Things continue to be in full swing at the Writing Center. Ever since I've been put officially on the schedule my times has been filled up. Even when a person cancels/no shows there has always been another walk-in to keep me occupied. As usual this week was a series of ups and downs but mostly positive experiences. On Tuesday I had three consultations on a variety of topics. The first to come in was Writing Center regular Rehana. She was working on a paper that was a review of a children's book. She didn't have much written and was having trouble understanding the format of a correct argument paper. I showed her two ways she could present both sides of an argument and more importantly had her realize just what she felt about the issues at hand.
The second person who arrived was a little hesistant to work on the paper and we didn't click as well, but we still had some learning instances concerning grammar and by the end of it he left with more knowledge. The last person of the day was particularly rewarding ot me and got specific mention in my progress report to Dr. Munger. It was an accounting paper in which the student was working to make a permontional pitch letter to an imaginary CEO. I had little knowledge on how accounting worked but at the same time was able to help him reword sentences so they were clearer and brought up ideas he hadn't thought of before. You could see he was really enthusiastic about his experience so as always I made sure to let him know he could come in anytime and he seemed anxious to do that.
On Thursday I had two consultations. The first was about genetically engineered trees and I was feeling just like we didn't have a conncection going on. Nevertheless I eventually found her concern about needing more material to go into the paper and I was able to suggest her looking for actual research data/experiments on the trees and recommended the BSU library's database system (I should honestly be their PR rep). The second student to come in had scheduled an hour for his paper. Forty minutes into it though I had a feeling that we had talked about it all that we could and so asked him what he felt would be the best use of his time. He opted to take off 20 minutes early after we reviewed our notes. I find that I'm being able to handle my time better, getting the 5 minute evaluation done and moving on at a good pace.
Concerning the reading for this week I was of a mixed opinion. It's good to see that we have lots of scholarship on ELL and how to help them, but it still seems there isn't any concrete answer. The myths article in particular interested me but at the same time found different things occuring in my own sessions. Many times the students try to force us into directive tutoring, which texts tell us to avoid. I try to steer away each time but they keep on pushing it and sometimes I give in because I want them to leave with something valuable. When that happens I can't help but feel we're justing being used as a crutch and not actually helping. It's frustrating.
In the long run I think there's no "official solution" to this difficult situations. In the end you, as a consultant, just have to find what methods work best for you and learn how to swtich between them depending on a situation. At the end of the day, as long as you did your best for them, that's really what counts.
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