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CSTW Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing

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CSTW

Literacy Programs

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Working collaboratively with partners outside of the university, we exchange ideas and develop programs with the primary goal of improving writing. The programs below represent the heart of CSTW's literacy outreach work:


Columbus Africentric Elementary School:
Young writers and the power of the pen

How does it feel to be the author of your own book at age 10? Students in grades 4 through 6 at Columbus Africentric Early College Elementary School think it’s pretty special. Their parents and teachers see visible evidence of after-school tutoring and know each book represents improvement in reading and writing skills. Mentored by Ohio State tutors, the young students work after class to write and revise poetry, letters, and fiction and nonfiction stories. At an end-of-year ceremony, students receive a compilation of their work and read from their favorites.

The program, which began in the year 2000, is designed to help students improve their writing abilities and meet the requirements of state proficiency tests. The 2006-2007 Africentric literacy program was made possible by the generous support of the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation.

See photos of Africentric and Linden McKinley programs.

Linden McKinley High School:
Establishing a student-driven onsite writing center

“Helping other students understand their writing better makes the tutor feel good, and it helps the tutor learn,” says Patience Osei, a student tutor at the OSU-Linden-McKinley High School Writing Center. What began as a series of monthly writing workshops with CSTW outreach consultants grew into a blossoming onsite writing center. Now high school students provide the feedback that increases other students’ investment and confidence in critical thinking, reading, and writing.

The Writing Center will (1) assist students with all facets of writing, including brainstorming, composing, organizing, and revising, (2) allow interested students to be trained as effective peer writing tutors, and (3) increase student investment and confidence in critical thinking, reading, writing, and peer tutoring.

The OSU-LMHS Writing Center opened in November 2006 and is supervised by the LMHS English Department Chair and Outreach Consultants. In 2006-2007, Barnes & Noble Booksellers at the Lennox Town Center/Regional Office donated resource books in support of the Writing Center project. In 2007-2008, a generous grant from the Seimer Family Foundation has facilitated the continued growth of the Writing Center.

See photos of Africentric and Linden McKinley programs.

Godman Guild:
Empowering adult learners in the writing classroom

No one thinks it’s easy to return to school as an adult, especially after a long absence. But each week adult learners come to Columbus’s Godman Guild in pursuit of their General Education Development degrees (GEDs). The Guild, established in 1898, has a long history in the Columbus area for providing adult education and employment programs.

Outreach Consultants work with Godman Guild GED instructors to facilitate writing workshops with adult learners designed to increase clients’ confidence and proficiency as they prepare for the essay portion of the GED test. Workshops also aim to foster better writing skills and an appreciation for the role of writing in the workplace and everyday life.

Teacher Seminars and Institutes:
Teaching writing teachers

What inspires more than 100 school teachers each year to spend Saturdays in class? Some like the easy collegiality the CSTW workshops provide. Others are eager for ideas they can take directly back to the classroom. We all agree it’s all about preparing students for a lifetime of writing.

Our program is designed for teachers to share curriculum ideas, scholarly theories, and personal experiences with colleagues in a collaborative setting with technological learning support. In the end, we hope teachers have been able to examine and understand the process of developing creative, interactive, literacy-based lesson plans.

Previous Saturday workshop titles were: "Critical Writing, Critical Thinking: Writing to Learn in Every Discipline" (March 2007), "What’s Writing Got to Do with It?: Learning to Write and Writing to Learn in Every Discipline" (February 2007), and "TWAC: Technologies for Writing Across the Curriculum" (December 2006), and "Who We Teach and What We Teach: Teaching Writing in the Multicultural Classroom." Summer institute topics have focused on ePortfolio (June 2005), multiple literacies and digital media (July 2005), and the teaching of writing in multicultural settings (June 2004). Columbus Literacy Council: An OSU Partnership

The Columbus Literacy Council:
Reaching diverse communities and sharing cultures

Columbus boasts a rich diversity of cultures. For many non-native and native speaking adults, the Columbus Literacy Council (CLC) is a stepping-stone to English literacy. With the help of Ohio State tutors from several academic programs, clients navigate a computer-training program to enhance their language skills through listening, speaking, reading, and writing exercises. CSTW consultants serve as liaison between CLC and the university.

Collaborators include: CSTW, Columbus Literacy Council, Spanish and Portuguese Department, African American and African Studies Department, English Department's Writing Workshop and Digital Media Project This project was partially funded by Ohio State's Service-Learning Initiative and the Corporation for National Service.

Summer Writing Camp:
Serving tomorrow’s college writers today

“[The CSTW Summer Writing Camp] helped me become a better writer in school by giving me a broad perspective on the writing skills I need to be successful in college,” says a high school senior. Twenty students from central Ohio high schools spend a lively week each summer on the Ohio State campus. They work individually and in groups on a variety of projects that challenge their ability to think critically, write digitally, and speak publicly.

Summer E-WAVE Institute:
Writing in 21st Century Contexts
A great way to motivate students about learning is to get their teachers excited about new and innovative methods of teaching. That’s what’s happening at the summer E-WAVE institute (Electronic Written, Aural, and Visual Expressions), where middle and high school teachers earn graduate credit as they design technology-rich activities that will have their students writing with digital media. And here’s the best part: students accompany teachers to the workshop to train as technology leaders – they’ll be classroom tech assistants in the fall.