Last Day of Class

I am in my office if you need to ask questions. For details on grading, see earlier posts.

I am hoping to have your portfolios finished by Sunday night. Check your email so you can get back to me if I have made mistakes.

As we acknowledged in class - this has been an eventful term! I have been impressed with your resourcefulness and your perseverance. Good work. I have enjoyed working with each of you.

Finishing the course

Both today and Thursday will be work days. Your final portfolio is due Thursday, December 16 at the end of class.

Electronic portfolio

As you set up your electronic portfolio - be sure to use the headings listed on the sample portfolio .

You will notice that I added a heading for "Research plan" on the research project page.

Additional materials

Turn in notes, permission forms, and any other documents relevant to your work for the course in class today or Thursday. They should be in a folder or binder. I will look through them as I grade your portfolio and return notes in my box in the English Department Office. I will keep the permission forms.

Notification for grades

See earlier post for details. Be sure to go through your grade sheet to make sure you agree with my calculation for the grade.

Presentations Tuesday & Thursday

Monica, Angela and Karilyn presented their work (see their blogs for details). Thanks for your good feedback and for sharing data!

Thursday we will finish presentations (see previous post for criteria).

Grade for Course + Presentations on Research Projects

Grades:
We re-calculated the weighting in the rubric for assigning grades (See last blog). I feel like the new numbers allocate credit more fairly with respect to the amount of work and reading you put in to the various projects.

The process for assigning grades will be as follows.

You will turn in your final portfolio by the end of class, December 16.

On or before Tuesday, December 21, I will email you a copy of the rubric with the number of points you earned for each component (and comments explaining the points). It is your responsibility for you to check your email for your grade sheet.

After receiving your grade, you should look over the points + the comments and let me know if there should be any corrections or adjustments. You will have 48 hours from receiving the email to inform me of any readjustments. Hopefully we will be able to settle any re-calculations simply and by email. negotiate them.

Once grades are agreed upon, or if I do not hear from you within 48 hours of sending you the grade sheet, I will post grades for the course on Keanwise.

I expect to have all grades posted by the evening of Thursday, December 23.

Presentations:

This week, both Tuesday and Thursday, you will give presentations on your research projects. Your presentation will be based on a draft of your project (posted on your blog). In your presentation you will cover the points listed below. You should be able to "talk through" rather than read your discussions with respect to these points.

The reason for talking rather than reading is to help you find new, more focused language through your presentation, and to allow you to use the interactive, open-thinking of talking to pull in any important ideas the writing process edited out.

Points to cover in your presentation:

1. A detailed description of what you studied. By "detailed description" I mean that you will present your focus in way that provides background material you will need to answer questions for 2=> why your research is important, the problems it solves with respect to writing center work, and how writing center personnel might apply your findings.

For example, stating that you studied "body language" is too general. A detailed statement might be - that you focused on how and to what extent students and coaches picked up (consciously and unconscioulsy) on body language cues during sessions, and that you paid particular attention to: 1) the features of the situations in which coaches (and writers) did or did not pick up on body language cues; 2) what kinds of information coaches & writers seemed to "get" from body language cues; and 3) how picking up on body language cues did (did not) create a more effective session.

2. Why your research is important, the problems it solves with respect to writing center work, and how writing center personnel might apply your findings.

3. An overview of what other researchers have found with respect to your research foucs/questions. This should include both the names of key articles and the information the did (or did not) report with respect to your focus.

4. Methods for gathering + analyzing data

5. A short summary of each "chunk" of data + the main point(s) you want to illustrate through the presentation of that data (what the data show with respect to your focus)

6. Discussion of what data show when taken as a whole

7. Conclusions + recommendations for further study

I will be reading through your blogs (hopefully you will all have feedback by the end of Saturday).

For Tuesday

Blog 19: Post the complete draft for the research essay.

After you have given your presentation, post:

Blog 20: Plan for revising research project. This should include an overview of each of the points listed above - and whether or what you need to do to make your essay stronger with respect to each of the requirements. You should also comment on any global stylistic revisions that you need to work on. For example, common revisions include:

• using active as opposed to passive constructions;
• clarifying referents for pronouns (and phrases such as "there are, "it is" etc);
• deleting repetitive phrases, sentences, and words = when in doubt, take it out;
• revising complex &/or sometimes run-on sentences into a series of simple, declarative sentences;
• replacing complex noun phrases with nouns

Have a good weekend & see you Tuesday.

Grades for course + Electronic Portfolio

Your grades will be assigned according to the scale set up in the course syllabus => except that the portfolio will include 425 rather than 500 points (since you will not be writing the essay on your development as a writing coach).

Participation/presentations: 300

Blog: 200

Electronic Portfolio: (500)

A model for the electronic portfolio is posted at ENG 4070 Portfolio, and points for components are as follows:

Reflection on course: 50

Writing Centers & Writing Cultures assignment 100

Writing Center Philosophy 100

Research Project 250 (includes 50 points for your evaluation of your project).

+ 25 bonus points if your grade is within 10 points of the grade I assign.

We will set up the portfolios in class on December 14. Create your work as MS word documents since pasting directly from the blog to the google.site can result in surprises.

