In an earlier post, I gave an overview of the researching process and some tips for coaching students through it. Upon reflection, I thought I might share my favorite researching analogy. It's been extraordinarily helpful in my tutoring sessions! Even if you're not a tutor or teacher (maybe you're a student?), I hope this analogy helps you think through the researching process in a new way.
Sometimes I go in not knowing what I'm looking for, and I find the "perfect" thing without even trying. Most of the time, though, that's not the way it works for me. Shopping, especially if you care about your wallet like I do, takes work! Having a purpose Sometimes I go shopping with the goal of buying at least one new pair of jeans. Or, maybe I'm going to a special event, like a wedding. Having an objective for my shopping helps me narrow done my search, and (in the long run) helps me save time! I won't really look through the purses, shoes, or hats (for example) if I know those things don't help me with my objective. Research is like this, too. There is a lot of information out there, so if you can narrow down your topic and make a list of keywords that are going to be the most helpful, then you can mix and match those keywords to, hopefully, find what you're looking for without wasting your time or getting sucked into a rabbit hole of information that isn't going to be helpful for your project. Choose really good research questions (you know, questions you don't know the answer to) because this will keep your research be more authentic and engaging. Research is meant to be a process: a process of discovery and learning! Trying on possibilities Again, if you're like me, I don't buy the first pair of jeans I come across. I look at the prices and sizes and often pick out 3-5 I'm interested in and try them on. I usually only like one of those 3-5 (if I'm lucky). If I don't like what I tried on, I go back out and find some other options. I try on clothes until I find (literally!) the "perfect fit." It's good to be openminded because I've tried on things that would "work" with my objective, but I don't know how it will look on me, you know? I try it on anyway, and, sometimes, wow! It's comfortable, affordable, and looks great on me, and end up buying it. This, too, is like research. Even though you might be required to have three sources, you never want to grab the first thing you find. Maybe it will work out, but you don't know that. Shop around. "Try on" articles, books, videos, interviews, etc. Narrow down your search as much as possible, but then try them out. Read the summaries (abstracts), find the thesis or results section and see if you like it. You may end up reading things you don't use, and that's okay! Give yourself the freedom to be picky and find the best sources for you and your writing project. Once you've found the sources you want to "take home," or use in your paper, spend time with it. Read it. Read it again. Circle and look up words you don't know. Highlight the main ideas, etc. This will save you time when you finally get down to writing that first draft of your research paper. Knowing where to go
When I'm going shopping with an objective in mind, I usually have a few favorite stores. Of course, I'm open to going to the one that "just opened up" or the one I know is having a "big sale" this weekend. Most of the time, though, I go where I had success in the past or I know carries my size. I would never go to a store where I received bad customer service or overcharged me. Same in research. Most of the time we Google stuff. I wonder where the nearest bank is. Ask Google. Oh, no, my toaster broke and I need to know how to fix it. Ask Google. It's natural for students to start with Google, but I'm here to tell you that Google is NOT a good place to start for academic research. Why?
A lot of school library databases even have a trustworthy citation generators. Even if they don't, they always provide you with the information you need so you can confidently know where it came from and cite it accurately. As long as you're providing quotes and signal phrases, there's no need to be worried about plagiarism! Some advice for writing tutors When I'm tutoring students that are working on research, I always talk about time management. Research, when done well, takes time. The more sources you need, the more time you'll want to allot yourself. Oftentimes, students just want to "get started" on the essay. But without having done research, how do you know what you want to say? Even if it's argumentative and you think you know which side your want to take, you need to be informed. On both sides of the argument. Heck, when you do research, you might decide that you want to take the opposite side. (It happens! And it's okay.) Some students are (maybe) able to produce a possible thesis and introduction, but most need to be informed on their subject before doing that. I touched on this already, but it's worth mentioning again, I think: stress that research is a process. It's a journey! I'm positive a lot of writing coaches do this already, but alway be encouraging and help them see how this huge project can be taken in smaller bites. I love the researching process! It's one of my favorite aspects of being part of the academia community. If that's true for you, too, help students see your passion. It'll be contagious.
