Grammar Lottery Presentations Day 1: Noun Clauses

"ESL students and
students enrolled in
developmental writing
classes would benefit
from learning about
nouns and noun clauses."

The grammar lottery presentations at the November 18th staff meeting were a big success.

All of the tutors did a great job, making the selection of one prize winner quite difficult for the lab assistants.

The Complete Thought will post all of the presentations, one each day. You can access them by clicking on the link on the upper right corner of the blog that reads "Grammar Lottery Presentations" under the "Pages" tab, or you can click here.

Today's presentation comes from Comm Lab tutor Bethany Vander Schans. She presented her lesson on Noun Clauses.

A winner was chosen, and that winner will follow the other presentations. Be sure to check back each day and read all of the grammar lottery presentations.

Pencil power: The role of the writing utensil in tutoring.

By Lydia Rucker

Lydia has been a lab assistant
in OCCC's Communications
Lab for almost three years.

Sometimes, they are yellow. Sometimes, they are red or green or speckled with glitter and multifaceted rainbow swirls. No matter what they look like, I think pencils are the greatest tool in the writing tutor’s toolbox.

Several years ago when I first became a writing tutor, using a pencil during a tutoring session was highly frowned upon. 

The reason behind this, I was told, is that tutors are less likely to “fix” a student’s paper and are able to better focus on verbal exchange with a student. 

On my second day of tutoring, I forgot this rule and carried a pencil with me into a tutoring session. Well into the session, I felt a gentle tug on my pencil and before I could look up, it was swiftly removed from my poised fingers and placed on the table beside me.  

Halloween in the Comm Lab

Comm Lab Works Study Marva Ward assists students
with signing in during the lab's Halloween festivities.

There were more than spooks and spectors in the lab today when lab assistant Nick Webb pulled out the Wheel of Grammar to challenge students' knowledge of writing concepts.

Topics covered by the wheel's quiz questions included commas, fragments, documentation and even Comm Lab trivia.

According to lab assistant Tonja Nelson, the Wheel of Grammar benefits students because it exposes them to the topics and, whether they get the question right or wrong, they hear the correct answer and why that answer is correct.

Updates on the Nov. 18th Staff Meeting

Tutors Chelsea Pruitt and Beau
Lewis work collaboratively on their
grammar presentations in the discussion pit.

As the date for the next Comm Lab staff meeting approaches, Rachel wanted to remind all of the tutors about the Grammar Lottery activity.

She sent an email to all of the lab staff that included the instructions for the presentations, as well as a deadline for when they need to be complete.

Tutors will need to send the completed presentations to Rachel by November 8th.

The best mini-lesson will also receive a prize.  It is still unknown what that prize will be.

Happy Documentation Day

Lab Assistant Nicholas Webb and tutor Charlton Rigsby
look on as two students help themselves to the Comm
Lab'sDocumentation Day refreshments.
(Photo by: Brandon Isaak) 

The Comm Lab would like to thank all of the tutors and lab assistants who helped make Documentation Day 2010 a success.

This year's event was the second Documentation Day we've had, and I think it went well.

Be sure to start your Grammar Lottery Presentations!

The lab staff have been challenged to come up with a way to present certain grammar concepts in a fun and interesting way.  This has been lovingly referred to as the "Grammar Lottery" because people drew their grammar concept from a cup, as opposed to winning some kind of major prize.

One of our tutors, Marijah Adams, has already started working on her presentation.  She posted her progress on her blog, http://xxversusxy.wordpress.com/.  You can read her post here.

The Complete Thought's New Purpose

If you've been following us (which is unlikely because we have had very little content so far), you will know that we explained that our purpose for creating a blog, like The Complete Thought, was to provide an outlet for students to share their work with the world.

We still hope that this can be a purpose for this blog; however, until we can garner more interest in The Complete Thought and can work out some of the issues related to student privacy related to posting papers online, we will use this blog as a way for tutors and students to discuss tutoring techniques and engage in dialogue about writing center ideas and knowledge.

Let us know what you think. How can The Complete Thought make learning more engaging for tutors and students?