Change From Within: The Power of a Homegrown Writing Center
Posted on: Wednesday, 14 March 2007, 09:01 CDT
By Jordan, Jeanette
Looking to build a better you? Wondering how to improve your school? Whether you are perusing the self-help shelves of the local bookstore or the educational reform stacks in the library, a common theme emerges: empowerment. By focusing inward and identifying needs, a person or a school can make great changes. Admittedly, I am no expert in personal or school improvement, but I have witnessed the transformative power of teachers collaborating and am a firm believer in the writing center as the locus for change within a school.
Most high school writing centers start because a few English teachers share a passion for teaching students writing through a tutorial model. The teachers' initial goals typically include empowering students to take ownership over their work and improving student writing, performance. Once administration, faculty, and students are brought on board and a writing center takes root, however, it becomes just the beginning of something much more. Writing centers can become the focal point of the school, tying together disparate departments through a common cause. Since best practice research shows the advantages of incorporating writing in all curricular disciplines (Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde 1993; National Commission on Writing 2006), the writing center is a natural "center" for the school. Through the development of a writing across the curriculum (WAC) program, the writing center can become an agent of change for the whole school-moving well beyond the humble goals of its creators.
Looking Within to Identify Needs
The first step in an improvement effort involves reflection and goal setting. What are the strengths of your school? What are the departmental assets? What areas need work? What is your vision of how things SHOULD be in the school? If you are looking at truly making a difference in the educational environment, you must also pose these questions to others in the school. Teachers from throughout the school need to have a vested interest in the program to make it successful.
Although you may be tempted to consult some outside experts, the change needs to originate within the school-from the educators who experience the daily frustrations and successes that come from working with their students. The people who understand the dynamics unique to your school are those best equipped to determine how your writing center and WAC program should take shape (Farrell 1989). That does not mean that your group should operate in isolation, however; in fact, operating without any connections to the outside professional world can result in significant problems. The International Writing Centers Association (http:// www.writingcenters.org) is an excellent place for you to find resources-both print and human. You can and should learn from the failures and successes of others; writing center professionals are welcoming and generous people who enjoy working with teachers to create and expand writing center programs. The point is that every school is unique and the writing center and WAC program at your school should reflect your faculty's vision-not someone else's (Farrell).
When Glenbrook North High School in Illinois expanded its WAC program in 1994 by creating a formal interdisciplinary committee, we brought in David JoIliffe, at the time a professor at nearby DePaul University. After discussions with my colleague and me, Jolliffe helped facilitate a series of three half-day workshops. Teachers from five different disciplines areas joined forces by discussing common readings and sharing their reflections and goals with respect to teaching and writing in the school. Jolliffe never forced a specific style, organization, or model for us to follow. Rather, he was an observer and listener who helped guide us through our visioning process. Through these workshops, the Glenbrook North WAC committee, Writers' Bloc, was born.
Unifying the School through a WAC Program
A natural home for a WAC program is the writing center. Writers' Bloc teachers worked in the writing center as an extra duty assignment and received a small stipend to cover the extra work they did to get the program started. For the first two years of the program, the teachers produced quarterly newsletters focused on WAC at the school. They wrote articles about why and how they used writing within their classes and highlighted the innovative ways that other teachers throughout the school incorporated writing in their curriculas. These newsletters honored the work of teachers throughout the school and prompted collegial discussions as teachers got a better understanding of, and appreciation for, the work that went on in other auricular areas. In their article discussing the advantages of a WAC-based secondary school writing center, Joan Mullin and Pamela Childers write that "as teachers hear about one another's classroom frustrations, successes, and failures, they find that a community exists beyond their classrooms or their departments that is just as concerned as they are about finding solutions to everyday classroom problems" (1995, 25). This sense of "community" is vital. Just as we strive to educate the "whole child, " we must collaborate so that we understand the "whole school." There must be a sense that we are all in this together with common goals. David Hirsch from Deerfield High School in Illinois also notes the unifying aspect of the writing center. He shares that as a teacher in his school's writing center he gets
a broad overview of the curriculum. I work with students and explore other teachers' assignments in depth and take that experience back to the classroom. In addition, seeing I get a larger view of student writing, working with another teacher's assignment and student, I am more aware of the larger connections across the breadth of the curriculum. (2006)
A high school writing center has the power to break down the imaginary walls that divide a school into unrelated departments.
