Third Tutoring but First One on One 

This morning we had the opportunity to revisit our initial ENG101 classroom. Although I was hoping to reconnect with the student I tutored the first time, I was satisfied to help today's student because she was really starting from scratch. I have learned this semester that the beginning is the ideal time for intervention.

Through our conversation we realized she had created the bibliography but it was inaccessible due to e-challenges. The good news was she had done some reading. The bad news was she didn't take notes or highlight or have a solid grasp on what she was writing.

While we spoke I realized she needed clarification on the meaning of social justice and how to connect that to her topic of child abuse. We created a cluster chart where the main circle at the top of the page held "Social Justice for Children". Through conversation and referring to the assignment we discovered she had an interest in "Mass Incarceration". We added that in a sub bubble connecting it to the main bubble after, through questioning, she made the connection between the side effects of child abuse and the potentially negative psychological repercussions of enduring this trauma and the risk of jail time. This chat helped her make connections between these two topics where she showed interest while taking a step back to contemplate the question “Why should society car”.

When our time was up she was “free writing” her first paragraph by referring to her cluster. I gave her my email address in case she would like to share her progress with me. I also complemented her on selecting such important material to discuss. I explained I may be biased because I am a childhood education major and a civic leader who is very much interested in her subject matter. Perhaps if more people wrote or discussed these issues further positive change could crystallize.      

C O L L A B O R A T I O N

As the title implies my second tutoring session on Monday May 12, 2014 was a group session made of two ENG099 students who through collaboration not only helped each other develop their essays but aided me with tutoring practice.

We employed a read aloud method where each student read their work while the other student and myself listened. I requested participation by asking them to make some comments on each others work after they read. The first student who read had already developed an introduction and three supporting paragraphs but was missing a closing paragraph and had a minor challenge in ensuring supporting sentences matched topic sentence. The second student had about a page of writing but it was a solid block of ideas that needed teasing out. His major challenge was that he was writing as though he agreed with the piece but he didn't. He had mixed feelings about it and was afraid to follow his own opinion. I explained to him that as long as his summary was on point he had the right to his own opinion.

In an attempt to aid student B, who needed to tease out his thoughts, we employed clustering. Through conversations with him I was able to write his topic in a circle at the top of the page and then orient his ideas with examples under the first circle while connecting them by a line to the topic again.

While these events were in action, student A was revisiting supporting sentences and adding to a paragraph.

   

Paulo Freire: Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Last night I had Congressman Joseph Crowley explain to our community board that Social Security was going away forever. According to him it will be reduced by 2.5% until it is completely gone. When I told him that my husband, who is a disabled US Navy veteran, and I are raising four children on social security his answer was there will be scales of course and we are teaching people how to eat better to avoid illness. Funny how he doesn't know that poor people are over weight because they can't afford to eat more expensive healthy food but I guess not experiencing poverty would make one offer such high handed resolution to telling an entire populous who have been paying for social security all their lives that money is gone. Deal with it! He also went on to explain that Social Security was never meant to be used to live off of. I'm so glad he clarified that little misconception. Now, I wonder what he is going to do when the Baby Boomers start dieing of starvation. Oh wait, he doesn't care because he won't be one of them.  

How doe this relate to Paulo Freire?

Freire posits, "True generosity consists precisely in fighting to destroy the causes which nourish false charity". What Freire is saying here is that we should not sit back and accept what the one percent dish out as excuses as to why the poor are being given consistently the short end of the stick. Apparently, CC also believes that cutting social security will resolve our economic challenges as that was stated as part of his defense. I guess ALEC, who can and have overturned congress, are not at all responsible for the disastrous state of our economics because we should never expect those with money and power to behave in the interest of the majority. It's all that waiters fault or that housekeepers fault for only working double shifts. If they expect to eat when they get older they better add a third job. Don't we have evidence proving that heart disease stems from lack of sleep? Well, it doesn't matter anyway because now we are expected to die of starvation because Social Security is silly and getting rid of it is going to fix our economy. We are going to teach you to eat better so you don't get sick="false charity". More people need to come together to speak at this table especially those who are not expected to eat. It is considered "generosity" to engage in "fighting" this because we become victims of those in power.