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The researching process is a topic students don't review often enough, in my opinion. Or they do, but they skip corners and don't understand why their project isn't coming together. Assignments with research elements often ask for a mixture of scholarly sources (peer reviewed articles, for example), a certain number of quotes, summaries and analyses for each of those sources, support for an argument using these sources, and an analysis/conclusion of the topic they've researched. Phew! It's understandable how students can feel overwhelmed! How do you start something like that? Our job as writing coaches and instructors is to help them take this giant task and break it into smaller, more manageable bites. But how do we do that? The Writing Process If you've read my blog before, you know that everything I do as a tutor and teacher centers on the writing process. That's because I believe in autonomy, the ability to try things yourself. We are humans, not robots. There's no one way to produce a writing project, whether it be a poem, email, novel, or research paper. Oftentimes the project type, audience, and purpose will dictate how much time you spend on each stage in the writing process, but this can also vary due to writing experiences, perfectionism, or a person's learning style. Just so we're on the same page, let's talk about the different aspects of the writing process:
The Researching Process Now the researching process, though often tangled with the writing process, is a separate process. For me, they are closer to steps (not stages) meaning that it goes through a step 1, step 2 sequence, which is not always true for the writing process. Again, people have varying names for the steps inside the researching process, and like the writing process, they are often repeated, but for me the steps usually are:
Ideally, you'd start the researching process before you begin your writing process, but that's not always the case. Some students will keep a pad of paper to jot ideas down as they're reading or jump back into research after having drafted an introduction. That's fine! However, students trying to craft a thesis or draft their introduction and body paragraphs without having done the research first may find them in over their head. What coaches can do Well, I already mentioned one strategy: tease apart the writing process from the researching process. Defining and describing the various steps and stages will help students identify where they are at or where they are "stuck." Once you can clearly see where they're at, you can give guidance. Here are some other ideas:
You'll notice that I'm not going into specifics on MLA, APA, or in-text citations here. Those things are important and will very likely be included in these tutoring sessions. But this list is usually where I begin with these sessions. Researching is a crazy, wild, time consuming, messy process! But it doesn't have to feel overwhelming or impossible to us or our students. It's like eating an elephant! It's a huge task. How do you do it? Answer: One bite at a time. We never want to give "the" answer to students. I think we (as educators) can agree on that, right? But how do we guide students to where they need to be without blurting answers?
In truth, there are several ways. But today I'm focusing on one of my favorite tutoring strategies: modeling. It's something that works for native and nonnative speakers of English. As many of you may know already, my focus is on writing, but you can probably use this tutor technique for any of the skills (or subjects) you want to tutor. By the way, I put quotation marks around the word "the" in that first sentence of this post because there isn't always a correct answer in writing. Sometimes there is, sure. (It's the donkey seems, not the donkey seem.) But most of the time, there's more than one way to accomplish a writing task, even when it comes to editing. (Remember that!) Let's say, for example, your teacher gives the prompt: write an essay about your favorite animal. Is it wrong if I write my essay on alligators and you (maybe) write yours on lions? No! We have different favorite animals, and that's okay. Or, maybe, your teacher asks you to find three scholarly articles about the dangers of smoking from the library database. Are there only three "correct" articles in the database on that topic for you to find? No! There are hundreds, probably thousands that could work. What's expected of them? As a practice, I like to first identify the task (assignment instructions) and time frame (due dates) of the writing project before giving any kind of specific help. During my early stages of tutoring, I made the mistake of assuming what the assignment is. And been wrong. There's nothing worse than realizing that you've given advice for the wrong assignment. Giving examples of good process essay topics, as a way to help a student brainstorm for their essay, isn't going to help them write a comparison essay. Oops! That's why I spend a lot of time on this blog talking about first questions and setting the agenda. So don't focus on this tutoring aspect (giving examples) so much that you forget the other stuff you need to do for a session. I'm speaking from experience here. I've done it. It's their paper, not yours Sometimes, you may work with a student who has chosen a different topic you don't like or something you would never choose for an assignment. Take the example above. Maybe you hate alligators, but that's