Session 1
10:30 a.m. – 11:45 a.m.
1. Creating an ‘Ecology of Action’ in the Writing Center – workshop
Harry Denny, Director, St John’s University
Chris Leary, Associate Director, St. John’s University
Jennifer Fontanez, Consultant, St. John’s University
Hadia Sheerazi, Consultant , St. John’s University
For decades, ecologists have told us that sustainable ecosystems have multiple intelligent feedback mechanisms that account for and respond to fluctuations and patterns within and beyond their boundaries. Informed in part by the ecological work of Gregory Bateson and the ecocomposition work of Derek Owens, the Writing Centers at St. John’s University implement (and continually revise) mixed methods of assessment and training that are organic and local to the sites, groups, and individuals under scrutiny. In our interactive workshop, we will present "datasets" that suggest how these mixed methods of research - empirical, qualitative, critical – can be used to drive renewal and sustainability in our writing centers. Further, we will suggest how to learn from the real?world successes in our writing centers and how we can create social ties that advance diversity and self-management. After providing a cross?section of our methodology, small breakout groups will be prompted to speculate on the possibilities and limitations of our approach; we also hope they will share relevant details from their home institutions. Because the feedback loops we depict in our presentation require input from voices inside and outside of our institution, we expect that the ideas generated by participants in our interactive panel will feed directly into our assessment and training protocols.
2. Reversing the Roles: Nonnative
English Speaking Tutors – panel
Svetla Marinova, Tutor , Adelphi University
Stefan Yankov, Tutor, Adelphi University
This presentation will discuss the impact WC staff diversity has on the quality of tutoring English and the image of the writing center at our institution. Questions raised address whether good English tutoring skills can be learned or necessarily stem from one's early language acquisition. Revisiting the history of our WC and reflecting on the opinions of international tutees and tutors will be an incentive for other WC representatives at the conference to share their experiences working with tutors from diverse backgrounds.
Conversational Fluency and the Writing Center – panel
Jeff Scott, Tutor, University of Vermont
Zoe Chapman, Tutor, University of Vermont
Writing centers have traditionally been a place for students to work on written material. As we have found this year, the writing center can also be a place for ESL students to practice conversational speaking and listening. In this section, we will present some strategies we used with one ESL student over the course of the academic year as she worked to improve her conversational English.
3. What Would You Like to Work on Today?: Rethinking
Professionalization in the Writing Center – roundtable
Janell Haynes, Consultant, Syracuse University
Amber Luce, Consultant, Syracuse University
Kiffen Dosch, Consultant, Syracuse University
This roundtable discussion will examine the effects on a writing center’s environment when that center casts itself as a site of professionalism. We wish to trouble what is expected from and beneficial to a Writing Center when it is situated as a professional site by and for “professionals.” Where do students fit when the Center is professionally driven? How do the students, tutors, administrators and corollary departments get cast when the focus is on professionalization?
4. ReInventing
Ourselves: How Curricular Change Changes Us – roundtable
Phyllis Benay, Director , Keene State College
Collie Fulford, Assistant Director, Keene State College
Maggie Lavelle, Tutor, Keene State College
Nick Rose, Tutor, Keene State College
Jennifer Kant, Tutor, Keene State College
John Vespa, Tutor, Keene State College
Kate Curtis, Tutor, Keene State College
At Keene State College, the Center for Writing’s Partnership Program with a rigorous new first-year writing course is resulting in substantive changes to the Center, especially to the tutoring role. Although still anchored in one?on?one peer sessions, tutors’ experiences are now more complex and public than ever before. During this roundtable discussion, our audience will explore with us the ramifications and risks that arise when writing centers re?invent themselves in response to curricular change
5. Record, Reflect, Renew: Using iPods to Understand Writing Center Work – workshop
Betsy Bowen, Director, Fairfield University
Michelle Morrison, Tutor, Fairfield University
Joseph Zagami, Tutor, Fairfield University
Lily Norton, Tutor, Fairfield University
Dana Sharkey, Tutor, Fairfield University
Catherine Forsa, Tutor, Fairfield University
In this workshop, we will present the results of a four-year long staff development project in which tutors have used iPods and digital technology to record and reflect on their work in the Writing Center. We will demonstrate how tutors use iPods and computer technology to record, select, edit, and reflect on their work, and we will discuss ways of using these recordings to enrich staff development.
6. Directive and Nondirective Tutoring: What Do Our Assumptions Tell Us About Power
Dynamics? – roundtable
Michelle Deal, Assistant Director, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Leslie Bradshaw, Graduate Tutor, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Jessica Ouelette, Undergraduate Tutor, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Sarah Stanley, Graduate Tutor, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
This roundtable discussion invites participants to revisit long-held assumptions about “directive” and “nondirective” tutoring. The facilitators ask: What power dynamics are ignored when we assume that tutors can choose to be directive or nondirective? To begin, participants will try to define these concepts. Next we will each identify possible corresponding tutoring strategies using excerpts from sample transcripts, published research, and personal experiences. Last, we consider how writing center theory, research, and/or pedagogy might revise itself.
7. Leadership, AntiRacism
and Revolution: When Institutional Culture and Writing Center
Missions Clash – panel
Laura Greenfield, Coordinator, Mount Holyoke College
Nicole Payen, Assistant Coordinator, Mount Holyoke College
Christine Overstreet, Assistant Coordinator, Mount Holyoke College
Megan Durling, Peer Mentor, Mount Holyoke College
Hannah Rogal, Peer Mentor, Mount Holyoke College
Mika Weissbuch, Peer Mentor, Mount Holyoke College
Meeral Shafaat Bokharee, Peer Mentor, Mount Holyoke College
Zilin Cui, Peer Mentor, Mount Holyoke College
What can we do when our writing center seeks to be a catalyst for social change (combating racism, for example) while our institution, despite professing a similar mission, seems to resist this in practice? In this interactive presentation, writing center administrators and undergraduate peer mentors will discuss the practical challenges associated with articulating a mission dedicated to student leadership and ask the audience to explore whether and how an institution can be changed from the inside out.
8. Documents and Discoveries: Assessment Moves to the Center – roundtable
Scott Campbell, Assistant Professor. University of Connecticut, Hartford
Wendy Pfenger, Consultant, University of Connecticut, Hartford
Anne Wettersten, Consultant, University of Connecticut, Hartford
Philip Burnham, Tutor, University of Connecticut, Hartford
Alexa Brakoniecki, Tutor, University of Connecticut, Hartford
In this roundtable discussion we invite the audience to reflect with us on the writing center’s place in a university education that is increasingly framed by the empirical rhetoric of assessment and outcomes. Our discussion with the audience will hinge on the act of writing in writing sessions – both the writing our students do as a routine part of every session in our center and the writing the tutors do for our record-keeping system.
Post-Lunch Talk
1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m.
Neal Lerner, MIT
“When the NEWCA was Born”
This presentation will describe the founding of the New England Writing Centers Association and the professional and social contexts in which the first NEWCA conference was situated. Drawing on archival evidence, I will argue that professional organizations are created in response to the exigencies of their time and place, but that these exigencies can be read as a map for future planning.
