PeerCentered

in our intro class we've talked a lot about ELL students and how to manage the consultations in the most productive manner...i felt prepared. I felt ready. I got slammed with insecurities today. I had a student, who is from Russia, studying at bsu on a fellowship. He spoke English very well. When I'd ask questions about areas of the paper i found confusing he was more than able to articulate his intent to me. But, the writing itself was confusing and full of grammatical errors. Furthering the confusion on the sentence level, was his choice of phrases. He used "by the way of," in the the terms of "in consideration of." many phrases native speakers understand inherently. While his sentences were not incorrect, they were not "standard" English. As a tutor where do i stand? correct his correct sentences. I told him they were awkward phrases to native speakers, not normally used in the fashion he was applying them. But, he wasn't wrong...

Hello, Well, I had my first and second consultations yesterday, and I think that they both went pretty well considering that I’m new at this whole thing and all. My first consultation was with a non-traditional student working on a journal entry for her ongoing class journal—each journal entry encompasses the class readings for the week, and is also to include her reflection upon them. She expressed that she’s had this professor before and always received good grades, but that this professor’s new graduate student grades the entries very critically. She seemed very upset about this and told me that she’s being marked down for her use of passive sentences. She then told me she didn’t know what a passive sentence was, and asked me if they are grammatically incorrect—this stumped me a bit. Passive sentences aren’t grammatically incorrect, but unless used vary the stylistic approach or to overemphasize something other than the subject, they can be tough for a reader to get through. I expla...

As a student and a new tutor, I can’t help but think about particular assignments that professors have given out to my peers and me. Sometimes I feel as though I have completed my fair share of essays and writings that have, in the end, led me to question what purpose was served to complete them. To make this feeling even worse, some of them become so structured and restricted that I feel like I am simply filling in the blanks like I would on a math test. When I am finished, I turn it in with my name on it and get some sort of grade for an assignment that I feel like the professor actually did more work in preparing than I did answering. It seems sometimes that some professors are giving out assignments that blatantly follow a set of guidelines and instruct you to do the same. Where is the productivity in that? I know that we have all felt like this before, and will continue to feel like this many times in our life. It seems so easy to jump on the bandwagon and say that professors and...

Yesterday was my first day actually taking consultations. I wasn't nervous or uncomfortable, in fact I felt quite relaxed. Two of the three consultations were about APA formatting, which always has its own challenges, but were fairly straight forward and easy to address. My third (actually the second if we are going in order) was about an essay test. The student had a handwritten draft of the essay and was obviously frantic about the piece... I wonder if she was more stressed over the anxiety of taking the exam. She said she needed help, a lot of help. I asked her what specifically she wanted to look at and she said everything. She showed me an outline that another student (I am assuming a higher level student in her major) had given her to work from. We started by reading her paper aloud, then I asked her questions about following the outline and how the paper didn't seem to line up that way and if that was intentional. She said no so we worked on that a bit. Then we ...

Coming straight off my Noise From the Writing Center high, I arrived for my after-class shift at the writing center yesterday a little fuzzy. Should I be hopeful about my sessions today or should I be optimistic? How much control do I really have between the two? My first session was my most awkward seesion ever. Perhaps I had been getting too optimistic about things, perhaps my optimism turned into blind pride, I don't know the session didn't satisfy the writer's or my optimistic outlooks. The student was working on a complicated research proposal, and seemed well-acquainted with the center. I started to feel self-conscious right away, when he pointed to a veteran consultant and asked his name, so that he could make an appointment with him next time. Looking back, it really was a good question, he probably had worked really well with that consultant before (he's a great consultant) and wanted to continue with that dynamic. But of course, in the moment, I felt li...

I knew coming into this semester that I would be faced with challenges and many new experiences. Starting my internship with the Writing Center would guarantee it. I anticipated meeting new people, interacting with peers in a different way than in class, and stretching myself between 19 credits, a part time job, and a dog named Lucy who requires constant my- hand-to-her-head contact. My biggest concern coming into the Writing Center was assisting ESL and ELL students. In E303, I have paid great attention to discussions that center around this topic and struggled to believe whether I am qualified to help these students or not. Interestingly enough, my very first hour observing in the Writing Center I sat down with Melissa, a seasoned tutor and Tom, an ESL student. How serendipitous. Tom, a junior standing marketing major, brought in a memo for his Business Comm class. Mostly concerned with sentence construction and grammar, Melissa began by reading the assignment sheet provided by...

