TY - CONF
T1 - WritingCafe@PolyU: Supporting writing through peer feedback and disciplinary communities of learners
AU - Lughmani, Dureshahwar
AU - Shah, Muskan Sunish
AU - RAHOMOV, Ismatullo
N1 - Ms Lughmani coordinates literacy-related work of the English Language Centre, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. This includes collaborative integration of writing across the curriculum subjects as a graduation requirement. Her most recent undertaking is piloting a model for an online writing centre that will provide support on disciplinary writing through establishing disciplinary learning communities. Her co-presenters Muskan and Ismatullo are undergraduate students of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and have been involved in the project as peer mentors.
Muskan is a third-year student of Fashion and Textiles. Being a shy person initially, learning to write has helped her gain confidence and now she aspires to help other students build their confidence through writing academic genres. Muskan has also been an intern at Times Magazine where she contributed more than fifteen articles as well as played an important role on the editorial team.
Ismatullo is a junior-year English major and international student from Tajikistan at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is passionate about education and politics. He has taught English at schools, language centres, and University and interned for UNDP and UNHCR, as well as NGOs in humanitarian affairs.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - Communities of learners have proliferated as virtual learning spaces allow synchronous and asynchronous interactions. Learners engage with competent others within these spaces. Supporting learners in these environments has generated unique engagement opportunities and challenges that contact within the physical spaces did not. Recognising the importance of these educational technological trends and the affordances that they provide, we piloted an online writing centre model wherein student mentors were trained to deliver discipline-based writing feedback to students working on high-stakes assignments. Three pillars support this model: peer feedback, community of learners, and engagement of faculty from various disciplines. The community of learners is comprised of student mentees and peer mentors together with language teachers. To sustain the quality of the peer feedback model, four student mentors were recruited to support specific disciplinary assignments. They were hired after a rigorous recruitment process. 40 mentees were invited based on reported needs and weak English writing skills. Faculty from four broad disciplines were invited to develop support for disciplinary groups of students for high-stakes assignments. As part of the collaboration, assignment guidelines and model scripts are obtained to prepare to receive student mentees and optimally support them. For this session, we have invited peer mentors to share their experience of giving feedback on disciplinary assignments. A brief analysis of the values and skills that were critical for students to engage with peers will be shared.
AB - Communities of learners have proliferated as virtual learning spaces allow synchronous and asynchronous interactions. Learners engage with competent others within these spaces. Supporting learners in these environments has generated unique engagement opportunities and challenges that contact within the physical spaces did not. Recognising the importance of these educational technological trends and the affordances that they provide, we piloted an online writing centre model wherein student mentors were trained to deliver discipline-based writing feedback to students working on high-stakes assignments. Three pillars support this model: peer feedback, community of learners, and engagement of faculty from various disciplines. The community of learners is comprised of student mentees and peer mentors together with language teachers. To sustain the quality of the peer feedback model, four student mentors were recruited to support specific disciplinary assignments. They were hired after a rigorous recruitment process. 40 mentees were invited based on reported needs and weak English writing skills. Faculty from four broad disciplines were invited to develop support for disciplinary groups of students for high-stakes assignments. As part of the collaboration, assignment guidelines and model scripts are obtained to prepare to receive student mentees and optimally support them. For this session, we have invited peer mentors to share their experience of giving feedback on disciplinary assignments. A brief analysis of the values and skills that were critical for students to engage with peers will be shared.
KW - Peer mentoring
KW - writing centres
KW - communities of learners
KW - writing in the disciplines
KW - genre-based feedback
M3 - Abstract
ER -