So our second time meeting with our ESL students I had a very much different experience than the first. My student on the first go around had been bumped around from country to country, she knew several different languages, but had a hard time remembering the differences in grammar and writing style. This time my student was a born American citizen, both of her parents are Ecuadorian and came over to the United States before she was born. I was slightly surprised when meeting her that she was in this program because she spoke perfect English, her paper was amazingly written (though she did have her teacher read it over once, so its hard to tell how much help she had), and she didn't seem to have any trouble articulating her thoughts onto paper.
I asked her why she was in the program, considering when you hear ESL you think a student who can't really speak English. She told me it was because they got special consideration when applying to U of R and a deduction on tuition (wish I knew about this program when I applied lol).
Upon hearing this explanation I asked myself why did I automatically assume that she in some way did not understand English or had some kind of problem in general with her writing. Then I thought about the article I had written my review on for class:“Creating a Common Ground with ESL Writers” by Mosher, Granroth, and Hicks. I had then realized I had made myself almost prejudiced to ESL writers, NOT in the bad way we think of prejudiced but in the sense that I automatically thought that she didn't speak or write English very well because of her participation in the program. I then thought about the article and reflected on my feelings about our meetings with the ESL students.
My first student was typical of what the article described: When working with an ESL writer normal techniques will not suffice. Instead, the idea of becoming a ‘cultural informant’ will allow the consultant to assist the writer with rhetorical patterns that shape both how and what should be said in one’s writing. When assisting on rhetorical patterns in the English language one also needs to keep in mind the cultural differences between the languages that are primary between the consultant and the writer. (taken from my article review of the article)
However, we should not assume that all ESL students are on the same level! Yes some students you may need to my a cultural informant, but in some cases just because a student did not learn English first we should not assume that they need any special assistance; other than what we would give to any student who asked for our help in a consultation. I think the article has definitely forgotten about this other half to ESL students, those who were either born in the US or those who studied English in their own country and know it well. But I think on the other hand that the article has justly stated the need for consultants to be aware that some ESL students do need some special considerations in a tutoring section.
I think this connection with ESL students and tutoring is what I will focus on my advice page to future writing consultants. There is a balance of insturction each consultant needs to be aware of, especially with ESL students, and it would be a shame not to put these specifc considerations into practice.
Nov 30, 2010
How am I doing in this class?
I have to admit I don't think I'm doing very well in this class. I'm the type of person who likes due dates from the start of the semester, I stink at writing blog posts on a regular basis (as you can probably tell), and I'm more of a note taker than speaker in class. I think I've done well on all the assignments that I have turned in thus far, but I am concerned with my over all grade. I do think I did very well on my article review and digital story (even though I talked a little fast in my recording) so hopefully that will make up for some of my lackings. I have although very much enjoyed all of our out of class experiences, which I thought I was going to dread (in the fact that I always seem to never know when they are lol).
My favorite part of this class I think I would say is working with the ESL students on their college essays. It was fun working with a student you can have a real conversation with and I felt like I did a lot of good by helping them with their essays. I hope my students get into their first choice schools, both of them had some very big dreams. I hope that they can achieve them to the fullest extent.
My favorite part of this class I think I would say is working with the ESL students on their college essays. It was fun working with a student you can have a real conversation with and I felt like I did a lot of good by helping them with their essays. I hope my students get into their first choice schools, both of them had some very big dreams. I hope that they can achieve them to the fullest extent.
Boys & Girls Club (first visit)
I have to admit I was slightly disappointed with my first visit to the Boys & Girls Club. Long and I had two different children during are time at the center, both were good kids but neither had any work done on their Digital Story project. Our second student did in fact have someone in mind to interview, so that was a slight improvement then the first boy we were assigned but who had to leave. I guess its hard to have kids do assignments done for something other than school work since their are no repercussions.
I was slightly horrified in the fact that neither of our students had any idea on the basic questions to interview a person in order to get a sense of who they are. The only question that the students both came up with was "what year were you born?" besides that it was like pulling teeth in order to help them discover how to interview someone.
