Quarterly Check-ins

The Mentoring Program

The Writing Center strives to promote learning, professional development, and reflection as much for you—our staff—as for the writers we work with. The training that takes place in the beginning of the year—particularly in WRD 395 or WRD 582—serves as the foundation of our work at the Writing Center.

We also design ongoing professional development opportunities to promote collaboration and reflection, build and advance knowledge, increase awareness of and appreciation for diversity, and provide a space where we can motivate and support each other as peer writing tutors.

The primary goal of Professional Development (PD) is to help tutors become better tutors. Through PD, tutors engage in improving their work within a supportive and collaborative learning community. Each PD session reflects specific learning outcomes, is grounded in theory, and is directly applicable to and actionable in our work in the Writing Center.

🧑‍🎓 Learning Outcomes

Through participation in Professional Development, peer writing tutors will

  1. reflect on their tutoring experiences
  2. add new strategies to their tutoring skills
  3. apply relevant research to their understanding of writing and their tutoring practices
  4. demonstrate an increased understanding of writers’ needs and perspectives about their work
  5. make decisions and solve problems that arise in tutoring sessions

🤟🏻 Who Facilitates?

Administrators, Coordinators, Student Managers, Workshops Team members, and Student Leaders are the primary facilitators of PD. Sometimes a PD workshop is led by representatives from other departments at DePaul or from other writing centers.

Tutors who are interested in creating a professional development workshop or module must first apply to join the Workshops Team in order to gain relevant insights on best practices for facilitation alongside practical experience. Members of the Workshops Team have the opportunity to plan, research, prepare materials for, and facilitate a professional development workshop or module in collaboration with other team members. The PD Program and the Workshops Team provide support and consultation with facilitators as they develop PD.

Facilitators have the opportunity to gain skills in planning and executing effective professional development sessions or modules by

  1. applying relevant learning objectives to the planning and execution of their PD session