My coaching strategy would be to remain student focused. I am planning to apply a minimalist approach so that the writer could contribute as much as possible to his/her writing. This approach is uncomfortable for me because I am used to giving direct feedback, in which I state my opinion about what "should" happen in a text. Yet, while this can work in some high school classes, where students often see absolutely no areas for improvement in their writing, the direct approach, I think, will hamper most college level students, who are actively seeking ways to improve. I plan on using probing questions to get the writer to open up about their expectations for the session and to help him/her generate ideas. I plan on also incorporating writing techniques so that they writer has something tangible with which to leave the session and has evidence that progress was made.
If during a session I see that a student is stuck or that the questioning is going nowhere, I will try a more direct approach. However, the struggle here would be to steer the student back to doing most of the work.
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I couldn't agree more. We need to be more of a "guide on the side" and less of a "sage on the state" to help students improve their writing craft. Here are ten tips I learned about coaching basketball that helped me change from a teacher of writing to coach of writing:
ReplyDeletehttp://penningtonpublishing.com/blog/grammar_mechanics/ten-tips-for-coaching-basketball-and-writing/.