Minds across Space: Teaching University Writing Consultants and High School Writers to Work Together in the Webbed Writing Center

Laura Williams Castleberg
Poinciana High School

Bruce Closser
Andrews University

Abstract...

Many college writing teachers have come to rely on individual, one-on-one conferences for responding to their students' writing. High school teachers who wish to employ writing conferences in their classes find that busy schedules and large classes often prevent them from doing so, thus depriving high school students of the recognized benefits of these conferences. The recent introduction of the web into the writing center at the college level has made possible the extention of writing center services, particularly the individual conference, to high school writers as well, so long as they have access to the web; however, the process of engaging in writing conferences in the web environment is not an entirely smooth one. A group of high school students participated in a recent study of writing conferences in a web environment, demonstrating that effective e-conferences cannot be taken for granted. High school English teachers can do much to prepare their writing students for successful writing conferences with consultants in electronic writing centers. Web conferences can offer great advantages to high school students whose teachers may not have the time or energy to conduct writing conferences themselves.