Time Schedule:
David Steven Goldstein
BIS 295
Bothell Campus
Links academic study to experimental and community-based learning conducted at on- or off-campus sites. Topics and sites may vary with instructor.
Class description
SUMMER 2008 (Prof. David S. Goldstein): BECOMING WRITERS. This community-based learning course is designed to introduce students to the theory and practice of peer tutoring in writing. By studying the writing process, you will help yourself become a better writer, and will learn how to help others with their writing. What you learn in class in our seminar-style discussions will help you in your on-site tutoring work, and what you learn on site will help you in our class discussions.
This kind of partnership with an off-campus site provides you with an opportunity to put your publicly-supported education to use in the community that sent you here, leveraging your growing knowledge and skills. From your work in this course, your community benefits, your university benefits, your classmates benefit, and you benefit.
Community partner sites, where students enrolled in BIS 295 will work, include 826 Seattle (http://www.826seattle.org) and possibly sites in the Northshore area. Students will tutor kids one-on-one or will help conduct writing workshops for kids. Students are responsible for arranging transportation. Training will be provided. We usually will alternate some weeks in the UWB classroom and some weeks at the community partner site.
This course corresponds to the Individuals and Societies (I&S) distribution requirements area.
We will meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1:30 to 4:00 for first two weeks and the final week of summer session; weeks in between will be spent at the partner site without any class meetings.
TO ENROLL: E-mail the instructor (link below) to request permission to add the course. If your request is approved, the instructor will ask the IAS office to issue an add code so you can enroll. Please complete this process as soon as possible, and no later than the end of the first week of Summer Session classes.
Student learning goals
To gain a basic understanding of learning styles and their application to tutoring writing
To gain an acute awareness of the writing process, including your own
To learn methods to tutor students effectively at each stage of the writing process
To articulate a personal tutoring philosophy suited to your own style
General method of instruction
Some classroom lecture and training will alternate with site-based work with community partners.
Recommended preparation
You do not have to be a great writer to participate in or benefit from this course. We are starting with the assumption that every writer is a developing writer, and the only skill you need to help another person with his or her writing is the ability to read with care and compassion. As a peer, your job will not be to act as an expert, but rather as a caring, honest, and supportive reader. You simply need the desire to improve your writing and others’ writing. Expect to spend at least twenty hours at your off-campus site during the quarter.
Class assignments and grading
In addition to working a total of twenty-four to forty hours (usually three to four hours per week) at the community partner site during this course, students will participate in classroom discussion at UWB and will write a reflective paper at the end of the course.
Grades will be based on a self-evaluation, class contribution (in class and online), reflective paper, and an evaluation from the community-based partner supervisor.
