Connecting to Support Student Writers
This website is designed as a hub of information for secondary and university tutors, educators, and administrators currently engaged in or exploring partnerships to support student writers, primarily through peer writing centers.
Shared Commitment
Secondary school writing center university partnerships (SSWCUPs) center around a commitment to developing stronger writers through peer-to-peer collaborative learning. Often, these partnerships support the development and growth of student-led writing centers in secondary schools, which structure time and space for students to engage in thoughtful conversations about their ideas and their writing with a trained peer tutor. However, partnerships can support student writers and foster collaborative learning through writing clubs, writing contests, writing workshops, writing partners, or a range of other kinds of initiatives. University and secondary partners connect over this shared commitment and then collaborate together to build and sustain their individual programs.
School-University Partners
Effective partnerships have taken many forms and involved various participants from secondary and university settings. The diagram below identifies some of the entities whose interests in student writing support overlap, and through which many SSWCUPs have developed and thrived. To learn more about how these partnerships have taken shape across a range of institutions and throughout many regions in the United States, visit the partnerships page.
University Writing Centers – Writing centers have a long history on many college and university campuses. While they operate in different ways, their defining feature is peer-to-peer collaborative learning opportunities for student writers across disciplines. These centers are typically administered by university faculty or staff who train student tutors to conduct individual writing consultations. Tutors and directors of university writing centers (UWCs) often engage in and contribute to research in fields of peer tutoring, writing pedagogy, and program administration.
Secondary Schools – Many middle and high schools throughout the United States and the world have developed peer writing centers, where trained student tutors work one-on-one with student writers to develop and refine their writing. Writing centers are supportive learning environments that build leadership skills in tutors and develop writing confidence in students. Often directed by teacher leaders, secondary school writing centers (SSWCs) may take a variety of forms. Some secondary schools without writing centers offer other kinds of tutoring and writing enrichment programs that align with a shared commitment to peer collaboration.
Teacher Preparation Programs – University programs that prepare undergraduate and graduate students to become K-12 teachers include both university coursework and classroom-based clinical experiences. Prospective educators are guided by theoretically-informed approaches to teaching and learning, including ways to center students in the learning process. Literacy approaches–including writing–are often at the center of their preparation coursework and teaching practice. Teacher educators are invested in partnering with local schools and experienced teachers to conduct classroom-based research on teaching and to mentor new educators.
National Writing Project Sites – The National Writing Project (NWP) is a network of nearly 200 local writing project sites sponsored by universities, usually English and/or education programs. Local sites follow a collaborative leadership model where university faculty or staff directors partner with teacher leaders from area schools to offer professional development experiences in the summer and throughout the school year to support K-12 and college/university teachers of writing. Teacher Consultants of the NWP become teacher leaders in their area, guided by the principles that teachers are the best teachers of other teachers and that teachers of writing must write themselves. Some NWP sites also host youth writing programs and contests.
Professional Organizations – Each of the entities described above is affiliated with existing professional organizations that network with educators around relevant issues related to the teaching and learning of writing. Each of these organizations shares an interest in promoting collaborative writing and peer tutoring at all levels. The International Writing Centers Association (IWCA), the Secondary School Writing Centers Association (SSWCA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), English Language Arts Teacher Educators (ELATE), and the National Writing Project (NWP), as well as regional groups within these organizations, convene members through annual conferences and share research through academic and practitioner journals.
What SSWCUPs Offer
SSWCUP initiatives vary according to the available resources and needs of the participating partners, but collaboration may include the following kinds of activities:
- university tutors training high school tutors
- NWP sites offering advanced institutes for teachers interested in starting SSWCs
- preservice teachers working in a university or secondary writing center
- experienced university or secondary writing center directors mentoring new directors
- partners from secondary and university writing centers collaborating on a research project or co-presenting at a conference
- universities hosting conferences or meet-ups for area SSWC directors and tutors
CONNECT
Exchange ideas.
CONSULT
Ask questions.
COLLABORATE
Work together.
Get Connected
The best way to make connections with SSWCUP partners is to reach out to local contacts at secondary schools, university writing centers, teacher preparation programs, and/or National Writing Project sites. It’s also a good idea to join professional networks, attend conferences, and participate on listservs as ways to find partners.
For questions or comments regarding this website or the information shared here, please contact sswcupmail@gmail.com. This website is currently being maintained by university writing center tutors at Brigham Young University who are involved with BYU-SSWCUP.