Writing center opens

The Chantilly Writing Center opened on Feb. 7 and will allow students to bring writing assignments from any class for aid from peer tutors.

The center will be open during Charger Time and after school on Mondays from 2-4 p.m. in room 206. English teachers Danielle Hicks and Nicole Lehman came up with the idea to open the center after attending an in-service held by Edison High School one year ago.

“[Edison High School] piloted the writing center program, and we were really jazzed and excited about the prospect of having one at Chantilly,” Lehman said.

Opening the writing center took a bit of planning, beginning last year. First, teachers from all courses were asked to nominate specific students who would make a great contribution to the Writing Center.

“125 students were nominated and given applications,” Lehman said. “We got 45 applications back, which we were pretty pleased with.”

The students who applied knew that the Writing Center would provide them the opportunity to improve other students’ writing, as well as their own.

“I wanted to help people become better writers and become a better writer myself,” senior Dan Lawler said.

The main aspect of planning for the opening involved training the 28 peer tutors.

“We prepared by having training sessions during Charger Time where we learned the basics of tutoring, practiced tutoring each other and practiced tutoring actual students,” Lawler said.

The group is made up of sophomores, juniors and seniors.  The tutors have been training since October.

“We’ve been working with how to deal with speakers of other languages, interdisciplinary writing, the difference between writing a lab report and an English paper,” senior Julia Hanes said.

Now that the center is open, the tutors have the opportunity to put their work into practice as some tutors have already gotten the chance to tutor.

The work students take to the writing center for assistance can be from any course. The students have learned how to work with writing from any course. Many of the tutors specialize in certain subjects.

“On the whole, I think we have a good mix of people as far as who’s helping out,” Hanes said. “It’s a lot of different strengths it’s not just like we’re all really good at English.”

Peer tutors assist students who are at any stage in their writing, be it a rough or final draft.  The tutors offer assistance as well as advice, but will not do the students’ work.

“You’ll never see a tutor with a pen or pencil in their hand it’s all about if it’s your draft, it’s in front of you, you’re talking and thinking about ideas,” Lehman said.

The Writing Center is not intended to be for only struggling writers. Students who are typically good writers, yet struggling on a certain assignment, may also bring their work.

“I hope that no teachers will be threatening the writing center, but just use it as a resource,” Lehman said.

Tutoring sessions are typically 20 minutes long and offer one-on-one advice and assistance.

“Just one session can raise their [students] grade on essay rewrites, help them plan for an essay or help them prepare for a timed writing,” Lawler said.

Aside from the assistance the writing center offers students, it stretches across the curriculum as 10 faculty member are also on staff.

The Writing Center will be asking teachers to nominate students for the writing center in the coming months.

“I think we are a little heavy on the seniors,” Lehman said. “I think we will be starting that process again to fill the vacancies that the seniors will leave.”

Writing Center Academics, Issue 6, News, Print