PeerCentered

      As the end of the semester nears, the amount of papers, presentations, and finals has engulfed me in a swarm of stress. In addition, let’s not forget my last week as a fellow and the application process to Graduate School. While the stress may be a little overwhelming, these last few weeks have been very rewarding to me academically as a student and as a fellow. I learned a lot from my students, professors, and my fellow fellows throughout the semester; and through my encounters and experiences I have become a better student, fellow, and writer. While I improved and learned a lot—I won’t lie—it was a roller coaster ride.  The stress of studying for the GRE, writing papers and personal statements, and fellowing fifteen students—not including the personal life—took a toll on me; but in the end it was all worth it. I have able to see not only myself grow, but my students too.       Although I had little free time, I attended my final fellow cla...

I am not an organized writer; I am no paragon of efficiency. In fact, this post is materializing as I sit at my girlfriend’s house, crafting one sentence at a time and then backspacing it into oblivion, all while thinking up moves I could make and things I could   say at various points. Meanwhile, my girlfriend types away at her homework, and proceeds to be a rather welcome distraction, and…whoa, I have strayed—perhaps I should have planned this out a little… Sometimes I feel as if my sessions proceed in a similar way, and it doesn’t help that the writer’s focus (it seems to be grammar, usually) often differs from my own (coherence and cohesion, usually). In most sessions I have had, it seems that the writer does not want to spend much time discussing concepts and rhetoric, desiring instead to have their text fixed and to be on their way.    Though I think I am ultimately able to address their concerns as well as my own   I often feel tossed about in sessions, ...

Which strategies/techniques do you use in your sessions that are effective and help students learn? I ask this because I am currently enrolled in a Writing Center Studies class where I have been assigned to complete a research project. My topic is to focus on effective strategies and techniques tutors use in their sessions that they find effective. While I have tailored this project to my University I am curious to know and learn new techniques, strategies, and activities that other tutors are using. No matter the name—peer tutors, collaborators, fellows, writing assistants— our main goal is to assist student writers in order to enhance their academic and personal success. The ways in which we help our students vary depending on the writing center and the tutors themselves. For instance, at my University we are embedded fellows; we work specifically with first year composition courses. I work with 15 students enrolled in a basic writing course. During my time in their class I get t...

I recently attended the National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing, NCPTW.   Members of my Writing Center Studies class were presenting on high school and university writing center collaborations. When it came our time to present on Saturday morning, I was nervous because I did not know what to expect.   I had never attended a conference, nor had I presented in front of professionals.   Thankfully, our presentation went well.   Because we presented at 7:45am, I had the rest of the day to attend presentations.   I attended five sessions, but there was one in particular that stood out to me, Negative Emotion in the Writing Center: Writer Perception and Tutor perception.   This session focused on the emotional concerns students have with coming to the writing center, during their scheduled appointments, and when leaving the writing center.   It also focused on achievement emotion and how that related to the actual activity: writing the paper. ...

There are a few weeks left of school and Alex gave me the idea to put a post about humor in tutoring writing students. This is mainly a mixture of thoughts that caused me to chuckle, smile, or consider how helpful it can be to laugh in our field. Comedy can be an incredible tool when working with students of all types (except stuck up). I use small jokes all the time in my work and there are so many hidden benefits to it.  (I did not fully reread this so I hope it is understandable.) For this section I thought it would be humorous to explain my observations while tutoring. This isn't intended to help but I hope they give a smile to experienced tutors. This is not meant to offend but merely joke around. If I do offend you I apologize. I love my position as a tutor, I've learned so many things in this field, but I think if I'm to use humor in my line of work, I should be able to laugh at myself as well.  1) If I...

             There are a few weeks left of school and Alex gave me the idea to put a post about humor in tutoring writing students. This is mainly a mixture of thoughts that caused me to chuckle, smile, or consider how helpful it can be to laugh in our field. Comedy can be an incredible tool when working with students of all types (except stuck up). I use small jokes all the time in my work and there are so many hidden benefits to it. Have you ever had an instructor, teacher, or even parent that appear intimidating? Students that require help may feel humbled or below the tutor since they require their assistance. To many students it is embarrassing or incredibly difficult to ask for assistance from another, especially a stranger. A small joke with a smile can make a significant difference. It can help calm the student, reassure them that you're not a, "Judging know it all whose goal is to further their feeling of inferiority." Yes that may be a ...

