Equity & Access Professional Learning Teaching Writing

The Concept of a Writing Center

By Muriel Harris

 

Excerpt

Because learning to write involves practice, risktaking, and revising, writing centers are places where students are encouraged to try out and to experiment. Removed from the evaluative setting of a classroom, writers are free to engage in trial runs of ideas and approaches, to fail and move on to another attempt, and to receive encouragement for their efforts. Names of various facilities, such as writing center, writing lab, writing place, or writing room, are meant to encourage this view of the writing center as an informal, experimental, active place. This trying-out can be either in the form of talk, as writers practice formulating ideas aloud, or in writing.

Also Recommended

See all
Content type
Teaching in Two Worlds: Critical Reflection and Teacher Change in the Writing Center
By Dale Jacobs
Content type
The Write Time with Write Out Poet Ambassador Jermaine Thompson and Educator Rich Novack
By National Writing Project
Listen/watch this special Write Out edition of The Write Time with poet Jermaine Thompson and educator Rich Novack.
Read more
Content type
The Write Time with Write Out Author Ambassador Kate Messner and Educator Kim Douillard
By National Writing Project
In partnership with the National Writing Project's Write Out program, The Write Time is thrilled to have author Kate Messner and early-elementary educator Kim Douillard.
Read more