what the student has decided to write about. Or, you might simply disagree with a student's thesis. Say, for example, that the student is writing about abortion, and they've established a thesis opposite to what you believe. Should you help them change the thesis to match your beliefs? The answer to this question may be obvious. (Or maybe not. I don't know.) But even if you know that taking-over a student's thesis (or paper) isn't the job of a writing coach, you'd be amazed at how easy it is to slip up. Actually, I find that the temptation to take-over comes when I am on the same side as the student as they draft an argumentative paper. But even when you're on the same side, it can be tricky. Let's say the student is writing about texting and driving. She's written a thesis that says, "Texting and driving is dangerous and needs to be stopped." You've decided that the thesis matches the assignment, but now the student is wanting to know how to brainstorm support to put in their body paragraphs. What do you do? Give an example You could use their chosen/given topic as an example. You could say, "Well, one reason I think texting is dangerous is because the driver's eyes are not on the road." But, in a way, this is "giving the answer." The student could be like, "yeah! That's a good one. What else you got?" And then somehow, you've managed to come up with all the ideas instead of the student. hmm... Make it silly Here's what I do instead. I give an example that isn't the same topic that they're working with. In fact, I make it silly. Me: Okay, so it looks like you've got a good thesis statement. Student: Yeah, but I don't know what to write next, like what my body paragraphs could be about. Me: Well, if I were writing about an essay about the dangers of feeding polar bears by hand, I might start by making a list. For example, it's dangerous to feed polar bears because of their sharp teeth. The trick to the silly example is making sure it matches closely enough to what the student is doing but different enough that it gets them thinking about their own topic. This, by the way, is one way to help students practice critical thinking skills. Win! Win! But not too silly Along with giving silly examples that help students understand their task, you can make up metaphors or even share personal experiences. But remember that they must help the student stay on task. Not take them away. I mentioned in a previous post that I've been training a bunch of writing tutors. This is something a few of them are still struggling to find a balance in. You can be silly/fun, but you must also be professional. Interweave techniques The art of asking questions in a tutoring session is something I'm planning to discuss in its own blog post. But it's worth mentioning here, in closing, because questions and examples go hand in hand. I had a really difficult time coming up with the example above without asking some questions first. You will, also, want to utilize active listening, too. If the example you gave just isn't working for them, you need to recognize that. Oftentimes that doesn't come from the words they're saying-- "Okay, yeah"---but in their furrowed brow. Sometimes, also, it takes more than one example to get the concept. Tap into your creativity, and see if you can not only make your tutee laugh, but also learn something at the same time. In a previous post, I talked about the differences between a writing tutor (coach) and an editor. If you haven't read it, please take a moment to do that before proceeding. I will be expanding on those ideas in this post. You may also want to review my post on balancing writing feedback if you're unfamiliar with tutoring writing. Student (tutee) Expectations When a student decides to work with a writing tutor, she often comes in with expectations: how the session will go, what will be accomplished, and what the tutor will do. Some of these are realistic, some of them are not. For example, a student may expect a tutor to "fix their writing," before their deadline, which happens to be in ten minutes! This, I hope most educators can agree, is not a realistic expectation. Why? For two (hopefully obvious) reasons. 1) Learning takes time. How can a tutor possibly help you "fix your writing" with a deadline so near? 2) Tutors aren't meant to "fix" your writing. First of all, writing is subjective. It's dependent on context, purpose, genre, and audience. If it's grammar she expects to "get fixed," then the student needs to remember that even if there's "perfect" grammar, she may still earn a poor grade if the writing does not adhere to the assignment requirements. Tutor Expectations To be fair, writing tutors often come into a session with expectations, too. Sometimes they're realistic, sometimes not. For example, a tutor might expect a student to express her concerns clearly when most of the time students don't always know what they "need" or "want" help on. This is an unfair expectation not only because students are sometimes required to visit the tutoring center for a grade (and therefore are simply there for a "signature") but also because students don't know how to express their concerns even if they can identify what they are. (Which they often can't.) For example, a student may say "I need help writing transitions" or "I can't make it flow," which could either mean that they are struggling with word choice, or (simply) a need for a better thesis statement. She might even mean that she's not sure how to begin or end her paragraphs in an essay.
