Session 2
1:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m.
1. Online Tutoring: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow – panel
Agie Markiewicz, Technical Assistant, Pace University
Rekekah Johnson, Coordinator, Pace University
Synchronous online tutoring has gained popularity and has been implemented in many writing centers, and we followed suit. Many centers approach online tutoring as merely an extension of in-person tutoring. After a year of online tutoring, the Pace University Writing Center is revisiting the online tutoring methods we have been using, taking into consideration both the advantages and limitations of the digital environment and the ways online tutoring differs from in-person sessions
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Revisiting the Traditional Writing Center: Developing an Online Writing Center at
Salem State College – workshop
Lisa M. Litterio, Consultant/Program Designer, Salem State College
During the 2008-2009 academic year, the Writing Center at Salem State College expanded its services to include synchronous online tutoring sessions, specifically targeting distance degree learners. This presentation will consist of a mock demonstration of a typical online tutoring session and will provide a computerized, dual screen visual of the role of the tutor and the student. Audience members will be given the opportunity to interact directly with the program, generate questions, and discuss the challenges of incorporating online tutoring services with current face-to-face offerings.
2. Revisiting Ethics in the Writing Center – workshop
Barkley Heuser, Tutor, SUNY College at Old Westbury Winchester
Stuart, Tutor, SUNY College at Old Westbury
Taryn Dieckmann, Tutor, SUNY College at Old Westbury
Charlaine Farley, Tutor, SUNY College at Old Westbury
Because ethics is at the root of professional practice, we should all revisit our own ethical tutoring practice. This workshop does not look to dictate a system of ethics, but will instead help participants uncover the foundations for the ethical decisions that they already make in tutoring sessions. Reflection on these foundations should help strengthen participants’ intuitive sense of their system of Writing Center ethics.
3. That First Tutorial: What Does it Tell us About Peer Tutoring? – roundtable
Harvey Kail, Coordinator, University of Maine, Orono
Jesse Priest, Tutor, University of Maine, Orono
Andrew Prindle, Tutor, University of Maine, Orono
Ashley Robinson, Tutor, University of Maine, Orono
Stephanie Schaffner, Tutor, University of Maine, Orono This roundtable will focus on “that first tutorial”—the first time a peer writing tutor sits down with another student in the writing center and asks “So, how’s your paper going?” What can we learn about peer tutoring and collaborative learning by revisiting and reflecting on “that first tutorial”? The roundtable will engage both panelists and participants through written reflection, presentations, analysis, and discussion.
4. Choosing Hats: Revisiting What Roles We Play – workshop
Susan Blau, Director, Boston University
John Hall, Associate Director, Boston University
Kaileen Connelly, Writing Fellow, Boston University
I. A director/professor urges his/her students to visit the writing center and the students turn in work that is still quite flawed (or even worse). How should the director discuss this with students and tutors?
II. A tutor repeatedly works with classmates, with whom the line between tutoring writing and content becomes blurred. How should the tutor handle the pressures to help his/her classmates get better grades? Our interactive presentation will reflect on such conflicting roles and how we as directors or tutors switch our various hats.
5. When Rules Fail: Idioms in the Tutoring of ESL Students – roundtable
Dr. Jennifer Mitchell, Director, SUNY Potsdam
Abdel-Rahman Salem, Graduate Assistant, SUNY Potsdam
Josh Clark, Assistant Director, SUNY Potsdam
Jessica Freeman, Senior Tutor, SUNY Potsdam
Shaneah Daise, Tutor, SUNY Potsdam
Meredith Hurley, Tutor, SUNY Potsdam
Brenna Link, Tutor, SUNY Potsdam
Some ESL students know many grammatical rules for English. When those rules fail, as in idiomatic expressions, they may resort to awkward direct translations. But tutors cannot teach rules that do not exist. Why do we say “John made dinner” instead of “John did dinner”? Why “I will arrive on Thursday” and “I arrived at 6pm”? In this session, we’ll explore this breakdown of rules, the problems it presents for tutors and writers, and tutoring strategies.
6. Decentering the Center: Taking Writing Center Pedagogy into the Community – panel
Kerri Mulqueen, Teaching Fellow, St. John’s University, Queens
Meridith Leo-Rowett, Teaching Fellow, St. John’s University, Queens
We will be discussing work we have engaged in over the past academic year wherein we participated in writing center activities that took place off campus, infusing writing center fundamentals of peer revision, collaboration, and open communication into community groups, such as a high school writing tutoring program and a writing workshop held at a soup kitchen/community center. We will explore the ways in which a university writing center can spread its mission beyond its walls.
7. Revisiting and Renewing FirstYear
Writing at Holy Cross: Reflecting on Tutoring
Practices for New LivingLearning
First Year Program – roundtable
Elaine Hays, Director, College of the Holy Cross
Lauren Buckley, Peer Tutor, College of the Holy Cross
Lindsey Hugo, Peer Tutor, College of the Holy Cross
Recently, Holy Cross expanded its first-year seminar program to a new first-year experience program that required all first-year students to participate. This roundtable presentation will begin with a description of a new residence hall tutoring program designed for the new first-year program. From there, presenters will facilitate discussion, with participants working out possible solutions to questions raised as a result of integrating tutoring into a living-learning, first-year program.
8. Intellectual SelfDefense:
Academe and the Martial Arts – individual
Richard A. Basile, Peer Tutor, University of Connecticut, Storrs
Academic writing is rooted in argumentation modeled by the martial premises of attack and defense. An individual’s thesis is attacked by a critical audience intending to negate it and defended through the author’s honed writing and precise argumentation. Given the combative nature of scholarly writing, what is the role of an often passive writing center? This presentation offers suggestions by juxtaposing predominant minimalist writing center pedagogy with the austere teaching methodologies of classical martial arts.
When the Writing Student is a Professor: Repurposing and Adapting Writing Center
Practices for Faculty Writing Support – individual
Thomas Long, Associate Professor-in-Residence, University of Connecticut School of Nursing
Professional expectations for higher-education faculty require skill with writing in order to meet the criteria for scholarly publication. In the sciences grant funding is also expected for tenure and promotion. However, many science and technology faculty would not characterize themselves as confident writers. This paper will describe the creation of writing support services for faculty in a school of nursing, including needs assessments and adaptation of best practices of student writing centers.
