Kit A.

Nadado TESOL 429 Writing Coach Log

Tutee Profile Joy Roomataaroa Joy Joey Roomataaroa is a freshman from the island of Tubuai in French Polynesia. Joey fluently speaks French and Tahitian as his first languages. He exhibits fluency in spoken English. He relates that his serving a mission in California helped him develop this fluency. Joey is currently in the Advance 2 level of the EIL program in Brigham Young University- Hawaii. Joeys writing goals include better sentence structure, better organizational skills, and better paraphrasing skills. Looking through Joeys writing samples, Joey is able to express his ideas in writing clearly and efficiently. He is also aware of academic writing styles for these styles are apparent in his writing. Spencer Forrest Spencer Forrest is a freshman from the island of New Caledonia in the Pacific. Spencer speaks French as his native language and can speak English as his second language fluently. He will finish the EIL program this semester and will be eligible for English 101 next semester. His writing goals include deepening and widening his vocabulary use in writing, writing better thesis statements, and being specific in writing his ideas. Spencer exhibits sufficient mastery in academic writing. He expresses his ideas well in academic language and can use sources efficiently. I would classify both Joey and Spencer as Advanced Mid under the ACTFL standards. Spencer and Joey would be on stage 3 writing, CLB 8 Adequate Advanced level in the Canadian Language Benchmarks.

Writing Coach Sessions Wednseday 09/25/2013 1:50PM Outside the Language Center I met Spencer and Joey for the first time today. Since today was our first writing coach session, I decided to do an introduction activity to help us get to know each other better. I decided to do the Two Truths and a Lie game. I gave them pieces of paper and asked them to write down two truths about themselves and a lie. I asked them to be very creative if they can. We enjoyed the activity and had a few laughs. We then went in depth into each others educational backgrounds. I found out that Spencer and Joey both served in the same mission in California. They told me that their mission was the reason they are both fluent in speaking English. We spent the remaining time to discuss the purpose of the writing coach sessions. I then asked what their writing goals are and they responded accordingly. Both Spencer and Joey expressed that they want better organization in their writing. I took note of this. We then discussed a set time for the weekly writing session. We decided to meet at the same place and the same time every week. As an assignment, I asked them to send me samples of their writing via email for next weeks session. We then dismissed the writing coach session.

Wednesday 10/2/2013 1:50PM Outside the Language Center Before our second meeting, Spencer and Joey sent me a copy of their Effects Paper via email. This paper was due on Friday and so I had the chance to read through their paper and analyze their writing. I did not mean to criticize their writing on our second meeting and so I decided to save the session for them just to talk about their ideas. I brought some snacks to help them feel comfortable in talking about the ideas in their paper. I gave them a printed copy of their papers they sent me with little feedback. I also made sure that my feedback is constructive and encouraging. I focused my feedback on the content rather than the grammar for this assignment. I told them to look through it after our session. We then started our discussion over some snacks and drinks. I told them the points I liked in their paper, including the clarity of their arguments and the way they expressed

their ideas. I could feel that they felt good about what they wrote. I then told them some small areas in their writing that they should consider revising. I told them to see the feedback I gave at the end of their paper after the session. I then asked them to discuss their ideas for their Effect Paper and why they chose such ideas. I told them that they should feel free to discuss their opinions as well as their concerns in writing their paper. Spencer and Joey were hesitant at first but they eventually warmed up and began to fully express their opinions about their paper. I commended them for their ideas and told them that I liked the way they expressed their ideas in their writing. We had a very interesting discussion about their writing struggles and strengths. I actually enjoyed this discussion. One question that arose from our discussion was about organization. Both Spencer and Joey expressed that they had some trouble organizing their thoughts into a coherent whole in their writing sometimes. I took note of this and dismissed them because our time was up and Joey had to go work.

Wednesday 10/9/2013 1:50PM Outside the Language Center Before our meeting, Spencer and Joey sent me a sample of their writing as promised. They sent me the Causes Paper assignment for an EIL class. I looked through both of their papers and indicated areas for correction and revision. I noticed that both are able to express their ideas well in academic English. Both are also efficient in using sources. On the other hand, both Spencer and Joey exhibited some difficulty in organizing the flow of their writing. I noticed that there was not a clear thesis statement in their essay. I decided to focus todays writing session in writing thesis statements. I met with Spencer and Joey in the same place and time today. I gave them their papers in print and gave them time to review the written feedback I gave them. I then asked them if they had any questions with the feedback I gave. They had none. I told them to feel free to ask me questions anytime throughout the session. My feedback today focused on the global aspects of their paper and not so much on the local. I first commended them for the good aspects of their paper. I told them that they used academic language well in this paper and had their point expressed well. I also commended them for the excellent use of sources. They had good sources about the tragedy in Myanmar and these sources were used well in their paper. We then discussed about the role of a thesis statement in their essay. I asked them if they know what a thesis statement is and what purpose it serves in their essay and they