The Writing Process
If you're familiar with my blog, you'll know that I often talk about writing as a process. It's an important thing to always keep in mind, whether you're teaching/ tutoring writing, or attempting to complete your own writing project. When I sit down to conference with a student, I always first:
I usually accomplish this with a few simple questions. This assessment is easier for some students than others. Students sometimes (when asked questions about what they're working on) insist that knowing the deadline or instructions is irrelevant to receiving help from a writing tutor, but if you learn anything from me (and from my many years of experience tutoring writing), this is never true. Negotiate session goals This is an aspect to tutoring that I strongly live by, that I learned a long time ago but often take for granted. Recently, I was asked to observe and train some new tutors in our center. I've had a lot of fun doing that, but inso doing it, I realized how these negotiating skills need to be taught and practiced. Negotiating the session includes (as I mentioned above) assessing the student's needs (assignment instructions), timeline (deadlines), and asking the student, "what kind of help would you like from me?" (I sometimes throw in a time limit, just so the student knows how long I expect the session should go for. So, I might say, "what are you hoping to accomplish in the 30 minutes we have together?) Now, after asking that question, it's important to note that just because the student says they want you to do something doesn't mean that it's something you should do. I had a new tutor, for example, tell me that he spent two and half hours defining five pages worth of vocabulary because that's what the student asked him to do. Never mind that we have dictionaries. Never mind that the student had a quiz on those words tomorrow and probably needed tips for studying and/or someone to quiz him. When I suggested these options to the student, he lit up. He looked to the new tutor and said, "why didn't we do that?!" Step 1: Listen actively and validate concerns After listening to the student (and reading their body language), I like to (sincerely) validate the student's response to my question of what they hope to get out of the session:
Step 2: Help the student see what you can do as a tutor: (Sell yourself!)
Step 3: Give options and negotiate expectations for the session
Step 4: Repeat (as necessary, even for the same session/student) After making decisions on how you and the student would like to proceed with the session, then it's time to put those plans into action! I often write the goals or concerns on a piece of paper and as we address them, I put a checkmark next to them. ("Looks like you've written a solid thesis statement. Are you ready to move on to transitions?") Of course, you may list more items than is possible for one session, so you may say something like, "let's do as much as we can, but we might need another session to cover all of these items." As you're reading, you may find that a concern should not actually be a concern. For example, you might say, "this thesis is fantastic! I feel that it adheres to the assignment requirements. Should we proceed to your body paragraphs to see if your argument is working?" Or, you might find that the student wants to stop and work-out your suggestions for a particular item before moving to the next. In these cases, because I work in a drop-in tutoring center, I give the student the option to "work on their own" for a little bit and then ask them to signal me to pick up where we left off and/or begin a new session. General advice Remember, a writing tutor (coach) is not the same thing as an editor. Students should never bully you into doing their work for them or make you do more than is feasibly possible in a session (especially a session with a time crunch). Speaking from experience, it's always a good idea to set the agenda so your expectations and the student's expectations are negotiated and don't clash. It's also a good idea to summarize the session at the end, too: restate the objectives you started out with, how they changed, and what the student can "take away" from the session. This, in my humble (but correct opinion) is the best way to ensure the best success in your tutoring sessions. This post first appeared on Upswing's blog on July 30, 2018. What is tutoring? This is a question I don’t often think about, but probably should. Maybe it’s because I’ve been a tutor for so long. I started peer tutoring back when I was earning my Bachelor’s degree in 2004! At first, I thought tutoring was something that paid the bills while I was going to school. I quickly learned, however, that tutoring was (and is) so much more for me. Even though I was earning my degree in English, I wasn’t planning on being a teacher. It wasn’t until I took some time away from tutoring that I realized how much it had become a part of me. I