University of Minnesota
student writing support
center for writing
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Student Writing Support.Center for Writing's home page.

E-12 Writing Centers Collective

Burnsville coaches in SWS To help support the growth of writing centers and their model of collaborative, consultative instruction at all levels of education (from early education, through elementary, middle, and high schools), the Center for Writing and the Minnesota Writing Project helped form the E-12 Writing Centers Collective in 2010. The goal of this Collective is to give support, inspiration, and community to those who are starting, sustaining, or just dreaming about writing centers in E-12 settings.

This informal group of about 50 Minnesota teachers, drawn from more than 20 public and private schools, communicates via a listserv and meets three times a year to share visions, ideas, and strategies. Each meeting is hosted at a local writing center, so participants can see first hand successful centers like those at Armstrong High School, Benilde - St. Margaret’s School, Burnsville High School, Edina High School, Hastings High School, Maple Grove High School, Minnetonka High School, and South View Middle School.

In 2018 and 2019, the Collective also hosted the Minnesota Secondary Writing Center Summit, a conference featuring presentations by student writing coaches from area high schools. (The 2020 Summit was cancelled due to the pandemic.)

Emerging from the Collective have been rich opportunities for high school and college writing centers to interact. Click here to see a brief video of the October 2012 collaboration between Burnsville High School and the U of MN. The Collective was also featured in a College of Liberal Arts story.

To join the E-12 Writing Centers Collective, please contact Lee Fisher at lcf@umn.edu.