More Analysis

Tonight we talked through the analysis sections from several of your research projects. You are posting stronger & stronger notes, and the discussions helped to clarify research questions and pose strategies for presenting the body of your data in light of that research question.

Good class!

For Tuesday:

Continue working on the body of your essay. As you write - just as we did in class => return to your research question and clarify the points you want to illustrate with your data.

Blog 18: Post as much as you have written for your research essay. At a minimum you should have a drafty version of your introduction (including the literature review) + a first draft of your analysis of the data.

In class you will workshop your essays so far.

Use the sample essays as patterns.

Analysis

In class tonight we looked at the introductions for the sample essays. We noted that these two particular essays integrated the review of the literature with the statement & significance of the research problem.

We also looked talked about how the introduction should set up the exploration/explanation of a particular problem for a particular audience. To set you up for the coaching sessions on your introductions - I asked you to do some writing to think about the audience & purpose for your essay. We looked briefly at some writing center journals (some links are at the bottom of this blog)and you thought about who you wanted to read your essay & what you wanted to tell them. You then worked with partners on your introductions - and I floated around to answer questions/suggest references and to listen to what you have done so far.

Great class!

For Thursday:
I will be in the writing center to work one-on-one on the research projects.

Blog 16: post the notes you will analyze for blog 17



For Tuesday:

Blog 17: Analyze the notes from Blog 16 using the following approach.

• Provide a heading to state what the analysis shows with respect to your overall focus.
• Summarize the aspect(s) of the observation/notes that illustrate the points you analyze
• Develop detailed descriptions of what took place in the session (actors, actions, contexts + outcomes) = the evidence you will analyze
• Interpret that evidence (say what it means)
• Analyze the relationships within the evidence by identifying + explaining important cause and effect(and other) relationships
• Discuss the relationships between your analysis and your overall point

In class Tuesday, bring any questions you have about how to write analytic discussions that provide the "evidence" to support an argument (your "case" for your answer to your research question).

I will be reading blogs over the weekend - and sending feedback on blogs 14 & 15.

Presentations on research plans

Tammy, Monica, Anna, Erin, and Angela gave brief presentations on their research plans. I will be available in the WC from 4:30 until 5:45 for anyone who wants to sharpen research questions, make sure their resources work, or talk about data.

Blog 14: (for Thursday) Browse around classmates' blogs and post a section of your data that you think might be useful. Include an overview of what you see as "what your data show."

Blog 15: (for Tuesday) Write a drafty version of the introduction to your essay. This introduction should include: your research question; the problem/issues in WC work that your question will answer/provide new ideas about; the importance/relevance of your research to WC work. If you are feeling ambitions you might make a list of the kind of data you will need to study this problem/answer your research question.

Read: continue reading research relevant to your project

In class Tuesday we will continue working on the research project. You will conduct coaching sessions with one another to review your research plans + introductions, and we will talk as a class about the organization of research essays + where you might publish your work.

Research Plan for November 9

In class tonight you went through your focus for your projects and about half the class presented their annotated bibliographies (and contributed some good references for the rest of us). It sounds like all of you are moving forward => finding your focus. And that is the way it usually goes. Keep taking notes and looking for patterns like we did the other week.

At the very end of class we looked at the assignment sheet for the research plan. The first three numerals are writing exercises to help you discover your research question and develop ideas about how to answer that question. Numeral 4 lists the points to cover in your research plan. For sample research plans - look at:

http://sheerahg.blogspot.com/2009/11/blog-18-research-plan-revised.html

I will be available in the WC on Thursday to talk over your projecst or to help brainstorm ideas for references. Otherwise - keep on gathering notes + attending sessions, and see you on Tuesday, November 9. I will be reading through your blogs (starting today for those of you who have posted annotated bibliographies) and hope to give you some feedback by the weekend.

Blog 12.2: (for Thursday): Annotated bibliography (for those of you who have not yet posted of if you want to make revisions, additions, etc)

Blog 13: Research Plan

Class Discussion: Annotated Bibilography + Research Questions

Tonight we looked through the calendar to get the big picture for where we were going with this research project. As we saw from the calendar, the course is set up so that you do your project in parts - and through using the blogs - so that you share your thinking, data, writing and resources with classmates as you develop them. This practice will allow us to work together.

Overview of due dates for November (first approximation)

Annotated bibliography: November 2

Research plan: November 9

Rough draft - "problem " (your research question) + review of the literature: November 16

Rough draft - presentation of data: November 23

For the next several weeks we will be meeting as a class on Tuesdays, you will be observing (and then coaching) in the writing center, and I will be available in the Writing Center during class time on Thursday. On Thursdays we can work one-on-one or as a class on research/writing issues of your choice.

Annotated bibliography

A sample annotated bibliography is listed to the right. For this assignment, I am looking for a (tentative) list of references for your research paper. As in the sample - I am looking for a short, clear statement of the main focus of the work. In addition, I will be looking for a statement of how you plan to use this reference in your research.

