Is Your Center Up to Code?

Having worked in our Writing Center for nearly four years now, I've come across an incredibly diverse student population with widely differing needs. Though the Writing Center has existed as a concept on our campus for a couple of decades and has been in its current location for almost ten years, we still occasionally struggle with proper accomodations.
Our center is located in the basement of the old library building. What was once a cubicle-cluttered group of offices has been opened up, renovated, and molded to our needs... for the most part.
One of the major problems with our facility was the Reading Center's annex. Pushed into half of a regular classroom-sized space, walled in on all sides with a too-narrow doorway and stuffed with large, round tables, the section worked great for staff Christmas parties, but was hardly ideal as a lab setting. About two years ago, one of the classroom walls was knocked down, opening up the space, and finally making it properly wheelchair accessible.
This, however, is only the most visible (and most costly) accomodation the center has undertaken. We have also changed in more subtle ways to better serve our student population.

One way of accomodating that is low-cost and highly-effective is to better educate tutors (and other staff that work with students) about specific kinds of disabilities and ways to address them. One site I have found particularly helpful in prepping our tutorial staff is this University of Washington-hosted site:

http://www.washington.edu/doit/MathSci/presen_accomm.html

Of especial interest is the section entitled "Specific Disabilities and Accomodations" which points out simple, effective solutions to addressing disabled student needs.

Disability is a spectrum, and Writing Center accomodations to disability should be a spectrum as well. Though it's of vital importance to meet the physical parameters of the ADA guidelines (which can be found here: http://www.ada.gov/), that shouldn't be where your accomodation strategy ends. Better educating your staff is a great way to increase your student accessibility as well as your professionalism.

Avoiding Learned Helplessness Part 3: Setting Goals, Long Term vs. Short Term

When a student first comes to tutoring, the tutor has no way of knowing whether this will be the student’s only visit or the beginning of a college career-length relationship. One way to help avoid engendering learned helplessness without “turning off” short term clients is to set specific goals.

· Identify: Figure out what the student’s greatest difficulty appears to be at the moment.
· Method: Once you’ve decided on a focus, determine the method for improvement and implement it.
· Short Term: Use the terminology as outlined in the student’s textbook. Concentrate on paper-level issues.
· Long Term: Remind the student that there are alternate terms that apply to the same ideas. Discuss how paper-level issues apply to bigger concepts.
· Lay the Foundation: Provide a long-term goal in addition to the immediate goal (triage). Don’t give the impression that all the student’s problems are fixed, but don’t act as if the student’s problems are insurmountable.
· Avoiding Dependence: By focusing on the short term “building block” approach—rather than an “all or nothing” impression—many learned helplessness issues can be avoided.

Avoiding Learned Helplessness Part 2: Setting Boundaries

It is important for tutors to set clear boundaries, although they may vary somewhat from tutor to tutor because of personality, skills and style. Still, they need to be in accordance with the aims of the tutorial system and reflect the aims of the college or university, as well. Some areas to consider when setting boundaries are:

· Support: Tutors are there to give scholastic support to the student’s studies. Become aware of additional help available on campus or in the community.
· Availability: Set hours, session limits, know the availability of other tutors.
· Confidentiality: Understand the legal and moral reasons to respect confidentiality.
· Helpfulness: Clear, organized boundaries are helpful to model successful student behavior, reinforce the idea that the tutee has the responsibility for his/her own work, and assume that the student is capable of learning/developing as a writer.
· Confrontation: When necessary, a tutor must be able to confront a student who will not take responsibility for their work. Be compassionate and respectful without trashing professors or assignments.

Avoiding Learned Helplessness Part 1: Accomodating vs. Enabling

"Learned helplessness" is a psychological term that comes to us from disability studies. Though the idea has applications with all students, students who are registered with Disabled Student Programs & Services (and similar) come to tutoring with an added impediment to independence: the expectation of accommodation; yet these accommodations are important in order to help students and maintain compliance with the ADA. It’s vitally important to separate the idea of accommodating a student’s needs from enabling student dependence.

• Possession: Try to let the student have physical possession over their own work as much as possible.
• Choices: When you are in the position of “recorder,” don’t fill in the blanks: offer choices rather than answers.
• Resources: Discuss how to find the answer to something and guide the student through the process rather than giving an answer upfront.
• Approach: Try different approaches to material to address students who absorb knowledge differently. (i.e. kinesthetic learners, auditory learners, etc.)
• Review: Provide extensive session notes for the student to read on his or her own. These can be written, recorded, or e-mailed (for use with reader programs).

Another Year, Another Conference

It's that time of year again!

The RCC WRC Tutors have submitted the proposal and now we're hard at work on developing our new presentation:

"Stuck On You": Transitioning Students Toward Independence

Check back for updates.