Growing With Your Peers

Over the course of the semester, we have learned about different literacies and the advantages of being literate. Robin Wisniewski discusses how getting involved with your peers can help you to advance your literacy.  Here at Spelman, we have something similar to the peer counseling program she started at her college. It’s called the writing center, where students help other students to improve their writing skills. At Wisniewski’s college, the peers were not only helping students with writing but also with other literacies as well. It was very interesting to see how successful the program was and the fact that it was very successful due to the students who were giving the counseling. Ms. Wisniewski brings up two particular students Lauryn and Vania who were peer counselors in the program. These two students shared how this particular program helped them with identity issues and how it was ok to be an individual who had her own opinion and voice that was not to be identified with her race. As they began to help their peers find their own identities and transform, they were able to do so as well. They talked about how learning different concepts in their courses was not just about mastering them, but also using different strategies such as flash cards to help them learn more.  Vania felt that understanding her students was the best way to help them to progress. She made them feel as if they had a voice which helped them too to feel like individuals.

This was a very interesting reading as I am able to relate to the things discussed in Robin Wisniewski’s reading. When I go to the writing center to get help with a paper, I feel as if I am not only receiving advice from my peers but also that they take into account what I do and do not understand. They are able to teach us and help us to become better writers, and I feel that programs like these are very beneficial to students as they not only can get help from their professors but also from students have may have had the same trouble that they have at one point in time.