For example, if you were going to do a study of power issues involved in setting the agenda for what writing issues students end up working on in their sessions - you might ask a research question such as: what "authorities" do coaches/students invoke to "persuade" one another with respect to what they will work on during a writing session? How does the choice of "authorities" correlate with the chosen focus, and with student satisfaction with respect to the session? (authorities might include: teacher's expectations stated in class; assignment sheet; genre characteristics; evidence from the paper itself (there may be several categories for this) ; student's feelings about what s/he needs help with; and so on).

To develop a annotated bibliography for this topic you might consider essays on agenda setting, power dynamics in sessions, discourse analysis of tutoring/conferencing/writing center sessions; and so on.

A sample entry might be:

Entry: Newkirk, Thomas. "The First Five Minutes: Setting the Agenda in a AWriting Conference." Writing and Response: Theory, Practice. and Research. Ed. Chris Anson. Urban, IL: NCTE P, 1989. 317-331.

Overview: A description of the dynamics of agenda setting in conferences for a freshman English course.

Use: I can use Newkirk's transcripts & analysis of the three sample "agenda settings' to identify key references to authority in the negotiation of the focus for the conference. This will show that these references are wide-spread moves - and not just in the sessions I observe.

Your annotated bibliography should have the minimum number of entries required for your research essay.

As I said in class - these bibliographies often become a communal source, and student frequently find that essays from classmates bibliographies will be important to their research. By the time projects are complete - students usually have "borrowed" reference from several classmates - and that is exactly the point of asking you to post your bibliography on your blog.

Finding sources.

We spend about half the class identifying and testing strategies for finding references. Suggestions included:

• using amazon to identify books (and some articles) - and reading the bibliographies for recent publications if possible
• using google scholar - noting how many times articles that come up have been cited, and checking out related references (and, of course, mining the bibliographies of all relevant articles)
• using Rebecca Moore Howard's bibliographies (& searching her lists using control F for dates + keywords)
• checking out writing center journals + the IWCA (NOT the international window cleaning association)
• searching by author for leading scholars in your field (using Kean databases + google.scholar &etc)

Sample essays:

There are two sample essays posted with the Annotated bibliography: one qualitative, and one hybrid qualitative-quantitative. I chose these two as samples since they both follow the more-or-less standard form for composition research essays. We discussed the (surprising) results for the study of correlations between WC satisfaction and grades as a way to think about both how you might design a study - and how you might explain your results. Either of these essays would serve as a satisfactory model for this assignment.

Observations in the center:

We spent the rest of class talking about what struck you about observations in the center - and then speculating about what kind of questions/explorations you might develop to follow-through on those observations. There were lots of solid ideas for projects in this discussion. I am very excited about reading through your findings!

If you will miss your time in the center - or if you want to re-schedule: send an email to wcenterkean7@gmail.com.

Blog 12: messy discussion of what you are reading and ideas for your project (to get some ideas out there for classmates)

Read: essays for your research (candidates for your annotated bibliography)

See you on Thursday (or not). The assignments for Thursday (due Tuesday, November 2) will be:

Blog 13: Draft annotated bibliography

Read: Sample research essays posted on blog

In class on Tuesday, November 2 we will discuss the form of the sample research essays, share references, and talk about developing a research plan.

October 21

We spent today's class brainstorming ideas for the research project. I encouraged you to keep an open mind as you observed your first several sessions, and to remember that you need to frame your study so that it answers some specific questions with respect to writing center work.

In addition to the research project assignment sheet, I have posted two sample research essays that have a form similar to the work you will be doing. As we discussed in class, because of your brief window for observation - your data will necessarily be "thin." That's OK. The real purpose of the project is for you to get your feet wet in using the observational-reflective processes that are frequently applied both in writing centers and in writing classrooms.

For Tuesday:

Blog 11: brainstorming for research project

Read: use the "research plan" sheet (posted to the right) to do some in-depth thinking about your project. Specifically, begin to identify + check out research essays that will be useful for your project.

For the next couple of weeks, we will have class on Tuesday, and then we will have optional meetings in the WC for one-on-one or group work on your projects on Thursdays.

For those of you who showed up but were unsure about what we were doing, (I was late) sorry for the confusion about this Thursday's class.

October 12: Permission forms + taking & analyzing notes

We talked through the permission forms (posted to the right) and I provided each of you with a copy that has my signature. You will need to copy the signed forms, date them, and add your information. We talked through the protocol for presenting the permission forms and following up with the debriefing forms. Subjects have their own motivations for taking part in our research - but it is often out of generosity and a wish to help, so remember to thank them. Study of how writing and coaching work is an essential part of writing center work - and by conducting and publishing research in our center - theories about writing will account for the writers and coaches at our University.

Basic protocol for requesting permission to observe a session:

1) Approach coach before session begins to ask if it will be OK to observe. If s/he agrees, provide/explain permission form to coach,and obtain signature.

2) Approach student as s/he checks in at the receptionist desk. If s/he agrees, provide/explain permission form to writer, and obtain signature.

3) Request that receptionist make copies of the signed forms.

4) Position your self to observe the session so that you have a clear view, but so that you do not interfere with the work of the session. DO NOT sit at the same table as the session you are observing.

