A New Chance Each Session

Although I have volunteered as a writing coach for more than 6 years, one of my favorite parts of the coaching experience is that I still never know exactly what will happen in each individual session. Broadly speaking, when I walk into a school, I know the general assignment and the structure of each session. The unexpected part—and the part that brings me the most joy—is discovering how individual students will approach the assignment. Each session is a chance for the student and the coach to bring our unique backgrounds, sensibilities, and interests to the table to make a difference in their writing.

I have seen this special dynamic play out during coaching sessions at all levels, from fourth graders writing their first five-paragraph essay to middle schoolers creating a poem to high schoolers discussing the themes of a play they have read. For me, some of the best examples of this interplay between coaches and students have happened while working with seniors on a high school public policy paper, an assignment which I have been fortunate enough to help with for the last few years.

Each year, the students in this public policy class are tasked with researching an issue that affects the growth of our local town community and coming up with ideas for the city council to include in its growth plan. Year after year, the students pick wildly different topics to research, and their choices offer a glimpse into their experiences growing up, their passions, and their views of the world around them. I have worked with students who chose to focus on clean water, affordable housing, traffic, parking, the effects of growth on local wildlife, and more. No matter whether the paper is in the early stages of brainstorming, exists as a rough draft, or is almost finished and just in need of final edits, working with these students is inspiring. Some students have a really strong sense of the direction in which they want their piece to go, but others need help exploring their topic and refining their argument. I love when a student points out something I have never realized about my own town or when I challenge them with a perspective that they haven’t yet considered. I leave those sessions year after year excited and encouraged by how a school writing project can help students to take stock of the world around them and participate in altering it for the better.

The greatest reward of being a writing coach is getting to see firsthand the many different ways that students are learning and exploring the world around them through writing in the classroom. It is such a joy to glimpse the hard work that students (and their teachers!) are doing every day to become stronger writers and more well-rounded students.