Early Life as a Writing Coach
Figuring out how to be a writing coach has been an interesting experience. Unexpectedly, one that hasn't seemed to foreign. Sure, all the writing I had received has not been amazing, but shit, whose was at 15? Going into feedback has always been about building confidence while making incremental improvements. My opinion and help as a writing coach only go so far, when it comes to a persons own writing, they are always going to feel some type of way, and be a little protective over it, which I think they should be. at the end of the day you gotta turn it in, and live with what's on the page. The main thing that always goes on in my head, is "what would I want to read about my writing" or "how would this feel to read?" The truth of the matter is that I get pretty stubborn and hard headed if I feel like your comments come at me sideways, so being clear and specific is something I am always going to strive for. Letting the kids know that what they are saying matter and that they have to believe in what they are saying.
I really enjoyed reading the students' writing. I am not gonna toot my horn and say that like I have made them great writers or anything, but, what I can say is that I have been a supportive critic and let them know that they got some skill and can make it happen. I think that a writers coach position like we are in has the least impact over what they end up with. Not saying that what we are doing doesn't matter, but like, who the fuck are we to the student's? They don't know us, and if I was in their position I think I would be pretty hesitant to take advice from somebody I have emailed a couple times, but have never even met. This leads to my larger belief, we need to train student's how to be peer reviewers. As a writer, even in early college, I always kind of dreaded peer review in classes, because, I just never felt like other students felt comfortable or safe enough to give real feedback or constructive criticism, and if I had to read "good job" or "I liked it" I would go crazy. I think the opinions of your peers potentially is the most important to other students. By extension IF by being a writing coach I can kind of help them in how to read and comment on other student's writing I think that would be a massive success.
When I receive emails of their writing, I adore it. It gives me hope, it puts me back in a classroom, or simply just sitting with my sister and helping her on her essays. They belong to a different world than I do in a lot of ways, so seeing how their minds work and what kind of perspectives they have is endlessly exciting to me. Some better than others of course, but when they take little pieces of feedback and use it in their following writing, there are few better feelings, in this kind of environment anyways. I was able to see how robotics make a student feel, see how their opinions on gender roles probably differed greatly from 15 year old Terrence. This has been one of the best post high schooling experiences and the hope will carry me through the last 2 semesters.
Hey Terrence!
ReplyDeleteYour comments about who we are as writing coaches to the students really resonated with me, and it reminded me of a quotation I wrote down at a conference a few years back. This quotation is from a teacher perspective thought! “Students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Showing the students who we are and our level of investment can dramatically change the morale of a classroom. I can definitely agree that this has been one of the best college experiences I have had as I am finally applying what I have learned over the past few years! Cheers dude.
hi Terrence! I really feel like a lot of your points and observations in this blog post parallels my experiences. Firstly, I also felt a noticeable distance from my students due to the online approach and I feel like it certainly left a bit more to be desired in terms of personal connections and communication. Additionally I too feel like the students rightfully probably have some hesitancy in being too vulnerable and asking questions simply due to the brief/nuanced nature of our communication medium. If I were to suggest some way to mediate that, I think it would have been really cool if students made something similar to our literary selfie collages, so we could also get an idea of how they are as a student/writer beyond their writing.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I appreciate your writing voice in this blog post. It certainly feels authentic and similar to how you talk and present in class. Naturally, I heard your voice in my head while reading it. Great stuff!
Hey Terrence! I appreciate how you wrote, "When I receive emails of their writing, I adore it. It gives me hope, it puts me back in a classroom, or simply just sitting with my sister and helping her on her essays." as I think that I understand what this emotions feels like. Selfishly, receiving emails of their writing makes me feel as though I am genuinely progressing in my life towards something that is bigger and more grand than anything that I have been a part of before, and that is both terrifying and exciting. I think stepping foot in my first classroom as the teacher in charge will be both one of the most terrifying yet cathartic days of my life, and when I receive emails from the young writers I am coaching, I feel as though I am getting closer to that day and that feeling.
ReplyDeleteTerrence, I really appreciate your work as a writing coach so far this semester. Your feedback really embodies what you describe above as the purpose of your feedback for young writers -- " feedback has always been about building confidence while making incremental improvements"
ReplyDeleteHi Terrence,
ReplyDeleteI want to focus on this excerpt from your second paragraph:
"As a writer, even in early college, I always kind of dreaded peer review in classes, because, I just never felt like other students felt comfortable or safe enough to give real feedback or constructive criticism, and if I had to read "good job" or "I liked it" I would go crazy."
I agree with you that peer reviewing is scary. I took a creative writing course during my first semester here at UWM, and at one point we had to turn over our short stories to our peers and let them critique our writing. That was terrifying for me! In many ways, our writing is an intimate piece of our consciousness and it can be scary to share that with someone else. Being a writing coach in this class has definitely been helpful for me. Mainly, going through the readings about how to be a good writing coach have positively impacted me.