All Things Centered 9/20/09-9/26/09

For any wandering eyes that might come across this page this is a collection of my thoughts while working as an intern at the Boise State University Writing Center. This is mostly for review by my Director, Melissa but if anyone feels like leaving some input I'll be happy to respond.

This week's entry is an exciting one for me because I had my first consultation with a student. Earlier in the week I had a person call in who was pretty reluctant to come to the writing center but I managed to prompt them to set up an appointment. So while I was preparing to talk with this student I arrived at the Center to find out they had canceled. Tiffany was sick, however, so I took her 1:00 appointment. I checked the student's file and found out they had been in several times and it seemed to always be the same class. The student was a little surprised that I wasn't Tiffany, but was willing to give it a try. I had been reading the Bedford guide previous to her arriving and tried to use some of the tips presented and what was originally just going to be a 30 minute long session became 70 and I did not feel the least bit rushed or stressed out. It was a great experience.

Now as requested I'll take some time to discuss one of the consultations I observed and go into some greater detail on some of the methods I viewed. I consider myself lucky to be in the same time rotation as Tiffany, she's a great consultant. First and foremost she is always very personable with students who have appointments with her no matter what might be going on in her day she greets them with a smile and the two sit at the table. She always has a close, but comfortable proximity to the student, allowing them to look over the paper. She always allows the student to explain their concerns first and take a look at the assignment sheet, taking notes down on a slip of paper that I tried to emulate on my first consultation. She's usually the one to read the paper, pencil in hand but letting the student know that they can interject at any time and makes marks to return to as she goes along. She then repeats what she's gathered to show the student she's been paying attention and to make sure she's got everything clear. The particular consultation I took these notes on was for an ELL student so Tiffany did most of the discussion but would allow for posses so that the student could think over what they were told. Admittedly I left in the middle to help a person who walked in but this has been very typical of Tiffany's style and all the students I've seen so far have enjoyed working with her.

Now we come to the reading. As mentioned above I was reading the Bedford guide in anticipation for my consultation and tried to bring some of the suggestions to the table. First off to try and make the student feel more comfortable I tried reffering to myself instead of the writer more often than not but when offering advice the lack of "you" just seemed . . . weird. For this particular time I was wearing more of a "reader hat" because the student wanted to see how her piece worked for an auidence who had never read the book before. I appreciated the handout we gave just because of the multiple situations it provides, but this one I didn't use as much this week. Kolln is still like cough syrup for me, it's good for me but hard to swallow. Once again I'm glad I was able to get a consultation like I had planned to do and hope for more in the near future.