WhO WE ARE
The Shaker High School Writing Center, established in 2014, is staffed by students who have shown an interest in writing and in helping others. Any students who meet the requirements are welcome to apply to participate in an English internship in order to become writing consultants. Upon successful completion of consultant training, students may then move on to work with writers in our school community. Some students also volunteer their time to help run the Writing Center (scheduling, advertising, data analysis, community outreach, etc.)
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The primary goal of the Shaker High School Writing Center is to increase authentic engagement in writing. We operate on the core belief that providing trained, interested, and sympathetic audiences to student writers is one way to make sure that North Colonie students are developing their own ideas and using writing to engage in the world around them.
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WhAT WE Do
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Prewriting (brainstorming, understanding an assignment, setting goals, freewriting)
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Drafting (writing a thesis, supporting claims with evidence, discovering topics or examples that spark ideas)
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Revising (checking claims/evidence, organizing ideas, using meaningful transitions, integrating quotes)
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Editing (reducing wordiness, varying sentence length and structure, establishing a personal voice, citing correctly)
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Publishing (testing out a final or almost-final draft on a real audience)
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Practicing a Speech/Presentation (preparing notes or drafting; speaking in front of a small, supportive audience as practice; working on incorporating visual aids)
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Journal/Exercise Revision: Bring a journal entry or writing exercise to revise
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In-Class Writing: Come review your graded in-class essays in order to reflect on your timed writing process and strategize ways to do your best on future in-class writing
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College Admissions or Scholarship Essay: Consultants can show you models and help you set and work towards your own standards for excellence in a final draft
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Process Essay: Take research papers or extended process pieces to the Writing Center at any stage in order to talk through your choices
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Analytical Writing: Bring paragraphs or essays in order to hone your thesis statements, topic sentences, organization, transitions, and use of evidence
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Finalizing a Draft: Bring your writing to make sure that editing, citation, and/or formatting issues do not detract from the overall impact of a final draft
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Editorials, Letters, etc.: Based on teacher input, our interns can create tailored resources to scaffold work you are doing
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Writing Group Work: If you are in a writing group, consultants can work with you about how to provide respectful, critical feedback for each other
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Social Studies Writing: Thematic essays, DBQs, you name it: we can work with it all
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Creative Writing: Our consultants can provide critical feedback about lyrics, poems, short stories, novel excerpts, and personal essays
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Science Writing: Bring lab reports or science research writing for help with you clarity and development
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Best Times to Use the Writing Center:
Types of Writing to Bring to the Writing Center:
Making a Splash in 2015:
Writing Consultant Flash Mob
This amazing group of writing consultants wanted to get the word out that the Writing Center was a fun, welcoming environment. Events like this flash mob definitely got Shaker students talking about us!
How We Got Started
In 2013-2014, students in Writers' Workshop, an English elective, spent the year researching Writing Center theory and practice. We visited Siena College's Writing Center and corresponded with other area college Writing Centers in order to carefully plan out what we'd hoped would become a thriving and successful Shaker Writing Center.
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The thoughtfulness and vision that these researchers and original consultants lives on in the Mission Statement they wrote, which continues to guide us.