WriterCoach Connection

Richmond Pulse: In Richmond, English Learners Get Assist From Volunteers

Edgardo Cervano-Soto reported on WriterCoach Connection's presence at Richmond High this week. 

"Every good story has a conflict," begins the article, quoting an English Language Development (ELD) teacher at RHS, as a lesson starts for 14 freshman English Language Learners. Later in the story, Cervano-Soto continues:

WCC volunteers have visited Richmond High now at least three times. The first encounter was awkward, says Saul. "(My coach) was a stranger, and I had forgotten my essay. We didn't talk much," he says. Despite this initial awkwardness, Saul says the coach has been very helpful in clarifying his summaries. It is a first for Saul to have anyone read and comment on his paper. 

Never having personal feedback is a common occurrence, says Franco. "Sometimes students don't get praise that they can write, that they can express themselves. Now, when people from the community tell you that your writing is as good as anybody’s, that gives you more confidence," says Franco. According to Saul, the sessions have made him feel better about writing.

Read the full story here. Our deep appreciation goes out to all the Richmond High coaches who are making it happen!

Christine McGuinness

 

Students at Richmond High welcome their writing coaches!

Members of the Richmond community gathered on Wednesday for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at RHS to honor the commitment made by 77 volunteer coaches, Richmond High School teachers and administration, and the West Contra Costa school district to improving crucial communication skills needed for success in school, career, and life. 

Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, school superintendent Dr. Bruce Harter, and Richmond High Principal Julio Franco were joined in comments with Terri Waller, District Director, Office of Senator Loni Hancock; Damian Alarcon, Field Representative/Constituent Services, Office of Congressman George Miller; and Tom Waller, Richmond Chamber of Commerce. Richmond High School Assistant Principal Kibby Kleiman and WCCUSD Board Member Antonio Medrano also attended the event. 

Executive Director Robert Menzimer and Richmond Volunteer Coordinator Shelli Fried were joined by WriterCoach Connection founder Mary Lee Cole, several members of the Community Alliance for Learning board and advisory board, and many WCC coaches from Richmond, El Cerrito, and other locations. Richmond Site Coordinator Karen Larson attended in spirit, as she and a dozen coaches were busy coaching during the celebration!

At Richmond High, trained coaches are serving 156 ELD Level 4 students in 5 classes, grades 9-12. Each student in full attendance will receive 14-16 individual coaching sessions.  

Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin remarks at the ceremony. Photo by Mary DeShaw.

 

Richmond High School WCC ribbon cutting. Photo by Mary DeShaw.

 

WCC coach Ben Steinberg signs the ribbon after the ceremony. Photo by Mary DeShaw.

 

Richmond High Principal Julio Franco and Richmond School Superintendent Dr. Bruce Harter. Photo by Mary DeShaw.

 

CAFL Executive Director Robert Menzimer and Richmond Volunteer Coordinator Shelli Fried at RHS. Photo by Mary DeShaw.

Bob Menzimer shares a key insight about this proven program: “By bringing community volunteers into the schools as trained writer coaches, we widen the perspectives of both coaches and students. Volunteers experience the reality of contemporary public education and the positive impact they can have on it.  Students feel the benefit of positive adult feedback and gain a deeper understanding of community.  Both students and volunteers benefit from a cross-generational exchange of ideas and experience.” 

Superintendent Harter says: “WriterCoach Connection works. Student writing achievement goes up, teachers get much-needed relief with the extra individual attention to students, community members bond with their schools as they walk the hallways with their students and sit with them to help develop more effective writing and deeper critical thinking. Everyone wins, and we need more of it.” 

Many thanks to the Richmond Chamber of Commerce for sponsoring the event today and for their critical support as we opened the volunteer opportunity to caring community members who are now coaching RHS students. 

Christine McGuinness 

WCC cuts the ribbon at Richmond High

You'll see more about this soon, including photos, but I just wanted to report that our first-ever ribbon-cutting ceremony, yesterday at Richmond High, was a sun-splashed and spectacular success. Good vibes overflowed the space in front of the school as a stellar group of speakers paraded to the podium to welcome WCC to the school and community. Those speakers included RHS Principal Julio Franco, WCCUSD Superintendent Bruce Harter, Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, Richmond Field Representative Damian Alarcon from Congressman George Miller's office, Senator Loni Hancock's District Director Terri Waller, and Tom Waller representing the Richmond Chamber of Commerce.

Special thanks to Chris Phipps of the Richmond Chamber and our Richmond volunteer coordinator Shelli Fried for organizing a spendid event, and to new WCC coach and photographer Mary DeShaw, who trained her expert lens on the event. You'll see some of Mary's photos here soon!

Bob Menzimer

A Coach's Perspective: Jeff Schauer reflects on the start of the year

Jeff Schauer is a student of colonial history at UC Berkeley and the author of the personal blog California Mwananchi. Jeff is also a writer coach, and this week was inspired to describe his experience during a very busy day of coaching at Berkeley High School and Williard Middle School. He leads in by reflecting:

I’d had a year hiatus from volunteering with the Writer Coach program in Berkeley, and returning to the two school campuses provided me with a moment to think about just what it is that keeps the volunteers coming back year after year. 

