Lenses for Reading Tutees Papers

Every Thursday at 4:00 p.m., I have a one credit course that covers subjects related to tutoring at the university's Writing Center. Today was our second class and I felt exceptional tired by class time.

In class we went over the Elbow and Belanoff technique, or is "lens" a more appropriate term, of sayback. I had been under the impression the term meant summarize, or paraphrase. While it does, it also means to summarize but to pose comments in the form of a question. My script would be "I think you are saying . . . ." But later it was pointed out that phrasing it "Are you saying . . . ." tends to not shut the writer down.

When working in my old position as an executive secretary, the VP of Advancement was asking a question to a large group of people online. He said he didn't like to state something, but pose it in a question. I am such a direct person that I rarely think about using a question to soften my understanding, but I see how that can work better. Rather than saying, "You didn't feed the cats." But, "Did you feed the cats," leaves room for a response and is not judgmental. (Bad example, I know.)

We also had to write a metaphor to describe sayback. Lizz and Andria, more experienced tutors, were at the table with me. Lizz gave the metaphor of a counselor saying, "So what you are saying is . . . ." If I could draw a shrink in a chair with a patient lying on a couch, I would have done it. My metaphor, which I drew (I think I go visual when I'm tired), was two birds, with one having thrown up and asking, "Is this your worm?" The other bird looking down and considering if it looked like his worm, but all chewed up. Crude metaphor, but I was trying to think of what was similar to digesting the thoughts of someone else and asking them if your understanding was what they meant.

I consider myself very accomplished at summary, the filtering of what others say through my own understanding--I've been called "Minute Queen"--but I know if there is a tear in my filter, there is a flaw in my summary too. For example, when I first started listening to financial investment lingo, the term puts and calls, I heard "putt" like in golf. I had to ask someone what they meant as I couldn't see how teeing off on a green fit into financial investment language. I can't remember what puts and calls means now.

We then talked about the reply lens, which I've discovered I've been using incorrectly. When giving a reply to a tutee's paper, all you do is respond to the topic and not the paper. So, if someone has written a paper on nuclear power, you don't question what they've said about it, but notice what the topic "evokes" in you. I thought of Louise Rosenblatt and her thoughts on the power of literature to evoke other things in a reader, much like how one note/string plucked on an instrument sounds multiple tones or harmonics. So, a nuclear power paper probably would evoke in me thoughts of building dams for water storage in California. There are many differing opinions on whether dams are needed and whether their benefits out weight their deficits.

By the end of the two hours, I had my second wind. I now will spend some time with my new tutees to learn the lens of sayback and reply. Actually, I'd like to use the word "lens," rather than "technique" as when they come to the context essay, they will be acquainted with having to look at something through a filter--which is a nother metaphor for sayback.

High Hopes: Tutoring Spring 2009

Today was the first day of tutoring at Fresno State's English Writing Center for spring 2009. I tutored last semester and learned a lot about helping students understand the relationship between their writing and an audience. This semester I hope to learn as much as I did last, but in different areas.

I've heard that Fresno State's Writing Center is unique. Rather than tutoring students one-on-one, we tutor in groups of three students to one tutor. Well, not students, but tutees. I've taught College Composition before, so it was a challenge not to resort to my tearcherly ways. I'm not there to "fix" their papers. But I am there to facilitate their understanding of what it means to communicate an idea, a stance on an issue, to someone else.

What I noticed last semester is that when we read a tutee's paper, I plowed through the sharing and responding techniques presented in Sharing and Responding by Peter Elbow and Patricia Belanoff. But I didn't pause to help the students apply the responses to the paper. I will be focused on doing that this semester.

Also, I used multiple responses on one paper, rather than one response. I know better this semester to allow my tutees time to become familiar with the techniques of say back (summary), more (I'd like to hear more about), believe/doubt (I believe you when you way/I doubt that), movies (movies of the reader's mind), etc. I notice now that when I respond to a paper, I tend to say these things. I'd like to hear more about, I believe this because I know this, I doubt this because, etc. Even, are you saying x? I think you are almost saying x. This helps the writer understand how their words on the page are being interpreted. Of course, Elbow and Belanoff say it a lot better.

I have high hopes for this semester. Including being able to provide help to walk-ins as well as online submissions.