A.L.E.C

American Legislative Exchange Council.

In response to the Video ALEC shown in class this morning. ALEC is a organization that is funded for writing custom made legislation to spread to republican law makers across the country to push there instate respective legislatures or passing of their state laws, to pass tax increase. Lisa Graves the executor and director of media and democracy whom is also the creator for the website www.aleceexposed.com talks more about what ALEC really is and how the organization is funded only large corporations and not legislative dues and is one of the biggest bipartisan organization around.

 Observation 3

  

 

At the writing center this afternoon, the tutor was rather quite good. She remembered each topic she talked about with both of the students she was tutoring. What was fascination to me is that she not only remember what the topic of there paper was she has a lot of information to give to each of them. She was very engaging and asked both of them questions to see if they had an idea of what they wanted to discuss in their paper.

 

 

There was some silence during the review of the papers, but none to where it was agonizingly dreadful. This woman put a lot of thought into what she would say to each of them and she didn't come off in a harsh manner at all. They both seemed to have a lot to talk about and she complemented both of the students for making an effort in their assignment.

 

She worked with each of the student and shared the hour equally not leaving one to figure out what they needed to do if there was no understanding of it. I felt like while sitting there with them during this session the problem between both students was pretty much the same they both had difficulty with language and present and past tense, but none to where they didn't understand what they needed to do.  I also like the way she broke down the list of requirements instructed by the professor for the paper.

 

One student had some trouble with following the directions of the paper and she explained to him in debt exactly what his professor was looking for which mad it a bit easier for him and the other student as well. With this being said I felt that she was very forthcoming as a tutor and spoke professionally to the both of them to where she even forgot that I was watching.

 

I as a student or a tutor would definitely engage my student just as she did because if there was any tension in the between anyone at the table it quickly fade when she opened her mouth and began her session.. If I ever had any doubt and the lack of confidence that I couldn't tutor someone else on a piece of writing. At this session it faded and now I am even more excited about it than in the beginning.

 

 

 

 



Observation 2 of the Writing Center

 

            On my second observation at the writing center the tutor ended up working with two students during this session. The first student came in and had several drafts already written for his paper that wasn't due until later on during that week. He had several question and comments that he had already written down that he wanted to ask her.  The tutor was very intuitive with supplying him with all the information that he needed. She didn't focus much on grammar she mainly focused on the structure of the paper going up against the course syllabus that he provided her with for the class the paper was due for. She let the student know that she was going to read over his paper real quick to get some idea  on what the paper was about and then she will get back to him with any comments, questions or concerns that she had about his paper. After doing so she then asked him question about the topic of his paper.  To my understanding he was doing an essay on a piece of literature that he had written for the class. She had some concerns about one of the things that he mentioned in the paper because, he just simply threw it out there and didn't give his audience any information about the character he was discussing in the book. Her comment to this was to pretend that your audience is stupid. Think of it as if the reader doesn't know anything and don't be afraid to explain to your reader what is going on and who the characters are you are discussing. Don't assume that because you know who you are talking about the reader will too because its not always the case. This was not only informative to the student but it was very informative to me as well. I even learned how to introduce a quote when writing.

 

 

Just before this session ended she told the student that his paper was good and that she felt like there were a couple of areas that he could work on to make it better and stand out more.  She gave him her schedule and told him to come back if needs anymore help on his paper. The student was also informed that if he didn't feel that his paper would be ready on time for submission that he could always ask for an extension from the professor instead of waiting until the day its due and not having it. At the end of the session another student arrived who didn't have the tutor's schedule. When she came and sat down she was introduced to me and made aware that I would be sitting for observance of her session and she was also comfortable with it.  She took out her paper and placed in the center of the desk and the tutor made her aware that she was going to read first and ask questions later. This student seemed to pretty much know exactly what she was talking about in her paper. Her problem was backing up the argument she was making in her paper. She didn't have any quotes to none of the materials she used to support her ideas she was making.

 

 

The tutor asked her why she didn't have any quotes incorporated in her paper from any of the text she read? Her response was because I know what he said and I feel its this way. I believe she did this because she didn't completely understand that using quotes and statements from outside sources would only make your argument stronger, but it will also support your argument in turns of making it more believable. The tutor began to break down to her why including a quote from each of the works she cited was important and by the end of the session she had a full understanding of the mistakes she made on her paper and notes she took to improve her final draft. I took away from this experience knowing how to properly introduce a quote into my paper and why they are important and they are only used to help make an argument stronger.  Not only did I walk away with this, but I also took away from this session is to not hold out information from my readers and not assume.

 

 



Observation 1 of the Student Writing Center

I went to the writing center on Wednesday afternoon to get a feel of what goes on during a writing session . I met with one of the tutors there who shook my hand and made me feel very welcome to be sitting in on the session. He quickly took us over to his cubical as we set down he quickly scanned the students paper. He asked her plenty of questions while looking over the paper. In the beginning of the session it was rather quite which soon changed when he got to the part of the paper that needed tweaking. The students paper was sat directly in the middle of the two of them so they were both able to view her writing together. 

When he proceeded to ask her question on her writing none of them were closed ended. Each question that he asked her made her think about the answer she was going to give him that pertained to her paper. She had lots of trouble using past and present tense so he took her paper and showed her a few examples of what past and present was when writing. Not only did he show her on paper, but this was also done out loud so she could hear the differences in the speech. She sat there patiently while he explained and he gave her back her paper and asked her "What did she need to do to fix the sentence?" At first she was still not sure what she needed to do to correct her mistakes so he read her sentence aloud to her several times over and a short time after she was able to pick up on the mistakes she made in her paper. 

What I did notice about the tutor is that he did focus a lot on grammatical errors and punctuation, but not enough to make her feel uncomfortable. From the look of what I saw she has been there several times to fix the first draft of her paper and each time her paper was corrected the better the grade she received. When she walked out of the office she did not walk out with just a corrected paper she walked out with a proper thesis statement, she learned the correct use of past and present tenses and she also walked a way with a paper that he said would get her an A.  Which in Moffetts theory is called  " Cheerleading" as is one of the things you are not supposed to do when tutoring.

During this session he ended up getting another student who had a lot of trouble with past, present, singular and plural form. Although I have been told that a tutor is not allowed to write on a students paper he did. He didn't write comments or suggestions on how the essay could and should be constructed, but what I like about this tutor is that he took the time out to show both of his students the differences between word use in the past and present tense. For this student he took her paper and wrote on the back as well and showed her what singular and plural was.  He also explained to her not to use repetition of words which was done for both of the students.  this student also walked out with fixed paper and a thesis statement that she didn't have when she walked in.