Originally posted here by J.A. Kammins on 2/27/13
“You’re not their English teacher. You’re not a tutor. You’re a WriterCoach.” The slim youthful-looking retired teacher, our training instructor, addressed the large group of volunteers. “You will be a coach—encouraging, facilitating and assisting the students in their writing.”
Today was my first day of training for the WriterCoach program, which operates in middle- and high-schools in the five cities in San Francisco’s East Bay. I signed up for this training after my friend Maureen bribed me with lunch. “The WriterCoach program is just the thing for you,” she said.
“Sorry,” I groaned, “but every program I’ve volunteered for over the years has left me disappointed and frustrated with the lack of organization and training.”
“I promise this will be different,” Maureen said over dessert. She gave me a copy of an article about the program in Berkeleyside, by Mollie Hart, one of the coaches in the program.Learning to write, one edit at a time Then I checked out the program’s website: WriterCoach Connection, where I learned how the program helps English Language Learners improve on the language arts section of the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE). I decided to give it a shot. After all, I owed that much to Maureen for lunch and all.
In today’s training, I was happy to find out that the students I’ll be coaching (if I get through the training) will be drawn from all the kids in the English class—not just those who are struggling or the budding Jane Austens. The instructor taught us graphic charting techniques as a way to work with the students. My favorite was the chart in the shape of a hamburger to help define the structure of a story. The introduction is the bun on top. The body of the story is the beef, lettuce, pickles and onions. And the conclusion, is the soggy bottom bun.
We partnered up and practiced being coaches. Trust me, it was hard. I thought how glad I was there’s another day of training. The instructor told us not to write on the student’s pages, but only make notes on our own paper. I soon learned why. In our practice sessions, as “coach,” I found myself simply wanting to take over the “student’s” paper and start writing the essay. It would be a lot easier than being a coach. The instructor emphasized that we would be helping the students figure out the assignment, not taking over and doing their work for them—and easier thing to do.
I flashed back to the twelve-year-old me when I asked my dad for help on an essay. Since he was an attorney, I thought he knew how to write. He didn’t even pay attention to the teacher’s assignment and proceeded to write the essay for me. I turned it in, got a “D”, and never asked him for help again. If he’d taken the WriterCoach training, he would have asked me what I wanted to work on.