So I'm about to give a little background information because if I don't I'll just confuse everyone, and that will just be no fun. Anyhow, in my anthropology class, we just did our final group projects, and my group focused on interactions. Each person had an individual topic under this large umbrella of interactions, and my topic was face to face interactions vs. interactions via text or Facebook chat. As I researched for my topic and conducted interviews, I found that most people I interviewed realized that Facebook wasn't "real life" as I coined it, while the studies I saw all wanted to point the big finger at the evil Facebook for wrongfully teaching today's youth about what it means to be a "friend" among other values.
So there's the background, excuse the minor tangent, now time for my point. I started to think, do Facebook and texting impede our literacy, or does it help it? Strangely enough, as I write this post, I see that both "Facebook" and "texting" have the little red squiggly lines underneath them, implying that they aren't even words! But how can these methods of communication that are so commonly used not be considered as forms of literacy? As I researched, I was actually surprised by the amount of articles that supported texting and Facebook as legitimate forms of literacy. The articles I found about socialization in the real world vs. the Facebook world surely denounced Facebook as useful to develop certain skills of young people, but these articles seem to think that Facebook is a valuable tool. Here's what I found.
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Txts-blogs-and-Facebook-.3799671.jp
This article states that these are the literacies of the future, they will be taught "alongside books, plays and poetry in schools in future." Although I don't know if this is 100% accurate, I do agree with the belief that as our businesses revolutionize, these literacies will be more important in the workplace.
If this trend really is true, does that mean that it's time to start accepting new literacies as comparable to essay writing, or should we stay true to our roots?
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Last Visit to the BGC
Last week we had our last visit at the BGC. Unfortunately, our student was not there, so we were not able to see if she had come up with a script for her DST. I really wanted to be able to encourage her because coming up with the script is the most difficult part of the process. The rest of the work can be really tedious, but if there is a lot of attention to detail and hard work put into it, it can really turn out well. I'm sure that she will require a lot of motivation and encouragement to do the project. She's a smart girl, and with some help, she can do a great job on the project. Her interview was very interesting and she already had some amazing photographs for her project. I wish her a lot of luck, and I hope she has fun with it!
Monday, November 22, 2010
Consulting with HS Students for their Admissions Essay
On Saturday, we consulted with the high school students for the second time. The first time, we were simply brainstorming ideas for each prompt of the essay. Mine chose to write about an experience which made them go outside their comfort zone (Richmond's supplemental essay). When we were first brainstorming, I talked to her about writing this essay, telling her that I wrote about when I went to Australia and New Zealand. She had a similar experience when she went to Barcelona, Spain for the first time, and a story was born.
When we met on Saturday, she already had completed her essay, although it was far too long. Because she had a similar essay for class that did not have a length requirement it was 2 pages longer than it needed to be (Richmond has a two page max for this essay). So I tried to determine what she would be focusing on in the final draft. She told me that she wanted to show how she overcame the language barrier, and then I started to specifically look at the paragraphs that talked about her experience with using Spanish. I noticed that she had some wordy sentences as well as a few very fixable problems with organization. After talking to her about those things, I asked her how she was planning on concluding the essay. Although her conclusion was good for the original assignment, the admissions essay requires you to show how this experience has changed you. I wanted her to give a couple sentences about how she felt after the experience. She told me she felt confident about using her Spanish after going to Spain, and I told her to conclude with something about how she would feel comfortable expanding her mind and being challenged.
When we met on Saturday, she already had completed her essay, although it was far too long. Because she had a similar essay for class that did not have a length requirement it was 2 pages longer than it needed to be (Richmond has a two page max for this essay). So I tried to determine what she would be focusing on in the final draft. She told me that she wanted to show how she overcame the language barrier, and then I started to specifically look at the paragraphs that talked about her experience with using Spanish. I noticed that she had some wordy sentences as well as a few very fixable problems with organization. After talking to her about those things, I asked her how she was planning on concluding the essay. Although her conclusion was good for the original assignment, the admissions essay requires you to show how this experience has changed you. I wanted her to give a couple sentences about how she felt after the experience. She told me she felt confident about using her Spanish after going to Spain, and I told her to conclude with something about how she would feel comfortable expanding her mind and being challenged.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Writing Center Shadowing (what number is this?!?)
As the title of this blog suggests, I can't remember how many times I've been to the writing center to do my shadowing! I can't believe it's almost the end of the semester, and I have tons of final papers and projects due and finals to study for :(
Anyhow, today in the writing center we worked on a paper that was already very well developed, but the student wanted to come to the writing center so he could improve the flow of his paper as well as word choice. The consultant quickly went over the essay, which was about relationships in terms of sociology.
Because the consultant thought the essay was well developed and only needed some small adjustments, he started talking about adding content so the essay would be more cohesive. He discussed summarizing the ideas that are brought up in the paper more, so his analysis of these ideas would be more cohesive. Additionally, the consultant brought up ideas that related to his topic that he learned from his background in philosophy. I'm excited to start working as a writing consultant, not only to help students with their writing, but it will also be fun to learn about new topics.
Anyhow, today in the writing center we worked on a paper that was already very well developed, but the student wanted to come to the writing center so he could improve the flow of his paper as well as word choice. The consultant quickly went over the essay, which was about relationships in terms of sociology.
Because the consultant thought the essay was well developed and only needed some small adjustments, he started talking about adding content so the essay would be more cohesive. He discussed summarizing the ideas that are brought up in the paper more, so his analysis of these ideas would be more cohesive. Additionally, the consultant brought up ideas that related to his topic that he learned from his background in philosophy. I'm excited to start working as a writing consultant, not only to help students with their writing, but it will also be fun to learn about new topics.