5) Take notes.

6) As session closes, thank coach and writer for their partication and provide debriefing forms.

7) Make sure writer and coach each receive a copy of the signed permission forms.

8) Keep a copy of the signed permission form for your records.

We spent most of class onserving, taking notes on, and discussing a coaching session focused on Erin's Writing Center Philosophy and facilitated by Eric. This session modeled how the permission /notetaking fits into the pattern of coaching, and gave us an opportunity to develop a set of notes from observation - and to talk about how we would use those notes to discover, explore, and theorize a research topic. (unedited notes are posted to the right) The approach we talked through is presented in more detail in Barney Glazer and Anselm Strauss - The Discovery of Grounded Theory (1967), Anselm Strauss and Juliet Corbin, Basics of Qualitative Research (2007); and by Ian Dey, Grounding Grounded Theory: Guidelines for Qualitative Inquiry (1999). The first two books provide systematic, step by step approaches for using qualitative data as a basis for describing and theorizing the interactive dynamics within local contexts - like in a writing center. The third explores the assumptions and limitations of the approach.

I briefly discussed my note-taking strategies (moving between description of what I saw, what I heard, and what I inferred), and talked about strategies for analyzing notes. At the beginning, before you have a research topic, notes serve as representations of "what happens" that you can look at, think about, and look at again. This looking allows you to look for patterns, curious happenings, or anything that strikes you as interesting. After taking "open" notes on a series of sessions - you may "discover" a pattern or something that interests you = and you will shift the focus of what you write down.

Simple ways to begin to see what is of interest in a session are to note: beginnings and endings, points of transition, repeated language or behaviors, patterns that "chunk" the session into "scenes" - as if it were a play, turning points (ie when the writer "gets it") and the behaviors/language associated with turning points . As you look at these points, you will begin to look for actions, contexts, interactions, relationships, and outcomes that are repeated - and you will give them names - so you can "see" them in your data. These names or "categories" are the language you will use to identify, describe and theorize the focus for your research.

For Thursday: no class => go to the writing center and take notes on one session between now and Tuesday. Spend some time analyzing your notes and come to class prepared to talk about ideas for a research project.

Blog 10: Describe your note-taking practices=> what is working? what do you want to work on? What references, resources, in-class exercises would help you develop your note-taking (data collection ) process?

In class Tuesday, October 19, we will talk some more about notes and take a look at the criteria for the research project and the portfolio. Also, I will return your Writing Center Philosophies, and we can talk a little about where you stand with those.

Have a good weekend.

Late post for Thursday, Oct 7.

I graded and returned your writing culture drafts, and will be looking for your Writing Center Philosophy drafts in the course email today, October 12.

In class today you will sign up for the times you want to coach at the writing center, and we will go over the permission forms, and practices for observing.

We will also have some more practice taking notes + analyzing notes.

October 5: Writing Center Philosohpy!

We discussed Lunsford's essay - both to think about collaboration and the idea fo writing center - and to explore the different philosophies that underlie writing center (see 3 models handout posted under course documents).

From there - we revisited the assignment sheet - and filled in some of the missing requirements. The philosophy statement should be suitable for publication on a web site for a particular institution, and it should be directed toward a particular audience for a particular purpose. The sample philosophies ranged from about 500 - 750 words - so your philosophy should fit in that ballpark for length.

For the second part of the assignment - y0u will write a separate document where you discuss the practical consequences your philosophy will have for the coaching practices, physical space, administrative policies, identity of the staff, and so on.

You spent the rest of class conducting a paractice coaching session. You worked with the same partner you worked with in the last session - only you switched roles. Hopefully this exercise gave you some practice both with coaching and with taking notes.

For Thursday:
Blog 8: brainstorming/drafty writing for writing center philosophy
Read: Shamoon & Burns

September 30 Writing Center Philosophies

We spent most of class applying talk from Tuesday in a discussion of Writing Center philosophies (see assignment sheet posted on the right). As we talked through the language choices in the WC philosophy statements at the links on the assignment sheet, we were able to make some informed guesses about the the statement's audience and purpose, as well as about how the center operated, and why. As stated on the assignment sheet, your WC philosophy will include your statement AND an analysis of the connections between theory and practice your philosophy implies. The first draft for your WC philosophy is due on your blog for class discussion, October 7. The revised WC philosophy will be turned in as an attachment (and a blog post) October 12. And the final document (for the grade) will be turned in with your portfolio. I expect MLA format, but I did not develop a length requirement. As you noticed from the sample WC philosophies - in many ways the length of your statement is rhetorical and will connect to choices about audience & purpose.

We will spend some time in class Tuesday discussing the criteria for this assignment.

We spent what little time was left first characterizing and then "acting out" the coaching philosophies described in the two readings. If we had had time - we would have had a more in-depth discussion of connections between the authors' theories about learning - and the tutoring approaches. Because all learners are different -it is useful to have a range of coaching strategies to draw from. These two are a start.

For Tuesday:

Blog 8: Post your draft Writing Cultures assignment; at the top of your post make any requests for feedback/comments that you think might be useful for you.

Read: Guide, Andrea Lunsford, 92.