Hello all, While reading through Lundsford’s essay Collaboration in the Writing Center , I found myself very fond of the "The Center as Garret" model of the writing center—in love with its ideologies in fact—a true "Romantic" I suppose. I do strongly believe in "individualism" and "individual ‘genius’ (48). Perhaps this directly stems from my own experience in writing, in my previous conversations with writers, and in my deep-seated love of all forms of writing and its ability to enable individual expression—whatever the reason, I believe that I may be a true Garretarian. Now, according to Lundsford this poses a problem when attempting to foster a true "collaboration." As seen in her essay, Lundsford "challenges" the "Storehouse Center" and "The Garret Center" ideologies by offering up a third option for consulting, the "Burkean Parlor Center" (51). Although I agree with Lundsford’s idea of making a c...

In “A Cultural Studies Agenda” Marilyn Cooper writes, “what they [tutors] know about institutional constraints is true and important, they also need to help students understand that if they are to achieve agency in writing, they must learn how to challenge these constraints productively in the service of their own goals and needs” (MS 59). At the conclusion of my literacy narrative, I had imagined that, in the sixth grade, “I learned that whatever your argument or perspective is, the right format can allow you to express it.” Even if this were true, students often don’t have a lot of choice regarding format. At times, the challenge is to express yourself within someone else’s chosen format. Even when the assignment is fairly open to interpretation, it can be difficult to do just that. As a student you ask not only, “What do I want to say and how can I get my point across?” but also, “How can I complete the assignment most effectively?” (That last question includes concern for achieving...

There are lots of new folks from Boise State joining PeerCentered of late. Please introduce yourselves!

Reading Stephen North’s essay “The Idea of the Writing Center ” caused me to review some of my more unique and, possibly, memorable sessions in the writing center. One of his points dealt with a consultant’s role in regards to teachers. He said, “we [should] never evaluate or second-guess and teacher’s syllabus, assignments, comments, or grades.” While this is true, there is a flip side to that: How do consultants adequately offer writers support if consultants don’t, at the very least, comment on what their teacher has said? Granted, most of the time the teacher is spot on—or at least in the ballpark—and there isn’t a problem, but there are times when teachers don’t do their job. While I don’t want to say I have all the answers—I don’t—I want to offer one of my personal experiences as an example. I’d like to think I handled the situation well, but I’d love to hear any comments or suggestions for the next time this happens. Working with a frustrated or confused writer is diffic...

It has always struck me as ironic that fall is the time when school traditionally starts given that fall is the time for crops to be harvested, the hard freeze to hit, and the squaring away of everything for a long winter. Even if late August feels nothing like fall, I still sense the hint of autumn in the way the light plays out over the land and the distinct chill in the early morning air as I hurry off to the bus stop to start up yet another school year. Fall is, of course, spring for education. It is when students start anew and hope abounds. If you are interested in joing PeerCentered, contact me at Clint.Gardner@slcc.edu.

I received this call for papers this morning: CFP: Fall 2007 Issue of Praxis – Diversity in the Writing Center Praxis: A Writing Center Journal welcomes submissions for its Fall 2007 issue. We especially encourage submissions on this issue’s theme: Diversity in the Writing Center . Articles on this topic may deal with the numerous ways in which writing centers foster and accommodate the diversity of their tutees and tutors. We invite contributors to interpret the theme broadly; however, some possible applications include Issues of power and authority relating to race, gender, class, etc. in tutorials Tutoring ESL students Questions of dialect in tutees’ writing Accommodating socioeconomic differences in the writing center (e.g., flexible scheduling for students who work fulltime) Consultations conducted in non-English languages International encounters in the writing center Submission guidelines: Recommended article length is 1000 to ...

East High School in Denver, Colorado has implemented an interesting way to emphasize literacy, reach out to its community, and to combat racism and sexism: "What we tried to do was create a day that celebrated literacy and lyricism," James Laurie [peer tutoring coordinator] said. "In the workshop, we looked at the power of words, sexism and racism."