switched gears and got my Master’s in teaching, and two weeks after graduating, I started teaching at a college full time. I loved it. (I still do!) But there was something missing… I blamed it on teacher burnout, but after about a year, I lessened my teaching load so I could tutor in the evenings… with Upswing! You might be wondering why I would do that. Aren't teaching and tutoring the same thing? I want to address some common themes and misconceptions because they're not exactly the same... Tutoring is coaching I love that Upswing calls their tutors coaches. Think about it for a minute. What does a coach do? Well, a coach mentors and guides and even cheers you on, right? It’s the same with a tutor. Like a soccer coach who can't play the game for you, tutors can't write your essay or take your test. It wouldn't be fair. But we can give guidance, share our experiences, and encourage students not to give up. I don’t know why, but some students feel like they should seek tutoring only after they run into problems…or the week before finals! Can you imagine getting a soccer coach the day before the championship game? Sure, some people are talented enough to play soccer without having a coach, I suppose. But truly successful players will tell you that they wouldn’t be as good if they hadn’t had some kind coaching from time to time, even from fellow teammates. As a writing coach, I cannot stress this enough. Of course I am happy to help with editing. But please remember that I’m a coach. (Not an editor.) That means that I can help at every stage of the writing process: from generating ideas to understanding how to research and/or cite sources, to formulating a solid thesis statement and building coherence and unity in paragraphs… and much more! Tutoring is one-on-one instruction Don’t get me wrong. I love teaching in front of the classroom, but tutoring is where I see the most lightbulbs go on. Just because students nod their heads in class when the teacher asks them if they understand doesn’t always mean that they do. Am I right? That one-on-one experience with a tutor is sometimes the only place students feel comfortable asking questions, things that they’d never want to ask in front of a whole class! When I teach, I often try to hold conferences with students, which is an opportunity for them to ask me questions about their projects… one-on-one. These kinds of experiences, however, are limited as an instructor. It’s not easy to set aside an entire week (for example) to meet with students like that, and as much as I beg my students to come to my office hours, they usually don’t. Tutoring reaches those students who would, otherwise, silently drown. Tutoring is a career, too Remember how I said I lessened my teaching load to make room for tutoring? Last year, I applied to be the tutor coordinator at my college. Now I tutor in the day and — guess what — I still tutor in the evenings for Upswing. Am I really that desperate for money? Not really. I just love what I do! Nothing is more rewarding to me than coaching a student from start to finish on a writing project. I’m so glad I decided to be a peer tutor back in 2004. Who knew it would change my entire career path and make me who I am today? The short answer: No. We do so much more than "check the grammar." <3 <3
Tutors can guide you through the writing process The writing process can be explained in a lot of different ways. Liz Gilbert talks about how there is a genius (or genie) in side each of us that assists in our process for developing ideas. It's fickle and frustrating most of the time, but that's the nature of creating art. Writing takes persistence and determination! Earnest Hemingway described it like "bleeding at a type writer." These are supposed to be the professionals! If they have difficulty navigating the wild writing process safari, what hope do we have? That's where tutors (or critique partners or beta readers) can come in. They can guide you through this messy, heart-wrenching, scary, exhilarating process. And, trust me, we all need them... Quick Review of the Writing Process When I teach the writing process, I often explain or review the steps of the writing process as:
In other words.... Tutors can help at any and all stages of the writing process, from understanding the prompt or goal for your assignment, to brainstorming and drafting ideas (organizing them using a thesis statement, topic sentences, etc), to revising (reordering those ideas or asking questions about your unity or coherence, etc.)---all the way to supporting your self-editing endeavors by helping you identify grammatical-error patterns and talking you through audience expectations and/or formatting expectations like MLA and APA. Tutors are collaborators As mentioned above, writing tutors can help at any and all stages of the writing process. Nothing makes us happier, actually, than helping a writer from start to finish. So...
What else do writing tutors do?