Boys and Girls Club Take 2
Yesterday we went to the Boys and Girls Club (BGC) for the second time to help them with their digital stories. Our student already had her interview done last week and we tried to help her organize all the facts she had last week. Yesterday, we tried to help her start writing her narrative for the DST, which turned out to be a little challenging. You never realize how difficult it can be to teach someone how to write a narrative with a good flow to it if they've never done it before. Many students at the BGC have not encountered an assignment similar to this one, so we can't use language like "transitions" and ask them to vary their sentence structure.
We had to be more basic with her. We explained that while the facts she decided to use were interesting and effective in her story, the story itself would be better if it was not simply fact, followed by fact, followed by fact. We tried to use the example of an actual story, telling her how it had a beginning, middle and end, where each part related to the other because you needed the beginning part to get to the middle, and the middle to arrive at the end. We told her that because his life is a story that she can tell it as a story, beginning with his childhood, then to his college years, and now in his adult life. It is very important for her to highlight his pearl of wisdom in her story, so we must work with her to find a way to incorporate it by introducing it and allowing his advice to shine. I'm interested to see if she will have a solid script written for next time. I know we will have to do some tweaking, but I really hope she can do most of the writing on her own, as it will help when we are recording next week.
We had to be more basic with her. We explained that while the facts she decided to use were interesting and effective in her story, the story itself would be better if it was not simply fact, followed by fact, followed by fact. We tried to use the example of an actual story, telling her how it had a beginning, middle and end, where each part related to the other because you needed the beginning part to get to the middle, and the middle to arrive at the end. We told her that because his life is a story that she can tell it as a story, beginning with his childhood, then to his college years, and now in his adult life. It is very important for her to highlight his pearl of wisdom in her story, so we must work with her to find a way to incorporate it by introducing it and allowing his advice to shine. I'm interested to see if she will have a solid script written for next time. I know we will have to do some tweaking, but I really hope she can do most of the writing on her own, as it will help when we are recording next week.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
ESL Class
Yesterday in class, we had the ESL specialist at UR visit our class to talk about how to consult with ESL students. AS we sat down in class like we normally do, she began to speak to us not only in a language that I didn't even know, but one that I couldn't identify at all! I looked around the room and asked those sitting next to me, "what language is she speaking?" Of course, no one was familiar with the language she was speaking and we were forced to try to understand her hand gestures instead of being able to really communicate with her. Of course, we all knew she spoke English, but just knowing that you couldn't speak back to her or understand what she was saying was a bit intimidating.
She began to speak in English and revealed that she was speaking Turkish and began to ask us how we felt. Most of us said intimidated or something along those lines, but she revealed to us that usually she does this "experiment" for longer--usually 15 minutes! After 15 minutes she says that people often feel disjointed and uncomfortable, which she shared with us, are the overwhelming feelings ESL students feel when they first come to the US and encounter the task of having to write their first papers. She told us that writing consultants must take the overwhelming feeling away as we identify with them and explain the cultural differences of writing in the US. We must maintain a level of respect while making sure that they understand the nuances of writing. To do this, we must get to know them and make them feel comfortable; this could be a difficult task, but with extra effort we can consult with any kind of student. ESL students are just like us--they are here to learn, and they come to the writing center to improve their writing. We need to treat them like any other student that comes to the writing center.
She began to speak in English and revealed that she was speaking Turkish and began to ask us how we felt. Most of us said intimidated or something along those lines, but she revealed to us that usually she does this "experiment" for longer--usually 15 minutes! After 15 minutes she says that people often feel disjointed and uncomfortable, which she shared with us, are the overwhelming feelings ESL students feel when they first come to the US and encounter the task of having to write their first papers. She told us that writing consultants must take the overwhelming feeling away as we identify with them and explain the cultural differences of writing in the US. We must maintain a level of respect while making sure that they understand the nuances of writing. To do this, we must get to know them and make them feel comfortable; this could be a difficult task, but with extra effort we can consult with any kind of student. ESL students are just like us--they are here to learn, and they come to the writing center to improve their writing. We need to treat them like any other student that comes to the writing center.
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Interesting Consultation
Today during my shadowing session we had a student who had written an essay but seemed very confused as to what she wanted to say. She was concerned about the "wordiness" of her essay overall and was struggling with organization. When the consultant tried to work on her introduction in order to clarify her thesis statement, she was bogged down by trying to make every word perfect. This was the first time that I've really seen the importance of just writing your thoughts down and then editing later.
Usually when I write a paper I will stumble over what I want to write in the essay and sentences can be quite wordy, but I try to make my sentences pretty clear from the beginning. She was really struggling with almost every word--she was worried about using the same word or the wrong word in context and kept second guessing herself about what she wanted to say. While the consultant had to pull all these ideas out of her, she finally began to realize at the end of the consultation that they were her own ideas. Sometimes it can be difficult for writers to express what they want to say and need some guidance. These were one of these consultations where it was useful for the writer because she had been struggling with what to say. After working on organization and the wordiness of her sentences, she has a good foundation to improve her essay.
Usually when I write a paper I will stumble over what I want to write in the essay and sentences can be quite wordy, but I try to make my sentences pretty clear from the beginning. She was really struggling with almost every word--she was worried about using the same word or the wrong word in context and kept second guessing herself about what she wanted to say. While the consultant had to pull all these ideas out of her, she finally began to realize at the end of the consultation that they were her own ideas. Sometimes it can be difficult for writers to express what they want to say and need some guidance. These were one of these consultations where it was useful for the writer because she had been struggling with what to say. After working on organization and the wordiness of her sentences, she has a good foundation to improve her essay.
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