Michele Eodice gave the keynote address at this past weekend's Rocky Mountain Peer Tutoring Conference hosted by Weber State University. Her address was entitled "Everyday Landscapes." It focussed on space and place of a writing center and our idea of what a writing center should/could/can be. I had the opportunity to record the speech on video, which I have placed in the podcast (q.v.)

Rocky Mountain Peer Tutoring Conference Day 2 , originally uploaded by Student Writing Center . The second day of the conference is devoted to peer writing tutoring with the presentations being conducted by peer tutors.

Rocky Mountain Peer Tutoring Conference Day 2 , originally uploaded by Student Writing Center . Even our fake plant made it into the picture.

Our first director's group shot , originally uploaded by Student Writing Center .

I've just arrived home from Day 1 of the Rocky Mountain Peer Tutoring Conference. Today's sessions were geared for directors but peer tutors also had some informal activities to take part in. We had presentations from Dan Emery and Glenn Newman from the University of Utah on ESL and the Space Between Disciplines. Sylvia Newman from Weber discussed template theories. Julie Simon from Southern Utah University explored the sticky issue of grammar and the Center. I then led a discussion with Michele Eodice (our keynote speaker) about _Everyday Writing Center_ from USU press. _EWC_ was co-authored by Anne Ellen Geller, Frankie Condon, Beth Boquet, Meg Carol, and Michele. I video taped that discussion, but I'm not quite certain how it turned out. If it turned out ok, I will probably put it on PeerCentered vlog ( http://bessie.englab.slcc.edu/pc ). Claire Hughes of Weber State University has done a great job with the conference. I am really looking forward to tomorrow wh...

Inspired by Clint and the Writing Center listserv, I realized how much folks are (or were, or do every year) for events like International Writing Center Week. I've been working as a tutor now for a couple of years and I have to admit that the Writing Center of which I've been a part has not been involved in that capacity. In fact, aside from the dreaded (by me) classroom visits we do throughout the semester, there aren't any other ways in which we manage to become more visible to the campus community. Our having begun using WCOnline as of last summer has made it easier for students to make appointments (and cut down significantly on the number of phone calls we've been getting), and while I haven't heard any statistics on a potential increase of sessions, I would like to make us more visible, promote our services, or at least present ourselves and a nifty place to get help. We have such a large student population that I know we couldn't handle becoming inundat...

The folks visiting the Student Writing Center at Salt Lake Community College have crafted several add-a-line poems this week. Basically one person writes one line and then another person adds a new line. Here are some of them: 1. She reads Popular Mechanics He reads Cosmo Girl! But neither understands The implications of their wild radical ways. 2. The morning comes with a chance of snow Then...nothing, so we wait. The roads are crazy don't cha know? Ack! The coffee shop is closed! So I put the pedal to the metal Stabucks, my corporate God, thank you For your everlasting constant availability. 3. Wanted: One thesis statment Found: Two statements from Thebes Reward: one lost cat, owner Schrodinger does not know if animal is alive or dead 4. What can you say about Tucson in the Fall? I'll tell you this Its nothing like an English Ball Aristocracy and finery has No place In the dry dessert season Society, an extinct race 5. The words flowed like hard candy Clink Clink ...

We've made a flickr account here at the Salt Lake Community College Student Writing Center and have been posting both old and new pictures. The old ones have made me quite nostalgic. If your Center or you get a flickr account (or have one) let us all know in a comment with your URL. I have more posts about our activities, and perhaps the activities of others (if I can find any) later.

Tomorrow (12 February) is the start of International Writing Centers Week 2007. It will run until the 18th. Here's what I wrote to WCENTER last night: Given that it is a super-busy time of the semester, it seems like it has come at an opportune time. In between sessions, we are busily making stuff to give out to folks and plan on doing some "instant poetry" boards (just a big piece of paper in the corner where folks can write out whatever they want) and hope to barrage our campuses with information about the Student Writing Center (SWC). The campus TV folks came by and are going to put together a video about the SWC that will be shown on the video system at our 5 main campuses and I'm re-editing a video I made for IWCW2006). Although I've never been much on this sort of thing, the folks I work with are excited and have come up with some good ideas, so it should be interesting. We all decided to take on a project (which has been a tough row to hoe given how bu...

