RE: Writing Centers as Practicum Sites (fwd)

["Diepenbrock, Chloe" <diepenbrock@cl.uh.edu>]

Hi Steve, 
We have a program here at UHCL that may be of interest to you.  We have
a relationship with a community college that began informally--they
discovered I was training tutors for my new writing center and started
hiring them to work in theirs.  When I saw what was happening, I did two
things: 1.  I raised my tutor salaries so I wouldn't lose everyone right
away ; )  and 2.  I developed an internship program with the CC so my
grad students could work with instructors in freshman comp. classes
there and learn about the students at the CC.  The CC continues to hire
some of my tutors for its WC on an informal basis.  So far,  just about
every student who has done an internship at the CC and/or worked in its
WC has been offered adjunct work.  The program here is under the
Literature rubric and students get an MA in Lit. with an emphasis in
Composition by taking a nine unit core of courses:  Comp. Theory and
Practice (really a history and theory course), Teaching in the
Electronic Writing Classroom or Pedagogical Practices (both practical
courses in which students develop a pedagogical profile--course
materials and theoretical rationales for everything), and the Tutor
Training Practicum (WC training plus one semester of tutoring in the
UHCL Writing Center).

I'll be happy to answer any additional questions if there's anything I
missed.
Chloe Diepenbrock
University of Houston-Clear Lake


> ----------
> From: 	Eric Crump
> Reply To: 	wcenter@ttacs6.ttu.edu
> Sent: 	Friday, May 1, 1998 7:08 PM
> To: 	diepenbrock@uhcl.cl.uh.edu
> Subject: 	Writing Centers as Practicum Sites (fwd)
> 
> 
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> Date: Fri, 1 May 1998 19:04:33 -0500 (CDT)
> To: Moderated WCENTER <wcentr-l@lists.missouri.edu>
> From: "Steve Slemenda" <SLES@chemek.cc.or.us>
> 
> Hi.  I'm wondering if anyone out there has been involved in forming an
> alliance between a four-year institution that has a graduate program
> in composition studies and a two-year institution such as a community
> college that has a writing center.  The object would be to place comp
> studies graduate students in the two-year school's writing center as a
> practicum site for gaining experience in working with community
> college student populations and programs.  I've yet to connect with
> anyone who's actually doing this.
> 
> I'm thinking this could be a good thing in a number of ways: Some
> graduate English students (I was one of them) can't or don't care to
> advance beyond a master's degree into that more rarified realm of
> doctoral studies.  Many of these students would like to find full-time
> or adjunct jobs at community colleges, where a master's degree, some
> aptitude, some teaching experience and good references will give them
> a chance in a very competitive market.  To be in the running for such
> jobs, grad students are wise to take some coursework in composition
> theory and to gain whatever practical experience they can.  But not
> all grad students--even among the most promising--can be placed into
> teaching assistantships.  And even if they all could, experience in
> the classroom or in a writing center at a university is different in
> significant ways from the same experience at a community college.
> Theory remains fundamentally the same; praxis requires an
> understanding of distinct differences betwe!
> en a four-year institution and a two-year, especially in working with
> professional-technical programs and students.  My idea is that English
> grad students from local universities combine theory courses in
> teaching writing with practicums or internships at community college
> writing centers.  
> 
> At a writing center such as ours at Chemeketa in Salem, Oregon, where
> all the consultants are writing instructors, a grad student could be
> assigned a faculty mentor who would oversee that student's experience
> working in the writing center.  The mentor would help the student
> bridge the gap between textbook theory and practical application, as
> well as assist the grad student in understanding key elements of
> working with community college students and programs.  Depending on
> the arrangement with the university, the faculty mentor might work
> with the student and her/his professor to assess the progress of the
> student and assign grades/credit for the practicum.  The mentor would
> certainly be a likely reference for the student in the future.
> Theoretically, everybody gains from this setup: the student in
> practical experience and knowledge, the community college in a kind of
> graduate assistantship position for the writing center, the university
> in strengthening its English master's p!
> rogram for a segment of its student population.
> 
> If anyone is doing something similar to what I envision, I'd love to
> talk with you about the nuts and bolts of such an arrangement.  One
> obvious issue is remuneration to the grad student for work in the
> writing center--how much and through what funding: some possibilities
> might be grants (FIPSE?), tuition credits, community college writing
> center budget (!), individual program budgets, or perhaps a number of
> other prospects I'm not brilliant enough to see.  I welcome any
> insights, concerns, tips, etc.  Thanks.
> 
> Steve Slemenda
> Chemeketa Community College
> sles@chemek.cc.or.us
> 
>