Grand View University on Group Appointments Part I: Foundations
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This series of collaboratively written blog posts by undergraduate tutors in the Grand View University Writing Center shares experiences of implementing and navigating a new context for Writing Center sessions: group appointments. Tutors share their experiences coupled with research to consider the practicalities of managing group appointments along with the potential this appointment set-up provides for more engaged learning. In particular, the Grand View tutors find that this appointment set-up—while challenging at times in terms of managing time, group dynamics, and instructor expectations—provides unique opportunities to have essential Writing Center conversations about what it means to write and how in a broader, more impactful way. We share our experiences here to help others consider how to implement such a model within the context of their own institutions while still maintaining the spirit of Writing Center appointments as different than classroom experiences.
Part I: Foundations
Academic Discourse: To Tutor, or Not to Tutor? That is the Question
The idea that the writers who visit the writing center must already be literate in academic discourse is an absurd assumption, but it admittedly one many tutors have before they begin tutoring. Yet with the ever-changing, increasingly diverse students that are attending college in today’s age, we must consider what their needs are and how best to equip them with those needed skills. This is why Grand View’s group Writing Center appointment-as-class-credit model came about in the first place. When we consider our roles as tutors within the writing center, then, we have realized we must evaluate whether we want to help our writers learn only rules and conventions. Or, are we going to push past the basics and teach our writers practical tools they can use both within and outside the world of academia? We are especially interested in this question because of who the students in our group appointments tend to be--the course credit group appointments are for students in developmental writing courses and multilingual support courses. As a Center, we are continuously invested in conversations that consider how to sponsor agency within these group appointments alongside access to common academic conventions.
Our purpose as writing center tutors is the same no matter what context we’re tutoring in: we want to help our writers become better – both at written and oral communication – and not just create a better “final product”. This mentality is reflected in Jones Royster’s article “Academic Discourses or Small Boats on a Big Sea” as she stresses the importance of helping writers really connect with their work – thus, fostering a deeper connection with the material they are writing (or speaking) about.
This ultimately creates a positive learning environment that writers and tutors alike can feel comfortable in. By affirming our writers, they then can feel empowered. By relieving them of the fear of judgment, we allow them to further explore ideas they may not have had before visiting the writing center. Thus, not only creating stronger writers, but stronger people, too.This is important when it comes to discussing the accessibility of what is considered “traditional” academic discourse. Because it was created by people who are no longer the majority represented in modern-day colleges, (older, wealthy, Caucasian men) it’s essential that we are able to adapt our views as the needs of our writers change. In our group appointments, which are not class but also perhaps more than a “typical” Writing Center appointment, we have the space and time to do this work on an ongoing, sustained level.
In our group appointments--and because of our student demographics in general--many group appointments include at least one student of color, and many include multilingual students. While all writers have boundless imaginations and passionate opinions about the subjects they’re tasked to write about, not all have the experience of being taught how to meet the common expectations of academic discourse. In the group sessions, writers are then exposed to these conversations in direct ways and are offered the chance to try them out--as well as the chance to see they are not alone in facing challenges with academic Discourse. In group appointments, tutors often use strategies like drawing, free-writing, and outlining to get ideas down. One tutor reports that without fail, every time the writers engaged with their ideas outside the conventions of academic discourse, they were able to think more fully about those ideas, thus developing those ideas further and more deeply than when they engaged with those same ideas within the constraints of academic discourse.
We see the group appointments, then, as unique opportunities to have these essential Writing Center conversations in a broader, more impactful way. In short, the group appointments--while they come with their own challenges--give us space to reach more students and engage in the types of conversations we feel are central and crucial to our mission as a Writing Center. Our experiences in group appointments have further strengthened our desire as a Center to push away from the idea that the Writing Center merely acts as a place where the indoctrination of academic discourse can occur. Instead, we see exciting possibilities within the group appointments to create a new space for functioning in the role we feel most matters: not just as a teacher of conventions and correctness, but as an ambassador to communication.
Tutor Preparation: How Much is Necessary?
