Overview
What is the Madison Area Writing Center Colloquium?
- A monthly discussion group about writing center research, theory, practice, and leadership.
What are its goals?
- To create a supportive scholarly community of writing center tutors and professionals across schools and colleges in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois.
- To prepare graduate students from UW-Madison and other universities in this region to be innovative writing center directors in their faculty careers.
- To introduce undergraduate tutors to the field of composition and rhetoric and to the writing center profession.
Who participates?
- Faculty, staff, and students from Madison Area Technical College, UW-Milwaukee, Edgewood College, High Schools in Madison and the surrounding area, Marquette University, UW-Madison, Northern Illinois University, Carroll University, UW-Waukesha, UW-Platteville, and others
Suggestions? Questions?
If you'd like to suggest a topic for the colloquium or if you have questions about the colloquium, please contact the colloquium coordinator, Brad Hughes, Director of the Writing Center and Director of Writing Across the Curriculum at UW-Madison (bthughes@wisc.edu).
Events for Spring Semester 2012
If you're planning to attend one of these events or if you have questions about the colloquium, please write to the coordinator of the colloquium, Brad Hughes, Director of the Writing Center and Director of Writing Across the Curriculum at UW-Madison (bthughes@wisc.edu).
Preserve, Remodel, Rebuild? Determining the Course of an Inherited Writing Center
Crystal Mueller
Director of the Writing Center
The University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 5:30-7:00 PM
Room 6176 Helen C. White Hall
The Writing Center
The University of Wisconsin-Madison
600 North Park Street
Madison
A new writing center director commonly inherits an already existing center. The discrete histories of director and center require each to adapt. The inherited center operates within a specific institutional, administrative, and political context. It bears an institutional reputation. It carries its own policies and traditions that can be altered but that are, nonetheless, established. It has an established location and staff. The writing center director, too, has a personal history of writing center experiences and preparation for teaching, research, and service. The director quickly and carefully must decide when to follow in step with the inherited path and when to break the mold.
Listen to Crystal Mueller's experience preserving, remodeling, and rebuilding at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Writing Center, where she became director in 2007. Crystal will describe how the Center has managed a nearly threefold increase in sessions, a potentially rocky move to a beautiful new campus location, pilots of new online tutoring and Writing Fellows programs, enhanced training and outreach to targeted student populations, etc. These triumphs and challenges have occurred amid staff turnover, institutional retention efforts, budgetary uncertainty, and general education reform. Bring your questions and compare notes as Crystal describes her continuing work to grow a writing center with greater institutional relevance.
In preparation for this colloquium, please read Carl Glover, "Kairos and the Writing Center" (The Writing Center Director's Resource Book, 2006).
->If you would like a pdf copy of Glover's article, just let Brad Hughes (bthughes@wisc.edu) know—>he will be glad to send one to you. Click this link to email Brad Hughes: Brad Hughes
Collaborative Learning in Action: Peer Tutor Learning and Peer Tutor Alumni
Paula Gillespie, Florida International University
Harvey Kail, University of Maine
Margaret Mika, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Brad Hughes, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Monday, February 20, 2012, 5:30-7:00 PM
Room 6176 Helen C. White Hall
The Writing Center
The University of Wisconsin-Madison
600 North Park Street
Madison
The panelists will explain how they became interested in conducting research on tutor learning (what student tutors take from their education and experience as peer writing tutors), and they'll share some of their research methods and findings. We'll then ask participants in the colloquium to brainstorm questions to guide their own future research on tutor learning. (Harvey Kail and Paula Gillespie will join us by videoconference.)
In preparation for this colloquium, we suggest that you watch some (or all) of a video on tutor learning titled "The Tutors," which is available on the Writing Center's website at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee:
Scroll down to the video near the bottom of the home page.
We also invite you to read some (or all) of these articles—
Bruffee, Kenneth. "The Brooklyn Plan: Attaining Intellectual Growth Through Peer-Group Tutoring." Liberal Education 64 (1978): 447-68. Print.
Hughes, Bradley, Paula Gillespie, and Harvey Kail. "What They Take with Them: Findings from the Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project." The Writing Center Journal 30.2 (2010): 12-46.
—> —> If you would like pdf copies of these articles, just let me know—I would be glad to send them to you.
