In the article, “Understanding Composing” by Sandra Perl, I felt mostly inspired by how she speaks of “felt sense”. I love the idea of listening to something that is embedded into your deeper consciousness. I feel using felt sense is a great way of extracting original thoughts, descriptions and ideas. Original because they come from an original place, unlike anything in the external world. Becoming in touch with one’s felt sense is also a great way to let us tell ourselves how we truly feel about something. We let down the guard that filters cognitive thought and are therefore able to get our writing to come from a sincere place.

I think that felt sense is not only useful in writing, but other areas of one’s life as well,  I especially in speech. If one feels as though they unable to verbally communicate something to someone in the way that they would like to, by tuning into their felt sense, they have the potential to break down the barriers that are obstructing their means of communicating how they really feel. 

Not only can felt sense be used as a means of communicating with others, but it can be used as a means of communicating with oneself as well. By applying felt sense into your internal thoughts, you could possibly discover your truer feelings about something and gain a new perspective. 

I have found that becoming in touch with one’s felt sense is not an easy task, but gets easier with time. For some it may come natural and for others it may be more difficult, but I agree with Perl in that we all possess a felt sense. 

Dear Bert,

        

       My tutee included all of the necessary information when introducing the article, but needed help with summarizing it. Rather than putting the article into her own words, she used a quote from the text as her summary, claiming to have done this because she couldn’t fully understand what the article was about. However, the connection that she had made to reality implied that she did in fact have a clear understanding of the article and the real issue that she was having was putting it into writing, so we decided to do some brainstorming. 

I asked her to tell me her thoughts on the article and what point the author could possibly be making. While she spoke, I jotted down what she had told me, which was a clear summarization and I reassured her that it seemed as though she did understand the article. I then helped her use the key words that I had written down as a guide in creating a cohesive, more personal interpretation of the article which further supported the quote that she had originally used to summarize it.

The tutee had actually made two connections to reality. One very personal, and the other being something she had seen. We combined the less personal one into her summary to act as supporting evidence for her summary.

She wanted to work on the closing of her essay. I thought it worked, only she had formulated the last sentence of the essay into a question. We decided that by rewording the question into a concrete, opinionated statement, it would provide the reader with closure, while provoking further thought on the main point of the article.

After going over her difficulties with summarization and the concerns that she had with the closing, I asked her read the article out loud which helped her smooth out grammatical errors. Her errors did not seem to be consistent and she was able to notice most of them on her own.

Reading her essay out loud also allowed the tutee to make note of extra, unnecessary information. Although she recognized it, she seemed somewhat attached to it because she was concerned about the length, which was supposed to be at least 400 words. I didn’t press the subject too hard, but I tried my best in convincing her not to get too fixated on the length because she had a strong essay that included the main things that the CATW was looking for.

Other than creating a summary, the tutee’s biggest issue seemed to be confidence in her writing. She wrote with clear, coherent sequentiality, and used strong examples, although needed to be reassured of this. I feel that the tutee is a good writer and would benefit in being reminded of what her strengths are.

Tutoring Do Not’s

Do not give false praise.

Do not sugarcoat the truth.

Do usurp ownership from the writer by inserting your own ideas or voice. 

Do not act as the tutee’s therapist. Stick to the subject of interaction, which should be writing. 

Do not act as an authority to your tutee.

Do not take or check your phone, fidget, yawn, doodle, drum fingers, fold arms, or check a clock. Don’t look bored.

Do not act like an expert.

Do not engage the tutee in work that is not current.

Do not use the editor-journalist model.

Do not focus on a lower order of concerns.

Do not simply find fault. 

Tutoring Do’s

Treat the writer as an expert in his or her own writing because they are, for they know the subject matter better than the tutor does. 

Give honest feedback.

Focus on higher order of concerns, rather than a lower order of concerns.

Encourage the tutee to expand on undeveloped themes in their paper by asking open ended questions. 

Be aware of proper body language when tutoring such as having an alert, yet relaxed posture. Also establishing healthy eye contact and having a friendly, approachable, and professional tone.

Know the distinction between genuine and false praise. 

Show special attention and interest by nodding and using vocalizations such as, “yeah” to reinforce the nod. 

Open feedback with something positive. 

Tutoring Do Not’s

Do not give false praise.

Do not sugarcoat the truth.

Do usurp ownership from the writer by inserting your own ideas or voice. 

Do not act as the tutee’s therapist. Stick to the subject of interaction, which should be writing. 

Do not act as an authority to your tutee.

Do not take or check your phone, fidget, yawn, doodle, drum fingers, fold arms, or check a clock. Don’t look bored.

Do not act like an expert.

Do not engage the tutee in work that is not current.

Do not use the editor-journalist model.

Do not focus on a lower order of concerns.

Do not simply find fault. 

Tutoring Do’s

Treat the writer as an expert in his or her own writing because they are, for they know the subject matter better than the tutor does. 

Give honest feedback.

Focus on higher order of concerns, rather than a lower order of concerns.

Encourage the tutee to expand on undeveloped themes in their paper by asking open ended questions. 

Be aware of proper body language when tutoring such as having an alert, yet relaxed posture. Also establishing healthy eye contact and having a friendly, approachable, and professional tone.

Know the distinction between genuine and false praise. 

Show special attention and interest by nodding and using vocalizations such as, “yeah” to reinforce the nod. 

Open feedback with something positive. 

