Pondering Equilibrium:

1. Pondering Equilibrium: Seeking Balance Through Alternative Tutoring Practices

2. Balance Balance, in this presentation, should be loosely thought of as a state of equilibrium, characterized by the parity of equal, but opposing forces, ultimately restoring proportion or harmony.

3. In order to provide the individualized instruction free from the constraints of the traditional classroom, tutors must balance many variables. • Personality • Learning style • Assumptions about writing • Assumptions about writing centers • Anxieties • Diverse frame of reference • Motivations • Cultural/Linguistic background • Teachers’ expectations • …and many others

4. Minimalist Tutoring • Via Stephen North & Jeff Brooks • Writer & Process, not Product • Empower client • Become critical of one’s own work • Create active learning environment • Free from power hierarchy of institution

5. Sit beside the client rather than across from him or her, paying attention to body language. “This person is sitting really close to me, like, whoa. Uh, creepy.” Minimalist tutoring

6. Use questioning to deal with problem areas: requests for clarity, more information, purpose, depth, new perspectives, etc. “I thought I was the one with the questions? This is: (a) benighted (b) ridiculous (c) sad (d) all of the above” Minimalist Tutoring

7. Do not mark on the client’s work. “Which sentence did you say that comma splice was in? I’m glad we have both decided not to pinpoint the problem.” Minimalist Tutoring

8. To critically view their own work, have the client read their writing aloud to the tutor. “I weally hope my tutoe doesn’t ask me to wead aloud. It’s embawwassing when people hyea that I can’t pwonounce my R’s.” Minimalist Tutoring

9. Responding To Brooks • Many scholars, however, are starting to believe that Brooks’ claim suggests the existence of a single, ideal pedagogy for writing centers—an idea that runs contrary to individualized instruction. • Also, others have pointed out that this type of pedagogy is meant more to assuage the concerns of writing program administrators.

10. Directive Tutoring As An Answer? • In another essay by Linda Shamoon and Deborah Burns, “A Critique of Pure Tutoring,” the minimalist approach of past writing centers is labeled as an orthodoxy of process-based, Socratic, private, a-disciplinary tutoring. • Shamoon and Burns question whether a more directive approach could be effective in many tutoring situations.

11. Consider… • Agenda-setting: Is it non-directive simply because it’s in the form of a question? • Helping with very minor editorial issues can be extremely slow and inefficient (and patronizing) if directiveness is strictly avoided. • In light of writing centers’ core “truths,” are minimalist practices the only way to help the client, or is it supported only by writing center “lore?”

12. Read the client’s work, marking places where the writer could add depth, fix phrasing complications, or be clearer. “What is all this scribblely chicken scratch on my paper?” Directive Tutoring

13. Directly providing instruction on minor editorial issues. “So, do I put a semi-colon before the word ;however in every instance as a rule, or is that something I do because the sentence calls for it?” Directive Tutoring

14. Model simple and complex sentence structures that mimic academic discourse. “Could you repeat that one more time? I like my essay better when we write in your voice!” Directive Tutoring

15. Directing clients toward specific ideas for organization and development. “Is this, like, my work or yours? After we’re through, my essay is going to sound like you wrote it!” Directive Tutoring

16. Imitation and Directive Methods • Shamoon and Burns turned to research in social and cognitive development and academic literacy. • They found that modeling and imitation, directive methods, are often very useful techniques in tutoring situations. • And thus, they assert that directive methods do what writers that visit the writing center want them to do: model a process, then produce results.

17. Other Useful Directive Methods • To look up formats for bibliographies, comma rules, or alternative meanings of a word. • Directly answering a question about the student’s writing • Providing a variety of sample options that might work • Modeling the writerly habit of brainstorming options and thinking them through to determine how each might shape the paper

18. What Directive Tutoring Does • Displays rhetorical processes in action. • Improves the connection to the current conversation in the discipline. • Provides interpretive options for the tutee when none seem available. • Unmasks the system of argumentation at work within the discipline.

19. Directive Tutors Still Struggle with • Empowering writers • Homogeneity vs. Creative Variation • Plagiarism • The writer and the writing • Negotiating needs and wants • Reader Reaction

20. Problems With Choosing Sides • Shamoon and Burns do not believe a directive approach should be used uniformly. • Instead, they argue that writing center practices should be broadened to include both directive and non-directive tutoring. • The results, according to Shamoon and Burns should be “an enrichment of tutoring repertoires, stronger connections between the writing center and writers in other disciplines, and increased attention to the cognitive, social, and rhetorical needs of writers at all stages of development” (239).

