Allen J. Frantzen
Honors 290


Students often ask what constitutes a good paper in English 393 or Honors 290. Here are paragraphs from two outstanding recent papers. Note the use of specifics; the helpful references to Colvin; the initiative in finding and using outside materials; and especially the clear, well-structured prose. Reproduced with the permisson of the tutor.

Paper #1

In the first several weeks of my tutoring sessions, my learner and I worked together on reading, conversation, and writing. We started to develop a routine of reading passages from such books as Even More True Stories and More About the USA, answering comprehension questions together, building vocabulary words from the stories we read, and writing sentences with the vocabulary words. This seemed (and still seems) to be an effective way for [the learner] to improve his communication and understanding of English. However, I felt that the routine (although it incorporated all forms of communication to aid [the learner] in his learning and prevented [the learner] from becoming too bored) was becoming slightly monotonous. I am aware that [the learner] and I only have a limited amount of time to work on improving his English skills, but I want to help him achieve his goals and work to the best of his ability in the time that we have. Certainly, there are other ways in which I can help [the learner] reach his full potential, rather than maintaining the same routine.

In this regard, Colvin affirms, "Individualized lessons are most effective when you use the basic techniques and exercises as a springboard to your own creative endeavors" (31). I was determined to find creative and new ways to introduce material into my tutoring sessions. I searched the Internet for resources and found a very helpful website called edhelper.com. The website allows one to print various worksheets, crossword puzzles, and word searches on verbs, nouns, prepositions, etc. [the learner] was having particular problems with verbs in the past tense and past participles. For example, he would write sentences like, "Yesterday, I went worked" instead of "Yesterday, I went to work" or "Yesterday, I worked." I found several worksheets which consisted of past tense verbs/ past participle word banks and sentence fill-ins that I thought might be useful in helping [the learner]'s understanding of past tense verbs. I downloaded these worksheets off of the web site and brought them in to my next session.

The results were amazing. After the first two worksheets alone, [the learner]'s understanding of past tense verbs/past participles increased much faster and much better. I believe a lot of his success was a result of the fact that I incorporated new ways for him to learn actively into our session. Colvin explains that "adapt[ing] your teaching to your students' learning styles" is very important (30). After seeing how well [the learner] progressed with the first worksheets, I brought in other worksheets to every session that corresponded to the grammar with which we were working. I asked [the learner] about what he thought of the worksheets and he responded very positively. He feels much more comfortable learning with the worksheets because he can write the answers on the page (whereas he couldn't write in the grammar books) and he can take them home with him to look over later. Furthermore, [the learner] has the opportunity to see how far he has progressed with the worksheets.

#2

Especially for tutors working with extremely basic learners, I would stress Colvin's "communicative approach" (55). It starts with listening and speaking and then incorporates reading and writing. In our own education, we never had to practice listening and speaking; that was inherent with our upbringing in an English atmosphere. Teachers stressed reading and writing because those were the skills that needed help. In [the learner's] life, listening and speaking are much more important. He works primarily on building and repairing houses, and his vocabulary and level of communication regarding his job is good. We had a long conversation the other night on how he fixed windows~the different parts of the window that he could identify in English, the different tools necessary for the job, and the types of materials he uses. He told me that his boss speaks very minimal Spanish, but the majority of the workers speak Spanish only. Therefore, with even his basic knowledge of general English and his higher level of job-specific English, he serves as a bridge between the two.

Trying to use the "communicative approach" in my own tutoring, I began to focus more on listening and speaking. From these two practices, I developed reading and writing exercises. [The learner] is very eager to write things down in his notebook so that he can review them later, and I found that the best thing to do is to ask a question and then write down his response or have him first formulate a response in spoken English and then transcribe it in his notebook. He then sees the spoken word becoming the written word. Either he or I will write down verbatim what he says and then work from there. I started out by revising the sentences into correct English, turning [the learner's] "I go date wife," for example, into "I go on a date with my wife." It became too complicated, however, to address all the issues at once. Each issue, such as possessives or prepositions, must be approached slowly and independently; it is best to work on only one at a time. In the first sessions, I tried to jump on top of everything, even though I was warned against it in the orientation sessions. I don't think that there was enough stress during the orientations on the amount of progress that can be made in one tutoring session. It is slow progress, but that's all right. Colvin points out that "language must be overlearned. Language learning requires a lot of constant review and repetition" (91). This takes more time and requires a more intense focus than I had expected.