Programs: Writing Workshop

Service Projects

School-University Partnerships

English 109.01/.02 Johnson Park Middle School/OSU Literacy Partnership.
English 110.03 Medary Elementary/OSU Literacy Partnership.
English 110.03 Trevitt Elementary/OSU Literacy Partnership.

English 109.01/.02 Johnson Park Middle School/OSU Literacy Partnership

Description
At the heart of this partnership are exchanges between OSU and JPMS students. OSU students in English 109 act as online editors for a JPMS after-school magazine club that writes and produces a magazine about middle schools on the east side of Columbus. Because of distance and time constraints, rather than attempt to transport students between the two primary sites (an English Department Digital Media Project classroom in Denney Hall and the computer lab at Johnson Park Middle School), students exchange writing using e-portfolios through the Open Source Portfolio Project.

In addition to the editing they do for JPMS students, OSU students are engaged in a quarter-long inquiry of how literacy expectations change with context. They look at criteria for "good writing" in a variety of concrete contexts:

middle school classrooms
an after-school middle school magazine project
college courses across disciplines
electronic environments, such as e-portfolios and Table PC's.

Through applying what they learn through analysis of these sites and standards, they strengthen their own writing and reading practices for future work at the University.

Policies and Procedures
2005-2006 was the pilot year of the project. OSU'sP-12 Project has assigned a graduate student site liaison to help coordinate all the elements of the project, and by the end of 2005-2006, she will have findings to report on the pilot year. Part of those findings will include a set of procedures that we want to follow for 2006-2007.

Practical Documents
At this stage, we don't have any practical documents for JPMS. We will be developing those after this first pilot year.

English 110.03 Medary Elementary/OSU Literacy Partnership

Description
The focus of this partnership is OSU students' tutoring first-graders at Medary Elementary in reading and writing. Each week, for one of the four morning class periods, 110.03 students, along with their instructor and/or a site coordinator, travel to Medary, located north of OSU's main campus, near Hudson. Through tutoring the 110.03 students serve a specific need in the community, and at the same time this community service provides the students with hands-on experience in their exploration of the course theme, which is literacy, education, and community.

Policies and Procedures
Matching up Literacy Partners
At the beginning of the quarter, the site coordinator informs the first-grade teacher of the number of available tutors (which includes the number of 110.03 students enrolled in the course and any other students who will be tutoring that term). The teacher then informs the site coordinator of an estimated number of first-graders who will be tutored, specifically, their names and their levels/needs (academic and behavioral). The teacher, site coordinator, and 110.03 instructor work together to construct the partner list [DOC] considering issues of gender and languages; if first-graders need to be paired up, the teacher determines which children should work together.

Word Wall Words
The teacher also emails the site coordinator the Word Wall (spelling) words for each week and passes this information along to the instructor.

Site Coordinator Visit to 110.03 Class
Prior to the first visit to the school, the site coordinator visits the 110.03 class on campus to discuss the school, the first-graders, logistics, the plan for the first visit, and answer any questions the students may have. A sample lesson plan follows:

Lesson Plan for Site Coordinator Visit to 110.03 Class (on campus)
Ask students, what do you remember about being in first-grade?
Ask students, what do you remember about the rules in first-grade? (Discuss rules handout [DOC], being a role model.)
Open Q&A about the school; discuss the school and students.
Logistics:

Directions with photos can be found here
Bus, #2, 17th and High St. in front of Subway sandwich shop. Heading North. Comes every 10 minutes—catch 10:23 or 10:33.
Bring your Buck ID or $3.00 ($1.50 each way)
Tutoring begins at 10:45. (Students sign in and out. [DOC])
Tutoring ends at 11:30.
Take bus back to campus. Heading South.
(Draw a map on the board.)
We all ride together for first visit. Subsequent visits students can drive or take the bus.
Emphasize the need to be on time.

Discuss with students the following lesson plan:

Lesson Plan for the First Visit to the School
During that first visit:

Pairing up OSU students with their partners. Students can devise a fun activity, or the teacher and site coordinator can match them up. An activity done in the past is 110.03 students' holding a decorated "nametag" made of a full sheet of construction paper on which they've colored the first name of their partner.
Introductory activity. Students could create an activity and/or use the HOSTS handout (with the hand and shield)
Creation of "stickerbooks." Could be as simple as using a piece of construction paper with the child's name or something more elaborate. This is where each week the children will receive a sticker (rather than wearing the sticker, which can be a distraction in class). They create this book with their partner.
An activity with the Word Wall words.
If time, reading.

The goal of this first visit should be getting to know each other and also for the 110.03 students to "take in" or analyze the school and the neighborhood, as well as assess their partner's level.

