Yasmin - Blog Post #6

I really enjoyed reading "Helping Students Read Difficult Texts," especially as it relates to the work I'm doing with my Rhetoric class, but I have to admit that I don't think I've worked with any students in the Writing Center yet who are engaging with particularly challenging texts. Or perhaps for the most part, they've come in with a kind of confidence about their ability to understand the texts they've been asked to engage with, and we mostly focus in on the writing. But I can completely understand how the strategies presented in this article would be helpful for a student working within the context of an upper level course.

I most appreciated the ability to zoom out of the disciplinary mindset into techniques that would work well for students in all areas. Like many Writing Center folks, I know a lot about how to read for the humanities and social sciences and much less about other areas, so these more generalized approaches to entering the conversation felt quite useful. I can imagine that part of the process would be making sure to engage the student in the writing center with the kinds of questions about reading that they can take back to their professors, since ideally at the highest levels, they will have the best sense of what the reading 'norms' are. The example about the fact that scientists rarely read the methods was quite interesting to me because I'd never heard this before!

Even though I can't say I've engaged specifically with reading issues, I do spot a lot of the issues of idea management/balancing when talking to students about their papers, as well as difficulty in knowing how to maintain the tone and style of their discipline as they craft their own work. I think that in future sessions, I'll encourage more re-engagement with the readings instead of the close-and-shut model that I think many students are accustomed to.

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 3, 2018 at 9:02 AM

    The fact about scientists not reading the model was a surprise to me too, and definitely helpful because I have students come in all the time with medical and scientific papers that they want help with. Now I know not to spend too much energy on that area and more on the discussion and parts that will be read.

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