Back in 2018, I successfully pitched, created, and ran our school’s Writing Center. It ran for two years. However, 2019 presented budget cuts and I was given two options: run the WC for free, or close it up. I wish I could say I was servant-hearted enough to do it for free, but I was already doing several other things for free and felt the need to protect and value my time. Sadly, the Writing Center was shuttered.
Fast forward five years.
Last spring, I was telling my principal how nice it was to have a Writing Center, both for our National Honors Society students (who served as tutors), but also for the student body. My principal hadn’t served since the Center had been closed. Intrigued, he asked me what it would take to get it back off the ground. With a little bit of money and not much time, we reopened in the spring to run for the rest of the semester.
This year, I’m so excited to start the school year off with a fully staffed Writing Center once again.
To learn how I started the Writing Center, please see this very detailed blog post, written back in 2018.
But to learn WHY I love the our haven for all things writing, keep reading.
Practicing Peer-to-Peer Tutoring
I modeled my school’s Writing Center after the Center at Minnetonka High School, which has an adult coordinator and student tutors. The coordinator trains, supervises and oversees the tutors. She also helps with more personal assignments, such as college essays.
In my school, I get tutors from our National Honors Society chapter and other students looking to grow in writing and gain service hours (a requirement for graduation). I usually have between 4-6 writing tutors serve each day.
I love our model of peer-to-peer tutoring because it enhances student relationships and grows my tutors’ abilities as well as the Writing Center visitors. My tutors grow not only in their writing abilities, but in their teaching, listening, and critical abilities as well.
Teaching Proper Criticism
My school’s center has two important rules:
- Never write directly into anyone else’s paper.
- Never let a student leave the Writing Center without suggestions for improvement.
The first rule exists to protect writing authenticity and to avoid the impression that tutors do the work for students. The second exists so that no one leaves without some kind of help. The point of peer reviewing isn’t just to search for errors, but to make suggestions for improvement. Instead of training my tutors on MLA or formatting, I train students to suggest improvements in a broad sense. This could include adding details, using stronger adjectives, or making bolder claims.
Here’s a slide from my Writing Center training:
Valuing Authenticity and Integrity
In the age of AI and ever-growing problems with plagiarism, the WC gives students a chance to get help before they resort to cheating. It also invites multiple eyes on the draft of a paper, so you can see its growth and development (unlike AI or plagiarism, which has no growth or development). When students have a resource like the Writing Center, it serves as one more resource in opposition to academic dishonesty.
Honoring the Process
One of the best parts about having a Writing Center is that it shows students that writing is a process. No masterpiece is written overnight. I encourage students to visit the Writing Center not only for proofreading, but for brainstorming, drafting, outlining, research, and more. By visiting often, they develop relationships with other tutors, get used to getting feedback, and learn to grow their draft into a finished, polished essay.
If you’re interested in starting a Writing Center at your school, I suggest reading my earlier blog post, which details the step-by-step process. To follow more day to day operations of my school’s Writing Center, be sure to follow @litandmore on Instagram, where I’ll post helpful tips and snapshots from our daily operations.