Blog assignment - keep working on your observations + conducting conferences.

Wednesday, November 12

2008-11-12T08:05:00.001-08:00

Today we talked through your research plans. Those of you who talked through your plans in class should post your revised proposals (I will be sending each of you some suggestions for references). Those of you who have not yet talked through your plans - make sure to schedule a conference so you are ready to begin observing.

On Wednesday I am hoping one or more of you will have data and we can begin work on "coding" - identifying and classifying categories for actors, actions, interactions and context within your sessions.

The syllabus states that you are going to write a formal reflective paper - but I would rather you focused your energies on your research project. I will schedule the time for you to do reflective writing in class.

Assignments for Monday are to post your revised research plan on your blog, and to make sure you are set to begin data collection and tutoring. It would be best if you could schedule most of your sessions before the beginning of December - which is sometime in the next two weeks. You may observe each other's sessions. Work with Angela and Ryan to make contacts for observations.

I will be available in CAS on Monday for conferences on your projects. Have a good weekend.

Monday, November 10

2008-11-10T14:42:00.000-08:00

Today was an optional class - so long as you didn't have students.

Come to class Wednesday prepared to give a short presentation on your research plan. Your plan should include:

Statement of purpose (what you hope to show/discover)
Detailed statement of your research question
List of the information you need to gather
A preliminary list of sources
Plan for gathering your information

Turn in the written version for your presentation: by email, as an attachment, before class Wednesday.

Be sure to sign up for conferences if you want some one-on-one time with me to work on your project.

See you Wednesday.

You may have students on Monday!

2008-11-06T15:23:00.000-08:00

I checked with Jackie and she has "fixed" your availability on tutortrac. I suggest that you go in and check to see if you are available - and if you have students.

Unless you remove Monday 10-11 as time you are available at CAS - you will need to be available for students. I will be in CAS for the whole class - available to work with you.

See you Monday.

November 5: Yet another clarification

2008-11-05T08:00:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed, we have gone slightly off-track from the calendar. This Blog should serve to set re-state dates and keep us all on the same page.

Blogs
You have received feedback (if you posted by due dates) for Blogs 1-12
* you may still post 11-12 and I will look at them this weekend

I will be grading Blogs 13, 14, 15 over the weekend (so you have additional feedback on your research plan), and the topics are as follows:

Blog 13: Comment on the "real" first 5 minutes as you experienced them / observed them in your sessions today - versus what Newkirk suggests. Are his ideas realistic? Could you use them? WHich parts of his essay applied to your session?

Blog 14 Post questions/requests for clarification - or confirmations with respect to overall plan for the course, what is expected, etc.

Blog 15: Draft writing / planning for research proposal => most of you sent this in email (I will reply with your grade) and some of you have already posted it. I would like to make sure each of has had all the feedback you need (and the chance to see what your classmates are doing).

Blof 16 (due for Wednesday, Nov. 12): Post your complete research proposal with annotated bibliography.

References
Sites to find information for your projects are posted at our google.docs site

Scheduling Tutoring Sessions
In class today you gave me a list of the hours you will go to CAS to take sessions. I have spoken to Jackie and you are now on the web site so students can sign up for those times. You will need to go to CAS to be available at those time. You are expected to tutor for a minimum of 5 sessions.

Hours are as follows
Nick + Kevin: Tuesday 12-4; Thursday 11- 2.
Camille: Thursday 5-8
Marie: Tuesday & Thursday 4-6; Monday & Wednesday 12-2
Stephanie: Tuesday 12-2:30; Wed 11:30-2; Thursday 12-12:30
Molly Wednesday 2-5; Friday 1-3
Vanessa 3:30-4:30; Tuesday 11-12; Thursday 11- 12;
Erin Fridays 9:30 - 12:30

If you do not intend to be present at CAS at these times, you need to contact me so your hours can be changed.

Sign up for conferences during Monday class time
For the next four weeks or so, Monday classes will be dedicated conference times where (if you do not have a tutoring session) I can work one-on-one with you on your project. I sent you a link to the sign-up sheet at google docs

What we will be doing next week:
Monday: in-class conferences + tutoring

Wednesday: Research plans + annotated bibliographies, posted on your blog.
In class each of you will give a short presentation so that your classmates can provide feedback.

Added note: For those of you who missed class, the sheet listing what to include in your portfolio posted on this site at Portfolio Requirements, and we discussed (and made copies of) student feedback sheets (page 135 in your text). Note on the Portfolio Requirements handout that you are required to collect a feedback sheet for the sessions you conduct & observe.