21. But… Although these connections do seem to bring opposing positions together, directive and non-directive tutoring methodologies still seem to confuse beginning tutors. DirectiveMinimalist There are still major issues with applying it to writing center orthodoxy.

22. Problems With Applying Both Perspectives • Tutors newly introduced to writing center theory may feel pressured to choose between two camps. • Tutors become confused by a theoretical rationale for specific tutoring practices that embrace two contrasting approaches. • When applying both approaches to the theoretical rationale of the center, instead of more informed tutoring, tutors begin to develop a relativistic approach. • Not wholly convinced by either approach, tutors revert to basic writing truisms and less applicable strategies.

23. Useful Techniques • Open and Close ended questioning • Mapping and Matrices • Review the Textbook • Focused Free-writing • Paired Problem Solving • One minute paper • Outlining • Focused Listing • Pro and Con grids • Concept Maps • Word Journals

24. Scribing Scribing is an experimental method that sets tutors up for using directive and non-directive techniques. It attempts to identify the purpose of the session and the writer’s situation. It also attempts to maintain a balanced focus on the writer and the writing, as a means of post-process tutoring.

25. Where Did Scribing Come From? • In 2005, in the EKU writing center, an ESL student complained that during her sessions she got wonderful advice; however, once she left the writing center, most of it slipped her mind. • She told us that the tutoring sheets handed back at the end of the session usually only had 2-3 comments. • Most of these comments were prescriptive, as to diagnose a problem and offer a quick fix. • Tutors were encouraged to write more, and be more descriptive on tutoring sheets.

26. Collaboration Is Collaboration • A couple of tutors noticed that when clients read their own work, they often recognized their own errors. • To that end, we began to model other parts of the writing process by having tutoring sessions where tutees did a lot of re-reading, while we recorded more of the session. • Scribing for the client—outlining, listing, and taking notes for them—became common. • And at the end of the session, the writer left, not just with the fading memory of a collaborative conversation, but the outline of one, a new context, and a space in which to position their ideas.

27. ESL Issues • Via Jennifer Staben and Kathryn Dempsey Nordhaus • Stephen Krashen- Affective filter hypothesis • Behaviorism- quality of language input • Cultural difference/assumptions regarding education

28. Bakhtin And Scribing • From a Bakhtinian perspective scribing was effective because of the nature of language: the fact that the word is in a constant process of description and re-description in the world. • Scribing helps to illuminate context and therefore, also illustrates and models a process, not only for idea development, but logical interpretation and critical thinking.

29. The Conversation Of Mankind • Kenneth Bruffee in “Peer Tutoring and the Conversation of Mankind” also points out that many scholars—Oakenshott and Vygotsky—posit that reflective thought is an internalized conversation, situating conversation as the locus of knowledge. • Thought, then, works the same way as conversation yet is more limited because of the confines of a single experience or perspective. • Writing, to Bruffee, was internalized thought brought back to the public sphere, and scribing then is illuminating that social process through seeing and re-seeing, working with a text collaboratively.

30. When to Scribe? Scribing can work when writers are struggling with… • Critical thinking • Idea development • Organizational issues • Support and Evidence • Poor phrasing or word choice • Sentence construction • Basic grammatical issues • Identifying audience in academic writing

31. How Do We Scribe: A General DescriptionPart 1 Scribing begins with the writer or tutor reading or discussing the assignment. The tutor writes down important criteria for the assignment on a sheet of paper. It progresses to a reading of the client’s writing (if there is something to read) preferably done by the tutee. Next, the non-directive method of active listening and note-taking is emphasized: the tutor becomes the client’s scribe, taking notes on the tutee’s work. What follows is reader response, formed from an outline of the tutor’s note taking.

32. Restoring Balance? • This process models the organization of the writer’s work. • It shows the logical progression from one idea to the next. • It allows the writer to re-see connections, and thoughtfully question them. • It gives the writer a true academic audience to enter into conversation with. • It allows clients more comfortable speaking than writing, to see their ideas transferred to the page.

