Thinking about Starting a Middle or High School Writing Center? Attend an Online Info Session!
Hosted by the UConn Writing Center
Thursday, April 3, 2025, 3-4pm
Register below for the online session
For nearly 20 years UConn has been partnering with Connecticut schools to start and sustain peer writing centers in schools. In this informal session we’ll explain how such centers work, how UConn can assist you in starting or sustaining one (consultations, fall conference, campus visits, etc.), and how to get approved to offer the new ECE Writing Center Practicum course. There will be time for question and answer too. Whether you already have a center up and running or just want to learn more, all are welcome!
Thank you for attending the 16th annual Secondary Schools Writing Center Conference!
This year’s theme was Building Bridges Together!
“Building Bridges Together” means approaching writing and writing centers as collaborative work. This year’s theme acknowledges the richness that comes from bringing together people from different backgrounds and perspectives. We aim to facilitate meaningful exchanges and collaborations, and we invite participants to come ready to explore new pathways for connection and community building–join us as we craft narratives, connect voices, and build bridges that span across Connecticut and beyond!
Download the full list of this year’s presentations
Thank you all for contributing to another successful conference. We hope to see you all next year.
Questions and inquiries? Please contact us at wcoutreach@uconn.edu
Please check out this article to learn about our 15-year history of working with schools to start and sustain peer writing centers.
Outreach Partnerships (Spring 2024)
Typically, The University Writing Center picks one or two schools to work with extensively throughout the year to pilot a new writing center. This year instead, we are offering in-house retreats at our center on Thursdays and after-school visits to yours. We are also piloting a new project that will offer Hartford English teachers specialized group workshops. The chart below details our three different formats for outreach this year. Of course, this list is not exhaustive and our outreach coordinator communicates and collaborates with each school beforehand. Interested? Contact wcoutreach@uconn.com
| In-House Retreat | School Visits | Hartford Workshops | |
| Where? | UConn’s Library | Your school | UConn Hartford Writing Center |
| Who is it for? | students/teachers | students/teachers | teachers |
| What does it include? |
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90 minutes-2 hours after school |
| Sample Workshop topics to choose from
(these can all be requested in any of the three formats) |
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Connecticut Secondary School Writing Center Network
Part of the reason that public land grant universities like UConn were founded was to serve their state and regional communities. The University Writing Center carries on that spirit of service through our collaborations with Connecticut middle and high schools. In partnership with the Connecticut Writing Project http://www.cwp.uconn.edu/and several area schools, we work to launch and sustain writing centers that value writing across the curriculum, focus on each writer’s development, recognize the benefits of peer-to-peer tutoring, and understand writing as a complex, interactive process.
Click on the image below to go to an interactive map of schools that have been involved with UConn as partners and/or conference participants.
Not all of the schools marked by pins currently have active writing centers (some, for example, have only attended our conference) but all have played some part of an emerging regional network.
The blue and purple pins represent UConn partner schools.
The red pins represent schools that have attended our annual conference with teachers and students.
The yellow pins represent schools that have attended our annual conference with teachers only.
How to Get Involved
If interested in learning more about peer-run writing centers, we invite you to attend our annual Secondary School Writing Centers Conference, which is open to all who are involved in our growing network or who want to learn more about it.
Another opportunity to consider when looking to learn more about peer tutoring and our growing network is participating in the Connecticut Writing Project’s Summer Institute: http://cwp.uconn.edu/summer-institute/.
Attending the Summer Institute is not a prerequisite for involvement, but we have found that teachers who attend this paid summer professional development program are usually in a better position to start and sustain a writing center.
Our History
Our first community outreach work was initiated, appropriately enough, by an undergraduate tutor who wanted to bring one-on-one tutoring in academic and creative writing to her own former high school, Hartford Public. To learn more about that experience, please see this article in Reflections: https://reflectionsjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Re-assessing-Sustainability.pdf
Starting in 2007 we shifted our emphasis from having UConn students deliver tutoring to HPHS to working with schools to assist them in founding their own faculty-led but peer-driven writing centers. At that time the Connecticut Writing Project (CWP) http://www.cwp.uconn.edu/ became a partner in the project.
As part of our partnership program, we are currently working with Ellington High School to open their writing center.
We have worked closely with:
- Windham High School
- Ashford School
- Griswold
- E.O. Smith High School, Storrs, CT.
- East Hartford High School
- Bolton High School
- Public Safety Academy, Enfield, CT
- Manchester High School
- Woodstock Academy
- Two Rivers Magnet Middle School (East Hartford)
- Rockville High School
- Sports and Medical Sciences Academy (Hartford)
- Mansfield Middle School
Visiting Our Writing Center
We extend an invitation to any school that wishes to visit our campus Writing Center. See our space, observe a session, and speak with our tutors!
Learning More
If you want to learn more about student-staffed writing centers, here are some places to start:
- Secondary School Writing Center University Partnerships https://sswcup.org/
- Secondary School Writing Centers Association: https://sswca.org/
- International Writing Center Association Position Statement on Secondary School Writing Centers: http://writingcenters.org/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/IWCAPositionStatementonSecondarySchoolWritingCenters.pdf
- Richard Kent’s writing center portal page:http://guest.portaportal.com/wcenters
- High School Writing Centers: http://www.wcenters.com
- National Writing Project/Writing Center Resources: http://www.nwp.org/cs/public/print/resource/3584
- National Map of K-12 Writing Centers: https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?ll=40.88349085471388%2C-72.784423828125&spn=18.96864%2C51.684774&dg=feature&t=m&msa=0&source=embed&ie=UTF8&mid=1mUGnEmwLpLwG9TC6q6kOOex80qQ&z=7
Our 15th Annual Secondary School Outreach Conference was held in November, 2023.
The theme of our 2023 conference was “Making Space.” This year, we turned our attention to the physical and digital spaces that compose our writing center landscapes. The conference included presentations by UConn tutors as well as local high school writing centers.
After viewing a video made by Simsbury High School promoting their writing center, students collaboratively brainstormed ideas for encouraging other students to visit their centers.
Chelcy Htoo and Sarah Bertekap capped their presentation on curating collaborative writing center spaces with an origami lesson and demonstration.
Tom Deans, Jason Courtmanche, and Chris Todd led a group of teachers in an “Administrator’s Corner” session.
Current UConn tutors Sara Ali, Cawley DiStephan, and Erin Appleson, and UConn Alumni Dalton Hawie hosted a tutoring Q&A panel for secondary school tutors.