After serving students for nearly a year, the Lewis-Palmer High School Revitalized Tutoring Center (RTC) is expanding its operations, opening a Writing Center to bolster its support services.
According to Laura Stamp, RTC trainer and LPHS GT facilitator, student tutors noticed many of their peers seeking tutoring services were struggling with writing skills, especially freshmen. They noted in their observation that while some skills like math can be concrete, polishing one’s writing skills can often be more complicated.
“One of our main goals is to normalize the center so it is not perceived as some sort of shaming experience. We are trying out many strategies to change this cultural myth,” Stamp said, including pitching the service to teachers as a resource, as well as creating a flexible system to allow students to seek support.
Stamp said her student tutors have been hard at work in polishing a writer’s workshop with a binder of resources and editing tools to help lift their fellow students to success on their free periods when tutoring assistance is sought. Students will take away several key skills when they engage with the writing center, including tips on turning in a finished, polished product, learning what editing marks mean, analyzing questions with the goal of thoroughly answering them in writing, exploring formal versus informal writing and objectively looking at one’s work to improve upon it.
Over the past year, the RTC has grown its student tutors from 18 to 28, growing the number of students helped from 90 to 141 and participating in more than 750 total tutoring sessions.
As the RTC continues to grow, Stamp said she hopes to grow partnerships, including with the National Honor Society, Kiwanis and more with the hopes of reaching as many students in an impactful way as possible.