Drop in
One of the things that was hard last year when I was sick was that I had so little energy that parts of my job that weren't vital were left out. Some of those I didn't mind, but mostly I missed them, but there was nothing I could do.
So it makes it sweeter as I've pretty much made it back to full-time work to be able to do some of the things that I've missed, one of which was drop in.
At our office, we have a ticket system and students come and take a ticket and get seen in order by an advisor. This is called "drop in" and it's a 15 minute consultation, helping with various things, but in a short time frame. When we get busy, staff who aren't scheduled on drop-in, like myself, pitch in, and given last week was week 3, this happened to me 4 times (I think, I didn't count but I can remember 4 distinct students).
The first student I saw was a student from eastern Europe who had studied engineering. She was now studying nursing and had hit her first assignment and was worried. She told me about how studying engineering was so different, and I said I definitely understood because I had started in engineering, and writing essays was so different. She was stuck and frustrated when she came in. She had elected to write on cardiovascular disease but hadn't really got articles. She had consulted the library and the great assignment planner I often refer students to, but was stuck on the next step.
We sat down and talked about how to evaluate articles, reading the abstract, and if it was useful, reading the article. I told her how I would read through articles and highlight key bits, and then summarise them in my own words and put it into a spreadsheet under a reference list. We checked that her referencing was accurate, and found that she was making little mistakes which I pointed out to her. I showed her the essay outline page we have on our website and also showed her some sample assignments in nursing that she could look at to see how to do things (they are annotated pointing out the way the writing is written and key things that the writer is doing). We unpacked what she needed to do to pull that information together, and the difference in her face was huge when she left. She went from paralysed to activated, and it was great to see.
The next student I saw that same day was from Germany. She had to write 150 words on an article and critically discuss it through the lens of the theories she'd been learning in the subject. She was stuck because English was her second language (or perhaps more!) and she had written it but wasn't sure whether it was what was required. We sat down and I quickly scanned through the subject outline to find out what she was supposed to do, then got her to read out what she'd written. I like to do that because students often pick up errors themselves, once they slow down and read their writing, and for non-native speakers it also allows them to practise speaking, and I can help them with pronunciation as well.
As she read through her 150 words, we fixed up some of the grammar together, by highlighting and discussing what she was trying to say. German (as far as I understand) doesn't have the rules of English in terms of word order, so I could see that she was translating in her head but had not finished the sentence properly in English.
After that, we looked at what she'd written. It's a frequent error for students that they summarise and don't critically analyse, and particularly in such a short piece, she needed to do very little summary and spend most of the words on analysis. I showed her how to cut down and reduce the summary by editing sentences or just chucking them out and then got her to think about what she would actually write. She needed to insert her voice into the work. Time was drawing to an end so I showed her Grammarly and got her to set herself up so that she would be able to put her writing through that program to find the little grammatical errors.
The third student I saw this week was a photography student. He was a local student, but I expect had immigrant parents because some of his language was a little off, in the way I see with international students. He had a 35% assessment of looking at one of many topics, then giving the background, it's influence on photography and the current and future use (if it was a technique). He'd chosen chromaphotography. He was panicking because 35% is a big percentage of his grade and he was anxious about stuffing it up.
Firstly in the consultation we looked at what he'd written, and I got him to change the language in the introduction to be more active and punchy. I checked that he was using sources appropriately and that his referencing was fine (it was, mostly). We then talked about how he needed to go through and summarise each paragraph on a cue card, as the assignment briefing mentioned particularly that students should not read out their work. Then I got him to stand up and using the key phrases from his introduction he practised that short paragraph in front of me.
After that, I showed him the presentation guide on our website and told him to fake it till he made it, and that every student would be just like him and terrified, so just to do the best you can. I advised him to film or watch yourself in the mirror and you will see what you're doing wrong. I told him about when I filmed myself for a video for the 40 year anniversary for New College and how I realised I looked up to the right a lot and had to stop it. He was much happier when he left. He was a really lovely young man.
The final student I saw yesterday was a midwifery student. She had to write an annotated bibliography of 5 articles and she'd written one. I looked at the subject outline and then we talked about peer reviewed journals versus other journals, and then also about what an annotated bibliography was trying to do. It's basically practising the skill of assessing, evaluating and critiquing information. She had actually done a really good job, so we also look at the little grammar errors she'd made and fixed the referencing so that it conformed to the university referencing standard.