In class we will talk about Lunsford's classification for the different kinds of writing centers - including conversations about the philosophies/assumptions that underlie these different centers - we will continue to discuss the WC philosophy assignment - and if I can do a little better with my time-management skills - you will conduct some practice coaching sessions (and take notes) to develop the WC philosopy & analysis.

Enjoy the rain.

Tuesday, September 28

Stephen North's essay.

"The Idea of a Writing Center" has long been a defining work for writing centers. In some ways, it was our declaration of identity, and I don't know about other writing center workers, but for me it felt good to have so many of the frustrations arising from how WCs were represented (by "others") put into clear, compelling language. Even if it is on the idealistic side, it is an important point of departure for considering what WCs are and what they do.

According to North's original essay, WCs are student centered, about writing process, and neutral places driven by participant-observation. What is more, WCs have their own purpose and agendas, as he puts it "we are not here to serve, suppolement, back up, complement, reinforce or otherwise be defined by any external curriculum." What is more, in addition to functioning as places where motivated writers work (with interest and excitement) on their writing, WCs are also centers for teaching and research.

"The Writing Center Revisited" backs off on some of these original declarations, and acknowledges the romanticism of the original piece.

Connections between Ideas and Actions.

The second part of class was devoted to thinking about how assumptions or ideas about what a writing center is and what it does shape what the practical, real-world writing center is and does.

Everyday practices and relationships that might be shaped by these underlying assumptions include:

• the WC's administrative structure and policies;
• training programs for staff;
• behaviors for interacting with writers;
• language choices and activities that "stand for" the center in PR materials & events;
• the focus of research projects (or whether a WC includes research);
• and relationships to other departments and units within the institution.

Writing Center Philosophies.

After a rather idealistic discussion of practices and relationships arising from the "ideas" in North's original writing center, I asked you to do some thinking about where you stood in terms of the ideas that you would use to guide the administration of a WC, if you were a director. You then did some thinking with your feet to consider where you "stood" on issues including:

• coaching strategies (minimalist => therapist)
• policy "enforcement" & control of staff + center activities ( fixed rules => contextual consideration)
• definition of writing (product => process)
• ideological commitment (institution-centered=> student-centered)
• administrative structure (hierarchical => collaborative)

Although we engaged in this exercise as if these choices were "either/or" - that may not always be the best way to think about the different positions you, as the director, will need to take. I organized this exercise to highlight the conflicts - and so you could watch yourself move from side to side (or not) along a scale roughly associated with clarity and control. So that was your introduction to thinking about a "writing center philosophy." I confess that running through the ideas and all the decisions WC directors make based on those ideas still feels like a real puzzle to me. What I think is "best" ideally does not always match up with the way it turns out in the real world - and vice versa. There is a lot to think about here.

For Thursday:

Blog 7: What writing center philosophy (list of assumptions) do you think Bouquet supports? North 1? North 2?

By WC philosophy I mean ideas (along the lines of the bullet points under the WC philosophies heading) that shape the policies, structures & behaviors within a writing center. I know you don't have a lot to go on in Bouquet, and I know we talked about North - so in some sense this post is both too easy and too hard - do what you can. The point is to tease out these writer's assumptions as a way to get practice that will help you identify your own assumptions.

Read: Guide, Bruffee, 206; Brooks, 219. (Hint: you will know much more about minimalist tutoring & coaching as conversation after you read these two essays).

On Thursday, we will do some in-class modeling" for each of these approaches - conversational v minimalist. Model sessions will focus on your coaching philosophy paper. Do some thinking about which "style" you would like to model. Be prepared to switch-up your delivery.

Good class today!

Thursday, September 23

Important Reminder: Students who participate in research involving human subjects at Kean University must provide proof to the Kean University Institutional Review board that they have completed NIH training. As stated in class, I requested that certificates needed to be submitted by September 14. Any student who does not submit evidence that they have completed training by September 28, will not be able to conduct research in the Writing Center, and will need to withdraw from the course. These are Federal Regulations and there is simply no way around them. If you are having difficulties - please let me know so we can resolve them.

What we did in class: We used tonight's class as a workshop for you to work on your papers, as practice for coaching WC sessions, and as an introduction to using note-taking as a way to document and reflect on coaching practices. The notes you take on WC sessions - either by reconstructing what happened in your own sessions (as you did tonight), or by requesting permission to observe and taking notes as the session unfolds - will be the basis of your research project.

Documenting work at the writing center: In our discussion of note-taking we pointed out that there were three kinds of observations that it was important to include.

• The "facts" of the session - information that is directly observable. The time, place, setting. The physical descriptions of the individuals involved. How and where they are seated. It is important to note time not only at the beginning of the session - but also at selected points as the session unfolds. Inserting time-notes will document how much time was spent in the sessions different parts.
  
  
• Description - description might be considered a kind of fact, since in some sense it is "there" and it is created through careful observation. At the same time, it is much more detailed and more carefully elaborated. What makes it description is that the observer's word choices have a much more powerful effect in its characaterization than does "fact" writing. The difference here is between stating that the session took place at the computer near the window in the KU writing center and the student sat with his back to the window (facts), and pointing out that the light on the screen made the documents "fuzzy" and hard to see and that the writer was constantly leaning forward, holding up his hand to make a shadow, or a description of the writer's behavior while waiting for the document to appear on the screen.
  