If you have time, you might also want to take a look at the Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project, which is available online—
writing.wisc.edu/pwtarp/
Approaches to Writing Center Assessment
Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 5:30-7:00 PM
Room 6176 Helen C. White Hall
The Writing Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison
600 North Park Street
Madison
We'll start this colloquium by discussing a strong model of writing center assessment, recently published by colleagues from Pomona College—Dara Rossman Regaignon and Pamela Bromley, "What Difference Do Writing Fellows Programs Make?" (WAC Journal, 22 [2011]: 41-63). I'd recommend you also read Neal Lerner's "Writing Center Assessment" in The Center Will Hold (2003). In addition to discussing the Regaignon and Bromley article, we'll have time during the colloquium to share current assessment projects from our own writing centers and brainstorm new ideas for future assessments.
The Regaignon and Bromley article is available online (go to the WAC Journal's website and then scroll down to find the table of contents and links to the articles in the current issue. If you'd like a pdf of Lerner's chapter, just let me know—I'd be very glad to send one to you.
Please join us for this colloquium! It would be great to have you there. If you haven't been to a Madison Area Writing Center Colloquium before—we especially want *you* to join us! The group is friendly and informal, and the discussions are easy to join. These informal meetings can be a great way to learn more about writing center and WAC theory, research, practice, and leadership and a great way to explore and prepare for writing center and WAC work as part of your career and to make wonderful connections across schools, colleges, and universities. And for those of you who are undergraduate writing fellows or tutors, the colloquium offers a friendly way to learn more about and think about possible graduate study in composition and rhetoric and about doing additional writing center and WAC work in your future.
—> —> If you're planning to attend, would you tap Brad a quick email (bthughes@wisc.edu) so we can be sure to have enough brownies?
Please Save These Future Colloquium Dates:
Tuesday, April 17, 2012, 5:30-7:00 PM, at the UW-Madison Writing Center—the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, with Crystal Mueller
June 2012, date TBA, at the UW-Madison Writing Center—preliminary findings from research on US writing centers, with Katrin Girgensohn, European University Viadrina
Events for Fall Semester 2011
If you're planning to attend one of these events or if you have questions about the colloquium, would you please write to the coordinator of the colloquium, Brad Hughes, Director of the Writing Center and Director of Writing Across the Curriculum at UW-Madison (bthughes@wisc.edu).
A Discussion of Writing Center Collaborations with Faculty Across the Disciplines
Focusing on selected sections of _Academic Writing Consulting and WAC_ by Jeff Jablonski, Chapters 3, 4, and 5.
Thursday, September 29, 2011, 5:30-7:00 PM
Room 6176 Helen C. White Hall
The Writing Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison
600 North Park Street
Madison
The readings from Jablonski include narratives from his case-study research with writing centers and his theoretical model of what he calls "cross-curricular literacy consulting." These are important topics for current and future writing center and WAC directors.
The Midwest Writing Centers Association Conference in Madison
October 20-22, 2011
writing.wisc.edu/mwca2011
How Contexts Shape Writing Center Work—Insights into Writing Instruction and a Writing Center in Germany
Katrin Girgensohn, Director of the Writing Center and Faculty Member at European University Viadrana, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany
Visiting Research Scholar, The Writing Center, Department of English, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2011-12
Wednesday, November 16, 2011, 5:30 to 7:00 PM
Room 6176 Helen C. White Hall
The Writing Center
The University of Wisconsin-Madison
In this colloquium, I will discuss contemporary writing instruction in Germany within the larger context of German higher education. This context is currently shaped by the so-called “Bologna Process,” an ongoing political negotiation process that has set in motion the restructuring of almost all aspects of higher education in Europe. Partly influenced by the “Bologna Process,” but even more built on the enthusiasm that individual faculty in Germany have for ideas of collaborative learning in writing brought from the USA, writing centers are still a relatively new phenomenon in Europe. Nevertheless, the developments in recent years are exciting. For example, at European University Viadrina in Germany the writing center opened in 2007 and quickly grew to become a vital place with a wide variety of programs. It started out of autonomous, creative writing groups for students. Sharing some findings of my PhD thesis, I will show how valuable the experience of teacherless writing groups among peers is for German students who do not have composition classes or any other explicit writing support. During the colloquium, we will have the chance to discuss the differences, advantages and disadvantages of our contexts for literacy work at colleges and universities: what can we learn from each other? What is transferable across cultures? And how can we build sustainable international collaborations among writing centers?
