Sorry that this post is so late!
Anyways, Monica helped me with my peer-edits. It was a very rough draft, so tightening it up is probably my first priority.
I’m a little worried because I still have a lot of surveys to go through, and hopefully I can get those done in a timely manner.
Busy day. Gotta go. Work work!
So, here are a few sources I would like to look at for my research project.
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/tips-providing-students-meaningful-feedback-marianne-stenger
5 Research-Based Tips for Providing Students with Meaningful Feedback
My entire research is based upon feedback and communication between high school teachers and students. As quoted from the article, “In recent years, research has confirmed what most teachers already knew: providing students with meaningful feedback can greatly enhance learning and improve student achievement.” With my focus on feedback, I am also exploring the relationship between students and teachers. This is because I believe that the level of communication and comfortability can either greatly enhance or decrease the quality and quantity of feedback.
While this is another article on feedback, this writing focuses on feedback for the teacher. How else can teachers get better unless they learn and hear what works for their students? “When it comes to promoting teacher effectiveness, classroom observations of teachers are critically important, but sadly they have become rote, and the opportunity to provide teachers serious feedback and next-level growth is underutilized.” By allowing teachers to be observed and to hear about their teaching style, they are then hopefully encouraged to either continue doing what they’re doing or tweak their learning strategies.
http://www.edutopia.org/student-feedback-accountability-teachers
Student Feedback Helps Teachers Grow
I worried that the previous article didn’t include students as much as I had hoped. Anyone could be observing the teacher. While those observations are important, my focus is on the professional relationship between teachers and students and how that will ultimately affect their college life.
https://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/2014/04/25/what-do-college-professors-want-from-incoming-high-school-graduates/
What do College Professors Want From Incoming High School Graduates?
Here we have another side of the spectrum. With this article I pose the question: Does the professional relationship between high school teachers and students prepare them for college professors and their expectations? While my focus is on high school relations, I believe that what happens in high school has a high chance of repeating itself in college. Sure, environments are different and people change (I certainly did), but there are certain habits that reemerging through a students college career.
My favorite personal story that is the base for my entire research involves a teacher asking me “How come you don’t understand this?” Chemistry had always fascinated me, but we had no chemistry (*wink*). I went for help on an assignment when this teacher asked me that question. While it’s proactive to study ones self and learn your individual learning style, there are certain things that are beyond our control. I could maybe make a suggestion on how to better teach me, if I’m comfortable around you and I don’t feel like I’m going to get yelled at, but I can’t tell you why I don’t understand something. I just don’t.
That experience followed me to my college career. I fear that professors will look at me like I’m an imbecile and think I’m not worth their time. If I can do something about it, I want to prevent that negative thinking from entering the minds of young incoming college freshman.
How does this entire story relate to this article, you ask? High school relations can lead to college relations. College professors have an idea of what to expect from incoming freshman. My question: Does the affect of high school effect students and their college experience, and how does this relate to college professor’s expectations?
Plus I just love ranting. Can’t you tell?
I would like to survey high school students and teachers about their positions on communication with one another in regards to positive feedback.
As a high school student, I once went to a teacher for help and she asked me “how do you not understand this?” I felt stupid that I didn’t understand. Since then, it’s been a struggle for me to talk to teachers and professors because I fear they will call me stupid or that I’m a waste of time. It took me a while before I realized that their opinions of me didn’t matter — that if I needed help, I had to ask for it regardless. This was my education, not theirs.
There are students who have had, or will have, similar experiences to mine, and it needs to change. With this survey, hopefully we can gain an understanding of the communication between teachers and students, and how positive feedback can reinforce that relationship.
This sounds a lot bigger of a project than it is. Not only am I focusing on communication, I am also involving positive feedback on written work. Because I am an English major, this is a focus that I am very involved in. I believe strongly in positive feedback and I believe it can strengthen the relationship between a teacher/professor and their students.
There are many things a student can communicate with teachers about, and vice versa: grades, problems at home, relationships, sports, etc. Whether it’s about school or about things outside of school, there are a multitude of things two individuals can talk about. Communication about sports may be very different than asking a teacher for help. In order to narrow my focus to one aspect of communication, I decided to focus on communication in regards to positive feedback.
