This illuminating account describing the particular dedication and rewards of writer coaching is from veteran WCC volunteer Kent Wright:
Summer
is not just for making sorbets. For some eighth graders in Berkeley
it means summer school. For some teachers that means a challenging few
weeks, and for a few writer coaches it means pitching in to help. At
Longfellow we coached for three weeks the writing of an essay on
“Attitude.” It was not always easy, but it definitely had high points.
The
final Tuesday morning the coaches gathered around a still locked door to our
room while someone searched for the illusive man with the key. On the
opposite side of the hallway, our students had begun to collect before a
similarly locked door. Within minutes their teacher arrived and greeted
them with, “X______ take off your hat!” rolled her eyes in our direction as if
to say, “Can you believe it?” and repeated the order about the hat. We
soon learned that teacher couldn’t locate the essay drafts the students had
turned in and which we were supposed to whip into final form that
morning.* While Priscilla (a terrific leader) went off to see what might
be salvaged of the situation, the rest of us began to discuss what me might
do. The ideas began to flow back and forth, and quickly it became a
mini-workshop full of suggestions for how we could offer our students something
valuable in lieu of the essay. The level enthusiasm was high, and
the dedication to the WriterCoach Connection program was obvious and infectious. Everyone
was ready to rise to the challenge. Priscilla returned.
The teacher had located some of the papers. The number of students left
in the class had dwindled to a precious few, which meant each of us would coach
one or two students and then take them to the computer room to get the essays
typed and printed. We made that happen.
When
we finished there was general agreement that it had been a good morning, better
than expected. Even better than that, it had been a good summer
session. I felt the enthusiasm generated in our short pre-coaching
session had been very positive for us, and had enhanced the work with our students.
The experience certainly made me proud once more of the people who volunteer as
coaches and co-coordinators, and made clear the importance of what we bring to
the students.
*Disclaimer:
I offer here no judgment about the reason for the teacher’s mood on that
morning. It could have been anything from bunions bothering her to ,well,
anything on a long list of possibilities.
Summer-school coaching every year is a completely grass-roots effort by WCC volunteers. They see a need and go to work on it, a spirit that Kent embodies and runs throughout our coaching ranks.
Bob Menzimer