I know they are just middle school/junior high students but I guess I just expected a little more enthusiasm to be doing this project or at least a little more conversation. Maybe it was intimidating to have two college students looming over them and asking a whole bunch of questions that they did not have answers to yet. Maybe next time their teachers/counselors/whoever there overseers are will have them slightly more prepared.
I was slightly horrified in the fact that neither of our students had any idea on the basic questions to interview a person in order to get a sense of who they are. The only question that the students both came up with was "what year were you born?" besides that it was like pulling teeth in order to help them discover how to interview someone.
I know they are just middle school/junior high students but I guess I just expected a little more enthusiasm to be doing this project or at least a little more conversation. Maybe it was intimidating to have two college students looming over them and asking a whole bunch of questions that they did not have answers to yet. Maybe next time their teachers/counselors/whoever there overseers are will have them slightly more prepared.
Only other writing center appointment this 2nd half of the semester...
So I only managed to get in two writing center appointments since our last blog paper. I'm disappointed in the fact of how many students don't bother to cancel their appointments and let their consultants know they aren't coming. But any experience is good experience I guess.
Anyways my 2nd writing center appointment was with a student who had great example from their book they had to read but not knowing how to correlate it into the topics given to them by their professor. I wasn't familiar with the book but thank goodness my consultant had read it in high school once.
The student had good examples from the book but as my consultant and I discussed them further with the student we decided that there was just too many of them. Sometimes students just over use examples from their texts, and this was the case for this student. We decided less was better than more, so we had the student pick out the examples that he thought really played a key part to the book and to work off those. After eliminating about two thirds of the examples I think the student was finally able to grasp how he was going to go about his paper. We brainstormed for the rest of the appointment, letting him take the lead in the discussion so he could find out for himself he really did know all along what he wanted to write about.
Anyways my 2nd writing center appointment was with a student who had great example from their book they had to read but not knowing how to correlate it into the topics given to them by their professor. I wasn't familiar with the book but thank goodness my consultant had read it in high school once.
The student had good examples from the book but as my consultant and I discussed them further with the student we decided that there was just too many of them. Sometimes students just over use examples from their texts, and this was the case for this student. We decided less was better than more, so we had the student pick out the examples that he thought really played a key part to the book and to work off those. After eliminating about two thirds of the examples I think the student was finally able to grasp how he was going to go about his paper. We brainstormed for the rest of the appointment, letting him take the lead in the discussion so he could find out for himself he really did know all along what he wanted to write about.
Writing Center Shadow--better late than never
Well I have been unfortunate in my shadowing at the Writing Center. So far since my last posting nearly ALL of my tutors appointments have been canceled. I was however able to meet up with her at different times in order to get some more shadowing under my belt.
My writing tutor and I meet up with one student the other day who had no idea entirely how to go about picking a topic for her paper. She was writing a CORE paper on "Brave New World," and for any one who has read it before you know that you can write just about on any topic from that book, so I can see why she was having a hard time narrowing down the topics. After discussing with her sometime on the VERY brief guidelines of the paper we were able to narrow it down to medicine correlations in "Brave New World" and medications in today's day in age. It was actaully pretty interesting when we started discussing the correlations and connections.
This section just really highlighted for me how a student can come in no matter what stage they are in to come into the writing center. This female student had nothing written what so ever, only with her book and brief instructions. And from that we brainstormed ideas and got her inspired to write on a topic that she was interested in. Go us! :)
My writing tutor and I meet up with one student the other day who had no idea entirely how to go about picking a topic for her paper. She was writing a CORE paper on "Brave New World," and for any one who has read it before you know that you can write just about on any topic from that book, so I can see why she was having a hard time narrowing down the topics. After discussing with her sometime on the VERY brief guidelines of the paper we were able to narrow it down to medicine correlations in "Brave New World" and medications in today's day in age. It was actaully pretty interesting when we started discussing the correlations and connections.
This section just really highlighted for me how a student can come in no matter what stage they are in to come into the writing center. This female student had nothing written what so ever, only with her book and brief instructions. And from that we brainstormed ideas and got her inspired to write on a topic that she was interested in. Go us! :)
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