Events for Spring Semester 2011
Paths to a New Writing Center: Proposing, Politicking, Planning and Persevering
Margaret Mika, Director, Writing Center, UW-Milwaukee
Tuesday, May 3, 2011, 6:00-7:30 PM
The Writing Center
Curtin Hall 127
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
3243 N.Downer Ave. (1/2 block south of Kenwood Blvd.)
(414) 229-4339
www.writingcenter.uwm.edu
Visitor Map: http://www4.uwm.edu/map/map_color.pdf
Street parking (metered and unmetered) available in front of Curtin Hall
and surrounding blocks (especially eastward toward Lake Michigan)
although tickets are freely given. Paid parking available under the
Union, entrance on Kenwood Avenue.
Gaining approval for a new Writing Center is a time-consuming, politically complex, sometimes frustrating and almost miraculous event, especially in difficult budgetary times. The nearly 10-yr process at UWM required finding answers to a myriad of tough questions including these:
- Whose vision of the writing center matters most?
- In what ways can decision-makers be educated and persuaded?
- What are the rhetorical challenges?
- Who are campus allies...or not?
- Who controls and competes for space?
- Do you compromise--about what, when and how?
- What types of reports are most helpful and who should get them?
- What about outreach and advertising, before and after?
- What role do tutors play?
- How much does it really cost to design and build a new center (and a grand opening)?
- What are key design considerations?
- Who selects, purchases, builds, moves, paints, installs and cleans, on campus?>
Receiving the go-ahead was reason to celebrate and then immediately leap into a giant new work cycle. However, the road blocks and false starts along the long path ultimately proved to be helpful stepping stones, revealing the lay of the land and allowing the director to make more thoughtful 'last minute' decisions when the green light finally came.
Please join us at UWM's new Writing Center for a tour, conversation and pizza. Its director Margaret Mika will share the nitty gritty of her Center's evolution and successful expansion, and participants are encouraged to share their experiences and expertise.
Shifting the Boundaries: Importing and Exporting Writing Center Practices Between the University and the Community
Annie Massa-MacLeod, David Hudson, Elisabeth Miller, Anne Wheeler,
Rachel Carrales, and Melissa Tedrowe, UW-Madison
Wednesday, March 30, 2011, 5:30-7:00 PM
Room 6176 Helen C. White Hall
The Writing Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison
600 North Park Street
Madison
In 1997, the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
initiated a community writing assistance (CWA) program that provides
free writing, vocational, and computer assistance to members of the
greater Madison community. Taking UW-Madison's CWA program as an
example, this colloquium will address some unique challenges that can
arise when university/college writing center practices are adapted to
meet local writers' needs. Our discussion will focus on work with (a)
community partners, (b) writers on writing, and (c) writers beyond
writing. Ultimately, we hope to interrogate the ways in which writing
center best practices are--and are not--exportable to work with the
community.
A Discussion of The Idea of a Writing Laboratory
Videoconference Discussion with Neal Lerner, MIT.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 5:30 to 7:00 PM
The Writing Center
6176 Helen C. White Hall
University of Wisconsin-Madison
600 North Park Street
Madison
Events for Fall Semester 2010
Writing Assessment Through Film--An Experiment in Collegiality
Angela Woodward, Writing Center Director, Edgewood College
Jed Hopkins, Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Programs in the School of Education, Edgewood College
Emily Keown, Doctoral Student in Education, Edgewood College
Thursday, September 23, 2010, 5:30 - 7:00 PM
Room 6176 Helen C. White Hall
600 North Park Street
In the midst of a grand overhaul of our general education curriculum, members of the writing curriculum subcommittee at Edgewood College in Madison were asked to “assess writing at the college.” We responded by filming interviews and focus groups with students and faculty and creating a series of short films. The films highlight the complexity and difficulty of writing and teaching writing, and offer no easy solutions. Our presentation features one or two of the finished films, and invites discussion of the meaning of writing assessment and the role of writing centers in faculty development and writing across the curriculum.
