2011-12 Student Literary Forum

On May 22nd 2012, I attended a Literary Forum at my school LaGuardia Community College; it was sponsored by the Writing and Literature Major Committee of the of English. All the presenters there all were good writers, I was very thrilled at their work, I left the forum inspired and full of ideas for my case study paper. A few of the presenters stood out to me for their unique grasp to writing and how they expressed themselves through their writing.

One presenters, Alvaro Taitiva who wrote"The Rising Cost of Education and Its Effect on Student Debt", expressed his concerns about the cost of education and the lack of jobs. His writing touched me because he wrote about some of the current issues that are being talked about on many college campuses across America.

Some of the language that was demonstrated in some of the presenters writing had me at the edge of my seat. For example Deirdre Flood, who wrote a piece called "They Call Him Naz"; reflected on her life growing up in her neighborhood. The language she used made me think that all great writers use different vocabularly to draw their readers in. She used what some people call profanity but I call it art. Her language added color to her piece. I wanted more from her I was truly inspired by her writing.

Lastly, there are some stories about people lives that are touching that can bring a lump in your throat. Ahmad Maruf, a Bangladesh student who has been in America for 2 years wrote a piece on The Namesake a book by Jhumpra Lahiri. His writing experience touched me because he spoke so highly of the education and the help that he had received at LAGCC.

This was my 1st time at a literary forum and my 1st time supporting student activity on campus here at LAGCC. I left feeling inspired and motivated.

Tutoring Video Blog

Transformation

Don’t- Loc correction

Katt- How you can I help you today

Devon- My teacher handed back my assignment with all this red ink and I was wondering if you could help me.

Katt-Let me look over your paper and ill get back to you.

Devon- Well can I go out for a smoke?

Katt- Sure smoke one for me as well.

Devon- (Returns 20 minutes later) How’s the paper coming along?

Katt- Well take a look

Devon- *Speechless as he sees all the red ink*

Katt- Cat got your tongue? You really need to focus on your spelling and grammar.

Devon- I came from a school system where no child left behind was practiced and teachers never helped correct my spelling.

Katt- Well this is LaGuardia, this school is full of diverse students with different backgrounds you’re no exception.

Devon- I’m not sure if that’s motivation or you’re putting me down!

Katt- Well it’s a little bit of both haha (Laughs manically)

Devon- Well can you just get to the point on how I can correct my grammar? I have to go to work in the next 30 minutes.

Katt- Well cancel your plans you will need more time with that.

Do’s- Hoc correction

Katt- How you can I help you today

Devon- My teacher handed back my assignment with all this red ink and I was wondering if you could help me.

Katt-Let me look over your paper and I’ll get back to you.

Devon- (Waits patiently)

Katt- Well I see that you have a very good paper here, but maybe you should you reread your paper before handing it in. You have some minor grammar issues, but we should focus on the structure of your paper.

Devon- How can I correct my grammar issues?

Katt- You should try to integrate online internet programs like spelling tutorials; this would help you with your spelling. Have you ever heard of James Moffet?

Devon- No, but I’ve heard about LeBron James?

Katt- Oh is he an English professor?

Devon-(Looked at her like she’s a nutjob)

Katt- I was just joking to loosen you up, you look too worried.

Katt- With the structure of your paper you should use transition words to make your words flow smoother.

Devon- Shakes hand and thanks tutor.

Live Tutoring #3

Today's live tutoring I was not as nervous as the first two times. my tutee was excited to show me his work that he had done on his practice CATW exam that focused on healthy eating amongst children. I was introduced to a new tutee today and he was full of questions which made me nervous and I was surprise that I knew all of his answers and was able to help him. With my new tutee he had writers block and did not really know what to write about but really wanted my assistance.  I did his practice CATW but was still lost, I tried a new strategy which I was afraid to use, I used the 20 questions as we both explored his assignment. This helped him generate ideas and make personal connections to his work. He asked if he can keep the questions so he can practice at home in the future with his next assignments. With him i learned to be patient and hear his concerns. With my previous tutee he had a lot of ideas and was prepared to work like the new tutee. I read my previous tutee work and was pleased with what I read because he used the strategies I had presented to him before. He wanted to add more to his paper so I used a new strategy with him which was mapping. He presented me with his topic and he worked the new additional information into his already structured paper. He had some Lower Order Concerns, like spelling; I told him to keep a personalized log of his most common misspelled words to refer to. We even looked at simplified rules like diphthongs like ie-ei. Towards the end the tutees had to look at some tutorial lessons to help them with their CATW. My previous tutee was able to pick his tutorial lessons with my help but asked if he was correct. The new tutee asked me if I can help him pick his tutorial, I informed him that he needed to focus on writers block, generating ideas and free-writing.  Before leaving I told the new tutee that if he had free time he should try to do some free-writing to help him overcome his writers block.

