Monday, August 5, 2013

Observation 3

Observation #3


This session also included an ELL student but the assignment was more challenging than the last two since this was a research paper for a sociology class. The student had a rough draft and the tutor read the draft out loud, asking the student to underline certain ideas that were unclear. As she read it out loud I noticed that she wrote and expressed herself very well, she just needed help with the arguments in her paper. The tutor asked to see the sources she was using and she also wanted to know more about the topic of the paper, which was rezoning in communities. The assignment was that the tutor had to choose whether she though rezoning was beneficial or harmful to communities. The tutee was well informed and had done her research but she was misinterpreting the arguments and facts in the article. She also stated facts in her paper that made it unclear which side of the argument she was choosing. The tutor began reading the articles with her out loud and asked her to write down any ideas or arguments she wanted to use. She explained the arguments to her and encouraged her to expand on her ideas the whole time. This tutor was positive and encouraging in the sense that she complimented her in her writing and tried to motivate her as much as possible. The tutor had to take control of the session but the student made the decisions; she simply needed someone to help her understand the main concepts in the articles due to the language barrier.  She expressed herself well   but needed to be clearer about the arguments in her paper. At the end of the session, she seemed a lot more confident about her assignment and her writing.

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