Have a good weekend.

Monday, Novermber 2

2008-11-03T08:58:00.000-08:00

As discussed in class today, the rest of the term will be focused on:

1. Observing sessions to gather data for your research essay (minimum 5 observations)
2. Gaining experience tutoring (minimum 5 sessions)
3. Writing your research paper

Today you looked at the google.docs bibliography and added references you have found so far. Continue to post references you find on your topic under an appropriate heading.

You checked out the links on this blog to the writing center journals, and I directed you to the Kean University data bases available through the library. The most important writing journals to check are College Composition and Communication; Composition Studies; and other journals listed at here

We talked about how to work on the annotated bibliography - and you will work on completing that document in class on Wednesday. Basically you need to list your sources in MLA format along with summaries of the sections relevant to your project and a brief description of how the reference connects to your study.

You also checked the writing tutor's schedules and made arrangements to begin your observations. You signed the list with your proposed time to observe. Be sure to:
1. speak to the tutor you will observe prior to the session you hope to observe to make sure it is OK
2. have both the tutor & student sign permission forms BEFORE the session begins; be sure to get my signature on the form; give both the tutor and the student a copy of the form AND keep a copy for yourself. Turn your copy in to me.
3. make sure you are unobtrusive during your observation
4. provide a copy of the debriefing form to student + tutor, and have the student fill out a copy of the session evaluation form from your book.

What to do for class Wednesday: I will be reading over your preliminary writing for your research projects tonight and will be giving you some feedback on blogs 13-15 on Tuesday - so make sure your postings are up to date. This is the last "retrospective" I will do for blogs - any entries not up to date at this time will be marked as one of the skipped blogs (you get to miss 3).

Post Blog 16 after you observe a session (I understand that this may not happen before Wednesday).

We will spend Wednesday working on your annotated bibliographies and further refining your research questions. The Annotated Bibliography is due as an attachment on Monday, November 10.

I will bring the sign up sheet for observations/tutoring to class on Wednesday. Keep your sessions up to date. See you on Wednesday.

Wednesday, October 29

2008-10-29T06:50:00.000-07:00

Today we talked through the process for developing your research plan and for scheduling conferences and data collections sessions; we also reviewed what was due and when. This Blog is a summary of what we talked about, and for Blog 14 you will write any questions or confusions that still need to be resolved.

Writing to develop research question. Points 1, 2, & 3 on the handout for developing a research plan list the reading/thinking/writing activities you should go through to develop your research plan. The purpose of this writing is for you to communicate to me what you have read about your research question and information about how you plan to go about collecting data/gathering information to answer that question. I can then provide you with feedback so you can develop your formal research plan (point 4). This writing does not need to "polished" or formal as I will not be grading the form. It is supposed to show your in-depth thinking about your project - so I can respond to you and work with you on developing a strong plan for research. As you look for references - be sure to check out the journals listed at the foot of this blog.
Writing to develop research plan due: as a .doc sent in email on Monday, Nov.4.

Class Monday: We will meet at CAS on Monday. You will spend from 9:30-10:00 setting up your schedule for observing + tutoring, and from 10-11 you will have sessions either with students or with one another.

About observating tutoring sessions: You will need to observe a minimum of 5 sessions (not conducted with each other) to gather data for your projects. On Monday, Nov 3 we will check at the front desk for tutors who work at times when you are available to observe, and you should contact those individuals prior to observing any of their sessions. You should let them know they will need to sign a permission form, and let them know you will do nothing but sit there and take notes. Give them your name and information about the course, and ask where they usually tutor so you will know where to find them.

Scheduling your tutoring sessions: If we are unsuccessful scheduling sessions for Monday 10-11, you will need to arrange for 5 sessions when you work with students at CAS. You are required to create a reflective entry in your writing journal for each of these sessions. You cannot observe your own tutoring sessions (eg take notes as you tutor) but you are allowed to re-construct your experience in a very general way and may use information from your writing journal - so long it is not specific and does not identify particular students - as part of your research.

If it turns out that you need to schedule data collection + observations NOT during class time, we will reduce the number of class meetings to make sure you have enough time to do your observations. If we substitute time in CAS for Monday classes, I will always be available in CAS on Mondays to work with individuals on their data, on tutoring, or on writing.

Review of due dates and assignments
Blog 13: Comment on the "real" first 5 minutes as you experienced them / observed them in your sessions today - versus what Newkirk suggests. Are his ideas realistic? Could you use them? WHich parts of his essay applied to your session?

Blog 14 Post questions/requests for clarification - or confirmations that you know what is expected - in reply to this Blog.