Writing tutors give personal experiences in combating and taming the wild writing process and college life. We mediate for professors or teachers, helping students understand why their teacher is assigning "this homework." Writing tutors can help prevent disasters (if students come in early enough), so they don't turn in something the teacher doesn't want. We rejoice. We cry. We teach. We ask critical questions. And... yes... we can answer questions centered around grammar, too. In conclusion The next time you talk to a writing tutor, think about what kind of help you want from them. It's not just about making writing better. It's about making you a better writer. Don't just say, "I want you to fix the grammar" or "I need your help to edit my paper." Think about your project. What are your goals? Where do you feel you're lacking? Is it length? Is it organization? Are you at the beginning of the project, unsure where to begin? Are you at the end of the project and unhappy with your conclusion? Or are you somewhere in the middle of this messy process? If you still think it's grammar that you need help with, that's okay. Just remember that as writing tutors, we can help with so much more! So don't hesitate to ask. My writing coordinator used to always say,"we help writers, not just writing." It's become my personal creed as a tutor. National Tutor Appreciation Week is always the first week of October, but why wait? Tell a tutor today why you value them. If you're a tutor, learn how to certify and level-up your tutoring skills with CRLA. Perhaps the school you tutor for is accredited with them. Part 1 of this blog talked about why I feel it's important to teach peer review skills to ESL, and Part 2 began dissecting my current methodology and practices for teaching peer review to advanced ESL writers. If you haven't checked those out, or my post on balancing feedback in ESL writing, do that, and then come back to this one... As I mentioned, my methodology for teaching peer review is not full proof. I can't promise it will work in your classroom or for all levels and ages. Even I have to tweak it (I teach the same course every semester), depending on the dynamics of the members of my class. With some variation, though, I generally go through these phases of teaching peer review, sometimes repeating and/or emphasizing some aspects more or less, depending on the group I have:
I've shared my thoughts on phases one and two, so let's jump into the third aspect of my teaching peer review to ESL students.
Even if I could, my students will go on to other classes, like freshman comp, where the teacher might not spend as much time explaining the types of suggestions they need to be writing on each other's papers. And, I've been there. I know what it's like to receive stink reviews from peers. For me, it's hit and miss. It'll be the same for my students. So, while they can't always control the kind of feedback they receive, they can control the kind of feedback they give. This phase in teaching peer review, then, is all about helping them give the right kinds of feedback. What this looks like in my teaching
4. PEER REVIEW TAKES TIME AND PRACTICE Before I break them into peer review partners, I tell them to share their contact details (phone, email, etc.). "You won't finish this activity in-class. If you do, you're doing it wrong." I remind them of this, again, at the end, just before letting them go, and encourage them to plan a time and place to continue the activity. The library? The tutoring center? I also tell my students that they will be graded on the peer review they give to the peer I assigned; however, they are more than welcome to set up additional peer review partners of their own choosing from our class. They just need to follow the guidelines/ steps I give them. I emphasize, again, the idea that it's better to give than receive, but also that peer review is a skill that needs to be practiced. The more they do it, the more comfortable and confident they'll be in it--- and their writing will improve because of their peer reviewing efforts. Believe it or not, some students take me up on this suggestion. They'll have two or three different peer review partners, and they'll do it at different stages of their process. Yes! *fist pump* What this looks like in my teaching
As I mentioned in part 1 in this blog, I believe teaching peer review skills to ESL is important--- essential. It needs to be part of their writing process. English is challenging. If they don't ever ask for help from a peer, tutor, or instructor, they may forever drown and/or think they are bad a writing, when it's really the process that they struggle with. I'm still tweaking my methodology, so don't think I'll forever teach it like this, but these are the aspects of peer review my ESL students need to learn and relearn.
I times the anxiety, stress, writers block, and discouragement I've felt as a writer by at least double when I think about my ESL students. They're writing in a second language (sometimes third or fourth language!). That's amazing. While teaching writing to ESL, please, always keep that perspective, and help students keep that perspective, too. What they are doing is challenging. Not impossible, but challenging. HOW TO TEACH PEER REVIEW TO ESL As I mentioned in the first part of this blog, my methodology for teaching peer review is not full proof. I can't promise it will work in your classroom or for all levels and ages. Even I have to tweak it (I teach the same course every semester), depending on the dynamics of the members of my class. With some variation, though, I generally go through these phases of teaching peer review, sometimes repeating and/or emphasizing some aspects more or less, depending on the group I have:
Writing isn't like that. I've learned that the writing process is not linear. The steps are often repeated over and over. It's messy. It's time consuming. So that's the first thing I teach my students. After I feel like I've hammered that idea, I then start in on the cultural implications of peer review, which is a unique aspect of the writing process. Americans love to collaborate I often ask my students if they've ever done peer review. I usually have one or two hands go up. The rest just stare at me with blank faces. It could be that I teach freshmen, and they are the masters of blank stares, but I also believe that peer review is a unique thing that we teach in our American (western-culture) colleges. We're all about collaboration, working in teams, small groups and getting individualized and personalized feedback. We value the "average-Joe" or individual voice, so when we write, we need to make our ideas original and help each other express our ideas the best we can. And, as ESL, we can use all the help we can get! (Most students believe that part.) What this looks like when I'm teaching
2. PEER REVIEW ISN'T EDITING OR POINTING OUT ERRORS This is the probably the aspect in peer review I emphasize the most for my ESL students. I often go around during peer review to make sure students are practicing this because a lot of them have it in their head that the only feedback you can get (and give) in writing is grammar. It's this misunderstanding that causes most of my students to have poor experience with peer review. They get "bad" or "wrong" advice from peers. It's also the thing that makes students feel like they can't be good peer reviewers. They don't feel qualified to do the "teacher's" job.
