Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Transformational Learning through the Writing Center


Carrie Brecke's LIBS 201 course (Writing Social Justice) is about the politics of literacy and carries the requirement of tutoring in the Writing Center for two hours a week.  Students also have the opportunity to tutor at the Social Justice High School where they are currently organizing an in-house writing center.  In this class and through tutoring, students appreciate how essential having a voice that will be heard is for everyone in a democratic society.   Emphasis here on everyone.   Students in this class come to understand how writing is a political act, and through tutoring, students help others find agency through writing. Every semester, students in this section of LIBS 201 put in over 500 hours of tutoring, which is a truly transformational experience for them, from the help they offer struggling writers to the insights they get in terms of the inequality of educational institutions, they begin to understand how deep a social justice issue writing and learning to write is. Many of the students in this class go on to become staff tutors at the Writing Center.  Learn more through their recent newsletter.  The editors, Jeff Schaller and Katie Kelly, both began as transformational learning students.