Wednesday, October 1

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.