I just received a copy of Everyday Writing Center: A Community of Practice from Utah State Press and can't wait to get into it. I suspect that Anne Ellen Geller, Michele Eodice, Frankie Condon, Meg Carroll, and Elizabeth Boquet have put together something that will have a great deal of influence on the future of writing center practice and theory. Harvey Kail summarizes what intrigues me most about the text: What impresses me most about their argument is not that writing centers need to stop being so rigid and time-bound and apolitical, but that writing centers occupy a unique space in the academy that might encourage authentic communities of learners, writers, peer tutors, faculty, and staff. The Everyday Writing Center provides a way to think about this ambition. (ibid.) I hope to have a review here later. Michele Eodice will also be the keynote T he Rocky Mountain Peer Tutoring Conference at Weber State University on March 2-3, so I hope to have a chance to discuss the ...

To celebrate International Writing Centers Week 2007, Columbia State University has put together a CSU Writing Center Poetry Slam on February 16. They are also using a blog to spread the word about it.

Despite the rather contentious title of the article, it seems that Wikipedia founders agree that the online, community-drive encyclopedia is not the be-all and end-all of research: "Wikipedia is the ideal place to start your research and get a global picture of a topic, however, it is not an authoritative source. In fact, we recommend that students check the facts they find in Wikipedia against other sources. Additionally, it is generally good research practice to cite an original source when writing a paper, or completing an exam. It’s usually not advisable, particularly at the university level, to cite an encyclopedia." ( Jobs, News and Views for All of Higher Education - Inside Higher Ed :: A Stand Against Wikipedia) Ultimately, this statement represents the consensus of academic researchers. Student writers should look beyond encyclopedias for their research. This includes all encylopedias, even the most authoritative ones. It is important to help student writers under...

I have posted a poll in the IWCA forums: IWCA Forum: Peer Tutor => What do we call ourselves: the poll! It is a part of an earlier discussion that kind of petered out about the titles used for writing center workers. Please take a moment and vote! If you don't have an account on the forum, you can register for one by clicking on the "Register" link (next to the rocket icon in the top-right of the page.) Don't forget to state your institutional affiliation when you request and account. (That's how the IWCA Forum keeps out spam accounts.)

Episode 1.4 is in the can! It is a recording made at NCPTW 2006 and is "A Defense of Minimalist Tutoring." Thanks to Harvey Kail, Shannon Dohar, Hannah Lauterback, Emily Morrissette, and Rosalie Sullivan for allowing me to record it. I have refrained for apologizing for the poor audio quality simply because there is not much I can do to make it better. Click on the podcast link on the right to go to the podcast page.

Todays' Oskosk (Wisconsin) Northwestern profiles a cool educational concept for students at Emmeline Elementary school: "'In the writing center you can write a letter or make a story for your mom and dad,' said Destinee Stevens. While Stevens was working with her peers in the writing center, other classmates were listening to books on tape, silently reading, working on math games or practicing piecing poetry together." ( Oshkosh Northwestern - Emmeline Cook focuses on literacy ) Collaborative learning in such settings is encouraging and bodes well for the future of things such as peer tutoring in the future.

PeerCentered friend and IWCA Vice President Michele Eodice received the 2006 Ron Maxwell Award for Distinguised Leadership at last weekend's National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing (NCPTW). The award is given to a professional in the organization who has contributed with distinction to undergraduate student development through promoting collaborative learning among peer tutors in writing. Such leadership may be demonstrated in a variety of ways, including but not limited to: the individual's record in bringing peer tutors to present at the Conference service to the organization through hosting the Conference, serving as program chair, leading in the search for future sites, etc. aiding students in the assumption of increasing responsibility for their learning fostering leadership skills among peer tutors showing evidence of leadership in collaborative learning on one's home campus developi...

Nancy Grimm gave a provocative keynote address at the just-passed NCPTW in Ann Arbor. I recorded it and with her permission I have put it out in the PeerCentered podcast . This is the first in a series of podcasts based out of presentations from NCPTW.