On a typical morning in the Patriot Writers’ Studio (PaWS), the student tutors are working together in small groups, chatting quietly. Organized into committees, they discuss new ways to promote and enrich AHS’ new writing center, which opened its doors this fall to students seeking a place to work on written assignments, alone or with the assistance of peer tutors.
Accessible from the front lobby and from within the library, PaWS is newly equipped with laptops, bean bag chairs, and students ready to work with their peers.
PaWS gives students the opportunity to talk through and improve any kind of writing assignment (school related or otherwise) with a tutor. During sessions, tutors offer suggestions (focused on either brainstorming or revising a piece) and grammatical assistance without specifically editing a student’s paper for them.
PaWS teacher Hannah Baran, who has worked in various writing centers for the last 12 years, said that the PaWS students spend “the first several weeks of the year pretty extensively learning about the philosophy and practice of tutoring: how tutoring differs from editing, how to be helpful without taking over.”
When PaWS students began tutoring sessions, they started by “buddy[ing] up, and then they spend time observing each other because each tutor has their own special techniques,” Baran said.
PaWS’ student-run professional development committee strives to continuously improve the center’s tutoring overall. Additionally, PaWS tutors work in four other committees: marketing, student engagement, celebrations, and community and faculty.
History teacher Andrew Ulrich was introduced to PaWS during the teacher work week. “Immediately I saw this as an opportunity to assist my students in developing their research writing skills,” Ulrich said. Ulrich hopes “my students see the benefit of using the writing center for all future ventures into writing.” He added that “my hope is that my students use the writing center for assistance with proofreading, citations, high quality sources and general writing help (syntax, spelling, etcetera).”
Junior Sam Muhler decided to join PaWS at the end of last year when a teacher nominated her. “Towards the end of sophomore year, writing papers became a regular thing that I was constantly working on and started actually finding interesting,” Muhler said.
Muhler’s favorite aspect of writing center to date has been “bonding. The other tutors and myself have really gotten to know each other these past few weeks and it has been great!”
Similarly, senior Mike Dolzer has enjoyed “the camaraderie with the other tutors and the advisor, Ms. Baran.” He added that “tutoring itself is just fun.”
Muhler is looking forward to “meeting all of the kids we will be assisting and those who are just stopping by.”
Baran hopes that the PaWS tutors will “really enjoy the practice of tutoring and learn about how to interact with all different kinds of people, and they’ll be fulfilled by sharing the great knowledge that they have about writing with others. That will help them to be more creative people.”
She added that the tutors will “be prepared for college writing and also to work in fields where they’ll need to interact with others and collaborate with others.”
While working in the writing center Dolzer hopes to “help people improve their writings as well as improve my own. Also, I hope to continue and grow the friendships I’ve made with others in the program as well as the clients.”
Muhler anticipates that the writing center will become “a place people know they can go when they would like good feedback/inputs of papers!”
This organization is open to students before school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, during third and fourth periods, Wednesday and Thursday CHATS, and after school Mondays and Wednesdays. For more information about the center, check the PaWS’ official website: http://patswrite.blogspot.com/