Blog 18 RP-Day......

In what way does active participating in a Writing Studio benefit a student writer in a higher learning academic setting in comparison to the tradition of peer-tutoring?

In my limited case studies and research, i believe(as of today) that Writing Studios are excellent option to help student writers develop a research topic, give perspective for an essay, and verbally express themselves while conversing with a group of active peers. It is believed that student writers in a group are encouraged to "teach" other group members the terms/concepts taught by their teacher , discuss issues of writing, brainstorm in front of the group and with the group about their topics, read their drafts, write their drafts and revise parts of the draft.

I hope to convince the reader that a writing studio is paramount to a writing center to help a student broaden their horizons of writing as well as try to have students push themselves to the next level and have multiple perspectives.

As Nancy S. Thompson and Rhonda C. Grego note in there collaborative work Teaching/ Writing in Thirdspaces, a writing studio helps (us) to be more aware of those external pentatonic factors and their influence on our work as teachers with the internal pentatonic scenes of course readings and writing assignments(159)

Information for this research paper was accumulated in 2 basic forms. the first being that of observing group session with the Kean writing center. and drawing on my own past experiences in a Writing studio and one experience an a casual setting.

During the session I have observed I wanted to focus mainly on:

1. How does the initiator get students involved in the group's discussion.
2. How are writers greeted by each other.
3. What questions are asked by the Initiator to get writers to respond.
4. How does he initiator give praise compared to Peer Tutoring.
5. How do writers respond to each other?The initiator?
6. When/How does the student show interest.
   
7. When/How the writer/initiator interrupt each other.
8. When are their non-verbal and verbal cues.
   
9. How often does the discussion go off topic/ WAY off topic.

References

Grago, Rhonda, and Nancy Thompson. Teaching/ Writing in Thirdspaces. Carbondale,IL: Southern Illinois University Press , 2008. Print.

Macauley, William. Marginal Words, Marginal Works?: Tutoring the Academy in the Work of Writing Center (Research in the Teaching of Rhetoric and Composition). Indiana University of Penn.: Hampton Pr, 1999. Print.

Guyierrez, Kris, Besty Rymes, and Joanna Larson. Script, Counterscriptand Underlife in the ClassroomJames Brown veruse Brown v. The Board of Education. Boston: Harvard Educational Review 65 452-53, 1995. Print.

Freebody, Professor Peter R.Qualitative Research in Education: Interaction and Practice (Introducing Qualitative Methods series). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Ltd, 2003. Print.

Lunsford, A. (1991). Collaboration, control, and the idea of a writing center. , 12, 3–10.

To repeat, my session, i have:

Kept records of verbal interruptions

a verbal/ physical record.

Each time the group gets off/ back on topic.
How everyone is arranged in the room by letter./seating placement

When and how people interrupt each other and who makes eye contact(for example when asking a question the writer usually slouches and looks down, but when agreeing/ giving their opinion s/he moves their hand with their expressions).

I have noted what questions are asked by the initiator and how they are worded to get everyone in the group to respond.