A Discussion of Facing the Center: Toward an Identity Politics of One-to-One Mentoring
Videoconference Discussion with Professor Harry Denny, St. John's University, New York
Monday, October 18, 2010, 5:30 - 7:00 PM
The Pyle Center, UW-Madison
702 Langdon Street
A Discussion of Karen Rowan's "All the Best Intentions: Graduate Student Administrative Professional Development in Practice"
Tuesday, November 16, 2010, 5:30 to 7:00 PM
Room 6176 in the Writing Center, Helen C. White Hall
UW-Madison
600 North Park Street
Events for Spring Semester 2010
How to Be a Writing Center Director' and Other Lessons I Learned Five Minutes after Grad School
A Videoconference with Professor Mary Lou Odom, Assistant Director of the Writing Center
Kennesaw State University
Kennesaw, GA
Wednesday, February 17 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.
The Pyle Center
702 Langdon Street
Cultivating Potentials for Social Change
Beth Godbee Doctoral Student in Composition and Rhetoric and Assistant Director of Writing Across the Curriculum
English Department, UW-Madison
Tuesday, April 6, 2010 5:30 - 7:00 pm
6176 Helen C. White Hall
600 North Part Street
In this workshop, I introduce my dissertation research aimed at identifying and documenting empirically social change as a process, occurring in the moment, through talk about writing. Together, we’ll view and analyze video clips in which writers and tutors enact social change, and we’ll discuss what makes writing centers rich sites for this work. Through close analysis of interaction, we’ll also consider how to cultivate social change in our own teaching and tutor education.
Field Trip to the New Writing Center at Madison Area Technical College
Sarah Johnson and Colleagues Director, Writing Center Madison Area Technical College
Monday, April 26, 2010 6:00 - 7:30 pm
Madison Area Technical College, Truax Campus
3550 Anderson Street
Madison, WI
Selected Past Colloquia
| Nancy Grimm, Michigan Tech | Etienne Wenger and Writing Centers |
| Michele Eodice, University of Oklahoma | A Videoconference Conversation with Michele Eodice |
| Emily Hall, UW-Madison | Writing Fellows/Faculty Collaborations |
| Melissa Tedrowe, UW-Madison | Writing Center Workshops and the Complexity of Form |
| Angela Woodward, Edgewood College | The Writing Center/Learning Center Dilemma |
| Susan Nusser, Carroll University | Library and Writing Center Collaborations |
| Harvey Kail, University of Maine | "Innovation and Repetition:" The Brooklyn Plan and Writing Centers |
| Nancy Linh Karls, UW-Madison | Case Study of a New Writing Center Director at the University of Colorado-Denver |
| Christine Cozzens, Agnes Scott College | The Writing Center Way: How Writing Centers Can Influence Pedagogy and Administration |
| Sarah Johnson and Andrea Benton, Madison Area Technical College | Starting a Writing Center at a Regional Campus |
| Paula Gillespie, Marquette University; Sarah Johnson, Madison Area Technical College; Melissa Tedrowe, UW-Madison | "The Seamier Side of Things": A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Writing Center Administration |
| Emily Hall, UW-Madison | Designing a Course for Undergraduate Peer Tutors |
| Sarah Johnson, Madison Area Technical College | Challenges and Innovations of 30 Top Two-Year College Writing Centers |
| John Duffy, University of Notre Dame | Notes on Starting a Writing Center |
| Ken Frazier, UW-Madison | Unnatural Acts: Building New Collaborative Relationships in the Academy |
| Lisa Ede, Oregon State University; Paula Gillespie, Marquette University; Brad Hughes, UW-Madison | It Doesn't Happen by Accident: Designing and Leading the 2008 IWCA Summer Institute |
| Nancy Linh Karls, Mike Shapiro, Brad Hughes, UW-Madison | More Noise from the Writing Center: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Creating Our Writing Center Podcasts |
| Alice Robison, UW-Madison | Designing Videogames for Training Writing Tutors |
| Neal Lerner, MIT | The Secret Origins of Writing Centers |
| Christina Murphy, Marshall University | Peer Tutoring and "Not Bowling Alone" |
| Andrea Benton and Annie Cook, UW-Madison | Position in Process: Possibilities for Lead TAs, Graduate-Student Administrators, and Their Roles in University Writing Programs |
| Paula Gillespie, Marquette University | A Field Trip to the New Marquette University Writing Center |
| Beth Godbee, UW-Madison | Research Comparing Tutoring in Homes with Tutoring in Writing Centers |
| Jody Cardinal, Kirsten Jamsen, Brad Hughes, UW-Madison | Gender Patterns in Writing Center Usage |
>>>>>
Last updated:
Monday, 9 April 2012
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