Research is an integration of what you already know--through observation, reading, and conversation--and what you learn from additional sources (A Community of Writers, 304).
What is the result from research? The desire to know something. Whatever that is determines the kind of research you'll do and the sources you choose (303). In this class, Professor Lewenstein is having students learn all about Frida Kahlo, her family, her art, Mexican heritage, and her love life. There are many themes in her artwork, as she painted what she lived and the emotions/pain she felt. It's the student's responsibility to choose a topic and write a research paper about it using ProQuest, one of Imperial Valley College's online research portals.
As the embedded tutor, it's your job to help them brainstorm, help them remember to use the free resources the college provides (and where to find them), and give them writing tools to add to their toolbox.
One of the things I prepared was a freewriting activity. I introduced first that they needed their topic, which we worked out in class with the professor earlier. Then, they needed to do their research on Proquest. Not for too long; just enough to get an idea of Frida. They already should have an idea as this is the second week of school, but that's why the short researching is there.
If students are stuck, it can be helpful to guide them in forming a question. Like, if they want to know more about Frida's sister, you can help the student make the question themselves.
You: What do you know about Cristina?
The student will respond accordingly if they have read at least a little bit of the assigned reading material. They might say something like, "She's Frida's sister and Diego had an affair with her."
You: Ok, and who is Diego?
Student: Frida's husband.
You: Right, and Frida and Cristina were close or distant?
Student: Close.
You: Yes, so think about that closeness and the affair.
Hopefully, the student will eventually come up with something like: "What happened to Frida and Cristina's relationship after Diego's affair with Cristina?"
Don't give them the answer. They need to find it themselves.
Once the student has their topic and the question written down somewhere, now they can start freewriting. They will be answering their question in this freewrite. So if the topic is Cristina and Frida's relationship after Diego had the affair with Cristina, everything the student knows about that goes in that freewrite, along with any questions they would like answered. My (bad) example is as follows:
"...in spite of everything, I loved her" (Frida, 9). This is a partial quote from Cristina Kahlo, Frida Kahlo's sister. The sisters were close from childhood and up until Frida's death, an advocate through and through. The intense loyalty remains even though Frida's husband, Diego Rivera, had an affair with her. It remains even though Frida's paintings depict her as an indirect subject in Mi Nodriza y yo and Memory, the Heart. These in particular revealed childhood pain and the pain Diego caused with the affair. Her paintings in general showcase Frida's pain from the trolley accident, mental and emotional pain, family portraits, and self portraits. She wasn't always kind to Cristina, but Cristina followed her wherever she went. She says so herself, "You see, she was the leader. I was the follower. I was always the follower" (10) especially during their school years. Cristina always wanted to be like Frida, which showed itself clearly when she allowed Diego to paint her in the nude and have the affair.
This, once refined, can be a great intro paragraph that starts general and gets specific.
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| My Nodriza y yo, 1937. oil painting |
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| Memory, the Heart, 1937. oil-on-metal self portrait |
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