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Writing program helps students in Chapel Hill-Carrboro city schools

Posted on November 7, 2007 by Staff

Caitlin Meaney
Carrboro Commons Writer

Mary Andrews never intended to develop a writing program for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School (CHCCS) system. But after attending a writing workshop six years ago, she was inspired to create Coach Write, a program that uses trained volunteers to help supplement writing instruction in the classroom.

“Children need an audience for their work,” said Andrews, a reading resource teacher at Mary Scroggs Elementary School. “Children really want to read their writing, and with Coach Write they’re given immediate feedback from a good, interested audience.”

Coach Write aims to help students become better writers by encouraging them to write for a specific purpose and audience using these six traits: idea development, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency and conventions. Coach Write volunteers receive at least three hours of training and learn the language and strategies used in the classroom.

The program is used in elementary schools throughout the CHCCS system and works primarily with fourth- and fifth-grade students.

Stuart Phillips, program facilitator of CHCCS volunteer programs, said the program is important because of the expanded support it provides young writers and their teachers.

“Because it’s so difficult for teachers to hold conferences with all of their students on a regular basis, having coaches in the classroom gives far more children the experience of talking to adults one-on-one about their writing,” Phillips said.
Teachers may select a handful of students to receive ongoing coaching or choose to have almost all of their students work with coaches at some point during the school year. Coaching sessions are held while other students work independently.

Teachers are discouraged from using coaches with children who need the most instructional support from certified teachers.

“For children who are easily discouraged by writing assignments, the interaction with a coach can build their confidence and enthusiasm for the process,” Phillips said. “It helps young writers to hear what they’re already doing well, in addition to being challenged to consider how they can strengthen and clarify a piece of writing.”

At each coaching session, students bring a piece of writing they are working on in class. Sessions are usually dedicated to focusing on one aspect of the student’s writing, such as idea development, organization or details. Students are asked to talk about the process of writing and the choices they made when writing, and the volunteer gives the student positive feedback and encouragement. At the end of the session, students are encouraged to come up with one recommendation on how to improve their piece.

“When young writers talk to coaches, they are reminded that writing is communication, and they have the immediate experience of audience response,” Phillips said.

Renee Powell, a mother of two children at Mary Scroggs, has been volunteering in the CHCCS system since 1999. She heard about the Coach Write program in 2003 when her daughter was in fourth grade and has been working with the program for three years.

“I was simply hooked when I realized how valuable this program was to the children and their success,” Powell said. “It enables children to become more accomplished writers with plenty of room to prosper in becoming that person they’re destined to be.”

Andrews and Phillips piloted the Coach Write program at Frank Porter Graham Elementary School in 2001 and were thrilled with the positive response from teachers and students. Volunteers were placed in fourth-grade classrooms to help prepare students for North Carolina’s fourth-grade writing test, which is taken by all N.C. students enrolled in public schools on the first Tuesday of March.

“Teachers were really willing to work with us,” Andrews said. “It seemed to
work.”

Writing conferences were taped and are still shown during training sessions to help volunteers understand the coaching process. Volunteers go into schools well equipped to be really positive, Andrews said.

More than a thousand UNC students, senior citizens, community members and parents volunteer in the CHCCS system. Most Coach Write volunteers are parents of children in the fourth and fifth grade. Recruiting volunteers for Coach Write is much more difficult than it is for other volunteer programs in the schools, Andrews said.

“The quality of volunteers is higher,” she said. “We’re more particular about the writing skills of these volunteers.”

Of CHCCS’ 2006-07 budget of $6,430,765, CHCCS’ Volunteer Office was allocated a budget of $198,224. Much of the budget goes to pay salaries, and expenses such as volunteer screening, instructional supplies and staff development make up the rest.

Andrews said that while it is difficult to determine the effectiveness of Coach Write, teachers continue to respond positively to the program and report that their students’ writing has improved tremendously. For Andrews, that alone is the best indicator of success.

“Volunteers have an opportunity classroom teachers wish they had: one-on-one, 20-minute conferences with their students,” Andrews said. “With these conferences, you can really focus on one child’s writing and celebrate the child’s efforts.

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