Pal Session 3 summary 27th October '08

Today was another refreshing PAL session. It seems the first years respond well to small group open forums. Everyone seems to get involved which is just fantastic. Splitting groups down to three set groups worked well, though it appears that everyone will talk to each other so theres no boundaries to break down there.

We originally planned to look at Dr. Anna Middleton's theory brief, though both Lewis and I felt it was slightly early to bombard them with info that they wont understand.

Lianne was absent from last weeks session so had to play catchup slightly. She took control of PAL by organizing a small writing activity. This involved people having a small piece of paper, and having a good think about they struggle with when it comes to essay writing.

After each individual thoughts were transcribed, we had a quick scan over peoples thoughts and catagorized them. It became apparent there were three main concerns.

• Planning ie; knowing what to start on, where to begin.
• Repetition ie; using similar wording all the time, saying the same thing differently.
• Structure ie; how would you go about saying what you need to say.

A few of the first years seem a little bored, though its hard to cater for everyones needs all the time. We them to help us help them. Without feedback and imput we would be useless. Thankfully I feel they grasped that concept and so for next weeks PAL we will be covering time planning. Using what ever means neccessary be it a diary, chart even imagery.