Video Project Review

In my ENG 220 class we made a video project based on what we learned from this class. My group and I decided to make three short scenarios on how tutoring sessions can go wrong and what's an appropriate way to handle them. We decided to do this because in every tutoring session we can encounter any type of problems and we should be prepared to handle it. Our scenes were based on inappropriate behavior and the sleepy student. We also decided to do a scene where the tutor is being overtly positive and not helping the student with their paper, which is known as cheerleading in our text Tutoring Writing. The script writing process was fun to do since we decided to make it  comedic. When we started to rehearse my group and I were really nervous. But when we started to film, it actually wasn't that bad. The scenes flowed nicely and we didn't have to do any retakes. Once we started acting out the situations, it was as if it were actually happening. We wanted to showcase the three most basic problems that a tutor can encounter at any time, using comedy and humor to grasp the audience attention. I think reading it from a text is one thing, but to see it on screen in a humorous way helps people to understand more how these things can happen and how to handle it. I think we were effective as a team to get our message across. We played out the scenarios in a way where the tutor handled each situation in a professional manner. Our goal to the audience is let them have a some strategies up their sleeves if this were to ever happen to them in a tutoring session.

This post is about a reflection on the videos I watched in class about the school to prison pipeline. Based on the videos the school to prison pipeline is a system where low income, minorities are targeted and punished for minor offenses in school. They are punished for small offenses such as wearing a hat or writing on walls through a court system and by actual police officers. The students believe that being punished for small offenses on such a large scale is a step closer to ending up in prison. As an aspiring teacher in the education field I completely disagree with this. It's wrong for authorities to punish students on a large scale for minor offenses. Suspending them from school and putting them through a court system hinders their capability of excelling in school and life. I think it gives students the idea early on in life that they are just going to end up in prison. This system needs to change if we want our students to be better and do better. We should be giving them minor punishments that can help them reflect on their behaviors and not have the police and court systems involved, only the school and parents. We need to guide troubled students to want to be better for themselves. In the video one student wrote in the stalls of a bathroom and he was punished through a court system and he knew what he did was childish. But that offense will forever be on his records. Its wrong to permanently put a bad mark on these kids at such a young age that will haunt them through life. Students will make mistakes and test authorities and that needs to be treated in a way where it will not make students think that their life will just end up in prison anyway. We need to give them the chance to learn from their mistakes.

Third Observation

This is my third observation in the writing center and also with a different tutor from my last, and tutoring two students. The tutor introduced me right away to the students and told them that I wouldn't be involved just observing. In this session the tutor was familiar with the students because they took a workshop with him before, so the conversations were more personal and I was a little out of the loop. The tutor first addressed one of the student's paper while the other student just sat there listening doing nothing.  First the tutor read through the guidelines of the paper and then addressed the student's paper. He started off by explaining at length about what a thesis is and how to provide examples. He produced examples to clarify what a thesis is and how to create topic sentences from it. The student was understanding everything he was saying to her but I honestly felt the tutor was talking way to fast and way to much. I felt that he handled the student's paper the correct way, he didn't address LOC's, although told her to proofread from grammar.

After the first student left, he addressed the second student's paper. This student didn't have a paper with them because her problem was she couldn't think of anything to write. First the tutor explained at length what the assignment was about. He would ask her questions, which then he would answer himself without waiting for her to respond. Like with the first student he would do most of the talking about the assignment and explain to them ideas that the paper could be about. The student would just agree and say yes to everything. She would stutter and look like she was confused about what to say after he said some ideas. Then he said she should try to write a thesis with the ideas "they" meaning him came up with. The student was hesitant and look intimidated so he said he would write one with her. At that she relaxed and they both composed a thesis.The tutor continued to talk while they were suppose to be writing. When they were done the tutor read hers and changed some of her words and then told her it was good. After she said she was worried about how to write the actual essay, the tutor gave her an outline of how to write and organize the essay. Overall I think this session was interesting because the tutor addressed only HOC's but at the same time he was talking to much and talking to fast. He would talk about the assignment using his ideas and would interrupt the student and not let them express their thoughts. When the student left he was nice enough to let me ask him questions.This session was completely different than my other two with some good techniques and some bad.

