Initial Collegiate Tutoring Session
That was awesome! The young lady I was paired with had a draft but she was torn when it came to her thesis. We used our conversation to figure out which side she preferred. She read her thesis aloud and noticed that she was weighing in heavier on the anti gentrification side of the argument. We revisited her thesis to help it fall in line with her stance and then narrowed down to her three supporting thoughts. The mapping of her initial paragraph was structured by the time we were done. It felt great to help someone cut through the wilderness that is brainstorming.
Also, from a writers/student point of view it could be that there was too much structure. Where does the space for creativity fall when every sentence is guarded? Why would we limit a counter argument from students who we think are not as advanced as others? Just because their writing skills may leave something to be desired it does not mean their thoughts aren't worth reading.
I was lucky enough to have a second person sit with us. It was a little awkward because one was for while the other was against. However, they were also able to help each other by discussing possible points to write in their counter argument paragraphs.
The second student had already written her paper and it was corrected by the professor. A case of responding too late but I used to do the same thing. We addressed some of the professor's comments and then moved onto a three way conversation about counter arguments where they exchanged some views they could each use.
Methods Applied: Talk and Write-
Clustering-Once she chose her side we had to reorganize her arguments and began by drawing anti gentrification in a circle in the middle of a page. Then her arguments and supporting arguments began to take their positions around that bubble. One of her supports was the loss of neighborhood culture which was also bubbled and connected by a line
Conversation
Collaborative Learning