Critique of Newkirk Due before class Monday, Nov. 3. As an attachment, by email.
Writing to develop your research question: Monday, Nov 3.

Annotated bibliography: Monday, Nov 10. In class, on Wednesday, Nov 5, we will work together to make sure each of you has references s/he needs for her/his project. Each of you will describe to the class what you will be researching and the references you have found so far. At that point your classmates and I will offer suggestions for additional references for your project.

Monday, October 27

2008-10-27T13:48:00.000-07:00

You worked in CAS and got some more experience gathering data. Use your Blog to comment on the "real" first 5 minutes as you experienced them / observed them in your sessions today - versus what Newkirk suggests. Are his ideas realistic? Could you use them? WHich parts of his essay applied to your session?

Work on your research question writing (see the directions I sent in the feedback to your blogs) and email your writing to me as an attachment for Wednesday.

Bring your notes and after making sure everyone is caught up and on their way with their research plan - we will start some whole class work on analyzing data.

See you Wednesday.

Wednesday, October 22

2008-10-22T07:50:00.000-07:00

Today was question day, and we spent the first half of class talking about your research questions and how to develop and organize your research project.

There are two handouts on the research project posted on this blog: the handout on Developing a research plan, and the Assignment sheet. The Handout provides a step-by-step process for developing your project; and the Assignment sheet is a list of the criteria and the important dates. You will notice that writing for components 1,2&3 of Developing a research plan is due on Wednesday, along with 2-3 pages of notes from your observations of tutoring sessions. This work is so we can assess: 1) whether you have a viable project, and 2) whether you are taking the kind of notes that will give you a basis for a research project. With respect to the notes it is not so important that you are taking noted ON your topic, as it is that you are writing down detailed observations that can support analysis => objective statements about actors, actions, interactions + context.

We also talked about the overall organization of your paper. If you read through the sample research papers posted at your site and in your text book you will notice that they have the following general form.
1) Introduction, overview of problem/issues; =>statement of your research question
2) Background information, review of the research literature (what others have written about your question)
3) Methods: description of how you collected your data, what methods for analysis you used to evaluate your data, explanation for why your methods are appropriate to your work.
4) Presentation of data + analysis
5) Conclusions

During the second part of the class we talked about how to write a critique - a literary form frequently assigned. Handouts from this discussion are in my box if you missed class.

For Monday:
1. Read Newkirk, "The First five minutes: Setting the agenda in a writing conference."
2. Post a critique of Newkirk on your blog.

Also - work on your research question & other writing due for your research project (due on Wednesday =>see the Assignment Sheet for the Research Project & Developing a Research Plan Handouts posted on the site).

I will be providing feedback on your blogs over the weekend - so make sure you have an up-to-date version of what you want me to read about your research questions. Have a good weekend and see you at the CAS on Monday.

Monday, October 20

2008-10-20T11:48:00.000-07:00

Today you had a practice run-through for taking notes on tutoring sessions. We met in the CAS and you broke into groups with one tutor, one student, and one researcher. From walking around observing - it seemed like you are finding yur feet. Good work.

For Blog 12 - reflect on what you learned about how the data-taking sessions are going to go. For those of you who were students and tutors, provide some feedback/reflections on how the data-taker's introduction of the permission form + observation affected your session. Think about your plans for taking data. Hopefully next week you will have some "real" students.

Also - read Murphy, "Freud in the Writing Center," 296 in Barnett and Blumer & review body language, 28-30 in McAndrew and Reigstad.

Wednesday, October 15

2008-10-15T08:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, we covered a lot of material today. Glancing through your blogs I can see that you are starting to think about what kind of research you might do for the course. Keep working on this in Blog 11- add to your list of questions, do some brainstormy listing and associating - then write 3 short paragraphs - one for each of three different projects (they can be related). Hopefully this writing is going to open you up even more - though in today's class discussion you seemed to be thinking in some depth about particular projects.

The writing on how to develop research questions is there for you - if you get stuck (though most of you seem to have the idea)- or if you have problems with being objective or "sensitive". Keep your lists of assumptions and check back on it and add to it as you begin to gather ideas. Your assumptions shape what you see - and the better you get at stepping outside your assumptions the more you will see.

We looked (briefly) at the assignment sheet for your research project, and the IRB forms for collecting data. Read over the criteria for the research project, the sample research papers (posted here as well) and think about any questions you have about how to get started with your project.

