During the Fall 2025 semester, the APAC instructor support model format was revised to ensure optimal alignment with UConn student support initiatives. You will find information about in-class workshop and instructor support programming below. If you have any questions, please reach out to APAC Director Molly Clark at molly.clark@uconn.edu or Rebecca Troeger, Avery Point’s writing center liaison, at Rebecca.Troeger@uconn.edu 

For Writing Instructors:

Writing Workshops and Embedded Tutoring 

The APAC’s writing workshop program is unique and has a long-standing record of success in facilitating interactions between tutors and students in writing-focused classes. In these workshops, tutors work in the classroom with instructors and students to promote deeper understanding of important and complex writing elements such as thesis development, working with texts, multimodal communication, and academic integrity.  

At the Academic Center, we believe that these workshops are valuable for the interactions and collaborations between tutors, instructors, and students that emerge from these sessions. Our intent for this model is to shape these workshops so that the instructor is the facilitator and the tutor fills an assisting role to support the students together. 

We are now making those workshops available to instructors at Avery Point to use in their classrooms, and we encourage you to request an embedded tutor to visit your classroom to assist your students with the workshop activities. You may also request a tutor to visit your classroom to assist with any other writing-related activity you have planned.  

Faculty interested in scheduling a workshop should request it at least four weeks ahead of time (preferably at the beginning of the semester) and meet with the tutors at least once for a half hour session to review the goals of their class, the relevant assignment, and the steps of the workshop. 

Please note that tutor availability may be limited. In the case that no tutors are available during your requested class time, please encourage your students to visit the Academic Center. They can make an appointment by stopping at the front desk or online at uconn.mywoconline.net. We also ask that you request a tutor to visit your classroom no more than three times per semester. 

If you’d like to learn more about these writing workshops and to gain access, please contact Molly directly at molly.clark@uconn.edu. If you’re interested in inviting a tutor into your classroom, either to assist in one of the APAC workshops or another activity, please fill out a workshop embedded tutor request form. 

Lightning Rounds 

Another way to introduce your students to the writing support available at the APAC is through “lightning rounds.” These are very brief sessions in which students will first meet with you, then move directly to a brief tutoring session in which tutors and students will follow up on a specific task that you assign. These may vary according to your curriculum and point within the writing process, but lightning rounds should follow these steps: 

1. You set a limited span of time when you and the tutor will be available together, either in your classroom or in the Academic Center. 
2. Students sign up for a half hour block of time from a schedule provided by the APAC, with the understanding that they will meet with you for fifteen minutes and then finish their appointments with the tutor. Please note that some of these time blocks will most likely all outside your class time.  
3. In their meeting with you, students discuss their writing and set a specific, manageable goal for their next step. 
4. You write this next step down and send them to the tutor, who will guide them through that step and help them set manageable and tangible goals to continue the project. 
5. Please stress to your students that on-time attendance at these meetings is mandatory. 

Lightning rounds may vary according to the writing assignment, the students’ stage in the writing process, and tutor availability. You may consider working with students in groups, especially if time availability limits your and the tutors’ schedule. Overall, though, they work best when instructors and tutors are in the same room, collaborating with each other on how best to support students, and when students can practice setting goals for themselves that are specific and achievable in a short span of time.

If you’re interested in lightning rounds for your students, please fill out the lightning session request form here.