What we did May 19 - what to do for May 24

We began by telling stories about who we are as students and writers. These stories were told to help us put some of the experiences that influenced our attitudes toward writing and school "out there" so we could reflect on what our (unconscious) assumptions about how to be a student and how to write. These assumptions can drive our response to other students and writers - and make us blind to the fact that there are lots of different Discourses that shape both writing and relationships to "school." Within our group there were both positive and negative associations with writing, there were assumptions that education was both "first and most important" and that "family is first," and there were multiple particular feelings about school. If someone took down the list from the board - post it!

The purpose of this discussion was to engage us in reflecting how our assumptions might affect our teaching - and (through hearing the stories of others) to illustrate some of the (many) possible relationships individuals have to writing, school, and Discourse. Cultivating this awareness of how your assumptions, values & beliefs connect to the Discourses of the facilitators, the students, and Kean University is important to your role as a Studio mentor.

At the end of this discussion I asked you to do some writing where you characterized and reflected on your home discourse - and asked you to pay particular attention to (to flag or note) how your home discourse might affect your work as a Studio Mentor.

We discussed the introduction to Grego & Thompson (with multiple digressions) - with particular focus on space - both the physical structures & the social/discursive structures - relevant to studio spaces. As part of our analysis of the discursive space (& power relationships) structured into the EEO program - we analyzed the way EEO students are described in the literature describing the EEO program. Language is always chosen - even if unconsciously - and the program description draws from "deficit" models for students in this program - and poses a hierarchical relationship not only of who has valuable knowledge and who does not - but of who has the ability/power to change this unequal distribution of knowledge Part of the role of Studio support programs is to take apart this construction of power by enabling students to make informed (powerful) choices within academic spaces.

We read through (quickly) the description of what happens in Studio sessions - and we discussed which practices we thought we might change (particularly the role of faciliators as mediating communications between students & instructors).

During the last hour of class we generated a List of Objectives for the Studio Program, and we started work on a collaborative list of necessary documents/information for designing Studio Support for the Kean University Studio Program.

For Monday

Read: Grego & Thompson, Chapters 1& 2 (Sam please return my book by Monday AM so I can review).

I know I said I would copy a document on coaching readers - but I didn't get to it so I will distribute that in class.

Post to your Blog:

Design Document 2: define/list mentor & facilitator responsibilities. This is a different kind of a list than the one provided in the Draft EEO Summer Program Document (though that is a good place to start). You need to think about what in particular mentors and facilitators have to do; this list is a brainstorming document - and we will compare lists to ensure we have a clear idea of these responsibilities.

Planning Document 2: Identify possible meeting spaces. I have set up the google.doc and you are expected to contribute spaces on that document. If you find you cannot edit - let me know and I will fix it. For this planning document - you should do some analytic writing about which spaces will work best and why. You might want to include some conceptual analysis - will classroom spaces work as well as spaces in the UC? in the library? What about the conference rooms? Study space in the dorms? Spaces associated with administrative spaces (meeting rooms associated with departments or administrative services) - or support services (in the EEO space, the writing center, CAS tutoring spaces, for example)? This way - once we have the list - we will have a basis for ranking & choosing the particular spaces we will request.

In class we will go over Grego & Thompson (hopefully quickly) => come to class with questions about one particular section. Be prepared to participate in a proto-type Studio Session to support reading questions. Yes, we will be making this up. After we have some practice, we will take a shot at a script for facilitating students who come to studio with requests for assistance with reading.

I will give a presentation on the assignment sheet for Project 1: the Studio Program Design and we will talk through the headings for the program design. Hopefully you will have some time to do some brainstorm writing.

Dr. Sutton will give a presentation on the Writing content courses during the second half of the class.

Have a good weekend, and see you on Monday!