For Monday:
Bring some writing to class - in case we have no students you can tutor one another. For later sessions we will have an "evaluation" form for students to complete - but for this session I think you have enough on your hands.
We will spend the first half hour going over how to set up data collection and reviewing how to take notes. For your first session - don't worry so much about writing "on your topic" as taking lots of descriptive notes that give the details of what happens. As presented in the reading assignment - your research question will take shape through your analysis of your data. Make sure you collect rich enough data to give open up your ideas. Regardless of the focus of your study you might want to do some reading/thinking about what kinds of student-tutor interactions indicate that a session is going "well" or "badly" as this information may be what you need to evaluate the focus of your study (e.g. how eye contact influences tutoring sessions).You will conduct sessions and take data from 10-11.

For Wednesday:
Read Murphy in McAndrew & Reigstad. This essay is short - and provides information about how students "feel" that should be relevant to many of your topics. It says on the calendar that we will look at some videos + code body language - but in class today we decided we would devote the first half of class (or as much as you need) to answering questions, filling in information you might be hazy on, and giving some clear direction for setting up your projects.

As I mentioned in class - my intention is to get back to your blogs - but I will be out of town this weekend and it will depend on whether I have an internet connection in my hotel. If I don't have feedback for you by Sunday night - you will have it by Wednesday.

Have a great weekend and see you in CAS on Monday.

Wednesday, October 8

2008-10-08T08:03:00.000-07:00

We "experienced" minimalist tutoring today. After a brief overview of Brooks' article and the Rutgers video - you tried out some minimalist tutoring with your classmates. We then did some reflecting on how it works, when it might be a better idea to switch to more directive techniques and why. I was very impressed with you work as tutors!

I also gave a very brief and moderately confusing introduction to some of the techniques you will use to analyze the notes you will be taking on students at the center. We will be discussing the two handouts on Wednesday - when you come back after your Columbus Day break. We will also be discussing two examples of writing center research from your book: Anne DiPardo's "Whispers of Coming and Going": Lessons from Fannie' (p 350 in Longman); and Julie Neff's 'Learning Disabilities and the Writing Center' (p. 376 in Longman). These are both interesting reads and will give you an idea for how you will be using your notes in your research paper.

As noted on the calendar - even though you don't have class on Columbus Day I will be looking for a post. So you will be doing two blog posts.

Blog 9: Write your position on when to use minimalist techniques & when to conduct mor teacher centered approaches. How does this fit with your personal style? How will your approach shift with different students? with different assignments?

Blog 10: Read+ comment on classmates blogs & begin an exploration of what kinds of research on tutoring writing interests you. What would you like to study? Are there any aspects of learning through f2f talk about writing that you think are poorly understood and that need further study? Does any of it seem important to you? If you could invent any project you wanted to (you don't have to do this one) to study how and what students learn in writing centers - what would you do? Check out some of the research reported in the journals linked to this blog.

Turn in your Analyses of North (the BAD assignment experiment) by Wednesday, Oct. 15.

Thanks for your good work today - and see you in a week.

Monday October 6, 2008

2008-10-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

Here is the link for the minimalist tutoring video. You can skip through the music + salemanship sections. Some of it is minimalist + some of it is not.

You each made a list of your assumptions about how people learn and communicate and then we put them up on the board and did some thinking about how to keep from getting stuck in our assumptions about how to communicate. In other words, you did some reflecting on how to keep from making incorrect assumptions about how others learn, think and communicate. My longterm goal as I planned this class was to have you work in groups to develop a checklist for conducting tutoring sessions; this checklist would set up guidelnes and strategies (like the checklist for working with developmental writers on page 92 in the reading)to help you: 1) keep from projecting your learning style onto your students; 2) be aware of and keep from falling into stereotypes for the different kinds of learners we put on the board; 3) base your tutoring in interactive/adaptive/personalized patterns for communication that respond to the individual needs of individual learners.

In class we got through identifying our own learning style, listing different identity groups and some of the stereotypes regarding how they learn, and we came to two realizations: 1) sometimes group identity/membership can provide a clue to those patterns; and 2) it is truly an individual's experience that determines his/her learning style/patterns for communication - so while noting or hypothesizing group identities - tutors always need to respond to students as individuals.

For Blog 8: develop a checklist/guidelines to help you remain aware of and be responsive to the conflict at the center of these two realizations. Your list should provide a series of suggestions for what(and how) you need to notice about your students' learning & writing, as well as some general practices for conducting sessions that will help your find out what you need to know and respond to it.

In class on Wednesday you are going to conduct minimalist tutoring sessions + take notes on those sessions. In response to a unanimous request from the class, you will be tutoring you revised North essays - which will then be due on Monday, October 13. Bring your drafts to class for your sessions.