  
• Inferences and reflections - are statements that are clearly interpretations. Stating that the student in the last scenario was frustrated is an interpretation. It may seem like a fact, but it involves some speculation on the part of the observer. If the student says "I am frustrated" and the observer writes down the short quotation => then it is description. Reflections about your feelings, (being nervous, being unsure about what to say next and resorting to "what do you think?) are sometimes combinations of reflections and description. Documenting your internal state is important - because sometimes, when you go back to notes after a week or so - you might discover that the observations on the page do NOT evoke the same feelings.

It is important to include some of each kind of observation. Student note-takers (with the exception of storytellers and writers) often skip directly to the interpretations - leaving out the facts and descriptions that are the "proof" of their conclusions. Be sure to include sufficient descriptions to support your inference that a student is "satisfied with the session," "frustrated," "confused" and so on.

You turned in some sample notes, which I will read through and get back to you on Tuesday with some very general comments about how to strengthen your notes so they will better support your research essay.

We also noted that the calendar has been revised, and that the draft for the Writing Cultures paper is now due October 5. If you have questions, need references, or just want to make sure you are moving in the right direction - try the writing center - or schedule a conference with me.

For Tuesday:

Blog 6: Discussion of your Writing Cultures essay. Be sure to include:

• the aspect of academic writing culture that is your focus (the values, expectations, un-stated "rules" of academic writing that direct how writing is received in the academy)
• the identity/culture of the group who has a problem with academic writing
• a description of the values, expectations, & un-stated beliefs about what writing is and how it is used that associated with your group
• the problems the aspect of writing culture causes for your group of writers
• what these writers want when they come to the writing center

Yes - this is a kind of "map" for your paper. By posting this you will do some thinking and put yourself in a position to get some feedback from me and your peers before you invest too much effort in writing the papers.

Read: North "The Idea of a Writing Center," and "Revising the Idea of a Writing Center," pp. 63-92.

In class Tuesday we will start talking about writing center philosophies.

Tuesday, September 21

Tonight, we used work on the assignment on the writing culture at Kean University as a way to model and practice coaching sessions where writers do not have a draft. In these sessions some of you were working on finding a focus, some were working on figuring out what the assignment required, and some were working on understanding what we meant by academic (Kean) expectations for "writing culture." From checking in and selective observations of your sessions it sounds like all of you made progress - which was the point. It also sounds like those of you who don't have much experience with writing centers got a taste of the kind of work that writing centers do. Good.

For Thursday:

Blog 5 (I know it says Blog 4 on the calendar I handed out - I am going to make some revisions + re-post): Post a draft for the writing centers and cultures assignment. Post what you have, as far as you get. The more writing you post, the easier it will be for coaches to participate in your writing process.

Read: Review McAndrew and Reigstad, 42-56 - strategies for working with writers who have a draft. You might also look over the section that begins on 64 where the authors sum up overall sessions (the sections on 66 & 67 might be particulary useful for the in-class sessions you conduct for Thursday's class).

In class on Thursday you will work in pairs to coach one another on your essays. Make sure to establish where the writer is in the writing process before you begin. The object of the session is to move the writer forward in the writing process. This may invole a little talk and lots of writing by the writer - or it may involve a lot of talk. It will depend on your writer.

In Thursday's class - we will begin to do some reflecting and note-taking on your sessions. I know it stated on the calendar that we were going to start on the journals in class on Tuesday - but it seemed like there was already enough going on and introducing one more task would have been counterproductive. So come to class ready to work on your essay, coach, and to begin reflecting on your coaching process.

Though tonight was a little loose - I was really pleased with the progress we made. Good work - and good writing on your drafts! See you Thursday.

Thursday, September 16

We began class by examining the master narratives Bouquet identified as influencing the perception and use of writing centers throughout their history. We started by taking a look at her classification of the stories and what they implied for writing center work - and then took a closer look at the defining stories associated with each time period.

Master narratives. We found that throughout their history, writing centers/labs have been defined by several sets of conflicting identity stories = one set of stories features the WC both as a place and as a method; a second set of stories casts WCs both as authoritative, storehouses of information that provide (deficient) students with answers about + examples of "correct" writing - and as places where collaborative support enables students to discover their own best writing practices and create their own best work; a third set of stories casts writing centers as either an agent of enforcing institutional standards for writing (dominant discourses) or a scene of counter-hegemonic activism (a place where students discover their own interests and identities and resist being homogenized by institutional pressures. Our discussion allowed that the stories may be either/or in terms of content - but in terms of how they played out in defining particular writing centers (at least our writing center) => they were often "both/and" in that WC practices move back and forth between the poles of the defining stories.

Connections between WC stories, the culture at large, and WC work. We found that these tensions + complicated movements between the story sets was reiterated in almost every period of writing center history - from its autonomous beginnings - to its post-open admissions present. We also noticed how how shifting theoretical assumptions within Composition Studies (writing) and political, economic, and other larger cultural movements shaped what happened at writing centers as we moved from period to period.

