Upper School to Launch Student-Staffed Writing Center

This month, English teacher Kathleen Law is launching a student-staffed Writing Center in the Upper School that will provide students with a knack for writing the opportunity to be a “Writing Fellow” and give fellow students feedback on essays, papers or other English writing as part of CA’s academic disciplines.

 

Writing Fellows or tutors will be trained by reviewing case studies, models, and scenarios on how to give positive, productive feedback without overstepping the boundaries of “too much help.” Those boundaries include ensuring that the author does all of the work, including marking up his or her own papers based on feedback from the tutor. In fact,  each tutor and student will complete a form that described exactly what they worked on; those forms will be attached to the author’s final product. They will also be trained in avoiding the pitfalls of plagiarism, use of intellectual property, and other writing mistakes. Tutors will be evaluated regularly on the quality and professionalism of their feedback. To become a Writing Fellow, CA juniors and seniors have followed an application process that emphasizes strong writing and editing skills, as well as interpersonal skills.

 

This concept is not new. Most colleges and universities have student-staffed tutoring and writing centers, and this program at CA will train students on both sides of the table to put those resources to work.  I have taught at another school in Providence, RI where the peer-review program was well-established and a highly-sought honor. As I suspect will happen here at CA, the Writing Fellow program offers a different kind of leadership opportunity for CA students. Sometimes the students who are the most adept at using the written word may be quieter when using the spoken word. This is a way to strengthen and highlight those skills and talents.

 

One student who plans to apply to be a Fellow says, “I’m interested in working at the Writing Center because I love English and collaborating with peers over writing. Talking to a teacher about your ideas for a paper can be a bit of a daunting experience, as opposed to talking to a peer which, I have found, is much easier.” 

 

Writing Center sessions will take place in the Raether Library, and student tutors will staff the center during free periods in their schedule. Each session will last 25 minutes.