We will also (briefly) discuss Shamoon and Burns (225 in the Longman text). See you Wednesday.

Wednesday, October 1

2008-10-01T07:57:00.000-07:00

We reviewed + discussed processes and forms for some of the common genres for academic writing that you will be working with as you tutor students: summarizing, responding and analyzing. Other common writing issues you will want to feel prepared to work on are developing arguments and research papers, and developing effective reading strategies. For detailed notes on the specifics of this discussion - check Nick's blog (thank you, Nick).

The second half of class we talked about how you will take notes on sessions that you observe at the CAS. Because of confidentiality issues, you will not write the student's name in your notes. You will want to provide descriptive writing about the setting, actors, interactions, and outcomes. We discussed the difference between observations, impressions, and interpretations. Observations are what you can see. "the tutor asked the student for the assignment sheet. The student does not look up, she is sitting with her elbows on the table, her head in her hands, and her notebook closed." Impressions are your feelings - what seems to be going on, "the student seems to be discouraged." Interpretations are statements where you speculate about relationships - particularly causality. They generally draw from a large number of interpretations and "make sense" of what otherwise might seem to be unrelated information.

The notes you take on your session should be primarily observations. After your session is over - it is a good idea to jot observations you did not have time to write down + impressions in the margins. Make sure to distinguish between what you observed, and what you felt. Your interpretations will be the result of your analysis of the data; interpretations need to be supported by observations. Stating that the student from the example is ashamed for not bringing her assignment sheet is an interpretation. In general, interpretations are short-hand - they synthesize lots of unstated observations, impressions + assumptions. We will talk more about when and whether to include interpretations in your notes as you begin observing at the center. The more observations you have - the more material you will have for your analysis /exploration of your research question.

For Monday:
Blog 7: What do you think are the most important features of effective tutoring? Describe anything you would like to discuss/practice in class to improve your tutoring.
Read: McAndrew and Reigstad, 89-102, "Tutoring different people," & in Longman, "Minimalist Tutoring" by Jeff Brooks, 219-224
Write: Revise essay on North in light of today's discussion.

I will be reading over your blogs and you should have some feedback on entries 3-6 by Sunday night.

Have a good weekend and see you on Monday.

Monday, Sept 29

2008-09-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

Today we talked about North's "The Idea of a Writing Center," and "Revisiting 'The Idea of a Writing Center." We identified his fundamental focus in the first essay as on how writing centers are (mistakenly) perceived and his focus in the second essay as on de-romanticizing the representations in the first. As Nick pointed out though - in both essays he remains clear that writing centers are student centered and about writing as process; that they serve a "whole community," work on writing at all points in the writing process and are not defined by isolated points within composing such as checking spelling & punctuation and etc. Within this discussion we spent some time talking about practices for dealing with "bad assignments" and comments/responses/teaching processes surrounding student work that do help them learn more about writing.

For the bad assignment problem, Marie suggested that tutors might ask about what else is going on in class, and Stephanie suggested that students might talk to the teacher. Both of these are good suggestions - depending on who the student is and who the teacher is. I suggested that sometimes students need to have you listen and receive their frustration before you move on the writing issues associated with their problems. You don't have "solve" their problems - but to have a constructive session - many times you have to hear them and acknowledge them.

Also - in our discussion of Lunsford as compared to North, Erin pointed out that North was to the point & Lunsford was questioning and putting forward conflicting points of view. This led to a long digression from me about learning and cognitive/psychological development - and how students in their late teens and early twenties are just at the place where they are STARTING to be willing to think about "answers" in more complex ways. Until learners move out of what is called "dualistic" (black v white/right or wrong) thinking - where rules can determine what is "right" - to relativistic thinking - where the particular situation determines what to do - articles/assignments/and interactions that do not provide clear, rule-bound directions for what to do are going to feel "unclear" or even "wrong." As a tutor, you will need to make a judgment about students' developmental level, and you will need to work in a tutoring style that reflects that judgment. Your style should take into account where students are AND the fact that being a "good" writer requires students to learn when to break the rules - all the while remembering that students can't break rules successfully until they know what they are. Yes. That is a lot to take in. Development does not end at the close of puberty: changes in the way the brain works and the way we think continue throughout the lifespan; these changes generally occur in a sequence and at predictable "stages" => so that we learn "differently" in every stage. Having some information about how to recognize the different learning patterns can help you as a tutor.

