Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Conceptual Time Frame

Week 1: June 28- July 1
1. Introduction – Ice breakers, Personal Survey, Expectations of the programs, Suggestions
2. Time Management
3. Syllabus or Some type of introductory sheet to why these groups will meet and how the meetings will be conducted.Talk about their portfolios that they have to make.
4. Anticipate the distribution of laptops for the next day.
5. Distribution of laptop
6. Overview of Rules on Laptop: Going on Myspace or Facebook ? How do we feel about this?
7. Suggestions or concerns


Week 2 July 6-8 Technology week

1. Overview of Kean website, Kean Email, Kean Wise and Nancy Thompson Library Online
2. Provide a website with important links that may come in handy for their courses at Kean
Links to :
i. OWL PURDUE
ii. NOODLE TOOLS
iii. DIANA HACKER MLA SAMPLE
iv. DIANA HACKER APA SAMPLE
3. How to use googledocs for their portfolios.
4. Students will bring their work (artifacts) to work on.
5. What do they want out of the session?


Week 3 July 12-15

Students will bring their work (artifacts) to work on.
What do they want out of the session?
What did they learn?
What changes will they make to their writing?


Week 4 July 19- 22

Students will bring their work (artifacts) to work on.
What do they want out of the session?
What did they learn?
What changes will they make to their writing?


Week 5: July 26-29

Students will bring their work (artifacts) to work on.
What do they want out of the session?
What did they learn?
What changes will they make to their writing?


Week 6: Aug 2- 5 Exam Week

What did you learn from your experiences at the EEO program?
What did you like about the studio sessions?
Has your views about Kean changed after this EEO program?
Post Survey

Planning Activities

Activities for Time line:
1. Ice Breakers!!!
These are great but sometimes difficult to start.
Based on my experience as an Academic Instructional Mentor for College Freshmen, I’ve met students who did not want to participate in the ice breakers. They thought they were silly. Here is an Ice breakers I found that students may enjoy.
Taken from : http://www.ehow.com/way_5317471_ice-breaking-activities-high-school.html“What Changed? In this observation game, everyone lines up in two lines facing each other. After everyone is paired up, they are given 30 seconds to study everything about the person in front of them. Then the students in one line turn around and close their eyes. Meanwhile, the students in the other line change something about themselves. Changes could include taking off their glasses, reversing their shoes or removing an earring or a barrette. Once everyone has changed something, the other kids turn around and try to guess what changed. Then, switch roles and play again.”
Taken from : http://www.training-games.com/pdf/40FreeIceBreakers.pdf

The Artist Game
•Give everyone a piece of paper and a pencil. In 5 minutes they must draw a picture that conveys who they
are without writing any words or numbers. At the end of 5 minutes the host collects the pictures. Show the
pictures to the group one at a time and have them try to guess who drew it. After this allow each of the
artists to introduce themselves and explain how their work clearly conveys who they are.
2. Getting to Know You Survey in the beginning of the program:
a. What are they excited about here at Kean?
b. What are they unsure of at Kean?
c. What are their academic goals?
d. What are their future goals in life?
e. What are they interested in? Any hobbies?
f. What town are they from?
g. What’s their favorite type of music?
h. What makes you unique?
i. Which subject does you like the most? Why? What subject do you like the least? Why?

3. Time Management: Schedule their studying schedule and homework schedule along with activites.

4. Review reading skills, the ways we can skim, search for key words, reading for a purpose

5. Decoding types of writing assignments they will have

6. Introduction to Kean website (keanwise)

7. Introduction to OWL PURDUE website, how to navigate through this site in order to write specific types of paper.

8. Overview of different physical resources that is available to them.

9. Attendance and sign in sheets

Monday, May 24, 2010

May 24 Notes

Criteria for evaluating studio effectiveness session
- Did everyone talk to each other and their presented
- Presenter learn something about reading? Get the reading or by students
- Is group using models (presented by fac. or by students)
- Coherent in depth conversation
- Body language- goal emotional dynamics
o Nodding
o Comfortable/afraid
- Attention to new language/ patterns


Feminist reflective process (you talked about who you were and how that set up to think about writing and realized some of the decisions that you make about what gives convincing arguments come from your home discourse and not really your English writing class.

Associative logic may be the process of organizing reasoning. You start in one place, you start in one place, and then it leads to something else. You come to the conclusion by formulating it on the way.

Academic discourse is different. Your thesis statement is in the front (conclusion). This is completely different from Associative logic.

