English 3915 Tutoring Composition II

English 3915 Syllabus HERE

Writing Center @ NGCSU (coming soon)

Welcome (back!) to English 3915: Tutoring English Composition. This practicum provides instruction and practice in skills and techniques to be used in one-on-one or small-group tutorials on writing. You will receive instruction and continued supervision throughout the semester.

Course Objectives

Students completing this course will demonstrate the ability to analyze and evaluate various tutoring methods in one-on-one and small-group tutorials. Additionally, they will demonstrate knowledge of the writing process, including prewriting, drafting and shaping discourse, rewriting and revising, and editing. Through practical experience, they will demonstrate tutoring skills, such as knowledge of different learning styles, knowledge of the issues involved in responding to students and student writing, and knowledge of teaching rhetorical strategies, including invention, arrangement, style, and grammar, at the essay, paragraph, sentence, and word level.

Methods of Instruction

Class and Staff Meetings and Tutoring Hours: In addition to weekly class meetings and periodic staff meetings (to be scheduled as needed), tutors must commit themselves to set tutoring hours each week for the entire semester. Tutors will arrive promptly as scheduled, prepared to tutor and to receive any instructions from the Writing Center Director or students’ instructors. Tutors will keep a record of each student’s activities in the Writing Center. This will involve setting up a file for each student client, writing a report of the client’s activities in the Writing Center for each visit, and forwarding a report of those activities to the appropriate instructor. Tutors will also be assigned specific administrative responsibilities within the Writing Center, such as scheduling, making class visits, and publicizing workshops. All tutors will participate in our campus Collaboration vs. Collusion Workshops and other workshops as scheduled.

Tutors as Tutees: Each tutor must sign up to be tutored at least twice during the semester. Also, tutors will be required to tape record one of their tutoring sessions over the course of the semester, and share and discuss the recording with the Writing Center Director.

Readings: All tutors will complete the course readings as assigned on the syllabus and come to class prepared to discuss and apply the content of the readings.

Attendance Policy: Attendance and active participation are central to a successful practicum experience. Since students sign up in advance for appointments with tutors, tutors’ presence in the Writing Center is mandatory during their scheduled hours. Tutors who fail to appear at their scheduled hours repeatedly (more than two times) will be dropped from the course and relieved of their tutoring responsibilities. Except in cases of serious illness or extreme emergency, tutors must attend ALL class and staff meetings. Any tutor absent more than twice will lose one letter grade on his or her course grade. Please discuss any foreseeable problems with me BEFORE the absence—it can save everyone much heartache.

Writing and Project Assignments: Each second-year tutor will write a total of five 250-300 word response papers that you post on our weblog. These assignments are intended to be sources of discussion for class, so they must be posted 24 hours prior to the class day on which they are listed. They are informal in tone but no less thorough in thought.

Each second-year tutor will also coordinate and facilitate one of our ongoing campus workshops, develop and present a new campus workshop, or assume responsibility for one or more special projects. Details will be provided on a separate assignment sheet.

Evaluation

Second-year tutors will be evaluated on their response papers (33%); their workshop/project work (33%), and their tutoring performance (33%). Student clients may be asked to comment on their Writing Center experiences, and these evaluations will also be taken into consideration.

Academic Integrity

As you know, to plagiarize is to use another’s words or ideas as if they were your own. You are responsible for reading and following the guidelines on plagiarism presented in the NGCSU Undergraduate Student Bulletin “Academic Integrity Policy,” found on pages 64-68. If you have any questions about what constitutes plagiarism, please consult me or a reputable handbook such as The Writer’s Harbrace Handbook.

Equal Access

NGCSU is committed to equal access to its programs, services, and activities for people with disabilities. If you need accommodations in this class, reasonable prior notice needs to be given to the instructor and the Office of Student Disability Resources. Please contact the office at 867-2782 or go to 221 Barnes Hall.