February+28,+2010

I had my first session in the Writing Center this past week, and I am beginning to realize that it may be a while before I have a normal, standard session like some of the examples we have been reading about in class. My first session occurred when I was alone for a shift in the Writing Center (which, I might add, is the best time for me personally to have a session because I am not as nervous as I am around returning consultants who know the ropes and have had lots of experience), and a frazzled student walked in. She told me that she worked with a consultant earlier that morning, but that she was back with another assignment. I gave her a Client Need Survey and waited for her to fill it out. She scribbled some things down on the paper and started angrily and defeatedly complaining about her professor and the nontraditional assignment I was about to help her with. I immediately remembered how in the session before with the student and his graded paper, the consultant’s response and attitude would determine the session’s direction, so I tried to make her feel comfortable and to calm her down, leaving negative comments out of the conversation. In a nutshell, the assignment was the following: the client was applying for a job and needed a reference letter, so she emailed a professor, who declined to write the reference until the client had submitted an email in the proper format. I honestly didn’t think that much was wrong with the email apart from her mechanics, but I had to read the email and judge a professor I did not know to try to figure out what we could work on during the session.

After she read the email out loud, I realized that one of the best things for the client to do was to completely scrap the old email and start fresh. Taking the idea of letting the student write during the session from some of our conversations in class and from a mock consultation with Mike, I had the student sit at one of our computers and work on the email, and I scaffolded what she was doing by asking her questions about what she wanted to say and helped her structure her email effectively (and a bit more professionally). I didn’t have her employ any particular strategy (like Tagmemics or clustering or anything like that), but just having her write with me in her presence helped to clear up any mistakes that she was making. I took the minimalist approach and had her do most of the work, but I was there to answer questions when she needed me, which seemed to really help her improve her email.

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Comment by Michelle Longo :

I think this is a really cool idea Megan. I remember reading about giving the frazzled student some writing time while in the center and while she had immediate access to you, but I wasn't sure exactly how to employ it, or under what circumstances to do it. Reading your post gives me a good idea of how and when I can use this kind of technique to the betterment of the student and session. In addition, I like how you tried to calm the student and the session down by keeping your composure and refraining from negative comments. In one of my sessions, a student came in with an assignment from a professor I very much do not get along with. When I mentioned I had had the same professor, class and assignment, the student asked me if I liked the professor. I had to remember the rules and I replied I thought she was a good writer. So way to go on the no negative comments! That was a **tough** one for me!