This week, my writing fellows class focused on their final group projects. They needed to choose an issue then work with their groups to research, write about, and present the issue to the class. This assignment is largely about time management and collaboration. For many first-semester students, this makes the project complex because multiple components need to be completed within a short window of time and as a collective effort. During class, the students got into their groups (there are 3 groups total) to work on their projects. Within each group, there was at least one leader. However, I noticed that in 2 of the 3 groups, the leader(s) seemed to take a little too much control and some of the others often didn’t get the chance to speak up or state their opinions. As an observer, I wanted to hear more from the ones that weren’t talking as much, so I tried to ask guiding questions that addressed the entire group but required individual responses. Even then, the leaders would...

Tomorrow I have to go into my Intermediate Writing class and face my group. Right now that class is causing me to lose hair but it's an interesting learning model that we're following: We've been meeting in groups for the whole semester now, centering all of our writing on one specific world issue. Over the past twelve weeks our group has become friends, worked long hours on Google docs having way too much fun with emoticons, adopted a new member into our group family, but now, we stress about our final project. Actually I only know that I stress, communication in our group has become limited. Through the combination of unpreparedness, the common cold (and the fear of proximity that comes with it), and the fear of providing criticism, our group has reached a lull in productivity. Today however, I read some readings that have been provided me by an Instructor. They spoke about the benefits of group work, and the elements necessary to create effective group work. I realized...

It's interesting that students are so willing to relinquish the hours of work they've put into a paper into the hands of someone they've never before met. I could give her poor advice; I could tell her to change a word or a paragraph and she would agree. I wonder how to instill more confidence into a writer while, at the same time, helping them improve their writing. Whenever I make suggestions to an ESL writer, their confidence seems, at times, to diminish. They see my corrections or confusion as a sign they are incompetent or stupid. In reality, they're just learning. I suppose helping them change their attitude about their progress, that even though they're struggling they're still doing fine, would be a good first step for them to see that struggle as part of the learning process and not a sign of failure. Unfortunately, this thought is just a thought and is not yet converted into a plan of action. I don't know how to instill confidence in someone if t...

One of the biggest problems I have faced during my semester of being a Writing Fellow has been getting students to schedule appointments.   I work with a Basic Writing class, so the majority of the students I work with are freshmen.   I believe not being in college for a long while has something to do with the students’ lack of scheduling.   Because they are new to the school, freshmen often don’t understand how valuable the skills learned in our sessions can be.   I didn’t understand how important the peer review process was was until I took an advanced level course on Literary Criticism and Analysis.   It was also in this advanced level course that I had my first experience with a Writing Fellow.   I was also reluctant at first.   My schedule hardly had any openings as it was; I was also required to meet with someone for additional help.   However, when I actually sat down with her, I gained a great sense of confidence.   I might not have...

       I recently attended The National Conference on Peer Tutoring in Writing (NCPTW) at the Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa Florida. The conference included a variety of sessions revolving around writing, peer tutoring, writing center work, and much more. I had the chance to attend Please, Don’t Make Me Read It, which created a new way of thinking for me in regards to language and writing with L2 students. While part of the session could be construed as problematizing English, the workshops highlighted the insecurities L2 students face when writing papers, which personally helped me and my outlook towards my ESL sessions.         As the workshop began, the presenters passed out a sheet of paper that included a paragraph written in English. We were told to translate the paragraph into Spanish using the list of words provided. When first given the paper I was confident three years of Spanish was about to pay off, but as I wrote the firs...

I would like to briefly reflect on a session that I attended during   NCPTW, “What’s a Little Barbed Wire Between Peers?: The Challenges and Possibilities of Peer to Peer Tutoring with Incarcerated Students.” Two peer tutors and one program leader from Goucher College discussed the school’s prison education partnership with the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women and the Maryland Correctional Institution at Jessup.   The tutors talked about the need to immediately establish their roles as “peers” with the inmates. They talked about the successes and challenges that come with holding tutoring sessions in a prison, from experiences with students to equipment, institutional, and time limitations.   Although they discussed some of the parallels between their program and general writing centers, it must be stressed that these tutors work in an extreme environment. Their notions of authority, student relationships, and the rules they must abide by within ...