Leslie’s Discussion Prompts: “Collaboration Is Not Collaboration Is Not Collaboration”

1. Harris writes, “Faculty who recognize the value of such assistance from their colleagues tend to offer credit and graceful notes of appreciation in journal articles and books. Students, however, tend to downplay public recognition of informal collaboration, fearing that it somehow diminishes the effort expected of them.¨ (370).

This quote makes me consider the feelings of students in both English 130 and 30/30E in regards to how they value assistance and collaboration from tutors and peers. Are they ashamed they need help but still grateful for the feedback they receive?

2. “The focus of the effort and attention of both people is solely on the writer. The intense amount of personalizing that takes place in tutorials occurs only because there is an overt recognition that the writer’s concerns will dominate the interaction” (373).

 

I would like to discuss this quote further, particularly with the last section, “the writer’s concerns will dominate the interaction”. Do you think most students in English 30 recognize that they will emerge as improved writers depending on how much effort they put in, or do they ignore this matter and put minimal effort in because they are required to be there. I think there is something to be discovered about the amount and forms of interactions that take place between tutors and 30/30E students.

3. “In a tutorial, tension exists when the writer wants to improve the paper she brought in or successfully complete the assignment she has been given and the tutor wants to improve the writer… In such cases, tutors, and their students have to negotiate some middle ground in which the discussion can proceed, but tutors too often feel- and strain against- the tug of the student’s desire to get this particular paper finished and handed in.” (374)

 

Throughout the article Harris describes a tutor’s goal as being focused on students’ overall improvement as a writer, whereas most students focus is narrowed to individual assignments. Do you as a tutor feel this tension? If so, how do you deal with it? I’m wondering if we need to explicitly state to students that we are available to help them progress as writers, not just critique each individual assignment. I’m also curious as to how in depth we should go when meeting students’ wants (individual assignment help) and meeting students’ needs (overall improvement).

4. We’ve discussed before how we as interns have the benefit of serving as the middle ground between a teacher and a peer, where students are comfortable enough with us to open up and not feel threatened by our feedback. However, on page 377 Harris quotes Arkin and Shollar’s The Tutor Book: “Guide your tutee toward doing his or her own work. Get the student as actively involved in the learning process as possible. Do not do the work for the student (for example, write a paper, solve a problem) (17).” This quote highlights scaffolding, a commonly used teaching technique. Based on this quote it makes it seem like we are hidden teachers disguised as senior students. I would like to discuss this quote further as well…