Another week in the writers' room

            Alright, so another week means another post. This will be my second reflection of my tutoring that I had earlier today.

            Today’s tutoring was awkward because the students were doing peer review of their research papers. The class I walked into first, since I start at 11:30 I have twenty minute overlap with the end of the class period before me, I did not really know how to incorporate myself and help any kids with their papers. The reason for this was simply that they all had a straight forward task of reading the checklist and seeing how their partner’s paper fulfilled the elements of that list. There was not much room for interpretation. I basically ended up just sitting awkwardly around, in the middle of a pack of the students; I told them I was there if they needed help with anything and they never came to me.

            Between that period and the next one, there were quiet hours. I conversed a little with Bryce and Annie, then Heather came in and asked me about how I converse with the kids. I explained my technique: I kneel next to them, say hi and introduce myself, usually wait for them to reply with their own name because they always do, ask them about their day and maybe a couple other casual conversation starters, then I begin asking them what they’re working on. She said that worked perfectly, then she handed me one student’s work and told me to use this as a practice paper and write it up as I would to a real student. Bryce also told me not only to give criticism but also to bring up the student’s most effective points because often the writer won’t know their own paper’s strengths. I read a paper about how The Awakening by (I forgot her first name) Cohen demonstrates women and their status in society and how it is changing. The strength of this paper was her thesis and topic sentences; they were very clear, organized, specific, and argumentative. The paper’s weaknesses though were when she brought up evidence, because she was not making a clear connection between the quotations and her points; she needed to clearly walk through how this evidence helps prove her thesis.

            Then the next class came in, but this time, Heather asked their teacher if any of the students needed actual one on one help, and I was put to work with Stephen. Stephen was having trouble with putting his ideas into words. I taught him the exact thing I’ve always done in my writing, and that we’ve been emphasizing this semester in our English class, the idea of the shitty first draft. I did not actually call it that to him, I simply asked him to explain to me exactly what he was trying to say. Then I wrote down his exact words and told him that this would be where to build off of; now, when he edits his paper, that is when he makes it sound all fancy and polished.