If they happen to know the correct past tense for a particular irregular verb or spelling of a difficult word, they can comment on it, but they don't have to. Their job is not to check the grammar. Their job is to share their opinion--- as a reader!--- and what the writer could do to better express his or her ideas. This can come from good questions about the content, looking for and commenting on the effectiveness of the thesis, etc. What this looks like when I'm teaching
A tutor sits down for a session in the writing center with an English as a second language (ESL) student. “What are you working on?” the tutor asks. Digging through his backpack, the student says, “Paper for class. I just need help with grammar.” Finding the paper, he places it on the desk. “Fix it..” The student pushes the paper towards the tutor.
Maybe it is for some people, but after a few years of teaching, I'm finding that it's pretty much the same thing for me. I find students highly concerned about grammatical errors when what they really need is a solid thesis statement. I know you're probably anticipating the part 2 to my "Peer Review" blog post, but I wanted to establish a few things about teaching writing before we jump into teaching our students to teach each other. (AKA: Peer Review) The first things to consider As a tutor, I always ask a few questions to the writer before I dig into their writing. My first writing center coordinator always said, "We help writers, not just writing." I have about four questions that I ask before I look at their writing, but the three in the picture below are essential for tutoring, I think. (And for student-teacher conferences.)
Global versus Local concerns It has been a common belief among tutors, students and faculty that a tutor cannot discuss global concerns before first addressing any and all grammatical errors in second language students’ writing. Gillespie and Lerner (2000) strongly dispute this myth, claiming that most who come into the center asking for grammar help generally need more than that (p.121), including “clarity, focus, and organization” (Blau & Hall, 2002, p. 35). I learned in my MTESOL that, even though ESL often tend to struggle with English grammar more than native language speakers--- (Let's be honest, the language is crazy!)--- they also need to learn to follow the writing process, which is to (as much as possible) reserve editing exercises for the last stage of the process. When working with ESL writers, we need to read through the grammatical errors and see the ideas that are being presented and help them identify ways to improve their organization. We need to use all the tricks in our bag when working with ESL and not give up and take-over their revision process simply because the grammar sucks. If we do this, we could be teaching the student that they need an editor when the reality is that they can express their ideas in a second language fine and, with practice, get better at English grammar, too. They can become their own editors, just like native English speakers. (It just takes time and persistence.) Nothing means more to an ESL writer than saying, "I understand your idea in this sentence or paragraph." They need to hear this despite the poor grammar choices. And let's be fair--- the majority of the grammar errors I see at the level I'm teaching are often similar to native speakers anyway: comma splices, fragments, run-ons, verb tense agreement, etc. Yes, prepositions, too, but those shouldn't hinder the reading too much. You can read through them. I'm not saying we shouldn't teach grammar. Of course we should teach grammar! But teach it when they're at the editing stage, and... teach it. Don't just give it to them. Advice for finding balance Recently, I gave a mini-workshop to all the writing, grammar and ESL tutors in the tutoring center I coordinate. (Yep, you read that right. I'm the tutor coordinator now, as of January 2017. Boo yeah!). I've attached my powerpoint for that workshop below. Essentially, (and this can apply to student-teacher conferences), when I meet with a student about their writing and all they want help with is grammar help, I slip in these three principles as much as possible: Even if you're a stickler for grammar, you'll be upset if your student wrote a process essay when you asked for a comparison, right? Telling students this "secret" will help them want to work on their thesis before (or alongside) the grammar. Even if you know the assignment instructions (heck, sometimes we've written them!), it's a good idea to read them with the student because it shows them how they can find their own answers. They can figure out the things the teacher is most concerned about (and how they'll be graded!). It will help them know what they're "supposed to write." They can identify where they went off topic in their own writing, too. Conclusion I strive for student autonomy. I want my students to become independent thinkers and writers. We're not always going to be there to tell them which modal they need, or how to start a new writing project, so it's important we help them learn the process and become self editors. It's a tricky balance, but with practice, you can get better at giving feedback to ESL writers.