How is learning about feminist reflective process used in this?
- We can have our facilitators reflect on how writing is connected to their learning and education so that they can use it with their students.
- Studios use this process with their facilitators.
- Discourse conflict
- Difficult ethics
o Space is not only physical
o Conceptual Space (physical and neither the main stream interpretation of physical space, it is a more neutral space where power dimensions are nonexistent)
- What’s at stake /consequences for not using the master discourses?
- We all have discourse conflicts. Being aware increases the conflicts and the fears.
- Choices
- Negotiate view of discourse shifting= audience awareness

Our job is to create an effective support system. We want to provide the kind of support that is really going to work.
We are out there trying to do something that will work. We are looking at the theory that most reasonably sounds like it will work.
What else did we learn?
We are starting to think about objectives and what we want to accomplish.
Formed from multiple perspectives
Outside/ alongside perspective
Inquiry drives studio process
Studios are not a fix it shop
They are a place that encourages reelections, awareness and inquiry
It will shape the process and protocols
The principals for diving the process and protocols are about driving the students to build bridges of their own choices, make their own learning decisions, step into their authorities, and see models for what academic discourses are.
Have students reflect, analyze and make choices.
Their introductory exercise will have us model the introductory in facilitator training and find something important about being a facilitator through the introductory process.


Everything I want to do
• Studio sessions
• Data collection
• Readings (Academic Work)
• 1 on 1 coaching
• Interactive activities
• Writing groups (Academic Work)
• Counseling social problems
• Boundary settings
• Defining rules
• Reprise all these things, have flexibility, build on earlier activities
• Focus on content (Academic Work)
• Teach them to use googledocs
• Google sites
• Create portfolio
• Ordinate to academic technology and laptops

planning document 2 and responsibilities of mentors and facilitators

Planning Document
Some ideas I have in regards to spaces where my coaches can meet:
-I need a place that has low levels of noise and traffic
-I would like close seating
-We would need electrical outlets
-I prefer tables

Some places that we can meet:
-Conference room in the CAS building
-Maybe meet in one of the new rooms in the library?
- the UC has rooms upstairs where the clubs usually meet, if there are no clubs that are active in the summer, maybe the EEO department can request permission to use those spaces on the second or third floor?
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Mentor Responsibilities

• Encourage coaches to talk with one another in regards to their reflections on the tutoring sessions.
• Record responses and provide questions which will set them up for more discussions in regards to problems they’ve encountered and concerns they may have.
• Designate jobs to each coach during the meetings, for example, have another coach type the minutes up, one can keep track of time.
• Keep attendance of the coaches, maybe a sign in sheet.
• provide coaches with the support they will need in order to work with their students
• stage possible mock sessions with the coaches so they know how to handle specific situations
• have coaches share some of their common struggles and thoughts about their first year of college (if they are comfortable talking about it, I can talk about my experience first)
• build a relationship with coaches that shows you are working with them as a team but are still professional and goal oriented
• demonstrate the differences between one on one tutoring sessions and studio groups
• provide hand outs or googledocs that they can follow along with during the session (or possibly write it on the whiteboard if there is one in the room
• take notes on the sessions that are observed during the times they are coaching
• talk about what happened during the coaching sessions
• set up agendas for each meeting, prioritize the most important concepts and topics
• communicate the progress and interests of each students with the facilitator


Facilitator responsibilities
• facilitate discussions among groups
• encourage students to talk with one another and not just the coach
• emphasize the importance of not “proofreading or editing” the students work for them.
• provide the students with support in regards to various types of writing they will do
• provide students with resources and model how to use various resources whether technological or physical such as going to the library or finding a computer lab
• work with an outline or possible “what if” document which can serve as a worst case scenario script
• gain the trust of the students but don’t try to become their saving grace at Kean, a tutor can only do so much
• maintain a level of professionalism, these students may be close to their age groups but these sessions are not for socializing off topic, tutors must remain consistent and monitor discussions among groups, try to bring students back on track if they stray far from topic
• create files on google docs for each student, to keep track of their interest and progress (similar to the tutoring notes used in tutortrac)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

List of Program Objectives and Planning Document

Blog: Create two separate posts to your blog:

Design Document 1: list of program objectives.

• Prepare students for college with discussions in regards to time management.
• Demonstrate where and how students can utilize the resources available to them on campus.
• Provide note taking workshops and examples
• Provide students with the tools necessary for research including:
 How to use the Nancy Thompson website
 How to navigate through online databases
 How to use Google Scholar
 How to use Owl Purdue and Diana Hacker Websites

• Discussions about the expectations of students here at Kean University
• Provide students with support that targets their various learning styles and interests
o For example: If there are students who are interested in clubs, direct them to the list of funded and nonfunded groups at Kean University.
• Introduce the Kean University website and demonstrate how to navigate through Keanwise, Kean email and blackboard
• Introduce students to Stress management. Show them where they can play sports, join the gym, use computer labs and recreation center.
• Require students to work in groups in order to gather a list of responsibilities that they think College students have and compare it to the actual list that was created by the EEO program.
• Clarification of what the purpose of the writing center and tutorsing services are.
o Remind students that we are not going to proofread their papers, online or face to face. Tutoring sessions do not consist of the tutor editing their papers.
• Information about where their group meetings will take place.
• Overview of the attendance policy for their classes and meetings.
• Model essays and explanation of expectations for different types of essays that courses require.












Planning Document 1: list the documents/information you will need to plan this program.


