Many coaches seem to have a favorite type of student that they like to coach. Some feel most comfortable helping emerging writers get organized. Others like the challenge of helping ELL students learn the nuances of English. And some like the challenge of helping the proficient writers really polish their work.
Well, I am *not* in the latter group! I find coaching proficient writers to be one of my biggest challenges. I usually end up lost in the minutia of punctuation as a way of adding *something.* So, yesterday at the Albany Middle School Coach Refresher Workshop, I asked our AMS coaches for ideas to help me -- and they came through for me.
As always, the suggestions were wonderful and far-reaching. I felt like I learned a new way to look at coaching proficient writers, just by trying some new phrases and approaches.
Here are some ideas:
"What do you notice about this piece? When you read it out loud, what did you hear that you would like to focus on?"
"When you were working on this, what gave you pause?"
"We all need to edit and rewrite our work. Even Joyce Carol Oates has an editor!"
"This is very good, and let's see what we can do to make it better."
(We discussed how it's important to use "and" in the sentence above, rather than "but.")
Also we talked about how important -- and valuable -- it is to educate students about the writing process. Helping them to see that the process of critically reviewing their work can be the key to making a great paper even greater.
What ideas do you have? Thanks for sharing!
Karen Larson
Co-Site Coordinator, Albany Middle School