Developing Consistency in Writing Instruction through a WAC Program
Over the next several summers, Writers' Bloc teachers created a series of in-house publications that were distributed to teachers during fall faculty meetings. The first publication focused on designing and assessing writing assignments and helped to get everybody familiar with the same terminology and encourage the use of rubrics for assessment. When Glenbrook North moved from a modular to an alternating block schedule with ninety-minute classes, Writers' Bloc created a publication specifically designed to help teachers with this transition. The committee published an extensive resource manual about integrating writing-to-learn assignments. Again, this publication served the purpose of familiarizing everyone with the writing-to-learn terminologies and practices and included sample assignments in various curricular areas. The most recent schoolwide publication, "Researching and Writing across the Curriculum," was written in conjunction with the librarians and in response to issues raised by teachers. The three-ring binder of information includes alternatives to traditional research papers, a continuum of research and writing skills taught in the English department, research tips, and assessment advice.
These publications have become a unifying element of the school's curriculum. Each year all new teachers receive these publications in an after-school meeting where they are also introduced to the services of the writing center. This orientation helps ensure consistency of expectations and terminology throughout the school.
Writing center staff members also take their "show on the road" to support the work of classroom teachers. Teachers in any discipline area may request staff members to do presentations, workshops, or conferences in their classes. Biology teacher Kathy Gutierrez expressed her appreciation for this support by noting:
Since conception of the project, this year's class did tremendously better . . . Your staff taught them how to choose a reliable and understandable source, how not to plagiarize, how to cite within the paper and give credit where credit is due, and you gave them valuable feedback on their first drafts. I cannot tell you what a difference this made . . . Reading these papers this year was so much more enjoyable compared to last year. 1 learned a lot and so did the students. (2004)
As a result of the WAC publications and presentations, there is better consistency throughout grade levels and departments. Consequently, the students also know what to expect when a writing project is assigned, and they see that expectations are consistent diroughout the school.
Working with Students and Parents to Support Writing Instruction
Although one aspect of a writing center is working with faculty, working with students continues to be the focus. The supportive environment of a writing center encourages students to push themselves as writers and develop confidence in their abilities (Harris 1988). The writing center setting encourages a collaborative rather than judgmental relationship, which Peter Elbow (1983) and Donald Murray (1985) both stress as being an important factor when working with student writers. With teacher and student buy-in of the writing center, it can get very crowded with students lookin\g to talk about their writing. Many secondary school writing centers are able to expand their services by using upperclassmen as peer tutors (Childers, Pels, and Jordan 2004; Kent 2006). In fact, those student tutors can be an amazing life force in the writing center. Through the tutor training program and the work with other students' writing, they learn more about themselves as writers. Student tutor Katie F. elaborated on this idea in an e-mail: "My experience working in the writing center helped me become more familiar with the revision process. I can ask myself a series of questions that I might ask when reading another student's paper in the writing center" (January 16, 2004). Her time helping others in the writing center also became a way for her to facilitate her own growth as a writer. The close connections with writing and faculty members in the writing center also present additional opportunities for the student tutors, as Pamela Childers points out that students at the McCallie School get their work published and even collaborate with faculty members to write articles. These are valuable writing and learning experiences made possible by a writing center (2005).