It is fair to say that when we began the 4:1 tutoring model, many tutors were nervous that their previous training and experiences had not prepared them for this new tutoring context. Yet, we realized that the not-knowing was actually an asset. According to Geller et al. in their book, The Everyday Writing Center: A Community of Practice, there are certain practices that are drilled into tutors’ heads before they even have a chance to work with a student in a real setting (21). These rules limit the direction of tutoring sessions and the extent to which the tutor can effectively engage with the writer, and therefore the tutor must sometimes ignore some of these “rules.” For instance, one of the rules highlighted in Geller et al.’s book is that a tutor should not speak more than the writer (21). However, several tutors shared that once they started asking questions and understanding the students’ interests and concerns better within the group context, they could find common ground and start discussing the various approaches the writers could take. In this case, the tutors often do much of the talking upfront during the session, but it helps the writers progress in their work. As tutors, we therefore learned that it is important to read the situation and figure out the best methods to suit each individual, which requires a lot of tutor-talk in a group setting.
Just as each situation is different, each writer is different as well. The authors of The Everyday Writing Center quoted William Ramsey who said, “I’ve never found a protocol, template, or fixed heuristic schema that survives more than a minute of Writing Center work” (Geller et al. 22). As much as a tutor may think they are prepared for a session, their plan might not work. This is why it is crucial for the tutor to be able to play the role of a shapeshifter, and perform other methods to adjust to different situations; we have found this to be especially true when there are multiple writers--and multiple personalities and experiences--present in a session. Our conclusion, therefore, is that we can only be as ready as we can be--and even then it won’t be enough. But we’ve learned that this is not only OK, but may even be optimal.
That’s not to say, however, that some foundational groundwork isn’t needed, as discussed in the two upcoming posts in this series. We will look first at the practical and logistical considerations in designing group tutoring, and then we will turn to considerations for managing relationships and interactions in group tutoring. We hope you will join us.
Works Cited in this series
Bitzel, Alanna. “Who Are ‘We?’ Examining Identity Using the Multiple Dimensions of Identity Model.” Praxis: A Writing Center Journal, www.praxisuwc.com/bitzel-111/?rq.
Carpenter, Russell, et al. “Guest Editor Introduction: Revisiting and Revising Course-Embedded Tutoring Facilitated by Writing Centers.” Praxis: A Writing CenterJournal.
Geller, Anne Ellen. The Everyday Writing Center: a Community of Practice. Utah State University Press, 2007.
Grego, Rhonda C. and Nancy S. Thompson. "Institutional Critique and Studio as Thirdspace." Teaching/Writing in Thirdspaces: The Studio Approach. Southern Illinois University Press, 2008. pp. 59-96.
Harris, Muriel. “Talk to Me: Engaging Reluctant Writers.” A Tutors Guide: Helping Writers One to One, Ed. Ben Rafoth. 2nd ed. Heinemann, August 2005. 24-32
Jones Royster, Jacqueline. “Academic Discourses or Small Boats on a Big Sea.” ALT DIS: Alternative Discourses and the Academy, Boynton/Cook - Heinemann, 2002. pp. 23-30.
Lape, Noreen."Training tutors in emotional intelligence: toward a pedagogy of empathy." Writing Lab Newsletter, October 2008, https://wlnjournal.org/archives/v33/33.2.pdf, pp. 1-6.
Mirabelli, Tony. “Tutor-Student Relationship.” Berkley, Jan. 2015, bcourses.berkeley.edu/files/54211423/download?download_frd=1..
Rose, Sheldon. Working with Adults in Groups. Jossey-Bass, 1989.
Steinert, Yvonne. “Student Perceptions of Effective Small Group Teaching.” Medical Education, vol. 38, no. 3, 2004, pp. 286–293.
Author bios
The Grand View University Writing Center is part of the Academic Learning and Teaching Center (ALT) at Grand View University, a small private liberal arts university in Des Moines, Iowa. All tutors are undergraduates from a variety of majors who work with many of Grand View’s first-year students, who are predominantly first generation college students. Additionally, the Writing Center is an integral support for Grand View’s international student population as well as many upper-level core curriculum courses. Twenty-one tutors worked on this article over the course of the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 academic years, which include: Dr. Bobbi Olson (Director) and tutors Lauren Bailey, Alli Brown, Arijana Catic, Barbs Choloi, Frederick Dangaard-Bundgaard, Kayley DeVos, Missy Farni, Colette Irby-Atwood, Allison Jones, Kennedy King, Erin Kruse, Jaime Link, Brett Norris, Alyssa Parker, Autumn Radig, Carlos Rodriguez Rosa, Madeline Sheldahl, Rylee Smith, Becca Sotos, Alex Wells, and Sarah Winslow.