What It Is and How It Works BHS Writing Center What It Is and How It Works

What is it? The BHS Writing Center is a free peer tutoring service modeled after the MTSU Writing Center. Students who have a writing assignment can come in during any of our open hours during the day to get help from a senior class tutor—we call them consultants. All sessions will be documented, with a summary of the session and “next steps” provided for student to take with them, with a copy to be kept on file at the Writing Center. The center is 100% supervised by a certified English teacher. All session documentation will be signed by Mrs. (Bowers) Whitman.

How it works… Students can sign up for an appointment online on the Writing Center’s page of the BHS website. The “Calendar and Appointments” page can be selected from the Writing Center’s main page. An online Microsoft Form should also be completed at the time the student makes the appointment, providing information to help our consultants prepare for the session ahead of time. The link to this form is also on the scheduling page. Although scheduling an appointment online will be the most efficient way to get help, students are also welcome to stop by anytime during our open hours even without an appointment, as long as a consultant is available. Walk-in appointments will also be documented.

How it works, cont’d… When the student comes in for the session, the consultant will discuss the needs/concerns of the student for the assignment create an agenda to keep the focus of the session narrow provide feedback, tips, and strategies in the top areas of the agenda provide a “next steps” plan for the student to follow up on after the session document the session get supervisor sign-off provide a hard copy of session documentation to student and keep a copy on file at the Writing Center The consultants will NOT do the writing for the student! They will provide tips and strategies, occasionally modeling what they’re referring to using other topics and examples that could not be copied for the purposes of the students’ assignments.

FAQs, answered by Mrs. Whitman Q: Can I make a visit the Writing Center a requirement on my students’ writing assignment? A: I say go for it. We will monitor the traffic and if we start getting too many customers to handle, we will look at ways to solve the problem. If you email me at the beginning of the assignment with information like # of students, due dates, assignment requirements and rubrics, etc., it will help us to plan. Q: Can I send the assignment documents directly to you rather than through the students? A: Absolutely! Getting information straight from you and avoiding the telephone game will be helpful! But that is totally up to you. Q: Can a student stop by for general help with writing, without a specific assignment? A: If we have consultants available, we can talk to students about the parts of writing they struggle with, but the more specifically we can apply the concepts, the more concrete those concepts become. So while we recommend students come to us with specific writing assignments, we won’t turn someone away if we have consultants available to answer general questions. Students with actual assignments will always get priority over those who don’t.

FAQs, answered by Mrs. Whitman Q: Is the Writing Center just for English class writing assignments? A: Not at all! Any writing assignment from any class is welcome. We can help with anything from resumes and cover letters to essays and research papers. If you have a unique writing assignment and wonder if we can help, stop by or email and we can discuss it. Q: Can I see the documentation you kept on file for my student’s session if they can’t/won’t show theirs to me? A: Yes. Just let me know who and as close to when as possible and we will send you a copy.

Contact Us We are brand new, and are always looking for ideas to make our process better! Please be patient with us as we learn through trial-and-error what works and what doesn’t. We are also only seeing our side of the process, so we especially need your perspective to improve things you see on your end! Email Mrs. (Bowers) Whitman at bowersm@rcschools.net with any questions, concerns, or ideas. Feel free to email us with any positive feedback as well! We would love to hear any positive anecdotes!