I've run into the most reading problems with students at the prison. Many students there have GEDs because they didn't complete high school prior to entering the prison system. Some understand a text easily if it is read out loud to them, but struggle to get through a text reading on their own. Last time I tutored there, both another tutor and I worked with a student on reading strategies. He does fine when the material is familiar, but once it becomes more complex, theoretical, or outside of the scope of his personal experiences, it becomes harder for him to understand. We showed him how to identify topic sentences, and how sentences concluding paragraphs offer summaries of the paragraph's content. We mostly discussed strategies for getting through the text and understanding each component part. However, he might also benefit from strategies that help him connect the pieces into a whole argument. He might like the "what it says" and "what it does" strategy as he becomes better at identifying a sentence's role in a paragraph (or a paragraph's role in an article). Mostly what we discussed with him was "what it does," and adding "what it says" can help transition him toward more global strategies for understanding an argument. Students in prison are frequently asked to write open-ended "reflections," and it may also be helpful for him to re-frame his "reflection" as a summary/response log to help put those pieces together.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Emi 03/27

These two case studies consider two different research methods that will inevitably lead to very different discussions and presentation of the ideas.  T he non-fiction case study (Lorraine) is purely qualitative, while the academic case study (Fei) is a mixed methods study in which qualitative data is quantitized and the rest of the collected qualitative data (e.g. interview) mainly serves to enhance legitimation. These two different focus, qualitative (Lorraine) and Mixed methods with a focus on quantitative (Fei) are well accepted in research. However, the way that readers approach them may be very different. The qualitative (non-fiction) case study is more engaging, more relatable, and easier to read. As promoted in Qualitative research, the authors present the data as if it were a story and include very detailed anecdotes (called vignettes) that represent the main point to be conveyed. The study is not replicable, but the authors do provide additional information to ensure...
Read more

post 2/27

I found strategies like Show that All Texts Reflect the Author's Frame of Reference and Thus are Subject to Interrogation and Analysis  and Writing 'Translations' particularly helpful for my students who struggle to delineate form from content in their assigned readings. They carry this confusion into their writing by either making clear arguments without providing adequate context, or mimicking the convoluted syntax of academic writing instead of articulating in terms clearest to them what they mean. One question I have is, what are some resources we can point students to help them parse through academic jargon (especially when their instructors have not provided them this resource/ training in class)? Are there existing "Reading guides" online like those described on p.141?
Read more

4/17

In my tutoring sessions, I've been most familiar with the 'learning to write' paradigm. I felt Ortega's statement that "...LW places at the center of attention the cognitive activity of the writer and her or his authorial voice" encapsulates the work my students have called on me to do. Whether they're working on a Peace Corps application, a psychology paper, a global health paper or a speech for Rhetoric, I've found my work can be described in Ortega's twofold statement: helping students put in writing first, their cognitive activity (their opinions, arguments, and questions) and second, their authorial voice (by airing confusions, doubts, and identifying needs for further research). In class, I'm wondering if we can have a discussion about the overlap between LW and WLL when it comes to students picking up specific language necessary for academic assignments. As Ortega writes, there is a difference between students "learning to write abo...
Read more