Professors Martin Montgomery, Justine Wiesinger, and William (Bill) Wallace share their experiences and reflect on partnering with their course-attached peer tutors (PWSAs) to teach writing in their First Year Seminars (FYSs).

As the fall semester of 2019 winds down, Writing@Bates is taking a moment to reflect on one of the unique academic support services offered to first year students and First Year Seminar (FYS) faculty at Bates: the Peer Writing & Speaking Associate, or PWSA. PWSAs are Bates sophomores, juniors, and seniors who are trained, supported, and mentored by Writing@Bates professional staff at the start of—and throughout—the fall semester as they learn about theories of writing and oral communication and best practices in tutoring others; some PWSAs are also Writing Fellows who take our spring short term course EDU s19: Tutoring and Writing Center Theory & Practice. Typically PWSAs are hired in the spring and then thoughtfully paired with faculty-partners teaching individual sections of First Year Seminars (W1) in the fall. 

By scheduling and leading confidential one-on-one and group tutoring sessions, as well as class presentations and workshops, PWSAs provide first-year students with empathetic peer mentorship and collaborative guidance on their FYS partner-professor’s writing and speaking assignments for the course. PWSAs are also encouraged to offer feedback to their partner-professor on those assignments and to inform their partner-professors about students’ common struggles with these assignments. 

At the start of the semester, I offered our FYS faculty some resources on how best to engage with their PWSAs, including this handout and some chapters from Engaging Students as Partners in Learning and Teaching (2014), a text recommended by my colleague, Lynn Mandeltort, in which authors Alison Cook-Sather, Catherine Bovill, and Peter Felten discuss three key principles in student-faculty partnerships: reciprocity, respect, and responsibility. This past fall, three PWSA-faculty pairs, including

For one, these faculty attempted to be aware of the demands of the academic workload their PWSA faced outside of the partnership and were respectful of the time the PWSA needed to prepare for supporting the FYS students. As Dr. Wiesinger pointed out,

“I try to be clear about what I need and give Hazel plenty of notice when I need to ask for something.”

Similarly, Dr. Montogomery stated that he “treat[ed] the partnership as a professional collaboration [by] . . .  always try[ing] to value Amanda’s time, [and] . . . forecast upcoming assignments.” When PWSAs were given sufficient lead-time on upcoming writing or speaking assignments, they could plan their tutoring sessions appropriately around their academic schedule.

When partner-professors were open to feedback and willing to change assignments based on that feedback, both partners and the students seemed to benefit. Alex, for example, was able to offer his partner-professor “the perspective of a student who has far less knowledge of both the subject matter and the course” and suggested this perspective was valuable because “it is really easy for the instructor to not have as realistic an understanding of the needs of students.” On one particular assignment, Alex pointed out to his partner-professor that students would likely be overwhelmed by the amount of reading and so his partner-professor “chose to shorten the assignment” which, Alex said, helped the FYS students manage it more effectively and confidently and feel a “sense of fulfillment and ease,” “confidence,” and “an eagerness to keep improving throughout the rest of their time here at Bates.”

Faculty repeatedly pointed to the importance of this reciprocal approach, as well. All three faculty offered their PWSAs early drafts of their writing and speaking assignments and asked their PWSAs for feedback on those assignments from a students’ perspective before they distributed them to their FYS students. Dr. Wiesinger, for example, was appreciative for and open to Hazel’s feedback on a rubric she designed for assessing her students’ writing:

“Hazel gave me specific, clear feedback without hesitating. I was able to use that right away.”

As part of this healthy give-and-take, PWSAs in these partnerships felt emboldened to offer their frank opinions and ask specific questions for clarification on the professor’s assignments. Not only did this help the PWSAs, it also equipped them for offering the kind of support the first year students needed because they felt clear about the professor’s assignment expectations. In this way, they were able to act as knowledgeable liaisons between the professors and students. As Amanda pointed out, for example,

“Rather than making an assumption about Martin’s intentions and/or…jumping to conclusions, I actively attempt to remain open by responding with a question [and he asks] me what I think about his assignments and course content. . . . We are both learning from and teaching each other.”

It turns out, too, that modeling effective partnership and collaboration allowed students in these First Year Seminars to understand that learning is something for which all parties can take responsibility. Indeed, as Bill Wallace pointed out, “this [team-approach] is how the most effective learning in college is done.” When PWSAs and their partner-professors present themselves as a pedagogical team, students in the course benefit from watching this collaboration play out. Amanda underscored the importance of this positive dynamic:

“Students see that being a PWSA is not just being another type of student but also a teacher and collaborator with the professor. When I come to visit the class, Martin always looks to me to provide insight on whatever topic he is discussing. It shows students that they can be and are contributors of knowledge in the classroom.” 

Further, this approach helps first year students really get a sense that the professor cares about and is open to students’ thoughts and opinions which breaks down the typical professor-student hierarchy that many students feel intimidated by, particularly in their first year in college. As Dr. Wiesinger reported,

“I really care about listening to voices besides my own and seeking input from a student perspective” because, she went on, “learning is something we divide, share, and circulate.”

Dr. Wiesinger attributed part of the resulting “positive mood” in her FYS to the fact that her students felt so “supported and listened to,” a way of relating that she and Hazel modeled often. Professors who partner with PWSAs in this reciprocal, respectful manner are engaged in an approachable, open, and caring pedagogy from which all students can benefit.

Another beneficial aspect of these partnerships was how the PWSAs were allowed to have autonomy and confidentiality with the students they supported and to build rapport in their own way but with clear guidelines and within reasonable parameters set out by the professor. This balance required effective communication and clarity around the PWSAs’ professional responsibilities. As Professor Wallace pointed out,

“I let Alex know what needs to be done, and let him develop the strategy to get it done the best way he sees fit for the student and the situation.”

He went on to praise Alex’s keen ability to do this for his initial class presentation about his role as a PWSA: “He had a short Power Point and a warm discussion that followed.” Likely this had something to do with the many students in the class who sought out and benefitted from Alex’s support over the course of the semester. Bill made clear that his students “assured him that their success had been helped along by having Alex” as their PWSA.

Of the most wonderful things I heard in interviewing these pedagogical pairs were what the professors learned about writing instruction from their PWSAs. In short, 

• getting a students’ perspective on our writing assignments matters and benefits everyone, 
• engaging students in effective peer review and writing workshops, and having the PWSAs assist with these reviews and workshops, works well,
• clarity and simplicity in our writing assignments is helpful for students (and leads to better papers), and
• teaching writing is a huge job that we can’t do alone, not even in one semester, so why not work on it together?

Indeed, why not approach the teaching of writing in our classrooms with the same respectful, reciprocal, and responsible spirit as did these wonderful partners in pedagogy?