School Experience Revision

         Lincoln School was an old, symmetric building constructed of bricks and granite that sat on a large plot of land at the bottom of a hill next to a cemetery. It’s insides were creaky and smelled vaguely of polyurethane and the echoing hallways were covered with paintings of landscapes and American flags and initials of generations of students. It was a neighborhood school of about one hundred children that all lived within a couple of miles. There was no cafeteria, no gymnasium, no library, no school buses, or nurse’s office. There was just ten, large empty classrooms with chalk boards and tiny desks.

Lincoln School had a real old feel to it, like it was forty years or so before it’s time. They used an old, heavy handbell rather than a buzzer which had already been used in schools for years. The teachers had a smoking lounge in the basement which could be seen through a window on the playground. We would often crowd around and watch them smoke and talk while they pretended not to see us. This humanized them to me and I would imagine them outside of school, at each other’s houses, playing cards around a table and gossiping with cigarettes between their fingers. There was just a certain open inappropriateness about Lincoln School that I loved. The teachers would let their students sit on their lap while they read or drive them home from school, which was never thought to be strange by anyone. It was such a small community and every teacher had some connection with their students that existed outside of the classroom, usually from having either taught or graduating with one of their parents. The teachers of Lincoln School organized a support system for its students because they were invested in more than just the student’s academic well being; they were invested in creating an overall well being for their community.

Lincoln School was clearly built to be a school, just not a very modern one. It was eventually closed due to a problem with asbestos and we were all shipped to a brand new building that was shaped like a bubble. I remember thinking that it was hideous. It was completely carpeted and got very little sunlight. It smelled like book orders and barf cleaner and it had a plastic playground that made me feel like I was at a McDonald’s Play Place. I missed our rusty, metal, crooked slide. I missed the chalkboards and the mechanical pencil sharpeners, the cloakrooms, and the shiny wood floors. I missed being able to walk around the school without a hall pass and I missed going home for lunch. There was something about Lincoln School that was so inspiring as a child. It was completely original. Lincoln school made me feel like we were the only ones in the world doing what we were doing. This new school felt conventional. The building felt manufactured, rather than built, like it had come from a Sear’s home kit and there were thousands of them scattered across the country.  

The new school was made up of the six neighborhood schools that were all forced close. The amount of students that were in my grade at the new school were equivalent to the entire student body of Lincoln. I immediately became invisible in a sea of children’s faces. We all did. Teachers no longer knew what grade I was in or even my name, nor could realistically care the way that they had at Lincoln. Student to teacher interactions started mostly focusing on academic or disciplinary issues and much of the personable dialogue had been lost. A sense of community had been somewhat lost. However, these concerns had been mostly overshadowed by the celebration of having new facilities, like a fancy auditorium and staff bathrooms. I don’t reflect on these facilities when I consider my student experience. It is the unphysical aspect of learning and growing that I really appreciate, which I feel was accomplished at best within a close, community driven environment.

People who have attended any of the neighborhood schools love talking about it. A lot of them still wear their old school T-shirts and are able to recite every word to their school song. People like to ask each other, “Which ward are you from?” And then they argue that their school was by far the best of them all. Neighborhood school alumni are proud to have been part of something so authentic, where their educational experience was not defined by “modern learning,” but was rather based on an individualized model made to fulfill the needs of their community. 

Lincoln School

Lincoln School was an old, symmetric building constructed of bricks and granite that sat on a large plot of land at the bottom of a hill next to a cemetery. It’s insides were creaky and smelled vaguely of polyurethane and the echoing hallways were covered with paintings of landscapes and American flags and initials of generations of students. It was a neighborhood school of about one hundred children that all lived within a couple of miles. There was no cafeteria, no gymnasium, no library, no school buses, or nurse’s office. There was just ten, large empty classrooms with chalk boards and tiny desks.

Lincoln School had a real old feel to it, like it was forty years or so before it’s time. They used an old, heavy handbell rather than a buzzer which had already been used in schools for years. The teachers had a smoking lounge in the basement which could be seen through a window on the playground. We would often crowd around and watch them smoke and talk while they pretended not to see us. This humanized them to me and I would imagine them outside of school, at each other’s houses, playing cards around a table and gossiping with cigarettes between their fingers. There was just a certain open inappropriateness about Lincoln School that I loved. The teachers would let their students sit on their lap while they read or drive them home from school. And this dynamic was never thought to be strange by anyone. It was such a small community and every teacher had some connection with their students that existed outside of the classroom, usually from having either taught or graduating with one of their parents. The teachers of Lincoln School organized a support system for its students because they were invested in more than just the student’s academic well being; they were invested in creating an overall well being. 

Lincoln School was clearly built to be a school, just not a very modern one. It was eventually closed due to a problem with asbestos and we were all shipped to a brand new building that was shaped like a bubble. I remember thinking that it was hideous. It was completely carpeted and got very little sunlight. It smelled like book orders and barf cleaner and it had a plastic playground that made me feel like I was at a McDonald’s Play Place. I missed our rusty, metal, crooked slide. There was something about the charm of Lincoln School that had inspired me as a child. This new school felt so unoriginal, like it came from a Sear’s home kit and there were thousands of schools around the country that looked just like it. 

The new school was over ten times the size of Lincoln and I immediately became invisible in a sea of children’s faces. We all did. Teachers no longer knew what grade I was in or even my name, nor could realistically care the way that they had at Lincoln. Student to teacher interactions started mostly focusing on academic or disciplinary issues and much of the personable dialogue had been lost. A sense of community had been somewhat lost. However, these concerns had been mostly overshadowed by the celebration of having new facilities, like a fancy auditorium and staff bathrooms. I don’t reflect on these facilities when I consider my student experience. It is the unphysical aspect of learning and growing that I really appreciate, which was accomplished at best within a close, communal environment.