This discussion set the stage for your first writing assignment (see assignment sheet posted at the right): an essay on The Writing Center and Writing Culture. We talked through assignment requirements (if you have questions bring them up in class) and pointed out that the draft is not due until Tuseday, September 28, and that the final (graded) copy of the assignment will not be due until you turn in your porfolio at the end of the term.

For class Tuesday:

Blog 4: Rhetorical analysis of the assignment sheet for The Writing Center and Writing Culture. This might include an analysis of the audience, purpose, & form of the assignment. A list of ideas you might write about (along with some reality checking about how well each topic would meet the requirements of the assignment. A proposed focus. Listing (a speculative list) about references or information you might need to write on your proposed focus. Random freewriting or associations to develop points coupled with reflective writing about how well those points will meet the assignment. Etc.***

Read: Review the sections of McAndrew and Reigstad that cover how to coach writers who do not have drafts.

*** DO NOT WRITE A DRAFT FOR YOUR ESSAY - AND DON'T GET TOO INVESTED IN A PATICULAR APPROACH OR TOPIC. As you might have guessed from the implications of these assignments - in class on Tuesday you will coach one another on finding a focus, organizing ideas, and making sure the draft you eventually write will meet the requirements of the assignment.

Have a great weekend and see you on Tuesday.

Tuesday, September 14

Tonight you got to "practice what you read" in the coaching handbook. As I said in class, these chapters have many good tips & strategies for work in all stages of the writing process. You may want to check back on them when you start work in the center.

After getting a taste of coaching - we had a too-short discussion of how institutional cultures - the assumptions, values, beliefs and practices that are the "way it is" at schools and universities. We made a quick list of characteristics of the culture of writing here at Kean University. This is important to reflect on because the culture of writing drives many of the "problems" that walk into a writing center. Some of the features of the academy's culture of writing that we listed on the board include:

• valuing (privileging) if dominant cultural forms for language and genre
• emphasis on correctness
• school writing is valued as a means to a "grade" or a "job" => for it's use (rather than for pleasure or its art)
• teacher centered in terms of content and form (hierarchical, top-down systems for evaluating writing content and form)
• must be "clear" where clear is code for in the dominant language forms

Admittedly, this list focuses on the power relationships within the academic writing culture - and as we pointed out in class - academic writing culture is not really all one thing - it is "both and" for a lot of practices and concepts.

For Thursday:

Blog 3: Write a description of Kean University's culture of writing. I suggested in class that you lurk around one another's blogs - and feel free to riff of ideas you find there. Report your impressions + experiences with what is expected for academic writing, how it is used, what is valued (and de-valued).

For example - at the English Department Retreat it was suggested that we make a department policy to forbid the use of laptops in classes (except when students were working on papers). What values for digital writing are implied by that suggestion?

Read: Guide, Bouquet, p. 41. This is a history of writing centers/labs -and it tells us something about our heritage - and our culture. I said I was going to post the tough words - but now I am thinking I would rather you brought those words to class and we can work out more interactive definitions/explorations through talk.

On Thursday we will dig deeper into connections among writing, institutional culture and what happens in writing centers.

Things are moving right along! Thanks for your good work and see you Thursday.

September 9

The assigned reading was about writing process and tutoring process. In class, we drew from scholars' descriptions of these processes as a way to think where, when and how writing coaches can work with writers. We characterized the writing process in terms of three stages with full acknowledgment of the fact it is recursive - and chaotic (a complex social process that interacts with individual circumstances and psychology). Even though the stages are a linear sequence, there are particular kinds of moves that writers make within the different stages - and we listed some of the moves within each stage.

You then brainstormed a list of "tutorly moves" - strategies or actions coaches might make to support writers at points of impasse or confusion.

During the last moments of class (and this is the part I meant to spend the most time on - but we ran out of time) we began making connections between points in the writing process, characteristic problems that arise at that point - and tutorly moves (I need a better word for that).

Writing Process & Coaching Ideas Sheets. I've typed up three charts - one for each stage - with the beginning of your input. They are posted at google.docs - anyone with the link should be able to edit these documents (Angela told me the link doesn't work - give me a day or so to fix this). Go take a look - add your groups (and your own) observations & strategies. I am 100% aware that the formatting is not the best - any revisions/rearrangements to make this document easier to use would be appreciated. The idea is that we will begin to put together - as a class - a list of strategies to use for some of the many issues that arise at different points in the writing process. Through creating this list you have a chance to "rehearse" some of the moves you might make in a session- that way, those moves might be available to you when you need them.

Thanks for your good contributions to the class discussion - and please solidify some of that good work by putting it on the Idea Sheet.

For Tuesday:

Blog 2: Describe your writing process. So you write the same way for "school" as the way you write for your self? What points in each of your processes might benefit from coaching?

Read: McAndrew and Reigstad, 30-69.

September 7: What did she ask us to post?

After setting up blogs, we worked on understanding how the first three chapters in McAndrew and Reigstad might deepen understanding of what writing centers do.