Another avenue for supporting writing instruction is working with parents. Some high schools such as Deerfield High School effectively use trained parent volunteers to help staff their writing centers. One other common way that writing centers work with parents is during parent workshops. For the past few years, the Glenbrook North writing center has hosted a writing workshop for parents of freshmen. During this evening workshop teachers and student tutors review the services of the writing center, role-play a conference, review what constitutes plagiarism, and discuss the NCTE publications "How to Help Your Child Become a Better Writer" and "Helping Your Teenager to Write Better" (http://www .nae.org). An added feature of the program is a freshman English teacher who reviews the expectations of writing during the freshman year, complete with samples of graded papers. This informative evening has been very popular, and parents have requested more follow-up workshops. By creating a positive connection with parents, a writing center can help extend support for the school's writing goals beyond the building's walls.
Making the case for a WAC-based Writing Center
Central to many schools' arguments for the importance of writing instruction is the 2003 report of the National Commission on Writing: The Neglected "R": The Need for a Writing Revolution. This document provides support for the case that writing teachers have made for years: writing is central to learning throughout the curriculum. The commission's recommendations include the concepts that writing is every teacher's responsibility and that writing should be taught in all subjects and at all grade levels.
A secondary school writing center is a critical component of a successful schoolwide writing initiative. If teachers themselves are given the time and support to create a WAC-based writing center, then the benefits will be felt throughout the school. As emphasized in the Teacher Leadership movement in school reform, powerful changes result from teacher initiatives that can sustain and grow regardless of administrative changes. Greg Harris and Cathy A. D'Agostino (2006) at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, recognize the power of a WAC-based writing center and recently proposed to administrators an expansion of their writing center program. Their goals include improving learning for all students across the disciplines, creating professional development opportunities for the staff, and encouraging interdisciplinary conversations among teachers.
The impact of writing centers may not be noticed at first. As Childers notes, "Most people may not realize the impact the writing center has had on many aspects of teaching and learning. Teaching and learning have changed in focus, with more classes being student- centered, more faculty applying for grants to improve their own teaching and learning" (2006).
Helping students become better writers is the core of a writing center program (North 1984), but the power of the writing center extends beyond the conferencing done within its walls. Through the collaborative efforts of passionate staff members, anything is possible!
REFERENCES
Childers, P. 2005. Email message. April 24.
_____. 2006. Email message. Febmary 14.
Childers, P. B., D. Pels, and J. Jordan. 2004. The secondary school writing center: A place to build confident, competent writers. Praxis 2(1). http://projects.uwc.utexas.edu/praxis/?q=node/ 91 (accessed October 1, 2006).
Elbow, P. 1983. Embracing contraries in the teaching process. College English 45:327-39.
Farrell, P. B. 1989. The high school writing center: Establishing and maintaining one. Urbana, IL: NCTE.
Gutierrez, K. 2004. Email message. December 12.
Harris, G., and C. A. D'Agostino. 2006. E-mail message. April 23.
Harris, M. 1988. SLATE statement: The concept of a writing center. International Council of Teachers of English. http:// www.writingcenters .org/slate.htm (accessed September 20, 2006).
Hirsch, D. 2006. Email message to Mary Boote. February 22.
Kent, R. 2006. A guide to creating student-staffed writing centers: Grades 6-12. New York: Peter Lang, 2006.
Mullin, J. A., and P. B. Childers. 1995. The natural connection: The WAC program and the high school writing center. The Clearing House 69 (1): 24-26.
Murray, D. 1985. A writer teaches writing. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
The National Commission on Writing. 2003. The neglected "R": The need for a writing revolution. New York: College Board.
_____. 2006. Writing and school reform. New York: College Board.
North, S. 1984. The idea of a writing center. College English 46: 433-46.
Zemelman, S., H. Daniels, and A. Hyde. 1993. Best practice: New standards for teaching and learning in America's schools. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Jeanette Jordan is an English teacher and serves as the writing coordinator at Glenbrook North High School in Northbrook, Illinois. Copyright 2007 Heldref Publications
Copyright Heldref Publications Nov/Dec 2006
(c) 2006 Clearing House, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
Source: Clearing House, The
User Comments (0)
RSS Feeds