ESL & Regular Students

In Monday's class, Whitney and Sarah were the discussion leaders for the Harris and Myers pieces. It was interesting because at first, I had the ideas that yes, there are different ways of tutoring ESL students and native English speaking students. As the discussion progressed, however, I began to see that there are more similarities between the two. You should still talk to the student beforehand, gain an understanding of what they expect from the tutoring session, and then move on from there. I think it was Scott that also brought up the point of trying to figure out which way the student learns best, whether that is a direct approach, or a non-direct approach (not quite an INdirect approach :)).

Once again this seemed to be a clear cut case at the beginning, but once you read the two articles, you see all the gray areas that are formed. Just because something seems the obvious answer (of course you shouldn't censor student's writing), the more you discuss the idea and hear OTHER viewpoints on the subject, the less clear it seems to become! I think Sarah was the one that said the two articles that we read each day seem to play devil's advocate with each other, and it certainly makes for interesting discussions.