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Looks at collaborative learning and collaborative pedagogy in the writing center and how to overcome the challenges of both.

This open-access book by Steven J. Corbett, Beyond Dichotomy: Synergizing Writing Center and Classroom Pegagogies, is available to be downloaded free. it is described as follows: How closely can or should writing centers and writing classrooms collaborate? Beyond Dichotomy explores how research on peer tutoring one-to-one and in small groups can inform our work with students in writing centers and other tutoring programs, as well as in writing courses and classrooms. These multi-method (including rhetorical and discourse analyses and ethnographic and case-study) investigations center on several course-based tutoring (CBT) partnerships at two universities. Rather than practice separately in the center or in the classroom, rather than seeing teacher here and tutor there and student over there, CBT asks all participants in the dynamic drama of teaching and learning to consider the many possible means of connecting synergistically. This book offers the "more-is-more" value of designing more peer-to-peer learning situations for developmental and multicultural writers, and a more elaborate view of what happens in these peer-centered learning environments. It offers important implications-especially of directive and nondirective tutoring strategies and methods-for peer-to-peer learning and one-to-one tutoring and conferencing for all teachers and learners of writing.

PeerCentered is a space for peer writing tutors/consultants or anyone interested in collaborative learning in writing centers to blog with their colleagues from around the world. Bloggers here will share their ideas, experiences, or insight. Related conversation on WCenter (links to archived "Meet the Author" sessions): http://lyris.ttu.edu/read/messages?id=19608359

PeerCentered is a space for peer writing tutors/consultants or anyone interested in collaborative learning in writing centers to blog with their colleagues from around the world. Bloggers here will share their ideas, experiences, or insight. Has a search engine to search for topics discussed in blog entries.

a discussion of how to promote collaboration and professionalism among staff members in conflict discussion continues: http://lyris.ttu.edu/read/messages?id=1822108

Jay D Sloan - Kent State University - From Praxis: "Consultants in the Kent State University Stark Campus Writing Center enter the "contact zone" in order to help each other and the writers they work with wrestle with diversity. Like many universities, Kent State University's Stark campus has taken "embracing diversity" as one of its primary initiatives."

from abstract: "in keeping with theory and practice of tutor training in inquiry-based pedagogy, ELL students and peer tutors vacillate between the linguistic dominant position, indicating that participants establish a collaborative and egalitarian environment. However, L1 tutors may experience dissonance because the agenda set by ELL students often focuses on surface features such as grammar and diction rather than on global revisions" (36).

From ABSTRACT: "For teaching practices in the Writing Center, the findings raise questions about how writing center pedagogy can empower L2 writers on their language control when the writing consultants have the ultimate control in language and the L2 learners have the inherent uncertainty. While writing center work draws on the advantages of collaborative dialogues and effects better language control for ESL writers based on a sociocultural learning perspective, writing center pedagogy needs to continue reconsidering the needs and beliefs of ESL writers (Blau & Hall, 2002; Powers, 1993). The language issue in ESL writing is not a lower order concern in the writing, but more likely a primary concern for the writer. As also found in this study, when the broader contextual factors such as the focus of writing and writers' beliefs are taken into account, language knowledge and control are not just about linguistic correctness to ESL writer development. In striving to create better writers but not just better writing for any writers, it is crucial for writing centers to continue rethinking their staff training on the topic of language issues with their diverse multilingual clientele who speaks English as a second language."

"More and more ESL students are seeking writing help at U.S. college and university writing centers. This trend emphasizes the complementary role of the writing center and ESL writing instruction in improving ESL writing skills. Writing center and ESL writing pedagogy share the process and collaborative approaches, which emphasize the writing process using revision and reader feedback. Often difficult to implement in a classroom setting, these approaches can be used successfully with ESL students in the writing center. However, many writing center instructors, unfamiliar with the needs of ESL students, are often ill-equipped to work successfully with this special population. This has caused writing center faculties to turn to the ESL profession for help in establishing suitable strategies. The growing need for ESL expertise in the writing center has created a variety of capacities to which ESL instructors can contribute."

This video promotes Western Illinois University's Writing Center by demonstrating that the Writing Center is a place where tutors collaborate with students to teach them about writing.

The Rocky Mountain Writing Center Secondary Education Directory was compiled to help local, regional (RMWCA), and (inter)national (IWCA) organizations and institutions identify secondary schools in the Rocky Mountain Writing Center Region (AZ, CO, MO, NV, NM, UT, WY) as a precursor to connecting, collaborating, and/or supporting fellow educators in the fields of writing and peer tutoring. While the directory was originally to house all middle, junior high, and high schools, the scope was later narrowed to cover the 1,313 high schools in this eight-state region. (Article by Lisa Bell who compiled this directory is in Vol. 37.9-10 of the Writing Lab Newsletter, in open access archives: < writinglabnewsletter.org>,

ABSTRACT: "At the 2014 IWCA/NCPTW Conference, founders of the National Writing Centers Association (now International Writing Centers Association) came together to reflect on the organization's beginnings, its strategies for institutionalization, and challenges that may still exist. A significant anniversary such as the 30th provides the opportunity for reflection. Additionally, a timeline of the organization's history is included, which provides important information for historical research.

Faculty and writing center tutors bring expertise to writing as practice and pro-cess. Yet at many institutions, the two groups work in relative isolation, missing opportunities to learn from each other. In this article, I describe a faculty de-velopment initiative in a multidisciplinary writing program that brings together new faculty and experienced undergraduate tutors to workshop instructors' com-ments on first-year writing. The purpose of these workshops is to assist faculty in crafting inquiry-driven written responses that pave the way for collaborative faculty-student conferences. By bringing together scholarly conversations on tu-tor expertise and the role of faculty comments in student learning, I argue for the value of extending partnerships between writing centers and programs. Such ac-counts are important to the field for challenging what Grutsch McKinney (2013) calls the "writing center grand narrative," which limits the scope of writing center work by imagining centers primarily as "comfortable, iconoclastic places where all students go to get one-to-one tutoring on their writing" to the exclusion of lived realities (p. 3). In this case, I describe a writing center where tutors bring their expertise outside the center and into the faculty office, consulting in small groups with faculty with the aim of enriching the quality of instructor feedback in first-year seminars.

discussing how to incorporate library instruction into the research process

Chris LeCluyse - University of Texas at Austin "How can we balance training in writing center theory and practice without leaving our values at the door? Empowerment. Collaboration. Equality. More than many academic departments and services, writing centers are driven by their values. As writing center practitioners, we judge ourselves according to how we apply those values in working with writers."