Live Tutoring Session #2

Today I had my second live tutoring session; still I was a little nervous, yet I was anxious to see what the tutees had done since the last time I saw them. To my surprise my tutees did not come to class so I introduced myself to two  new tutees. They both were working on the same assignment 'The Dangers of Reality TV", which I was very familiar with. The 1st tutee was shy, he had explained to me that he had a hard time with the paper because he does not watch TV at all, in addition to that he had little knowledge of what reality TV was. Being that we were in a computer lab I had him re-read the assignment and then Google what reality tv was. I wanted to integrate using a computer in our tutoring session since we had the computer in front of us and it was a great tool to use so he can know what the article he read was about. The second tutee was struggling with finding his claims for his paper and adding examples to show he knew what the article was about. I had him read the article and underline the important things in each paragraph and focus on forming bullet points to support his claims. When I returned to the 1st tutee he was aware of what reality was and ready to work on adding to his paper. He had strong claims but he thought his examples was not strong to support his claims. He was shy and did not want to talk and he kept on saying he did not watch tv because it was boring. I tried to get him to open up so I formed a relationship with him by having small talk with him. I asked him what shows did he watch when he did watch tv, he responded he only watched the Discovery channel. I added on to that by asking him if he reads the newspaper or use the computer. He said yeah I continued with discussing reality tv shows I knew that have been in the newspaper and he opened up and became talkative. He

Live Tutoring Session

Today I had my first tutoring session with 2 students in Eng 99 class. Before my session I was a little nervous, I thought I was going to forget some of my class discussions that I had prior. I introduced myself to both students and informed them that I was a student just like them and I took the CATW too once before. I made myself familiar with their assignment. I used the read aloud strategy with my first tutee, he did not feel comfortable with reading so he asked if we could take turns. From reading his paper I saw that he form a well structured paper. He understood the assignment and he told me he wanted to add more. I told him to adding more is always good. I had him read his paper one more time and think of additional information he wanted to share in each paragraph that he did not include. As he did this I focused on the second tutee, this one was discouraged he spoke bad about his writing. When he presented me with his writing piece I was shocked that he was putting his writing abilities down he was only four points from passing and his professor did some cheerleading on his paper. Reading his paper with him I witnessed that he lost sight of the topic and went in a different direction. I had him read his assignment and underline the important stuff that the author discussed. I told him to brainstorm on those topics and work from there. He wanted to disregard what his professor said, I reassured him to keep it because it worked in his favor just try to include his new information into his paper. I felt that the most positive part was the look of both tutees when I gave them honest feedback and when i told them that I took the CATW before. I think that when I shared that information with them they was intrigued and wanted to know what the graders look at while grading their test. I gave each student a task to force on and checked up on both. I did not feel that I focused on one student more than the other. After a while I did feel a little overwhelmed because I felt like I was saying the same thing over to both of them but they told me after the session that I did a great job and thanked them for allowing me to tutor them. I told them that if they need more assistance that they should not be afraid to seek help in the writing center.

Observation #3

On April 5th, I went to the writing lab at LAGCC to do my one hour observation for my English 220 class. This session was different from my first two observations, I sit in on two students in a English 99 class that was practicing for the CATW. These two students were different from the other students that I accounted while observing, they had a strong language barrier. The tutor started the session by giving the students a session reprt to give back to their professors. The tutor proceeded to give the male tutee an assignment to read and he gave the tutee detailed directions. Then he adressed the female tutee, from their discussion it was noted that the tutor worked with her the day before. As the tutor was working with her he focused on some LOC's due to the fact there was a language barrier. The tutor was very patient when working with her, he explained more in detail the article she read and reviewed questions and directions. The article seemed hard for the tutee, the tutor spoke in a calm manner reassuring her that the CATW will not be as difficult as  the assignment she was working on. Some words were hard for the tutee to understand the tutor had to stop occasionally to help her with her vocabulary. Cheerleading took place on the tutors part as well as my when the tutee got a better understanding. As the tutee began to write yet again the tutor focused on Low Order Concerns because of the tutees grammar needed some corrections yet she got her thoughts across. Across the table the other tutee was having the same problem with writing a summary on what he had just read. The tutor allowed me to help the tutee and it was my 1st ten minutes of working in the writing center. The tutor and I helped the tutee breakdown his assignment by paragraphs by pointing out important points. The tutee was informed to take notes as I read assignment along with him. Questions was asked constantly to the student to open his mind up for some of his thoughts on the topic of the assignment. I enjoyed working with this tutor whose name was Lawrence i would recommend him to any LAGCC student who has a language barrier.

Observation #2

This past week I did my second observation for my Eng220 class. I was put with a new tutor who was very welcoming, she worked with two students; one being a student that is taking a course given by my professor. The tutor automatically made a personal connection to the first students work. She did some cheer-leading making reference to the tutees work. Soon after making her connection the tutor and tutee double checked the requirements that the tutees professor was requesting. The tutor advised the tutee to be more detailed to bring her readers more into her work. When it came to the second tutee she spent a lot of time on him. It was clear from their conversation they had worked together before on his paper. the tutor worked on paragraph structure with the tutee and corrected some of his typing errors. The tutor was very patient with the tutee because he began to become lazy working with her.