by Melissa Whatley

I certainly never set out to be a writing coach. As an undergraduate Spanish major and even as a Master’s student, I saw myself as an educator in my foreign language instructor role, but I never thought that one day my job would involve teaching native English speakers how to use their own language in writing. I’ve had the opportunity to help students write in English on and off in the past even though my official role involved teaching Spanish. I’ve helped students and colleagues with the odd application essay or statement of purpose, and I even briefly directed a Learning Center that focused on helping students with their writing (among many other things). These experiences aside, WIP is the first time that anyone has ever focused my attention on learning how to teach people to write.

My on-going transition from Spanish teacher to writing coach has not necessarily been a difficult one (thus far), nor do I feel that it would be particularly unique compared to other foreign language teachers who have also transitioned to language coaches. I have found that many of the principles that I felt were essential to good teaching are also essential to the effective coaching of a student through a writing assignment. Just a few of these principles include providing clear and precise instructions for a given assignment both orally and in writing, encouraging students to meet with me to keep them focused and on-track to successful attainment of course objectives, and treating students with respect so that they feel comfortable maintaining open lines of communication with me.

On the other hand, I have certainly learned teaching skills and techniques through my experience with WIP that I will carry with me for the rest of my teaching career, even if I go back to teaching Spanish after I finish my degree here at UGA. One skill that I have put into practice through WIP that I find incredibly valuable is the prioritizing of revision tasks for students. I remember being a student myself and lacking certainty of where to begin revising a paper, a situation in which I am sure I chose the path of least resistance (a path I now observe my students heading down often). By providing students with an idea of which revisions are most important to make and which ones can wait until a subsequent draft, we provide them with a clear picture of what they need to do to improve their writing. If I had only realized the importance of prioritizing draft revisions when I taught Spanish composition!

An additional WIP practice that I will certainly be putting into practice as I continue my role as a teacher is the integration of writing into course design and the importance that writing plays in the learning process of any material.

I’ve thought several times over the past few weeks about how much short, low-stakes writing assignments would have helped my Introduction to Spanish Linguistics students work through the new concepts introduced in this course. These writing assignments would have been particularly useful given that not only was I asking students to thoughtfully reflect on new concepts in a new field, but I was also asking them to do so in a foreign language.

In sum, I feel that many of my skills as a Spanish teacher have transferred well to my new role as a writing coach for WIP. It has been fun to consider how applicable teaching writing may be to teaching Spanish in the future, and I have been intrigued by the idea that writing is central to the acquisition of any type of knowledge, even in fields as diverse as biology and philosophy. WIP has also provided me with new opportunities to reflect on my role as a teacher and has given me new food for thought about how I approach issues such as the provision of feedback and course design. In my short time as a WIP teaching assistant, I have been exposed to tools that will help me become a better teacher, and I am looking forward to the further reflection that my new role as writing coach will afford me.