Materials and Supplies
The instructor and/or site coordinator distribute, or students choose/create, the following supplies. Students must bring these materials to the school each week:

Nametags (created by the Writing Workshop office staff)
Folders
Pencils
Forms: reading log [DOC], partner tracking log [DOC], introductory activity worksheet
Books
Activities
Stickers
Sticker books

More on Supplies
Supplies are kept in Denney 308 and the Stadium. Students should use the supplies in 308 to prepare any activities prior to each school visit (e.g. use index cards to create flashcards of Word Wall words, choose stickers, etc.). The site coordinator brings a bag of additional supplies (located in the Stadium) to supplement materials not available in the classroom.

Letters from Previous Tutors
If it is Winter or Spring quarter, the site coordinator gives the 110.03 instructor the letters from the previous term's Medary/OSU 110.03 partnership students. The instructor distributes these letters to his or her class; the letters offer advice from the previous quarter's tutors for working with specific first-graders.

Weekly Tutoring Sessions at the School
The 110.03 instructor prepares the students for tutoring at the school, both initially and continually throughout the quarter. This includes providing the students with the following opportunities:

to discuss and trouble-shoot tutoring strategies
to prepare tutoring activities and materials
to choose supplies such as books, stickers, and flashcards (for Word Wall words)

Each week the site coordinator reports to the instructor about how the visit went, specifically on attendance and his or her observations of tutoring sessions (in addition to talking with students and the teacher). On site at the school, the site coordinator connects students with the teacher to, for example, addresses issues of discipline.

Preparing for the Last Visit of the Quarter
For the last visit of the quarter, the 110.03 students usually like to do something special, and the instructor, first-grade teacher, and site coordinator should collaborate to try to best meet the students' requests.

Usually students like to spend the first half of the tutoring session working with their partner(s) and the rest of the time in some kind of whole-class game. The game should involve reading and/or writing in some way. In the past people have played Hangman or WORDO (BINGO using Word Wall words) or created games of their own. The instructor should let the site coordinator (who can work with the teacher) know if any special game supplies are needed.

Students also usually like to give their partners a gift. Whether the program or the students buy the gift(s), the first-graders should all receive similar items (e.g. the first-graders all receive folders, though colored and decorated differently). With the teacher's permission, the students may also bring goodies such as desserts and juice. Finally, students may make a "certificate of achievement" for their partner(s), which they may present to the children in an "awards assembly" at the end of the visit.

The instructor may also want to talk with the 110.03 students about saying a proper good-bye to their partners. In the past some children certainly have been sad (as have OSU students), or, at the very least, they ask about their new tutors. Their teacher prepares them for how the program works, but the instructor may tell his or her students to tell their partners that they're going on break, but their new tutor will return in a few weeks (unless it's spring quarter).

The students need to turn in the following to their instructor to give to the site coordinator by the end of the quarter:

plastic nametag sleeves
folders
completed partner tracking logs (Please make sure they've filled these out completely, even if this means they have to go back over all the tutoring sessions/their journals to get all of the information.)

Finally, if it is autumn or winter quarter, the 110.03 students should write a letter to their partner(s)' next student-tutor. This could be made into a journal assignment or part of their final. They should write/type a letter about their partner (if they have two partners, then they need to write two separate letters), specifically about what he or she likes/doesn't like and strategies they employed to tutor him or her—any advice for the next student-tutor.

Rules for Elementary School Tutoring: For the 110.03 students. Discuss prior to the first visit.
Partner List: For the site coordinator. List the OSU-Medary student partners.
Sign-In Sheet: For Medary. Include the names of all 110.03 students and the instructor/site coordinator. Create about 10 copies quarterly. Site coordinator submits this signed sheet to the principal's office after each visit.
Reading Log: For the 110.03 students. With their first-grade partners, students log the books they have read together during each tutoring session. Partner Tracking Log: For the Writing Workshop. Students fill out each week and turn in at the end of the quarter.

English 110.03 Trevitt Elementary/OSU Literacy Partnership

Description
Similar to the Medary partnership, the focus of this partnership is OSU students' tutoring first-graders at Trevitt Elementary in reading and writing; however, this partnership is an after-school program. Each week, for one of the four afternoon class periods, 110.03 students, along with their instructor and/or a site coordinator, travel to Trevitt, which is located on the near east side of Columbus. Through tutoring the 110.03 students serve a specific need in the community, and at the same time this community service provides the students with hands-on experience in their exploration of the course theme, which is literacy, education, and community.

Policies and Procedures [also see Trevitt folder in practical docs in service-learning folder on the LAN]

The best thing to remember is that you are a guest in someone else's house. Please respect that aspect of the literacy partnership. Teachers may ask you to leave if they believe your dress or behavior is inappropriate for working with first-grade children.

Observe a dress code that's appropriate for an elementary school. Remember you are a role model and you represent not just our 110.03 class but the University as well.