I hope that this research will provide college freshman and professors who teach incoming freshman the courage and ability to communicate with one another about written work. This will also be enhanced with the idea of positive feedback, and how that helps with the communication between the two.
If the results are not satisfactory; if the survey concludes that high school teachers and students have trouble communicating, It is my wish that this research will help provide the teaching tools and statistics for professors who teach incoming undergrads.
For my remix project, I would like to make an infographic to display my data. This will provide an appealing and interesting display of the information I receive.
So I’ve been thinking about my research project constantly. I’m starting to think that maybe doing a video might be too ambitious. Instead, what If I make an infographic on the research I explore? That way I would be able to use the time to record to include more ideas and more factors to my research. I could include Multi-language learners and condense my information in a more efficient manner. This is definitely something to think about.
I found this article to be very interesting and educational, and made me think a lot about the relationship between students and teachers/professors.
Being the daughter of a teacher, you would think that I would automatically try to understand the teacher’s point of view when it comes to multi-language learners. However, I never really thought about it until now. I wonder why. I think that sometimes I believe that to be a professor, you need to be an expert in your field, and that means finding answers to all challenges. I tend to forget that teachers can still learn how to be better teachers, and that there’s really no such thing as the ‘perfect teacher’. I think it’s because I see teachers and Professors as such a higher authority that I forget they’re human. They learn and grow the same way I do, they’re just in a different stage in the process.
I’m somewhat ashamed that I’m only now realizing it. I’m sure I’ve thought about it before, this can’t be a new concept for me. I think the main difference for me is the use of the words “teacher” and “Professor”. See how i naturally capitalized Professor? It’s not because I know whether it’s grammatically correct or it, but because I believe that Professors have a higher authority than the label “teachers”.
When I first read Joy Reid say “I could hardly go to a conference presentation without hearing about the evils of commenting on students papers,” I immediately think: Communication. Communication is a key aspect of our daily lives. Without it we don’t get anywhere. This also reminds me of my research topic. I believe that communication is the key to success. If we could just communicate with one another and ask questions, like would be so much better! If I applied that to my research, maybe I could interview students on how they feel about communicating with their teachers about the feedback they receive on papers. I could make it extra long if I wanted to include Multi-language learners. However, going back to Reid, writing and taking feedback can be a daunting task. The way she descries teachers not “impos[ing] control or authority over their students’ writing” reminds me greatly of the consultants of the writing center. We don’t want to dominate the paper, not at all. All we want is to best help the student. But sometimes the ‘how’ to that can be difficult. We may get frustrated and just want to tell the student what to do, but in the end, it’s not what we want, it shouldn’t be what the writer wants, and it’s not productive at all.
this next part was great for my research! “Furthermore, researchers suggested that in the event of teacher intervention, students either slavishly responded to teacher comments, relinquished their authority over their texts, or they misunderstood teacher response…” now, I figure that she is talking about ELL students, HOWEVER, if the study included all students, NES and ELL students, then I believe this study would be relevant to my research.
To be completely honest, I’m not sure what I want to research or what my research question should be. However, I have one or two ideas that I would like some feedback on.
I think it would be interesting to learn about how students and teachers feel about positive feedback. I have to give credit to Clara because she was thinking of doing something similar. However, instead of doing traditional lore research, I wonder if it would be possible to create a video, almost like a documentary of how students and teachers feel about positive feedback. This could develop into student-teacher relationships when it comes to feedback and communication. I would have to do either ‘positive feedback’ or ‘communication’, but I would love to get the two different perspectives of either one of those.
The reason I would want to do a creative research project rather than a traditional one is because I believe that being able to capture people’s emotions. There are some people who have had really great experiences, and those who have had really poor experiences. I’m still not sure if doing a video or something would be beneficial, but it’s an idea I’m toying with.
I think my best bet is the relationship between teachers and students — specifically over papers — specifically for English Majors. I realize that there are many flaws to my research parameters, but I believe it’s worth developing.
As much as I enjoy the idea of the writing center being thought of as a home, it is a concept that I am struggling with. When I think of the writing center, I don’t think of it as a second home, but rather just a friendly environment. Now, there is a chance that I am interpreting this wrong. When I see “cozy home”, I take it as a home that is cozy. On the opposing side, it could also mean a home for cozy things, such as couches, plants, windows, etc., as stated in McKinney’s article.
