Shadowing Experience

This Thursday was my first shadowing experience. When I entered the small, yet comfortable room of writing fellows and students, I met my writing fellow Brittany Mangold and the student she was working with. The pair had already begun discussing the student’s paper, so I quietly went to the couch next to the desk they were working at, and began listening and jotting down notes. Both Brittany and the student were first going over the prompt that the student had gotten from her teacher. The prompt seemed to be confusing and lengthy, which made it difficult for them to pick out the focus for this paper. The student was concerned about the idea of a thesis in her paper, because she was writing about multiple works of artwork, (since the class was an art history class) and she needed to write something about all of the pieces.

In the beginning of the session the student, thinking out loud, exclaimed that maybe a thesis was not needed in this paper. However, once Brittany and her looked over the prompt together, they both realized that a thesis was required. This came as a shock to me that the student came into the session not even knowing if she needed a thesis. This indicated two things to me; either the student did not pay attention to the prompt or her teacher’s instructions about the paper, or the teacher had typed up such a confusing and multi-layered prompt that direction and emphasis were not put on important aspects of the paper, such as a thesis. Since the prompt was so confusing, Brittany and the student spent a significant period of time dissecting and pulling out the important aspects of the prompt. What Brittany concluded from the assignment, was that the student needed to focus on her own personal observations of the assigned artistic images, instead of the artistic era, known as “The Bronze Age,” that was present when this artwork existed. Since the student’s rough draft was not printed out and on a computer, Brittany was not able to make corrections onto her paper, so instead she took out a piece of paper and wrote down the main points of what both the student and her had discussed in their meeting. By writing down the main points out so both of them could see, it was easier for the student to mold her thesis from these ideas.

Brittany was good at asking leading questions throughout the tutorial session, such as “what kind of thesis do you want” instead of telling her what kind of thesis Brittany thought she should have. Although there was terminology Brittany did not know in this paper, she was still able to help the student formulate ways of thinking about the art terms in order to convey her thoughts and opinions. Brittany told the student to first start with her observations about the artwork, then go to her comparisons and then her analysis of all the pieces. Most importantly it would be crucial for her to make a thesis that concludes with one encompassing point or idea that connects all of the pieces together. Although this new structure presented by Brittany seemed slightly overwhelming and different from what the student currently had, Brittany reminded her that what she needs to do is add on to what she already has, not take away anything. According to Brittany, the student’s broad ideas were still necessary and well presented in her paper, however her lack of specific observations would hurt her paper unless they were included along with these broad ideas. When in doubt, Brittany told the student to ask herself the question, “am I stating facts or observations?” in order to help her refocus if she were to lose direction when writing.

Overall, I thought that the session was informative and helpful to the student, who clearly seemed stressed out about the multiple subjects that she needed to cover within her paper. However, I think that the writing fellow had a more difficult time tutoring with this student, because she did not have a hard copy of the paper. Personally, I always find it easier to correct a paper if I have a hard copy, because you have the freedom to write down and adjust anything on the paper with your own handwriting and creativity. Despite this obstacle, Brittany did have a hard copy of the prompt and was able to write down ideas on an extra sheet of blank paper to help them collaborate and visualize the student’s purpose and direction.