If you have tattoos, cover them.
Wear comfortable, modestly cut clothing.
Leave the shirts that have skulls, profanity, or derogatory remarks in your dorm.
Gentlemen, no hats. You will be asked to remove them upon entering the building.

Help your partners maintain behavior that is appropriate for a classroom.

Encourage them to use "school behavior" at all times.
Remind them that they need to stay focused on the work at hand.
You can tell them "That is inappropriate behavior for school."
Let them know you will talk to their teacher about their behavior.
Students who become behavior problems will be asked to leave the program.

Cleanup and getting ready to go home is part of the learning experience. Help your partners learn by maintaining an orderly process.

All materials should be returned to where they are kept in an orderly fashion.
Area around the students' tables should be clean and waste thrown away.
Students need to gather what they need to take home for the evening and return to their seats.
Help them remember their manners by saying "You need to stop talking" or "Your teacher is waiting for you to settle down."
YOU can help the custodian by stacking the chairs on top of your students' tables.

Students use the restroom immediately prior to our arrival. "Potty breaks" should not be necessary. If a student requests to use the restroom ask, "Is this an absolute emergency?" and then have the student get permission from Mrs. Seagraves anyway. She will be able to judge whether the case is real or just a ploy.

Procedure:
Arrival: Sign in at the main office and go to library on second floor to meet other tutors (up the steps and on the left)
3:30 Go together as a group to Mrs. Seagraves' room to wait. Meet your literacy partner(s).
3:35 - 4:00 Read a book together and/or do a structured activity.
4:00 - 4:20 Phonics workbook or writing activity
4:20 – 4:30 Cleanup: straighten room, put all materials away in an orderly fashion, students quietly gather materials to go home and return to their tables to await lineup.
Departure: After students are dismissed, make sure the room is tidy. Sign out at the main office. You're finished!

Lesson Plan for First Visit to the School.
In class, the 110.03 teachers work with students to prepare them for the first visit. This includes:

Coordinating the sharing of rides to and from Trevitt. This has become an increasingly difficult task beginning 2005-2006 when first-year non-commuter students were not allowed to have cars.
Making specific plans for working with first graders, according to general procedure given above (reading and writing from 3:30 until 4:20).
Either at the first visit or before, students will be paired up with Trevitt partners.

Materials and Supplies
The instructor and/or site coordinator distribute, or students choose/create, the following supplies. Students must bring these materials to the school each week:

Nametags (created by the Writing Workshop office staff)
Folders
Pencils
Forms: reading log [DOC], partner tracking log [DOC], introductory activity worksheet
Books
Activities
Stickers

Letters from Previous Tutors
If it is Winter or Spring quarter, past 110.03 teachers give new instructors the letters from the previous term's Trevitt/OSU 110.03 partnership students. The instructors distribute these letters to their classes; the letters offer advice from the previous quarter's tutors for working with particular first-graders.

to discuss and trouble-shoot tutoring strategies
to prepare tutoring activities and materials
to choose supplies such as books, stickers, and flashcards (for Word Wall words)

Because Trevitt is an after-school program attendance can be variable, so OSU students are often given new partners when they arrive for a Trevitt tutoring session. These Trevitt students come from a list of "substitutes" who are attending another Trevitt after-school program. They can be from kindergarten to first grade.

Usually students like to spend the first half of the tutoring session working with their partner(s) and the rest of the time in some kind exchange of letters to each other or other less-overtly academic-focused activity.

Students also usually like to give their partners a gift. Whether the program or the students buy the gift(s), the first-graders should all receive similar items (e.g. the first-graders all receive folders, though colored and decorated differently). Finally, students may make a "certificate of achievement" for their partner(s), which they may present to the children in an "awards assembly" at the end of the visit.

The students need to turn in the following to their instructor to give to the site coordinator by the end of the quarter:

plastic nametag sleeves
folders
completed partner tracking logs (Please make sure they've filled these out completely, even if this means they have to go back over all the tutoring sessions/their journals to get all of the information.)

Practical Documents
Rules for Elementary School Tutoring [DOC]: For the 110.03 students. Discuss prior to the first visit.
Partner List [DOC]: For the site coordinator. List the OSU-Trevitt student partners.
Sign-In Sheet [DOC]: For Trevitt. This is a blank sheet with spaces for students to write their names, time in and time out. At the top of the sheet is a blank for the date. Create about 10 copies. These copies are kept in the OSU notebook on the counter in the principal's office. Site coordinator changes the sheet weekly, adding new dates.
Reading Log [DOC]: For the 110.03 students. With their first-grade partners, students log the books they have read together during each tutoring session.
Partner Tracking Log [DOC]: For the Writing Workshop. Students fill out each week and turn in at the end of the quarter.

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