answered accordingly. We then read the definition of a thesis statement in this website: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/composition/thesis.htm. I told them that thesis statements tell the reader the writers argument in a sentence. I focused on how thesis statements can assist in the organization of our ideas in an essay. We then looked at examples of thesis statements from other papers discussing good ideas and bad ideas in writing thesis statements. After this activity, I asked them to write a preliminary thesis statement for their Effects Paper. The results were good and I believe that Spencer and Joey understood the concept of creating thesis statements in this session. We discussed more on the quality of their thesis statements then we dismissed because Joey has to go to work. We decided to continue our discussion about thesis statements the next meeting.

Wednesday 10/16/2013 1:50PM Outside the Language Center We had a recap about last weeks topic of thesis statements in the first five minutes of our session today. I asked them if they had any questions about thesis statements and they told me that they had none. I assume that they remembered and understood our lesson last week about the role of thesis statements in their writing. We decided to proceed. Earlier that day, Spencer and Joey sent me a copy of their Process Essay. They were instructed to describe the process of making flour from wheat. In my reading of their essay, I noticed a number of grammatical errors in their writing that affects the meaning of their argument. I decided then that I would focus a little bit more on form or the local aspects of their writing. I had copies of their paper marked with grammar corrections and written feedback about the content at the end of their paper. I had them analyze the corrections in their paper and see what common errors they had in their writing. I gave them about five minutes to do this. We then came back together and discussed their findings. Most of the errors they committed were directed to tense. Other errors are very minor and so I asked them to study correcting these errors in their free time. We had a little discussion about tense and aspect. I showed them the Powerpoint presentation from a Teaching Grammar class that discusses tense and aspect. We then came back to their paper and discussed ways on how to improve this grammatical point. We dismissed after this discussion.

Wednesday, 10/23/2013 1:50PM Outside the Language Center Joey and Spencer did not send me any copy of this weeks paper. They told me that they were working on a big research and so they did not have anything written this week. I took this time to discuss about idea maps and outlining. I decided to teach this concept because I believe that it will help them in better organizing their ideas in writing. I brought copies of their first paper, the Effects Paper to the session. I then asked them to mark the main ideas in their body paragraphs. When they finished marking the main ideas in their paper, I took over and demonstrated how to make a concept map. I basically put their thesis statement in a circle at the center of a blank paper. I then drew circles with the main ideas written branching out from the main circle. I then drew more circles with various concepts they discussed in their paragraphs branching out from the main ideas. I showed them the sample concept map and we took time to study the diagram. I explained to them the purpose of the concept map and how it could help them organize their ideas. I told them that they should draw a concept map when they are brainstorming ideas. Since we did it in reverse, Joey and Spencer were a little confused with the process. I found it really hard to re-explain the process since the example was not really clear. I decided to make another example. This time, I had them pick any topic. They decided that we should talk about fishes in Hawaii. We then proceeded to formulate a thesis statement about fishes. We decided to talk about fishes in Hawaii being endangered. I then asked them to think of main ideas we can use in writing about fishes being endangered in Hawaii. We came up with ideas such as common threats and causes of extinction, prevention methods, dangers of the loss of sea life in Hawaii, and other good stuff. We then went further and wrote points specific to the main ideas that we came up with. We had to stop because of time and because Joey had to go to work. We actually had fun in this activity. Although we encountered problems at the beginning, we were able to understand the concept in the end. We decided to review these concepts for our next session.

Wednesday, 10/30/2013 2PM Aloha Center We had our session today at the Aloha Center. Because I was late for our previous session, I had to buy ice cream for everyone. Anyways, we sat down in one of the benches in Aloha Center and began our session. I pulled out the copy of the idea map we made last week. We then reviewed the purpose of the idea map and reviewed the concepts we learned so far. We decided to do another idea map. This time, we selected our own topic and formulated a map of the concepts we wanted to discuss related to the topic. I allotted 10 minutes for this activity. After 10 minutes, we came together and shared what we did. Joey decided to write about French Polynesia and Spencer chose to write about Pollution. Both mapped out good idea maps. We discussed each others idea maps and gave feedback by giving questions about the topic. I wrote some questions to consider on Joey and Spencers concept maps and we tried answering these questions. I made sure they had the answers we came up written down. We spent the remaining time discussing about their writing concerns. They told me they were still working on better organization. Because our time was almost up, we decided to stop.

