Using FYS Peer Mentors for Academics and Writing
If you have taught a First-Year Seminar class in the past five years, you may have had two students as
part of your FYS Resource Team working with your class: a Peer Writing Tutor and a Peer ACE
(Academic Consultant for Excellence). This fall we have combined and reinvented these two roles into
a single position, Peer Mentor for Academics and Writing. We have combined the best of both roles so
that this fall semester, you and your FYS students will work with one student member as part of your
resource team, a Peer Mentor for Academics and Writing. The Mentors will be trained to assist new
students with the writing, time management and classroom speaking skills needed for academic
excellence in their studies at Middlebury
The role of the Peer Mentor in FYS college writing
In your FYS students will encounter their first college writing course and learn to develop their writing
beyond that of “high school writers” to emerge as college writers. This will be one of the critical
academic challenges of their time at Middlebury.
Just as faculty benefit from having their peers read their work prior to publication, so too, students
benefit from having their work read by peers before it is graded. In both cases, the readers bring their
experience as writers—of the same sort of works--to their experience as critical readers. FYS Mentors
can continue the conversation professors have with their students about writing. Mentors do not help
students with writing in place of the professor but in addition to the professor. Mentors are trained to
be the authorized help for students, to ask probing questions about the papers they read, and to make
positive suggestions for improvement of those papers.
Sessions work best:
*
When the Mentor has a clear idea of the professor’s writing expectations for
students,
*
When students in the class see the sessions with the Mentor as an important part
of the writing process for all students in the class, and
*
When the professor emphasizes the importance of those sessions by making them
mandatory.
The role of the Peer Mentor in other areas of academics
Many first-year students experience difficulty adjusting to the academic pace and workload at Middlebury.
Time management skills, college level class discussion skills, and effective oral presentation skills are
necessities for new students to master. The first semester at college is a critical period for students to learn
and strengthen all these skills. Competency in these skills is directly related to academic success and to how
well students fulfill their academic and personal potential at College. The Mentors are trained to be the peer
authorized help for students in these areas.
Best Practices:
*
Meet with your Mentor early in the semester or before the beginning of the
semester.
*
Include the Mentor’s name and contact information on your course syllabus.
*
Make your expectations clear to the Mentor and to your class.
*
Introduce your Mentor to your class.
*
Make at least some sessions with the Mentor obligatory.
*
Encourage your Mentor to circulate a list of specific appointment times before
meetings.
*
Share your class list with your Mentor so that the Mentor can notify students
about
workshops, etc.
*
Stay in contact with Mentor through meetings, emails, and phone.
Faculty Comments on the use of student resources in FYS classes:
“I have had the tutor in class for writing workshops and also meeting one-on-one with the students outside the
class. The combination works well because the tutor knows what I am looking for, and the students trust the
tutor.”
“I think the one-on one contact was helpful.”
“The interaction with the writing tutor makes [students] realize the importance of clarity and coherence . . . I
discussed this with the tutor at the beginning of the semester.”
“Focusing on time management and being able to break down large assignments into manageable parts was an
important aspect of what the ACE taught students in my class
“The tutor was very useful as another voice to provide students with feedback . . . I also think that students were
able to talk more candidly about the writing process [with the tutor].”
“The individual meetings got good feedback from most students.”
“The ACE assisted students in learning how to navigate Banner Web registration and this alleviated much of my
students’ anxiety about the process.”
“I required an in- class oral presentation. The ACE worked with students individually on oral presentation skills.
I was impressed with the results.”
“I think that having an independent relationship between the students and the tutor works best.”
“The peer writing sessions enable the college writing students to have additional early feedback on an initial draft
or key portion of their papers."
“[The writing tutor] can both model a writing process and the importance of giving feedback on writing.”
Adapted from “Using Peer Writing Tutors in Classes” by Mary Ellen Bertolini, and “ACES and the First-Year Seminar Program” by Yonna
McShane.
For more information on FYS Mentors, contact Mary Ellen Bertolini and/or Yonna McShane at the Center for Teaching Learning and Research.