Writing with hearing impairment

For a year, I've tutored a writer who grew up hearing impaired. The experience reaffirms my belief that grammar and spelling, while necessary for the craft, are not an indicator of whether someone can write. My student's novel includes well-developed characters, a good sense of timing, interesting conflict, and realistic dialogue. Yet his hearing impairment has affected his writing, and in his education he was held to a different standard than other students. Now, on his own and through his creative writing, he explores grammar and spelling issues in his work. Here is what I've learned as his tutor. 1) Sit to his side with the better ear so he can hear; it is not impolite to ask which side is preferable. 2) Read aloud, enunciate well, and yet read at a normal speed. 3) Sound-alike words cause more problems than usual; whereas any student might misspell threw/through, my hearing-impaired student also confuses as/has/and because they sound the same to him. When correcting these, focus on how the word is used in the sentence: This should be 'and' because it combines things, and here 'has' is part of the action while 'as' starts a descriptive phrase. 4) Read ahead a few paragraphs to understand the content of the story before discussing grammar. This way I learn what he intends to communicate story-wise and then we discuss how the sentences can better achieve his goals. 

Useful comments when reviewing papers

Students ought to be challenged when receiving feedback on papers. Instead of correcting the commas on the student’s paper, the tutor or teacher can suggest that a sentence needs a comma and challenge the student to figure out where the comma goes. In a course, having students submit their papers electronically will save time because the teacher can use the Review tab on Word 2010 to highlight and insert comments. Typical comments can be written in advance and simply copied and pasted into the comment text bubble. Below is a list of comments that often come up as I tutor. These can be used by tutors and teachers when reviewing papers:

• This is a fragment. Does it belong to the sentence before or after it?
• This is a fragment. What word(s) can you add or change to make it a complete sentence?
• There are two fragments in this paragraph. Read the paragraph backwards one sentence at a time to find them. How can you fix them?
• This sentence is a run-on. How can you fix it?
• There are two run-on sentences in this paragraph. Can you find them and fix them?
• You have a series of three in this sentence. Where should you put commas?
• You start this sentence with a subordinate clause or long phrase. Find the end of it and add a comma.
• When you divide two sentences with a fancy adverbial conjunction like the word however, you need to give it a semicolon and a comma. Where should these go?
• This paragraph is longer than 12 sentences. Where would be a good place to split it?
• How can you rewrite this topic sentence to better preview what you talk about in this paragraph?
• How can you rewrite the thesis sentence to better preview what your body paragraphs talk about?
• Your ideas in the paragraph(s) are scattered. Which ideas belong together? Color-code them so you can easily see which go where, and then reorganize your paragraph(s).

Papers are a treasure trove of opportunity!

We tutors and teachers have an excellent opportunity to make grammar, organization, and communication of content actually matter to the student when the student is most engaged in the subject—in his or her own papers. Exercises in workbooks and classroom PowerPoint presentations are useful tools, but it is my belief that people actually start to care about writing conventions when they want their own ideas and stories to be understood! We miss the chance to engage students with their very own sentences, their very own ideas, their very own material, when we “take it over” to “correct it.” When a student is telling the story of his father’s funeral, he is invested in his sentences and thoughts far more than when reading his textbook. When a student writes her ideas for fixing child support, she is very keen to make her thoughts clear and is much more liable to listen to instruction than when watching it roll across PowerPoint slides.

Students’ papers are a treasure trove of opportunity for education. In future posts, I propose how we can use these treasures to activate learning for the students and avoid fostering the students’ passivity.

Fostering passivity in writing education

Here are two scenarios which I have observed in writing education:

      1)     A student meets with a tutor for advice on a rough draft. The tutor takes the paper from the student and hovers over it with a pen, marking parts that need improvement: inserting commas and paragraph breaks, correcting syntax and word choice, and revising topic sentences and the thesis statement. The student sits beside the tutor, nodding occasionally as the tutor explains why such a correction is needed. The only active thinking the student must do is to explain a few content ideas that the tutor says are missing. 

      2)     A student comes for tutoring with a final draft that has been graded by the teacher. The teacher has marked up the paper with commas and paragraph breaks, syntax and word choice adjustments, and suggestions to revise topic sentences and the thesis sentence. The student asks the tutor for help deciphering the teacher’s notations since the student is not familiar with the editing symbols or simply cannot read the teacher’s handwriting. The teacher has given the student the opportunity to revise the paper for a higher grade. The only active thinking the student must do is to add a few sentences to address a lack of content that the teacher commented upon.

In scenario 1, the tutor has chosen to foster passivity in the student. In scenario 2, the teacher has chosen to foster passivity in the student. The problem in both is that the student is not actively learning how to write better! The student is having most of the work done by the tutor and the teacher who are correcting by editing and not engaging the student in active learning.

In future posts, I offer solutions that can help avoid this problem.

Texting and professionalism

What is the point of scolding a student for texting a message that looks like this: i'msorry i didn't see u in class today i am sick but i will turn in my assinement soon thank you. Seriously, I think some teachers get rather snooty in this situation when I would be pleased that the student communicated with me, given how many of them don't. An email reply is not the place to correct someone on the proper use of grammar and professionalism. Instead, I would turn this into a classroom activity -- and not use the student's actual email because this would shame the student unnecessarily. Have the students compose a fictitious text to their best friend saying how sick they are today, including their symptoms. Ask them how, in a text message, they would spell and punctuate it; don't make corrections but rather write what they would normally text on the board. Then tell the class that they must write the same information to their family doctor. Have them compose a formal letter explaining their illness and symptoms, using correct spelling and punctuation. Point out that in both cases the information is being communicated, but we must judge which situations are professional and require proper English. If you want, this would be the time to insist that they email you using proper English. It is unsporting to do so as a reply to their original effort at communication.