Wednesday, 11/6/2013 1:50PM Outside the Language Center Only Spencer came for the writing session today. Joey was at work during the scheduled meeting. I prepared an activity focused on writing effective topic sentences because I felt that he needs work in this aspect of his writing. I gave him three sample paragraphs without topic sentences. Each paragraph had three choices of topic sentences and Spencer had to choose the best topic sentence for each paragraph. Spencer chose the correct answer in each of the paragraphs. I asked him why he made such choices and he justified his answer well. I believe that he understood the function of the topic sentence well after this activity. We then proceeded to the next activity. I gave him three paragraphs with no topic sentence again. This time, there are no choices given. He has to create a topic sentence himself for each paragraph. Spencers topic sentences were well written, specific, and

encompass the ideas the paragraphs discussed. I think that Spencer exhibited a deep understanding of topic sentences as well as the ability to create them.

Wednesday, 11/25/2013 1:50PM Outside the Language Center Today is my last writing coach session with Spencer and Joey. I decided to have a revision activity to start our session. I gave them the copy of the research project that they sent me for feedback two days ago. I had them analyze the feedback I gave and allowed time for questions and clarifications. Joey had a few questions about some grammar points that were answered. Spencer had no questions and was quite satisfied with the feedback. I then had Spencer and Joey read each others paper and had them provide feedback for each others paper. Minimal feedback was given by both students. We spent the last fifteen minutes of our session evaluating the whole writing coach experience. We discussed the improvements that they made throughout the experience. I also asked them for feedback on the sessions, what they liked about the sessions and things to improve on. They expressed that the writing sessions helped them in better organizing their ideas in writing. I expressed gratitude and dismissed them.

Reflection of Tutoring Experience The Writing Coach is truly a great eye opening experience for me. I learned that writing is a rather difficult task to teach. It requires more skill other than merely being able to write. It requires the ability to teach what and how to write. It also requires the ability to provide effective feedback and adjust to the writing needs of the student. I believe that the writing sessions we had helped Spencer and Joey improve in their writing. I believe that I was able to provide helpful feedback in their papers. I was also able to adjust the mini lessons based on the feedback I gave and their current writing needs. I also believe that I was able to establish good rapport with both Spencer and Joey. They are now better in organizing their thoughts in writing. I also believe that the lessons we did helped them in their preparation for higher English classes. If I could redo the experience, I would focus more in fulfilling their writing goals they described to me at the beginning of the semester. I could have inserted some mini lessons that will focus on those goals throughout the semester. I believe that the goals they

set for themselves are results from self-evaluation. I could have valued those goals more. I believe that I can also be better in organizing my lessons before each session. I learned the value of showing both good examples and bad examples to students in our sessions. I could also improve on giving them more engaging activities for every session. As a writer, I learned that organization is essential in writing. The process of writing is essential to meaning. As I read through Joey and Spencers papers, I evaluate my organizational skills in writing. I learned what is effective and what is not effective in organization. I honestly do not make idea maps when I write but ever since I taught idea maps to the tutees, I realized the effectiveness of this tool in enhancing organization. Now, I use idea maps every time I write. Focusing on organization brings me back to the process approach to writing as discussed by Matsuda (2003), an approach that focuses on establishing meaning and organization through process. I believe in this approach and this is the reason why I chose activities that focus on the process of writing. I also learned that good writing involves a number of revisions. Revisions make writing better. I have seen the positive effect of multiple revisions in Joey and Spencers paper. I noticed that every time they revise, their paper gets better. I also learned how important feedback is in these revisions. Feedback is truly essential to better papers. I tried my best to give specific feedback to Spencer and Joeys writing as much as I can. I also encouraged peer to peer feedback in our sessions because I believe that the practice could help better their paper too. The importance of feedback is echoed by Ferris(2004 ) as an important aspect of revision to prevent students from fossilization and to continue the development of their competence in language. As a teacher, I hope to transfer the concepts I learned in the Writing Coach sessions. I plan to be flexible in meeting the writing needs of each student. Since the Writing Coach sessions focus only on two students, I was able to modify my teaching and my feedback easily based on their writing needs. I cannot imagine yet what it would be like to do the same in a classroom setting with thirty students or more. For now, my answer to this dilemma would be writing conferences. I believe that writing conferences are effective tools in knowing a students writing better. Writing conferences are considered to be helpful response practices and opportunities for teachers to reflect and adjust their instruction based on the concerns of the students as indicated by Eckstein (2013). As my primary goal as a teacher, I take Ferriss(2004) advice to avoid rigidity and remain humble at all times. For me, this means that being a writing teacher involves being open to suggestions as well as being updated to the research and studies related to writing.