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.