Blog 9: Research Idea

I took Dr. Chandler's advice and looked through the texts to see if any of the essays would inspire a research idea. I read Newkirk's "The First Five Minutes", which got me to thinking about agenda setting in the writing conference. Several questions loomed as I read the essay and thought about previous class discussions-namely
1. What are the benefits of an agenda set mainly by the student?
2. When, if ever, should the coach inject her voice in setting the goals for the session? How should she go about it?
3. What are the ways in which "who" sets the agenda impacts the rest of the session?
4. How can coaches assess students' needs, even when they have trouble expressing those needs?
5. Do coaches always need to steer away from trying to get students to buy into their vision for the paper?
6. What techniques can be used to set a clear, manageable purpose for the session?
7. How can agenda setting be efficient so that valuable time is not lost?
8. How can coaches minimize road blocks, such as making students defensive, losing student interests, taking over, getting bogged down in minutiae, etc.?
9. How can coaches descrease anxiety and increase buy-in from the student?