• Provide students with Shuttle Bus schedules as well as information on Yumba Café and computer labs in the East Campus
• List of summer courses that are available to the students.
• Contact information of mentors and tutors (however I do not like providing my students with my phone number)
• Course Syllabus
• Model essays
• List of resources and websites necessary for research
• List of short term and long term goals
• Attendance Records
• Reflective Journals or Online Journals (private) discussing the questions or concerns of each student
• Maybe a comment box or suggestion box (website?) that the students can access if they are apprehensive about asking questions in front of peers
• Guides on note taking, stress management and time management
• Surveys handed out to students in the beginning of program in order to learn about their likes, interests, extracurricular activities and summer goals.
• Meeting Agendas for each session
• Gather each student’s email address and encourage them to exchange contact information with at least two people in case they need clarification on an assignement or would like to work in a study group

Monday, May 17, 2010

Day 1- May 17,2010

The EEO program at Kean wants to prepare them in the following ways.

1. Gaps in knowledge- content and Discourse/ Familiarity in study habits

2. How to be a student

The program is directed towards catching them up in content and how to be a student. It is both in knowing how you are to represent yourself, behave in class, related to your printed text and there are social conventions to how to relate to text.

This is why they need this interpersonal apprenticeship that Gee referred to in the article.

What is Discourse?

Discourse is language in use. This talks about their identities. This is a huge important word for us in the programs. However, the mentors need to know what it means. They must be able to do all the things you need to do in order to work with Discourse (identity).

What are some of the things that are associated with Discourse in school? What are the tones that will be particularly critical with students?

Capital D Discourse characteristics:

A. Different dialects of English

B. Mannerisms (how to behave in a classroom)

What kinds of behaviors are valued?

Example: If students come from a family in which being tough leads to value, they may be perceived differently.

The opportunities in these small groups are to model the discourse and talk that will give them the advantage in their classes.

Somewhere in training, the students and mentors will have to reflect on their beliefs and ideas about knowledge. However on a liberal arts education, what is the value of knowledge? Knowledge is intrinsically valued.

Students must be aware of the values and expectations at the university and at some points they are in conflict with their own. They are required to think about how they will behave and how this fits in their plan with what they want to do in college. Will they have to do things that they aren’t interested in at college?

C. Authority Issues

D. Ethics

List of what particular students might need to work on

- Time management

- How to research

- Available resources

- Understanding the language in their assignments

- Identity as a student

o Taking their courses seriously

o Some students have told me they never wrote a paper in their lives and they can just pay someone to do it

- Prioritizing- Finding a balance between school work and their social life here at Kean.

- Using the right language in their papers

- Note taking skills

o Writing to learn issue

o Emphasize the importance of writing to learn

- Comfortable enough to ask for help

- Balancing stress

- Attitude interactions

- Criticisms- feedback

Gee: Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics

He makes a point about ways of being, assumptions we make about how people perceive us, it includes our dress, posture, what we eat, and our posture.

What is the point of distinguishing the difference between “discourse” and Discourse”?

*Power dynamics

ü You can’t address an audience unless you know the discourse that they are in.

ü It is also about marking yourself as an insider.

How does Gee define literacy?

He talks about mastering a secondary discourse on top of page 529.

“…literacy is the mastery of or fluent control over a secondary Discourse..”

- You can’t master a Discourse unless you are a part of that community.

- He was talking about the difference between acquisition and learning. It’s about learning about identity.

First Theorem

- “Discourses are not like languages in one very important regard. Someone can speak English but not fluently. Someone can’t engage in a discourse in a less than fully fluent manner. You are either in or you’re not. “ (529)

o He’s saying you don’t get it until you get it.

o Lack of fluency will mark you as a pretender.

o You have to be able to grasp the entirety of the dominant discourse. In order to do that you have to sacrifice yourself a little bit. You lose a bit of what you were.

o Secondary Discourses open up choices. It’s a whole new world.

What are the implications of that in our programs?

-We want to provide many opportunities for our students where it will be perceived and modeled back in the form they can use it.

- Facilitators must model. We have to train coaches to appropriately model for the students how to become more aware of and begin to enter college as freshman students.

What are the other implications for our program?

- We are going to have students that have never stepped outside of their home discourse in order to find out if there are other ways to act, behave.

Gee asks “What is literacy?” page 538

“Discourses are inherently ideological” What does that mean?

- They are never neutral. All identities are value base. You prefer one thing over another, there you are.

What do we have to do within a group to allow that to happen?

-We must be respectful and receptive of all Discourses.

In order to have groups reflected on these different types of Discourses?

- Mentor must have to open up too. It’s going to be just enough interpersonal conversations in our training sessions. I have to reveal some things about myself to seem vulnerable in order to talk about my difficulties and sharing of common struggles. People have to be people to each other in order for this to work.

o Support writing coaches enough

o You can’t make them open up

o Just set yourself as an example and show it doesn’t hurt that much

- Discourses change relative to the opposing discourses that exist.

o They are constantly evolving.

o In a group dynamic, the way I present myself will set the tone of the group.

Setting myself as open and exploratory invites the students to be open and exploratory as well.

The way you talk is a marker of how you will be received.

- It’s about a rhetorical relationship.