Re: Arguing for a Peer Tutor Course

[Charlotte Smith <Smithc@acc.sunyacc.edu>]

At ACC we have not one, not two, but THREE tutor training courses. Here are the catalogue descriptions of the courses:

ENG263: Training for Writing Tutors
Introduction to writing theory and tutoring strategies. In addition to discussions and practice tutorials, students develop their own writing skills and styles. A four-hour practicum in the Center for Reading and Writing is required beginning the ninth week of the course. Prerequisite: Permission of instructor and English 100A or B or 101 with a grade of C or better.

ENG265: Training for Reading Tutors
Talking about reading is a conversation that needs to happen more often! Taught in a seminar fashion, this class addresses how one learns to read, reading disabilities, and other related issues.

ENG264: Writing Center Internship
Students who have completed English 263 are eligible for an internship of 1, 2, or 3 credits in the English Division's Center for Reading and Writing. Hours and assignments will be arranged with the instructor. Prerequisite: English 263. [Each credit requires two hours per week in the CRW.]

All students who want to tutor must take the three-credit ENG263; tutors who want to expand their skills can also take the one-credit ENG265. After ENG263, students can tutor for credit or pay (work-study). 

Those students who opt for the three-credit ENG264 usually combine tutoring with an independent project for the CRW. They choose a project related to their own fields; for example, one student this semester is writing a proposal to teach a poetry-writing course at a local prison (it's just been accepted), another student is researching psychological dependency and will do a workshop for our tutors on dependency in the writing center, yet another student is writing an instruction booklet for tutors working with tutees on the computers. Yet others have set up a high school writing center, wrote a proposal and later worked with at-risk students in a summer program, and have presented at conferences. 

For your argument: I would argue that, though these students are all really bright, they would not have been able to do all these wonderful projects, especially at a two-year college. The tutor training courses gives students who are interested in education an introduction to it. For those who need a bottom-line argument: The school gets great publicity--it just loves the "outreach" aspect of the projects, and the main course, ENG263, has steady enrollment. 

Hope this helps,



Charlotte Smith
Director, Center for Reading and Writing
Adirondack Community College
Bay Road
Queensbury, NY 12804
518-743-2207