33. How Do We Scribe: A General DescriptionPart 2 • Tutors then, directively, hone in on language, specifically looking at passages that were difficult for them to follow. • The client and tutor do a role reversal, having the tutee scribe an awkward sentence that is read back to them, word for word, from their writing. • In that process, the tutor stops in troubling spots and asks questions directly about the text: Is there a better word for this? Why use a comma here and semicolon here? Is there a reason we didn’t end the sentence here? Is this really what we mean? How could we rephrase? • In certain situations, it is acceptable for the tutor to model actual constructions, write sample sentences, and have the tutee attempt to emulate this behavior.

34. Restoring Balance? • This allows collaborative work with sentence structure, awkward phrasing, and basic grammatical issues. • Rather than presenting these issues as rules, scribing allows the writer to interact with language. • It also keeps the tutor from using technical terms (comma splice, sentence fragment, definite and indefinite article) to aid the student in learning the conventions of academic writing. • It emphasizes, too, that each sentence goes through a procedure of description and re-description, seeing and re-seeing process.

35. Problems With Scribing Like other tutoring methods, scribing has its flaws: The tutor must be careful to model the writer’s construction instead of forcing an interpretation. Because of the nature of scribing, sessions usually last 45 minutes or longer. When recording the ideas of the writer, sometimes ideas get left out because of the time it takes to physically write. Because scribing requires lots of writing, it usually requires lots of paper or space on writing center forms. Clients that come to the writing center without assignments, and want other forms of instruction seek that specific instruction.

36. Where Do We Go From Here? • Informing tutors of directive and non-directive approaches is useful, but it seems that problems occur in conversion, in the gap between theory and practice. • It notable that this gap will always exist. • And no one technique, method, or tutoring style can act as a holistic solution. • Defining a theoretical rationale for writing centers as both directive and non-directive may not be realistic. • Perhaps it would be more effective to train tutors in techniques, allowing tutors to develop an effective tutoring style and interpret the tutee’s needs situationally, taking full advantage of the educational potential of each session.

37. Trying To Find A Balance But that doesn’t mean we don’t try. Attempting to restore balance and prevent division, writing centers should… • Be proactive in sharing an ideology concerning what writing is. • Verse tutors in a series of different and diverse techniques. • Give tutors the freedom to combine techniques, creatively. • Allow tutors to interpret the client’s needs according to the situation.

38. References and Resources: Bartholomae, David. “Inventing the University.” Composition in Four Keys: Inquiring into the Field. Ed. Mark Wiley, Barbara Gleason, Louise Wetherbee Phelps. Toronto: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1996. 460-479. Bakhtin, Mikhail M. “Discourse in the Novel.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed. Vincent B. Leitch. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2001. 1186-1190. Bruffee, Kenneth A. “Peer Tutoring and the ‘Conversation of Mankind.’” Composition in Four Keys: Inquiring into the Field. Ed. Mark Wiley, Barbara Gleason, Louise Wetherbee Phelps. Toronto: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1996. 84-97. Friere, Paulo. “The Banking Concept of Education.” Teaching Composition Background Readings, Second Edition. Ed. T. R. Johnson. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005. 91-102. Lunsford, Andrea. “Collaboration, Control, and the Idea of a Writing Center.” The Writing Center Journal 12.1 (1991): 3-10. Newkirk, Thomas. “The First Five Minutes: Setting the Agenda in a Writing Conference.” Writing and Response: Theory, Practice, and Research. Ed. Chris Anson Urbana, IL: NCTE Press, 1989. 317-331. North, Stephen M. “The Idea of a Writing Center.” College English 46 (1984): 433-46. North, Stephen M. “Revisiting ‘The Idea of a Writing Center.’” The Writing Center Journal 15.1 (1994): 7-19. Rose, Mike. “The Language of Exclusion: Writing Instruction at the University.” Composition in Four Keys: Inquiring into the Field. Ed. Mark Wiley, Barbara Gleason, Louise Wetherbee Phelps. Toronto: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1996. 445-459. Sommers, Nancy. “Responding to Student Writing.” Teaching Composition Background Readings, Second Edition. Ed. T. R. Johnson. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005. 383-392. Shamoon, Linda K., and Deborah H. Burns. “A Critique of Pure Tutoring.” The Writing Center Journal 15.2 (1995): 134-51.