Re: WC demo in classes

[Robert W Barnett <rbarnett@spruce.flint.umich.edu>]

Jean,

We have borrowed and adapted a very successful approach to offering
demos for classes from Michigan State's Writing Center. I"m not sure
anymore how they use it, but it's referred to as the Fishbowl (taken from
an article by Mike Steinberg). We take several tutoros and a made up,
short assignment into the class and model different kinds of peer
response. The tutors are positioned in the middle of the room and students
sit in a large circle around them.  One tutor reads her paper aloud and
the other tutors role play what we call different species of response: one
tutor will give focused, effective feedback, one will offer negative
feedback, one acts as the reluctant responder, etc.   After the
"performance" we spend a good deal of time talking with the students about
the best ways to respond to each other's writing (and getting them to talk
about their perceptions and past experiences with peer response).  As a
follow-up, the same tutors come to the same class on peer response day and
lead peer response groups.  It's become an instant hit, especially with
instructors/students in the disciplines.

Bob Barnett
U. of Michigan-Flint

On Mon, 23 Mar 1998, Jean Timpel wrote:

> Some of you have mentioned taking some writing consultants into a class to 
> demonstrate what we do in the writing center.  How do you handle this?  Do 
> you run writing workshops led by the consultants?  How does that compare to 
> the one-on-one  work we normally do?  Or do you run a regular session with 
> one writer and have everyone else watch and listen?  That seems artificial 
> and uncomfortable.  I would like to offer to go in to classes and do more 
> than talk for a couple of minutes and hand out bookmarks, but I am not sure 
> how to give the students a genuine taste of what the writing center is.
> Jean
> 
> *************************
> Prof. Jean Timpel
> Concordia University Wisconsin
> 12800 North Lake Shore Drive
> Mequon WI 53097
> jtimpel@bach.cuw.edu
> 414-243-4216
> Fax 414-2430-4351
> 
>