Teaching One-to-One: the Writing Conference

Teaching One-to-One: the Writing Conference

by Muriel Harris Harris, Muriel. Teaching One-to-one: the Writing Conference. Urbana, Ill.: National Council of Teachers of English, 1986. Print. Here are some basic points inside. In her book she prefers the term "teacher" or "instructor" rather than "tutor. Conferences can be incorporated in very different ways according to your structure. How can we teach a process? Talk about it Demonstrate it Participate in it. -Writers need to write, get immediate, helpful, supportive feedback, then write again. -Adopting the role of a collaborator, an interested but sometimes confused reader -pg 49, she covers proper seating, paper placement -Open Questions vs Rhetorical Closed Probe and Prompt Leading (questions where the teacher knows the answer) -Theorists like JoAnn Johnson feels an imperative structure is better than an open-ended questioning one. (As in, "Do X" and the tutor watches and responds to the results.) -"Education, Johnson comments, is the only field where a question is considered a stimulant for higher levels of thinking." -p64 -p.73 Pointing out the potential hazards of differences in nonverbal communication! EYE CONTACT, USE OF SPACE, CHAIR PLACEMENT, PAPER PLACEMENT -She mentions John Hinds idea of Reader vs Writer Responsibility in Meaning Making. how much mental work do we expect the reader to do? She advocates "perception checking" of students' intended meanings (that they are expressing through writing or talk). "In contrast, the nondirective approach [in counseling] rests on the assumption that most people can help themselves if they are freed from emotional obstacles such as fear of criticism and fear of failure." -70