Case Study -- Bri


For the purposes of this case study I will refer to my student as Jane: 

            There are a couple of pedagogical issues that recur during my appointments with Jane, mainly with her reading comprehension and, therefore, her ability to interpret assignments.  The problem, I think, is stemming from her reading practice.  When she brings a new assignment to our session, we begin by reviewing the criteria.  Working in the WC this semester has taught me the importance of reading everything out loud.  Usually, I volunteer to read the instructions, but I think Jane may be interpreting this gesture as a needed moment for me to orient myself inside the assignment, and so will distract herself (maybe she feels awkward?) by looking around the room.  To combat this tendency, I’ve stopped offering to read for her and instead ask her to, and she does nervously.  Jane reads fast, skips over words she doesn’t know, and often mispronounces basic diction, such as “pacific” instead of “specific.”  We’ve only had one online meeting so far and we did review an assignment together.  Since it was our first meeting, I offered to read, honestly to save time (she had a problem with her camera that ate up a lot of time). While I read, she was less distracted, so possibly this problem will just take care of itself.  However, this leads to the second challenge which is interpreting assignments.  For example, during this week’s online meeting as we reviewed her essay assignment, it became clear that the instructor was referencing specific criteria that had been covered in lecture.  When I asked Jane to clarify, she said she was also confused.  Long story short, we spent a good chunk of tutoring time parsing out what the instructor was asking for and eventually came to realize that Jane needed to complete an additional step before she could begin outlining anything for her paper. 
            Jane is from a small town in Iowa, where her parents own and operate a family restaurant.  Jane’s family is Muslim, though Jane herself does not wear a traditional hijab, and so looks like a 19-year-old Caucasian female.  English is her first language, not Arabic.  Most of her social interactions seem to be with her family; she talks about them quite a bit, and her dad has even called during our sessions a few times.  Her brothers and sisters all work at the restaurant, and when Jane goes home on the weekends to visit often part of the motivation is to do bookwork for the family restaurant.  She was living in the dorms and seems to have also developed a close relationship with her dorm-mate.  Jane attended public school, and so her writing is informed from a basic high school education that teaches the five-paragraph essay formula.  Her motivation for enrolling in the WC program is to improve her writing skills.
            The positive thing about being exposed to a five-paragraph essay formula is that Jane understands that effective essays develop in stages.  Jane is always willing to brainstorm a topic and she is an excellent brainstormer.  Similarly, she appreciates the nuanced benefits to outlining.   She understands the function of a thesis, but struggles to make them specific.  Often her intro paragraph suffers from the same problem, using only broad and generalized language.  While Jane does appreciate the steps in drafting an essay, she thinks too linearly about the paper writing process itself and struggles with initially skipping the intro paragraph and moving on to the body. 
            We all know that having a strong reading practice directly impacts our writing. How do I politely and conscientiously correct Jane when she is reading too fast, skipping words she doesn’t know (because she knows I can see them), and mispronouncing words when she seems to be reading quickly because she is self-conscious about not knowing?  Any feedback regarding this issue or any other suggestions for things I’ve mentioned is welcomed.  Thank you for taking the time to wrap your head around these pedagogical questions with me!

Comments

  1. Bethanny SudibyoApril 14, 2020 at 11:42 AM

    Hi Bri,
    Thank you for sharing your experience. About your question, I do have to do this most of the times because my students have read out loud in a foreign language, and I do have to correct them when the skip words or read too fast (because they just want to get it done). I usually stop them because I can tell when they feel nervous, and I tell them to take a breath and try to calm them down. Once they feel more comfortable, they usually slow down in their reading and I am able to provide them with more feedback. This could be challenging though, because there isn't much time, so I sometimes have to limit my corrections.

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  2. Carol SeverinoApril 14, 2020 at 4:16 PM

    Bri and Bethany--It's even more challenging because Jane isn't reading what to her is a foreign language like Bethany's students are, so there's probably some shame involved since she may very well be English dominant vs. Arabic dominant. Maybe, Bri, for the next assignment or for an essay she has to read (she'd have to paste it in or import the file), suggest something like, "Since the paper is not due right away, let's use some of our time to recognize and pronounce unfamiliar words and find out what they mean." You could tell her outright what some words mean and she can write down the meaning. You could have her use dictionary.com to find the meanings and pronunciation of the others. Does she use the same skip-over strategy when she reads her own writing and thus miss places that need editing? I'm guessing probably not because she wouldn't use words she didn't know in her own writing.

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  3. MarisaApril 30, 2020 at 10:19 AM

    Hi Bri,

    I agree and concur with the suggestions above, and will add that your role in her educational life is one of the few places where Jane can be safely encouraged, corrected, advised on these sorts of hiccups without there being any penalty or judgement. I think the hardest part of this hurdle is that is puts the brunt of the weight on you to take on a more taxing position of stepping out and suggesting some corrections that may feel awkward or offensive in other contexts. But in this context there is incredible help and growth that can happen. Great job already with all you are doing, Jane is lucky to have you as a tutor!

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  4. KathMay 3, 2020 at 6:25 PM

    Bri,

    Your writing shows how compassionate you are towards your student--it sounds like she trusts you and will listen. Would it be useful to treat reading as close reading? It's skill-building as a process, and you can model for her with some example. She could even do a free write and then break it down sentence by sentence. Visuals may help here--you can circle sections/words on the page, making it clear what each part contributes to the whole, showing how skipping words can fundamentally change the meaning of the sentence. I think treating the skipping the words issue that she may not be sure how to handle as more a detective process where she gets to refer to the internet and annotate a page could be a way of making it hands-on.

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