Hopefully this summary of that discussion along with talk in class will be of some help. For those of you who are interested in how student's cognitive development affects tutoring - sources you might want to look at include:

Chandler, Sally. "Oral History across Generations: Age, Generation, and Oral Testimony." Oral History, 33(2), 2005, 48-56.

Evans, Nancy J., Deanna S. Forney and Florence Guido-DiBrito. 1998. Student Development in College: Theory, Research and Practice. San Francisco: Josey-Bass.

Hays, Janice. 1995. “Intellectual Parenting and a Developmental Feminist Pedagogy.” In Women’s Experience in American Composition and Rhetoric. ed. Louise Wetherbee Phelps and Janet Emig, 153-191. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

For class on Wednesday - you were given a "bad assignment" => write a 1-2 page analysis of North. The purpose is for you to reflect on the kinds of problems students confront as they write "bad assignments" and to gain some experience conducting a session on a paper that where students are given very little direction or confusing information about what the instructor expects. Bring your essay to class on a jumpdrive or printed so you can work on it in a writing session. Also - review LOC in McAndrew and Reigstad (as some of you may be in a place to work on these issues in your essays).

For your Blog, do some more writing on your writing center philosophy. As we discussed in class - your philosophy will state your assumptions about what learning is and how it takes place - in terms of what writing centers should "do." For example, North seems to believe that knowledge is primarily created through social interactions, but that some part of what we know is also "there" inside the student. As a result - his fundamental conception of a writing center is that it is about writing process (Burkean parlor) and student centered (Burkean parlor with basis in Garret). See what you can do. I realize a lot of this language is new (pedagogy, epistemology, - even thinking about "philosophy" in the concrete way that this task demands) but from your conversations in class you seem to be doing fine. Learning to talk about your teaching and your teaching practice in these terms will help you in the teaching field - and in academia in general.

Finally, in class on Wednesday you are going to conduct tutoring sessions on the North essays - and you will take notes on those sessions. Our focus is moving more and more toward taking notes on your sessions - since that is how you are going to gather your "data" for your final project. At the beginning of class, I am going to ask you to do some writing about your notes on previous tutoring sessions. What kinds of notes provided the best information? What kind of strategy did you use [for what to write - for how to balance observing and listening - for how to create a balance between what is said and what is going on (descriptions of actors, actions and setting) etc] ? How are you going to modify that strategy? Your notes are the heart of your project. The better your notes - the more basis you have for developing your "theories" about what is going on in tutoring sessions (why some sessions work and others do not).

Whew. That was a lot to write. Now it is here for us - and we can read it and think about it. We are really starting to get into the fun part of this course (not that it all hasn't been fun). I will be giving you a presentation on your research project on Oct. 15 - and we will brainstorm topics and talk about what exactly you will be doing at that time. Still - it is not too early for you to start thinking about what interests you about tutoring - about something you might want to study. So as we conduct the rest of the in-class sessions - watch yourself and your classmates. See if there is something about the way tutoring works (or doesn't work) that interests you. Write it down. Ask some questions. I fully expect that there will be some papers in writing center journals and presentations at writing center conferences from your work in this class. Your discussions and reflections in your blog are very strong.

See you on Wednesday!

Wednesday, Sept 23

2008-09-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Today you tried out some of the tutoring techniques in the book in your own sessions. Before you started, as a class, we identified the what you would be working on - focus, development or organization - then each "tutor" picked the techniques from the textbook that she would try out in her session. I encouraged you to try a technique that was new to you - so you would have some new experience to draw from when you begin to work in the center. We usually draw from techniques we have used before - so one of the purposes of our in-class work is for you to practice/try out many different techniques - so you have a large repertoire of practices to draw from when you get to the center.

In your blogs, write a description of what you did in your session & how it worked. Give your evaluation of how the technique described by McAndrew and Reigstad worked in your session. If it did work - why? If it didn't why not? Would it work in a different kind of session?

Finish your response essays for the Lunsford article, and turn them in to the 4070 gmail address.

Also - for next class, read "The Idea of a Writing Center" and "Revisiting the Idea of a Writing Center" by North in the *Guide to Writing Center Theory & Practice." You will begin class Monday with some writing about North's ideas about writing centers. As you read - work on identifying North's philosophy - and how it changed. Good work today, and see you on Monday.

Monday, Sept 22

2008-09-22T12:53:00.000-07:00

Today you conducted tutoring sessions for students who did not have drafts - and you did a great job! As we summed up how the sessions went I noticed in our notes on the board that each session was quite different - and that the directions the sessions took reflected the needs of the students in the session. This is exactly the way it is supposed to go. I strongly suggest that you read through the strategies in McAndrew and Reigstad a few more times - so that they are there in your head as resources. Remember that the idea is to get the student to do the work, and that the work is WRITING. Some of the exercises are better for generating material - some of the exercises work better for organization - read through the list so that you have several options in your mind when you need them.