You started by writing down a set of connections between points from the chapters - and what those points implied about how writing centers work, and what writing centers do. I gave an example about the section on reader response theory:

Sample writing for a post: Reader response theory points out that meanings are NOT entirely in texts - they are created by the reader (with respect to the post => this is the principle - what follows are my reflections on what this principle implies for writing center work ). With respect to what writing centers do, this tells us that the texts students read and write are only a starting place for understanding how to structure coaching sessions. For coaches, this means much of the work will take place in terms of: learning how the writer understands writing assignments and what s/he has read or written and and checking to see if the writer's understanding matches what the coach knows about writing genre's, expectations of academic audiences, and so on. To make this even more complicated - the coach will need to be aware that his/her perceptions will also be shaped by his/her particular reading history and experiences. So overall - this theory implies that good writing center work will required good listening, careful examination of the assumptions we bring to coaching sessions, and on-going communication between the coach, the writer - and the texts they are working with.

After you did some writing - you worked in groups to fill out, expand on, and deepen your thinking about this list.

Writing versus talking. We then spent some time reflecting on how these two different processes - writing and talking - helped generate, organize, deepen, and consolidate ideas. The list we generated is posted at the right under course documents. It seems (unsurprisingly) that talking and writing contribute to the writing process in different ways. Understanding the different strengths of the two processes (and realizing that different writers will relate to these strengths in different ways) is very important for writing coaches - since talk and writing are coaches primary tools for working on writing with their clients.

We didn't really have time to reflect on the lists you created so I have posted them on the right for you to take a look at.

So, what did she ask us to post?
And that brought us to the topic for your first blog post. We revised the prompt from the calendar so that instead of writing about what writing centers do - you were asked to list and write about the connections between the readings and what you are learning about what writing centers do.

Some of the important points that you might respond to include implications for writing centers with respect to:

social constructionism
reader response

talk and writing (we sort of did this one in class)
collaborative learning

feminism

research on peer groups (what have they found - what does it imply about coaching writing?)

research on conferences

research on coaching

studies of literacy coaching

studies of coaching writing

"mistaken" theories for coaching

Write in to your increased understanding of coaching in terms of this writing.

For Thursday:

Blog 1: Use the textbook's first three chapters to identify principles that shape work at writing centers - and write into/ describe/reflect on what you are learning about these principles.

Create a link list of your classmates' blogs.

Read: McAndrew and Reigstad, 21-30.

Blog list

The first part of class was devoted to setting up blogs. The list is pasted in below:

Angela http://ac5070.blogspot.com/

Benito beninieves@gmail.com

Dayna daynasmith1988@gmail.com

Eric cortes.e@gmail.com

Erin kriege@kean.edu>

Jennifer jeniferflinton@gmail.com

Karilyn karilynward@comcast.net

Monica jironica67@aol.com

Tammy http://tammyronkowitz.blogspot.com/

To create a link list, click on design, select link list from add a gadget, and follow the directions (and don't forget to save!) If you have problems, stop by the writing center or send me an email.

September 2: Introductions - talking, writing, and reflecting

Tonight's class was about getting a feel for what we will do in the class, getting to know one another, and walking through some of the activities that are central to writing center practice. You talked to each about who you are and your relationships to writing, and you wrote about and reflected on experience associated with learning. Talking (listening), writing and reflecting are at the heart of what makes Writing Centers work. You will read writing center theory and learn approaches for working with writers - but if you just keep in mind that it is really the power of sharing ideas and experiences through putting them into words that makes writing center conferences work - you have it down.

Your stories about learning illustrated many of the approaches you will read about in the text books: modeling, providing information at the point of need, sharing in the excitement of the back and forth for exploring ideas, inviting the writer to "taste" her/his work, speaking to the writer's motivation and desire, or simply being there as an interested participant. Writing coaches do all these things. If we look at this list - we might notice that much of it calls upon social awareness and interest in others - rather than expertise in writing. You will need to have a strong understanding of writing process - but mastering the many rules and expectations of all writing genres is not required for good writing coaches. You just have to know how to figure out what the rules are - and how to look up models and practices for following them.

Thanks for sharing your stories - they were the best part of the class.

For Tuesday:

1. Work on (and complete if possible) the IRB training: http://phrp.nihtraining.com/users/login.php class. Email a copy of your certificate to ENG4070@gmail.com.

2. Read McAndrew and Reigstad, 1-21.

Note: we will meet in CAS 307, and you will set up your blog.

Happy Labor Day - and see you on Tuesday.

First day of class

Welcome to ENG 4070/5070: Writing Center Theory and Practice. This should be an exciting class - and with any luck it should be fun as well. The links on this page connect you to course documents, important journals for writing center research, sites for some of the leading writing centers across the country, and most importantly - to your classmates' blogs.

I will use my posts to respond to and sum up class discussions, note changes in the course calendar, and generally reflect on the ideas and events that come up throughout the term.

We will spend today's class getting to know one another and discussing the overall plan for the course. After class - I will update this blog with a post describing what we did in class - and an overview of what to do for our next meeting. So welcome to the course - and here we go!