Self-Study Group Attends Conference in Miami

          Recently, the Berkeley Preparatory School English Department shifted its focus from teaching students how to write analysis concerning specific notable literary works to instructing them in the skills of personal expression and articulation of subjective impressions. This change was facilitated by the incorporation of the Six Traits rubric, which instructs students to focus upon six primary areas in the process of developing their writing skills. The focus upon the development of these six skills (ideas, conventions, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and organization) provides the students with the fundamental skills necessary to write on a wide variety of assignments ranging from literary analysis to personal reflection to persuasive argumentation.

Students Relax at the Conference in Miami

          However, this change, although beneficial, was not without its complications during implementation. Some students, who had previously been trained almost exclusively in literary analysis, were abruptly required to shift to unfamiliar personalized and subjective writing. This change in the approach of the English Department was perhaps even more disorienting for those members of the student body who choose to volunteer their time to tutor their peers because they had to not only tutor papers based upon the traditional literary analysis format but also those constructed using the principles of the new incorporated Six Traits rubric.  

The Self-Study Group Presents at the Conference

          Thus, in order to better facilitate the transition of the focus of tutoring from literary analysis to the alternative rubric, the Self Study group of the Writing Center chose to dedicate their yearly research to documenting the transition between the two approaches to writing and its effect upon tutoring. This group, led by faculty advisor Mr. Brandt and student director Andrew S., first polled the majority of tutors in order to evaluate their opinions regarding the changes which had occurred within the English department and their experiences in adapting to the Six Trait rubric. Then, the group also did research concerning the implementation of an electronic reader which would assist in the review of papers by proofreading them for correct grammatical structure and clarity of meaning.


          According to Andrew S., the group found that the reader would probably assist teachers and tutors by allowing them to focus on what he refers to as “higher order” concerns- namely the development of ideas and personal voice- instead of tarrying upon surface concerns such as grammar. Thus, the introduction of an electronic reader provide the student with instruction which more effectively provides assistance with those critical aspects of writing which are most in need of improvement.

Students Attend a Presentation

           Armed with this newfound knowledge, two of the student members of the Self-Study group, director Andrew S. and intern Avi F.S., along with their faculty sponsors, travelled to the National Conference of Peer Tutors of Writing (NCPTW) in Miami in order to present their findings and listen to presentations from similar groups from other schools. The Self-Study group listened to presentations regarding interesting topics such as the transition between high school and college writing or how gender tends to factor into the dynamics of a student writing center. After attentively listening to these presentations and many others, the Berkeley Preparatory School representatives presented their findings. According to Andrew S., the audience at the conference was “very attentive” and seemed “genuinely interested” in the unique study conducted by the Berkeley group. Indeed, the conference was a constructive and eye-opening experience for all involved.


- Alex