During July this summer, I had the opportunity to be a writing consultant for ENG-202: Writing
with Power and Grace with Dr. Benedicks. During the weekdays, I would go on Zoom at 9am and wait for the students to join class. Class started with a discussion of the reading that was due. I occasionally spoke my opinions of the writing if there was no discussion happening but I let the students speak before I chimed in. After that, there would be some discussion on future assignments and what was expected. Then, the students would go into writing time or grammar lessons. Writing time was where I felt like I had the most impact on the students. I was able to help them brainstorm on what topic they should write about or help them refine an idea to where it would fit the assignment’s description. If it was later on in the week, I would look through their paper with them and point out good things and areas that need to be fixed like grammar,
punctuation, and the topic. Grammar lessons took place if we had extra time. The students had exercises that they had to do and we went over them as a class to see if they were appropriate or needed some fine-tuning. Class would end at 11am and would take some time after to look at drafts of students and keep notes of who’s doing well and who needs extra attention for the next class period. On Tuesday nights, I would have office hours for students who need extra help or just need an extra set of eyes and opinions on their paper. I really enjoyed this experience as it helped me become more well-rounded with teaching and being more creative instead of constantly doing coding and math problems with my majors. One thing that I didn’t expect to enjoy was meeting some of the students. It was a pleasure to learn more about their character through their writing. I want to thank Dr. Benedicks of the opportunity of being a writing consultant.