Whichever view you side on, I still believe that the writing center should be more of a professional setting rather than a cozy setting. The writing center is there to provide a service. It’s a place I work at, not a place I sit around luxuriously and do what I want. I’m there to do a job. Not only am I there to do my job, I also believe that students have a job of their own. Their job is to have their writing and be ready to work on it.
Maybe it’s just the ‘home’ part I’m having trouble with. If we said ‘cozy environment’ instead of ‘cozy home,’ I believe I would agree with the idea of having a ‘cozy’ writing center.
“Students write to learn, not to make perfect papers.”
Today I would like to discuss “Minimalist Tutoring: Making the Student Do All the Work” by Jeff Brooks.
I absolutely loved reading this article. There were many things I liked, agreed with, and learned.
One of the key ideas Brooks stressed was the importance of the tutor not being the editor. As an aspiring editor, this is something I will most definitely have to consider when being a consultant. I want the student to do the best they can, and I have to remember that that means me stepping back and letting them take the reigns. This is especially true if it is on a topic that I enjoy or am familiar with. I can see myself getting too excited and taking over the paper. That is a huge no-no! But that’s why I’m in this class, right? To learn how to best help the student. “Our primary object in the writing center session is not to the paper, but to the student,” (pg 132).
Another thing I really enjoyed reading was the section on complimenting the students paper. When helping a student with their paper, It’s easy to find things that need to be fixed or changed. However, since we are helping the student and not focusing on the paper, how can we help the student feel better about his/her paper? I always like to draw hearts. When I was reading the section “Concentrate on success in the paper, not the failure” (pg 131) I physically drew a little heart in the margins. As a student, it is daunting when all I see are red marks on my paper. It discourages me and I feel like I’m not succeeding. So now, before I even look at the comments, I automatically look for the green or blue ink that tells me “this is what I like about your paper,” and I feel ready to face the possibly harsh feedback.
Taking my own experience into account, I have always made sure to mark or say something positive about the paper. I can not think of a time where I did not put at least two hearts on a paper. I think that this is probably my most important necessity in helping a student with a paper. Positivity is a real pick-me-up, or adrenaline rush in my opinion. If I can help a student feel good about their paper, then I have succeeded.
Lastly, I would like to mention the ‘how-to’ aspect of this article — which I adore, of course. I always love being prepared for social situations such as these, and these Basic Minimalist Tutoring and Advanced Minimalist Tutoring methods will definately be considered.
In this article, North revisits three main ideas that he believes greatly contribute to the writing center:
I must say, I am in love with the way North refers to Dead Poet’s Society. As a personal favorite of mine, I believe that many teachers and students should look to this movie not as a guide, but as a reference to great teaching and critical thinking. North somewhat contradicts this statement saying “I find it annoying, disturbing, irritating.”, even though he enjoyed the film. I agree with North on the idea that teachers don’t need to be grandiose by ripping up textbooks or standing on tables, but I believe that the idea of encouraging students to see things in a different perspective is a great way to teach.
Now, let us look at this three main ideas and we can discuss them a little bit.
Tutor and Writer
North quotes “Writers come looking for us because, more often than not, they are genuinely, deeply engaged with their material, anxious to wrestle it into the best form they can: they are really motivated to write.”
In my opinion, and possibly in yours too, this is the ideal of the writing center. As a writer who loves critical analysis, I can get so tied up in my paper and I can get so excited I feel like my brain is going to explode from all the ideas. As a consultant, I would encourage students to find ways to enjoy their paper and hopefully I can help them to the best of my ability.
Tutor and Instructor
We’ve discussed this before, and my stance remains the same. Tutors are not instructors, and therefore can not tell the student their grade, why they got the grated, or completely disagree with the instructor. However, the tutor can be either a guide to possible understanding or a resource on how to ask the teacher these questions.
Tutor and Institution
I feel like I don’t get a clear understanding between the relationship of tutor and institution. I think North describes not the Institution itself, but what it can bring to the writing center: the amount of people, the type of people, and the ideas of people. In a larger university like ours, we do our best to help everyone who is willing to come to us for help.
Mikala🌹Rose 