In this project, students in a communications course for engineers engage in peer mentoring to support diverse writing abilities. An eight-week mentor training program and ongoing support will be provided, with materials and syllabi developed to guide and mobilize peer mentors throughout the year.Authors: Margaret Kolb & Mark Bauer, Lecturers in College of EngineeringGrant Type: Lecturer Teaching Fellows Program (LTF) |
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From the authors: "In our one-unit communications course for Engineers, we work with students whose writing abilities and confidence levels vary dramatically, but who hold in common a commitment to become better writers. Students thrive in one-on-one mentoring sessions. But with more than 180 students between us, mentoring our students individually has proven both rewarding and structurally infeasible. We aim to institutionalize peer mentoring, both within and across sections of the course we teach, to enable confident writers to develop beyond the confines of the course, and to offer fledgling writers increased support. We propose an eight-week training course for mentors in the fall, followed by ongoing mentoring of peer writing mentors for the remainder of the year. This project includes creating training materials for peer mentors, envisioning syllabi that include this training, and then mobilizing mentors to engage their peers."