Kathleen S. Blog Post--Writers Outside My Discipline
One of the things I have really enjoyed during this semester
of Writing Center tutoring has been working with students who are in totally
different fields from my own. This difference has proven to be its own teaching
tool, as I often read aloud from a sentence that is a little vague and then ask
the student to explain that paragraph’s topic to me, as I am unfamiliar with it.
Engaging with a topic in conversation makes it less abstract--I like to write a
little outline of some interesting things the student says during the explanation,
things that potentially could be useful for them in their assignment—and the
student gets confidence and enthusiasm in recitation of their knowledge/getting
to be the teacher. Often the student discovers, in the course of our discussion
that there is something new or important to write about. One example is my
student who studies classical mythology; I find the topic interesting as a
layperson and have some vague understanding of it. Last week we built an
outline for a paper, and in explaining a Greek god’s lineage, she had an epiphany
about an aspect of the topic that she hadn’t covered. In this way, we build clearer
and more comprehensive content for the paper. I have also found, while working
with students not in the English major, that they appreciate me explaining my
own writing foibles—my go-to anecdote to encourage draft revision is the true
story of how I almost turned in an important undergrad paper containing the
sentence “Charles Dickens then traveled to Italy, where he remained for God
knows how long,” which gets a laugh and seems to bridge gaps between our fields.
I like your practice of writing down things students say to explain their written ideas in order to help them improve their written explanation, to spark new ideas and directions, and to validate their role as experts on the topic. I've seen Megan Knight do this a lot with her classroom students, too.
ReplyDeleteGood example of an almost faux pas to share with your students. Over the years I've developed a collection of foibles based based on issues like thesis statements, organization, use of quotations, (I was an over-user), and grammar.
Hi Kathleen, your Charles Dickens line made me laugh, too, so thank you for that! I also like to write out some of the interesting things my students say during our sessions. I have found that this helps them to grasp the concept of what it means to "think on the page." One of my students really struggles with writing in only vague and generalized language, but when she's explaining an idea to me verbally, it comes across as much more engaging and nuanced. Now that we're working on the screen together, she can see me typing what she is saying, which encourages her to keep talking, and so by the end of our sessions she leaves with a handful of ideas that have been, at least in rough form, articulated.
ReplyDelete