By Emily Williams
With another school year fast approaching its close, Mountain Brook High School teacher Christina McGovern is reflecting on the inaugural year of the school’s first writing center program.
The idea came from college writing centers, in which students seek help from peers on their written work. Through a collaboration with Homewood High School and UAB’s writing center, Megan Hastings and McGovern helped create the Spartan Writing Center.
The center has eight tutors who were picked by teachers based on their writing skills and, equally important, on their communication skills.
“Students simply respond better to other students,” McGovern said. “It’s easier to talk to a peer rather than a teacher.”
The center isn’t an editing service; in fact, tutors are not allowed to make marks on the papers they read. McGovern said tutors are trained to conduct hands-off conversations that lead the students to their own answers.
“We try to ask open questions, not just say, ‘This is what I think it should say,’ or, ‘I would use this word,’” said tutor Lucy Chapman.
Henry Kilpatrick, another tutor, said tutors during their training participated in role-playing conversations as well as editing exercises.
Tutors said the bulk of the material they read is for English courses, but a lab report or two has rolled through.
Each of the tutors said they have had a great time helping out their peers and have even seen changes in their own writing.
“I feel like it lets us look at our own papers more objectively,” tutor Marley Barnett said. She added that reading her peers’ work has given her an insight into alternate perspectives on various subjects.
“We had one student who wrote just like she spoke, which was pretty interesting,” Kilpatrick said. He said it gave the paper a strong voice, but one that wasn’t suitable for formal papers.
“Some people come in with an idea of what they want help with,” Barnett said. “Then I’ll look at it and see something else, but they don’t want my opinion. That can be frustrating.”
Overall, the tutors said that the positive feedback outweighs the few negative encounters they have had while tutoring.
Student tutors are available in the mornings before classes start and two times a day during regular school hours.
“Our long-term goal is to have tutors available during every class period,” McGovern said.
The tutoring program is offered as a graded elective course that tutors can sign up for rather than simply volunteering their time. Next year, McGovern hopes to incorporate seminars into the program, allowing students to attend and hear local professionals talk about their writing careers.
The students currently meet in the school’s library, which is set to be renovated in the near future. According to McGovern, the center and its tutors can look forward to having their own space in the new library.
After a successful first year serving more than 200 students, McGovern, Hastings and their team of tutors are looking forward to their second year and the prospect of more recruits and more students served.
