I did less, but I gained more
Written by เมื่อลมแรง...ใบไม้ก็ร่วง
//www.scc.losrios.edu
One of my academic interests lies in pedagogy. Ive never had an opportunity to teach, but I was once an ESL tutor for a literature-based composition class. What a great and rewarding experience it was. Tutoring, like teaching, I believe, is a reciprocal process: you tutor and you get tutored. Or simply put, you not only impart knowledge but also receive something in returnusually something unexpected.
I remember that on the first day I tutored, excitement rushed through my body. A couple of days before the first tutoring session, Id read and re-read the text we were to write about over and over, as I wanted to make certain that I understood what the story was about. Also, afraid of the awkward silence that might descend, I spent some time creating study questions, hoping they would generate a good discussion and therefore break the silence. (A good writing about literature grows out of a good discussion.) Ironically, it turned out that those questions were what silenced the students; that is, the heavier I bombarded the questions to my students, the faster they cringed and stared back at me as if they were asking me, What are the answers to your questions? Tell me now, so I can just finish my damn boring paper.
The silence that surrounded the students and me got me into thinking. First, I thought the students unfamiliarity with literary reading and interpretation was responsible for it: none of them was an English major. Further, I have to admit that I also blamed them for not working hard enough. Students of literature know that making meanings requires a conscious effort, especially with literature. In short, at the time, I thought the students were the culprits for the silence.
However, a couple of weeks into the semester, when I thought they should have already grabbed the concept of literary interpretation, the silence still persisted. So, I began to turn my attention from my students to my own tutoring. Or basically, I began asking myself, Did I do something wrong? Once I looked at myself, I noticed that I hardly left a room for students to voice their own thoughts. The study questions backfired, that is.
Therefore, in process of preparing for the next tutoring session, instead of creating a set of questions, I simply familiarized myself the text and nothing more. With the text in mind, when I met my students, I just asked, What do you think of this story? Did you see anything in the story connected to your life? What do you want to write about? Do you have anything in mind?
As it turned out, I was surprised to find that when I adopted a new tutoring approach, the silence gradually shattered. I did less, but I gained more. Not only did I gain more voices from my students, since they came from 9 countries, by letting them connecting the texts to their lives, I also learned the cultures, countries, and societies my students inhabited. I got to know thempersonally.
7/1/2006
(c) 2006. เมื่อลมแรง...ใบไม้ก็ร่วง. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this article may be reproduced, by any process of technique, without the express written consent of the author (in.dialogue@yahoo.com).
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