For class Wednesday, write a draft for the response assignment you worked on in your tutoring session. Read McAndrew and Reigstad, 42-69 => strategies for responding to writers' work. In class you will switch roles - and conduct writing sessions to revise and complete the response to Lunsford. Also - write up your experience of the tutoring session. Respond to the prompts as posted on the calendar. Good work today and I will see you on Wednesday.

Wednesday, September 17

2008-09-17T08:19:00.000-07:00

Today's class was your first experience taking notes on a tutoring session. We talked a little about what kinds of observations would be most helpful in your notes - and I was quite definite that you needed to write descriptive rather than interpretive observations. That is - you need to state "the tutor is smiling and looking into the face of the student" rather than "the tutor looks friendly." This is not always easy. With respect to the content of your notes - our list included: behaviors; body language; conversation ( with some direct quotes); actions; and description of the appearance of the subjects, the setting (context) and circumstances (what is going on around the session). You then observed a session between me and Stephanie (thank you Stephanie).

After you took your notes, I suggested that you took a moment to add some "head notes" in the margin => your interpretation or "feelings" about what was going on. These notes can provide you information when you look back - though it is important to be able to know which notes were directly observed - and which were reconstructions - added after the session.

We then talked a little about your experience taking notes - and the consensus seemed to be that writing everything down (there was so much going on!) was a little overwhelming, and that is was a challenge to stay focused. With respect to content of your notes - we generated a list of the features of the session that included: validating the student's language; the tutor's acknowledgment that she may be wrong;
inviting the student to participate in summing up what happened in the session (your notes are probably better than this - I am just remembering this off the top of my head). From class discussion it seemed to me that you are getting a good feel for how to take note that will help you develop your projects. Good start on this.

The rest of the class was devoted to a too-fast, not-in-enough-depth discussion of the ideas in Lunsford's article. I focused on the three models for Writing Centers she develops: Storehouse, Garret and Burkean Parlor, and the three models for knowledge, learning and learners these models assume. The notes on the board went something like:

Storehouse:
knowledge = one right way, "out there" to be discovered; similar to an object in that it can be conveyed from one person to another, divided into parts, and evaluated through "objective" practices
learning: takes place through transferring of information from a text or teacher
learners: passive, "receive" knowledge that is intact and "correct"
teachers: need to have complete mastery of subjects to teach them, are responsible for the learning process

Garret:
knowledge: created within the individual; different for every learner, cannot
learning: takes place through internal discovery + reflection
learner: active, discovers unique voice/perspective on information
teachers: "help students get in touch with" their internal knowledge = facilitator

Burkean Parlor
knowledge: inseparable from the language that articulates it; socially created (just as language itself was created through peoples "use" of it => no one person invented it or understands it - we (re)create language every time we speak with one another)
learning: takes place through social interactions: conversation, collaborative thinking, sharing ideas where each person contributes, listens and re-thinks ideas through on-going interactions
learners: active - everyone brings certain kinds of knowledge
teachers: theoretically on the same level as learners - though different learners/teachers will have different areas of expertise and experience

So - with all that in mind, in your Blog for Monday you will do some writing about your writing center philosophy. In this philosophy you will state your theory of how knowledge is made, what learning is, and the roles for learners and tutors. As you develop these ideas - you will think about what helped you learn (from the discussion the first day), what made learning harder (from the discussion the second day), and what a tutoring session (at least one kind of session) looks like (from your experience today. Think about how a writing center ought to be run, what it should look like, and how the tutors will be trained in order to put your philosophy into action. I am *really* interested in reading these since Kean University is in the process of creating its writing center - and your perspectives as students and tutors - are important to its success.

Also for Monday,
- re-vise your summary in light of talk in class (hopefully you got some ideas about how to work on it from watching the tutoring session);
- and read McAndrew and Riegstad, 31-42.

I will be giving you feedback via email on your first two blogs probably on Sunday - so you have an idea about my expectations and how I will be evaluating them before we get too far into the term.

Have a good weekend.

Monday, Septemebr 15

2008-09-15T06:34:00.000-07:00

You began class by writing about a "bad" experience with writing - a time when your writing did not turn out - or wasn't received - the way you hoped. Problems included not having a clear understanding of instructor or genre expectations; not having useful feedback on what to do; procrastinations; not being able to connect to the topic; and having too much going on in your life to do the project the way you envisioned it. After discussing your experiences we talked about what kinds of coaching might have enabled you to move forward with your work - and to have a more successful outcome.

