writing SI sessions

[Terence A Sullivan]

Hi all,

 

We are having some interesting push back from our English course SI leaders (we call them Peer Alliance Learning – PAL) Facilitators now about using the structure of opener, main, closer, group work, collaboration.

 

They say that writing is very individual and doesn’t lend itself to collaboration. Any suggestions on how to respond to this?

 

Thanks.

 

Terence

 

Dr. Terence Sullivan (he/him/his)

Assistant Director, Academic Support Center

Secretary, Council on Staff Affairs

Tri-Chair, VSU Pride Connection

Location: Odum Library, Room 2609A

Address: Valdosta State University  | 1500 N. Patterson St.  |  Valdosta, GA 31698, USA

Phone:  229-333-7570  |  Fax:  229-333-7579

Web: http://www.valdosta.edu/asc/ |  E-mail: tasul...@valdosta.edu

A Comprehensive University of the University System of Georgia & an Equal Opportunity Institution

 

 

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[Hays, Naydene]

The first thing that comes to mind is peer-to-peer workshopping as the "group work".  This will still reflect the individual nature of writing, but also allow for collaboration, and will help others hone their skills at self-editing.

Naydene Hays

Director of Tutoring

Olympic College

ST 125-A

360.475.7765

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From: Supplemental Instruction Discussion List <SI...@LISTSERV.UMKC.EDU> on behalf of Terence A Sullivan <tasul...@VALDOSTA.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2021 2:07 PM
To: SI...@LISTSERV.UMKC.EDU <SI...@LISTSERV.UMKC.EDU>
Subject: [EXTERNAL] - writing SI sessions

 

CAUTION: This email came from a non-OC system or external source. Beware of phishing and social engineering!

Hi all,

 

We are having some interesting push back from our English course SI leaders (we call them Peer Alliance Learning – PAL) Facilitators now about using the structure of opener, main, closer, group work, collaboration.

 

They say that writing is very individual and doesn’t lend itself to collaboration. Any suggestions on how to respond to this?

 

Thanks.

 

Terence

 

Dr. Terence Sullivan (he/him/his)

Assistant Director, Academic Support Center

Secretary, Council on Staff Affairs

Tri-Chair, VSU Pride Connection

Location: Odum Library, Room 2609A

Address: Valdosta State University  | 1500 N. Patterson St.  |  Valdosta, GA 31698, USA

Phone:  229-333-7570  |  Fax:  229-333-7579

Web: http://www.valdosta.edu/asc/ |  E-mail: tasul...@valdosta.edu

A Comprehensive University of the University System of Georgia & an Equal Opportunity Institution

 

 

Welcome to the Academic Support Center! - Valdosta State University

 

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

 

To search past discussions on the SI-Net, visit our archive at http://groups.google.com/group/si-net

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[Rebecca Tedesco]

Hi Terence,

Hope you're having a good afternoon.

I happen to agree with your SI leaders. As an embedded tutor, I conduct my sessions for reading and English courses as group writing workshops in which students can ask any questions they have about the assignments they are currently working on rather than pre-planned sessions on a specific topic. What I have found is that, if I plan an SI session--even a stellar one--on drafting a thesis, for example, and a student is having trouble getting started on their paper or struggling with MLA format, my session is irrelevant to them and they will not attend, or they will be frustrated if they do attend; if I make it open-ended, however, each student gets what they need and can help one another collaboratively along the way.

When I was tutor coordinator at another school, a four-year institution, I found the same thing for the same reason at the coordinator level: our embedded tutoring program, in which a tutor attended classes and offered one-to-one appointments with students outside of class, was a better fit than SI for English and humanities courses.

This is not to say that SI isn't a great model for learning assistance; it is, and, at the same time, it is only one tool. Just as we wouldn't use a hammer for every job, we shouldn't shy away from using different tools (in this case, academic support models) for different contexts.

There is a lot more I could say about this, but I will leave it at that for now. I'd be happy to talk more with you and provide you with a sample session plan for group writing workshops offline.

Rebecca Tedesco

www.rtedesco.com

Southwestern College (San Diego, CA)

CRLA Level 3 Master Tutor
Certified Learning Center Professional - Level 3

She/Her

Proud member of California School Employees Association AFL-CIO

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[Caitlyn Pleake]

Hello Terence,

I just wanted to reach out with some suggestions from what I've seen and manipulations of generic SI strategies.  I hope this helps!

• Incomplete Outline
• Assuming students have their topics, the activity could be that they work on making an outline for 5 minutes then use TPS to swap outlines and discuss what could help substantiate the argument.
• ID the Big Idea
• This could be an IB or Activity: have the students read through one another's first paragraphs and ID the thesis statement or primary topic.  Once this is done, move on to topic sentences and transitions.  
• Summarize Lecture
• Probably would work best for schema activation: students would review the lecture content and then work together to see if their individual texts correlate to what was taught in class.
• Board work
• Have students break down sentences by utilizing three key words from each sentence (start with one paragraph).  Then either Clusters or TPS to see if other students can construct a paragraph with the same meaning.  The goal would be to see if a student has clearly conveyed their idea.
• First Line Only
• This would be more so an exercise.  Students could be given predetermined thesis statements or topic sentences.  From there, they would construct the rest of the paragraph.  OR have students share their topic sentences or thesis statements and the rest of the group is to work collaboratively on constructing a paragraph.
• TPS 
• This, I feel, would be more appropriate as a larger workshop closer to an assignment due date.
• Divide and Conquer paired with Clusters
• This would again be like tps, but instead several students working together.  They would need to share individual paragraphs via email or physical copies that can be cut apart if you are meeting F2F.
• 3 Before Me
• I think this responds to Rebecca's comment on keeping the session more open.  A leader can plan a wonderful session, but if they are not flexible and responsive to student's needs, then the purpose of SI is lost.  As an icebreaker, one student could ask a question about the assignment and then three others would either need to respond to the question or incorporate their own questions.
  

I have several more ideas and would love to discuss them at any time via email or phone.  Hopefully, these ideas provide some kindling and help you and your team!

All the best,

Cat Pleake, M.A.

Supplemental Instruction Coordinator

Modular C, Suite 133
Texas A&M University-San Antonio
One University Way, San Antonio, TX  78224
210-784-1382

cpl...@tamusa.edu

---

From: Supplemental Instruction Discussion List <SI...@LISTSERV.UMKC.EDU> on behalf of Terence A Sullivan <tasul...@VALDOSTA.EDU>

Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2021 4:07 PM
To: SI...@LISTSERV.UMKC.EDU <SI...@LISTSERV.UMKC.EDU>
Subject: writing SI sessions

 

Hi all,

 

We are having some interesting push back from our English course SI leaders (we call them Peer Alliance Learning – PAL) Facilitators now about using the structure of opener, main, closer, group work, collaboration.

 

They say that writing is very individual and doesn’t lend itself to collaboration. Any suggestions on how to respond to this?

 

Thanks.

 

Terence

 

Dr. Terence Sullivan (he/him/his)

Assistant Director, Academic Support Center

Secretary, Council on Staff Affairs

Tri-Chair, VSU Pride Connection

Location: Odum Library, Room 2609A

Address: Valdosta State University  | 1500 N. Patterson St.  |  Valdosta, GA 31698, USA

Phone:  229-333-7570  |  Fax:  229-333-7579

Web: http://www.valdosta.edu/asc/ |  E-mail: tasul...@valdosta.edu

A Comprehensive University of the University System of Georgia & an Equal Opportunity Institution

 

 

Welcome to the Academic Support Center! - Valdosta State University

 

P Please consider the environment before printing this email

 

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