Second Observation

This is my second observation in the writing center with the same tutor, but this session was different from the first experience I had. This time the tutor didn't introduce me to the student. This was an ENG 101 student trying to change his C+ paper to an A. He already corrected the errors the professor identified. The tutor started to talk personally with the student, she has been his tutor for a couple sessions before. She spoke to him to personally about the subject matter of the paper. After that the session became teacher centered. She started by correcting his heading and the font size. Majority of the session was addressing LOC's. She said to me, "Address everything, students don't know how to fill out paperwork correctly", referring to the incorrect heading. I just nodded knowing she shouldn't be saying that in front of the student in that way or even addressing LOC's. She started to ask him why he wrote certain sentences because it was in wrong context. So she told him what to do to fix it and what words to use. She was making changes to his paper and the student happily obliged writing her suggestions.  At the end of the session the student was not confident about his paper. So the tutor tried to convince him that the paper was really good and shes been doing in for years. But the student refused to believe so she went over the paper again and just said add more evidence if you can. The student was still hesitant about it, so she she told him to go home fix what they went through and bring it back. As I said in my other post the tutor is very welcoming and is requested a lot from what I heard, but based on everything we are learning in class about tutoring writing, she isn't following the proper guidelines. So it makes me believe that personality wins over technique with some students.

First Observation

This blog is about my first observation in the tutoring center. My first time going to the writing center I did two sessions. When I met my tutor, I knew it was going to be an interesting session right away. She had a very lively personality so to say. She was requested by the student and introduced me right away to her. The first session was with an ENG 102 student who was trying to change her grade from a C- to an A. The professor provided the student with a guideline that highlighted all the reasons her paper was a C-. The tutor started off by explaining what a thesis is and she used examples based on current events. When the tutor was going over the story the paper was based on, she explained some helpful hints to her about vocabulary and context. She went on coaching the student to find evidence to support the thesis for every paragraph.  The tutor gave great advice on how to proof read a paper by reading it out loud. She went back and forth between the students paper and the guidelines the professor gave her. She also constantly praised the student which made her open up more.

Unfortunately as much as the tutor's personality was so welcoming and the student really liked her, the session was teacher centered and she usurped ownership. She did most of the talking and told the student what she should take out of her paper and where to switch things around. The tutor also addressed a lot of LOC's. As she read through the paper she corrected whichever errors the professors identified whether it was a LOC or HOC. The student was just listening and nodding the whole time, but seemed happy with everything the tutor was telling her. One thing I did not like was that the tutor's "boss", which she referred to him as interrupted the session with no manners, and just started talking to the tutor. He was talking about traffic and breakfast, and after a full 2 minutes the tutor told him she has to work now and they will talk later. He then threw her a bagel and left, which she was nibbling on during the rest of the session. Overall the tutor has a great personality, but her some of her tutoring methods were against the books.

Hi my name is Rebecca and I'm writing this post based on two videos I saw in my ENG 220 class on what good teaching is about.

Based on the video What is Pedagogy?, the term pedagogy is defined as the art of teaching children. It was described as a process for learners to develop cognitively based on this process. Then they are evaluated to see if the process was efficient. I somewhat agree with this description because its true that a child needs to develop cognitively and psychologically through the learner process but also I believe that it should be described as a child developing as a whole; cognitively and creatively. I believe good teaching comes from encouraging the creativity within the student, and helping them to develop that.

In the video from Ted talks  Ken Robinson said that intelligence can be looked at in three different ways, diverse, dynamic, and distinct. I believe these ways are not expressed in most school systems. He talks about these ideas are squashed in the schools system because its "stigmatized" and children are taught what is wrong from early on in life. Based on my own experience I find myself saying the same things to my son soon as he was able to crawl, "No don't do that", and as he got older I found myself saying it a lot. I believe children have a limitless capacity to learn anything and everything you let them do, but as adults we are raised in a society where there  are certain things we should not do so we hinder our children from doing so also. They grow up being frightened to make mistakes and not wanting to express themselves in fear of being wrong.

After taking classes in LaGuardia and majoring in the education field I now see good teaching is guiding students/children to be expressive and original and developing those ideas into something bigger, so children can see that they are capable of doing great things.