After eloquently describing the environment of coaching in general and Berkeley High in particular, he reflects:

Generally, coaches work with students on a brainstorming exercise, a pre-write, or a rough draft.  The beauty of the program is that it doesn’t discriminate.  Volunteers work with students of all writing levels—from those who struggle to get so much as a word down on the page to those who compose fluent prose essays with an enviable ease.  This way there’s no stigma of being hauled off to spend 20-50 minutes with an adult who is, in the high school mind, self-evidently un-cool.  There’s always a little bit of awkwardness in the first meetings, as coaches and students size each other up, but it’s magical to see how, during the course of the year, both parties are changed by the experience.  A coach who might start out skeptical of the abilities of an indifferent-seeming student, who might feel that they, an upper- middle-class professional might struggle to connect with an ESL student or one who might, at any time, find him- or herself without a meal or a place to live for the night.  A student who seems like a hard-bitten youth will inevitably reveal something of themselves through their writing, they’ll begin to develop a method that works for approaching an essay, and I think that most of them come to enjoy the half-hour of the week—probably the only half-hour—when they have the undivided attention of someone who is taking what they have to say seriously.

Jeff describes fitting an hour or two of coaching a week around his schedule as a local student—and more importantly, into his community perspective:

It is easy, as a student, to find that your world has become very small.  Academic work is never finished, and when your days start before the sun is up and end with nodding off on your books in the library long after it has gone down, your horizons grow constricted.  Taking part in WCC’s brilliant program has made Berkeley feel more like a home and less like a stopping-over point on the way to somewhere else. Meeting the coordinators and other volunteers, the warmest, most committed and giving community I’ve ever encountered, has been wonderful.  Meeting students, many of them with heavier stories than I’ve heard anywhere else, all of them with great ideas—sometimes below the surface, at other times overflowing—has been an honour. 

Jeff's summary is warm with praise—it makes us glow because it's exactly the feeling we want each and every coach to experience! We thank every coach for making the journey to become a writer coach, and ive an extra thanks to Jeff for expressing his experience in a way that means to much to all of us.

This volunteer program flies neither by night nor by the seat of its pants, and you walk away from each session with a sense of accomplishment and the idea that you’ve taken part in something which—although often challenging—is part of a bigger cause.

 

Enjoy Jeff's full story!

Christine McGuinness
via BHS Site Coordinator Sahib-Amar Khalsa

One Donation. Two Tickets. Three Michaels!

Donate to WriterCoach Connection today, and you will be entered to win two tickets to The Three Michaels: A Berkeley Conversation, hosted by Berkeleyside on December 10!

On November 15, WCC will announce four lucky donors who have each won a pair of tickets to this terrific conversation between authors Michael Chabon, Michael Pollan, and Michael Lewis at Berkeley Repertory Theatre—a prize worth $200!

DONATE NOW for a chance to win >

A donation of only $5 enters you in the drawing, but the more you give, the more chances you have to win—we'll throw in one extra entry with each $25. A $5 donation earns you one chance, a $25 earns you 6 chances, and a $50 donation earns you 12 chances. All donations for this raffle support the work of WriterCoach Connection: helping kids gain skill and confidence in their writing.

This is a sold-out show—so these are the only 4 pairs of tickets left!

The Three Michaels: A Berkeley Conversation is a benefit to support 826 Oakland, a new youth writing program in the East Bay. We extend heartfelt thanks to Berkeleyside for hosting the event and donating the tickets in support of WCC. We're looking forward to a terrific evening with the three Michaels!

 

More about the 3 Michaels (biographies from Amazon.com):

Michael Chabon is the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, A Model World, Wonder Boys, Werewolves in Their Youth, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, The Final Solution, The Yiddish Policemen's Union, Maps and Legends, Gentlemen of the Road, and the middle grade book Summerland. He lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, the novelist Ayelet Waldman, and their children. You can visit Michael online at www.michaelchabon.com. 

Michael Lewis, the author of Boomerang, Liar's Poker, The New New Thing, Moneyball, The Blind Side, Panic, Home Game and The Big Short, among other works, lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife, Tabitha Soren, and their three children.

Michael Pollan is the author of five books: Second Nature, A Place of My Own, The Botany of Desire, which received the Borders Original Voices Award for the best nonfiction work of 2001 and was recognized as a best book of the year by the American Booksellers Association and Amazon, and the national bestsellers, The Omnivore's Dilemma, and In Defense of Food. A longtime contributing writer to The New York Times Magazine, Pollan is also the Knight Professor of Journalism at UC Berkeley. His writing on food and agriculture has won numerous awards, including the Reuters/World Conservation Union Global Award in Environmental Journalism, the James Beard Award, and the Genesis Award from the American Humane Association.

Christine McGuinness