Writing Center Pedagogy in Secondary Schools
Peer-to-peer learning can be an empowering and transformative process for students because it challenges traditional hierarchical models of teaching and learning. Through this process, students can improve their ability to collaborate with their peers, evaluate their own and others’ ideas, and give and receive feedback. Writing centers are one popular model and site for peer-to-peer learning in education.
In Spring 2022, the Greater Madison Writing Project and UW-Madison Writing Center welcomed Wisconsin secondary school educators to a series of virtual events focusing on the transformative role that writing centers and writing center pedagogy can play in secondary schools. Inspired by our past collaborations with high school teachers and writing centers, this series built an inclusive and collaborative space for teachers who are situated in various subject areas, grade levels, schools, and geographic areas, and who come from a range of backgrounds. While the series has now concluded, we welcome you to view the recordings and explore possibilities for writing center work in your local context.
February 22: Student Experiences with Writing Centers & College Writing: Undergraduate students at UW-Madison share their experiences with writing centers and peer tutoring in their high schools and in college, highlighting the benefits of this work for their development as writers, leaders, and mentors. Students discuss how they experienced the transition from high school level writing and expectations to college-level writing. Attendees will leave with a deeper understanding of how they might help their current students prepare for college-level writing expectations and how they might explain to colleagues the benefits that students receive from a high school writing center.
Video Recording
March 1: Successes and Challenges in Integrating Writing Center Pedagogy and Developing Writing Centers: Teachers from around the state of Wisconsin share the successes and challenges they experienced as they integrated writing center pedagogy into their classrooms and/or currently lead writing center or peer tutoring program. Speakers will be English teachers from Madison East High School, Waunakee High School, and Wayland Academy. By listening to and conversing with these speakers, attendees can start to envision possibilities at their schools.
Video Recording
March 8: Strategies and Models for Sustaining Writing Centers and Writing Center Work: Building on the second event, this third virtual meeting shares strategies and models for sustaining writing centers and writing center work. Speakers who have started and/or currently lead writing centers in Minnesota will share strategies for establishing and sustaining these programs, with a focus on their writing center’s origin story, how they made the case to administrators for a writing center, and the relationships they have built with teachers through writing center work and programming.
Video Recording
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