Michael Cardin ’85 Writing Center
After training in Writing Practicum (an Upper School semester elective), student tutors staff and run the Michael Cardin ’85 Writing Center. Tutors work with Lower, Middle, and Upper School writers in a variety of settings, including one-on-one conferences and small workshop groups. They attend regular staff meetings to debrief and to discuss and practice their tutoring skills.
Writing Practicum
This is an intensive writing workshop that is also about the teaching of writing. Students will write and revise creative non-fiction — in recent years assignments have included best earth memory, favorite song analysis, satire, New Yorker-style profile, film review, travelogue, and college essay — as well as stories, poems, and A.P.-style persuasive essays.
The focus throughout is on the process of writing, and students will learn — through reading, discussion, role-playing, and lots of practice — the techniques of effective peer tutoring. Students tutor writers from the Lower, Middle, and Upper School. After completing the Practicum, students serve for the rest of their Park careers as tutors in The Michael Cardin ’85 Writing Center.