In talk about the reading assignment we pointed out the complexity of the writing process, and observed that it is important for writing coaches to understand these different parts of writing => because they need different strategies to support writers who are "stuck" in different parts of the process. We talked about cultural differences in expectations about the "right" way to write, and noted that it is important to assure students that our coaching is not about the "right" way - but about how to write to the expectations of a particular assignment. In the discussion of the three approaches to tutoring - student centered, collaborative, and teacher centered - we noted that while student centered coaching provides the most active role for the student, in some cases, particularly when students do not know or know how to find a particular piece of information, teacher centered or collaborative tutoring will be important.

The assignment for Wednesday is (almost)correct as listed on the calendar. The only revision is that in addition to turning in your summary of Lunsford as an attachment to the ENG4070 address, bring a hard copy to class so you can work on it in a tutoring session with a classmate. Good class today!

Wednesday, Sept 10

2008-09-10T10:06:00.000-07:00

Today we told stories about experiences where someone helped us to understand/learn something new, and then abstracted or identified the features of that experience that helped make it successful. If I had an LCD screen I would have written our list as a document and published it here. What was so great about that list was that it was a very close match to what they first reading in McAndrew and Reigstad identified as what research tells us about what students learn from tutoring. In other words, our list was an accurate representation of what we need to do to assist writers. If anyone wrote down the list - send it to me and I will post it here as part of the record for our course.

During the second section of the course you set up your blogs and we talked over the NIH training. By the end of class you all had your blogs set up, and you were working on linking to classmates' blogs (I still have to do that). If you run into trouble - send me an email at the course dedicated email and I will see what I can do.

For next class, use your blog entry to sum up your reflections on the first two readings - research on tutoring and what tutoring isn't - in light of our class discussion. Also - include some reflection on what you found interesting. As I pointed out in class, you will develop an empirical research project on tutoring this term - and now is a good time to start thinking about what you might like to study. Cast a wide net. Think about what connects to your personal interests.

Also - finish the NIH training and send me your certificate. I need to turn the certificates with the application for IRB approval. Please forward them to me ASAP.

Finally, read the section in McAndrew and Reigstad noted on the calendar. See you Monday!

Classmates' Blogs

2008-09-10T07:47:00.001-07:00

Angela http://angelapeertutor.blogspot.com/

Camille http://camille-tutor.blogspot.com/

Erin http://erinbutterly.blogspot.com/

Kevin http://kevinrisse.blogspot.com

Marie http://marieacot1.blogspot.com

Molly molly-peertutoring.blogspot.com

Nick http://nicholasjvasilo.blogspot.com/

Stephanie http://stephy1125.blogspot.com/

Vanessa http://torresv.blogspot.com/

September 8: First class

2008-09-08T10:09:00.000-07:00

Today we got to know one another a little bit. From listening to what you said about yourselves, it sounded to me like each one of you has had experieces you can draw from for tutoring work. I think we have a great group and I am looking forward to working with you this term.

We also went through the syllabus and the calendar, you got a brief (and very small) look at the course blog, and took a look at the NIH site for training.

Regarding the non-computerized nature of our classroom, I have found three additional laptops that we can use M- W from 9:30 - 11:00 - and as I recall that was all we needed. So for Wednesday - be sure to bring your laptop - and an ethernet cable if you have one. The room is supposed to have wi-fi but I have had mixed experiences with being able to connect to the internet in that room. So for now, it looks like we will be meeting in CAS 315.

For Wednesday - buy your books and look them over. Read through the sections in McAndrew and Reigstad (8-21) on research, and what tutoring *isn't*. And find yourself a writing joural & get started on the NIH training.

In class on Wednesday we will talk over the readings, make sure everyone is OK with the NIH online training, and you will do some writing in your journals and set up your blogs. Also - I am going to ask everyone to send me an email at the course email from your dedicated account. See you Wednesday!

Check out the course blog

2008-09-07T14:36:00.001-07:00

Welcome to ENG 4070! This should be an exciting class - and with any luck it should be fun as well. The links on this page will connect you to course documents, important journals for writing center research, sites for some of the leading writing centers across the country, and most importantly - to your classmates' blogs.

I will use my posts to respond to and sum up class discussions, note changes in the course calendar, and generally reflect on the ideas and events that come up throughout the term.

Be sure to get started on the online training so we can get IRB approval for your projects for the course.