April 8, 2011

Writing center tutoring provides real-world experiences for future teachers

Originally published on 4/4/11 by AS News

As partnerships go, the ASU-Metro Tech Writing Center is getting high marks for innovation and creativity, benefitting high school students, teachers and university students preparing to enter teaching professions.

The newly created program brings Arizona State University education majors and ASU Downtown Phoenix students to Metro Tech High School to provide one-on-one tutoring for students, assisting English teachers with struggling writers while affording the university students preparing for teacher careers real-world classroom experiences.

The ASU-Metro Tech Writing Center, which opened in mid-February, will be in action and on display at 9 a.m., April 11, to introduce the program to media and invited guests.

Developed by ASU’s Jim Blasingame, English education professor; Barbara Lafford, faculty head of languages and cultures; and Evie Cortes-Pletenik, Metro Tech assistant principal, the Writing Center is a separate technology equipped room in the library complex staffed by ASU students, most of whom are future teachers, to raise the writing skills of Metro’s students by providing tutoring on individual assignments.

The ASU students receive credit hours and fulfill field experience requirements for their teaching degrees. While Metro Tech English teachers are working with 150 to 180 students a day, they are not always able to conference individually on specific areas, but they can assign students to the Writing Center during the class time for focused instruction.

“It is wonderful to see how this ASU-MetroTech Writing Center partnership has grown from our downtown faculty’s initial visit to MetroTech last year,” Lafford said. “The success of this initiative is a testimony to the combined creative energies of Dr. Jim Blasingame from Tempe, the faculty at the ASU Downtown Phoenix campus, the ASU Tempe and downtown students involved in the project, the MetroTech faculty and administration, and the MetroTech students who have sought and received guidance on their writing.”

To read the full story click here.

Filed under: Academic Learning Centers,High School

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