First of all, let me give you a bit of context. You can read my full bio, but I teach ESL (English as a Second Language) at the community college. I've taught lower levels before, but for the past three or four years I've been teaching advanced writing to ESL. I, specifically, help with what I call the "bridge" course. It's basically the writing course after all of our ESL courses (we have four levels of skills) and just before our freshman composition.
Exploring the importance of Peer Review Over the last year or so I've been tweaking (a lot) with the idea of how to better teach peer review to ESL. As a writing tutor for ten plus years, I've had a lot of training in how to work with writers and best practices for giving useful comments that will help writers gain confidence and learn to brainstorm, draft, revise and edit on their own. And for many of those years I was a peer tutor, which means that I was a student like them, not an instructor. (Although, truth be told, peer tutoring isn't much different than tutoring as an instructor, which I currently do at the community college and online.) My Master's thesis was, essentially, on helping students to take control of their own writing process and discussing tutor strategies for avoiding appropriation (taking-over) in a session, specifically in helping ESL writers. I called it "Finding Feedback Footing," because it's a tricky balance, especially when working with ESL students. Why do we teach peer review to ESL? Well, I can't speak for all ESL teachers, but I started teaching peer review in my advanced writing classes because I knew that my students would be expected to do it in their freshman comp class. I wanted them to have a head-start in it. I also wanted to do it because I'm a tutor and I strongly believe in seeking out and giving advice for writing projects. Like I said, I was a peer tutor, so I was in the Writing Center while I was earning my English degree. I often tell people that I learned everything I needed to know about academic writing while tutoring. When you teach something, you learn it better, so I really liked the idea of helping students have the opportunity to teach others, like I did. How to teach peer review This is something that I've been playing with since I started teaching advanced writing, and I'd like to say I have a perfect solution that will work with any class, but I can't. I don't think I could even promise you that my current methodology will work for all community colleges. Nevertheless, I'm quite proud of my teaching process, especially this week because I just witnessed a student having an ah-ha moment during peer review, and it was priceless. So...I want to spend some time dissecting the process I go through to teaching peer review (because it's grown, especially, over the past year), but before I do that, I just want to mention that I was at AZTESOL this last weekend, and someone there mentioned that he teaches his basic writing students to practice peer review. And I thought, why not? As I've been thinking about my lessons on peer review this week I thought about whether or not what I teach my advanced students would work for beginners or basic ESL, and I think the answer is yes! Of course, I'd have to change the language, some of the videos and examples, but the steps I teach them are applicable to them. I think it's a great idea to introduce the idea of peer review as soon as possible. Empathy This blog is a two part. I've got a lot of thoughts on this topic, so you'll get more on my ideas for teaching peer review in the next post, but before I close this one, I just want to say some things on empathy. Something I promised myself when I became a teacher is that I would never ask my students to do something that I haven't first done myself, so (for example) when I did my book talk assignment for the first time, I did all the steps. I chose a book, I read it, and I gave a four minute presentation (no powerpoint) to my students. I've tried to incorporate this promise to myself for peer review. I've experienced peer review throughout college, but I think the best empathy-building experiences have come as I started my creative writing certificate. I had to read my poems and short stories in front of the class, as well as share it with the whole class---not just in pairs or groups, which I've done as well. I think it's important to remember the fear and stress I've felt sharing my own writing with others when teaching peer review. But then you have to times that fear by at least ten because these ESL students are sharing writing that is not in their first language. They are doing amazing things! Stuff that I could never do!... so that's a message that I try to share with my students as often as possible. So, there you have it. My thoughts on why teaching peer review skills are so important. Now read about my process for teaching it in part two. |
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