So there you go, that's a side part of my job I really like.
So it makes it sweeter as I've pretty much made it back to full-time work to be able to do some of the things that I've missed, one of which was drop in.
At our office, we have a ticket system and students come and take a ticket and get seen in order by an advisor. This is called "drop in" and it's a 15 minute consultation, helping with various things, but in a short time frame. When we get busy, staff who aren't scheduled on drop-in, like myself, pitch in, and given last week was week 3, this happened to me 4 times (I think, I didn't count but I can remember 4 distinct students).
The first student I saw was a student from eastern Europe who had studied engineering. She was now studying nursing and had hit her first assignment and was worried. She told me about how studying engineering was so different, and I said I definitely understood because I had started in engineering, and writing essays was so different. She was stuck and frustrated when she came in. She had elected to write on cardiovascular disease but hadn't really got articles. She had consulted the library and the great assignment planner I often refer students to, but was stuck on the next step.
We sat down and talked about how to evaluate articles, reading the abstract, and if it was useful, reading the article. I told her how I would read through articles and highlight key bits, and then summarise them in my own words and put it into a spreadsheet under a reference list. We checked that her referencing was accurate, and found that she was making little mistakes which I pointed out to her. I showed her the essay outline page we have on our website and also showed her some sample assignments in nursing that she could look at to see how to do things (they are annotated pointing out the way the writing is written and key things that the writer is doing). We unpacked what she needed to do to pull that information together, and the difference in her face was huge when she left. She went from paralysed to activated, and it was great to see.
The next student I saw that same day was from Germany. She had to write 150 words on an article and critically discuss it through the lens of the theories she'd been learning in the subject. She was stuck because English was her second language (or perhaps more!) and she had written it but wasn't sure whether it was what was required. We sat down and I quickly scanned through the subject outline to find out what she was supposed to do, then got her to read out what she'd written. I like to do that because students often pick up errors themselves, once they slow down and read their writing, and for non-native speakers it also allows them to practise speaking, and I can help them with pronunciation as well.
As she read through her 150 words, we fixed up some of the grammar together, by highlighting and discussing what she was trying to say. German (as far as I understand) doesn't have the rules of English in terms of word order, so I could see that she was translating in her head but had not finished the sentence properly in English.
After that, we looked at what she'd written. It's a frequent error for students that they summarise and don't critically analyse, and particularly in such a short piece, she needed to do very little summary and spend most of the words on analysis. I showed her how to cut down and reduce the summary by editing sentences or just chucking them out and then got her to think about what she would actually write. She needed to insert her voice into the work. Time was drawing to an end so I showed her Grammarly and got her to set herself up so that she would be able to put her writing through that program to find the little grammatical errors.
The third student I saw this week was a photography student. He was a local student, but I expect had immigrant parents because some of his language was a little off, in the way I see with international students. He had a 35% assessment of looking at one of many topics, then giving the background, it's influence on photography and the current and future use (if it was a technique). He'd chosen chromaphotography. He was panicking because 35% is a big percentage of his grade and he was anxious about stuffing it up.
Firstly in the consultation we looked at what he'd written, and I got him to change the language in the introduction to be more active and punchy. I checked that he was using sources appropriately and that his referencing was fine (it was, mostly). We then talked about how he needed to go through and summarise each paragraph on a cue card, as the assignment briefing mentioned particularly that students should not read out their work. Then I got him to stand up and using the key phrases from his introduction he practised that short paragraph in front of me.
After that, I showed him the presentation guide on our website and told him to fake it till he made it, and that every student would be just like him and terrified, so just to do the best you can. I advised him to film or watch yourself in the mirror and you will see what you're doing wrong. I told him about when I filmed myself for a video for the 40 year anniversary for New College and how I realised I looked up to the right a lot and had to stop it. He was much happier when he left. He was a really lovely young man.
The final student I saw yesterday was a midwifery student. She had to write an annotated bibliography of 5 articles and she'd written one. I looked at the subject outline and then we talked about peer reviewed journals versus other journals, and then also about what an annotated bibliography was trying to do. It's basically practising the skill of assessing, evaluating and critiquing information. She had actually done a really good job, so we also look at the little grammar errors she'd made and fixed the referencing so that it conformed to the university referencing standard.
So there you go, that's a side part of my job I really like.
Comments
Post a Comment