Sophomore Simon Henderson dashed to the writing center after the rough draft of his French essay had been rejected by his teacher. Henderson made his way to the quaint room in the media center full of trained writing coaches. His appointment was set up with junior Eleanor Noble, a French student herself, and the coaching had began.

This school year a new program was added to South called the Writing Center that was designed to help students. Teacher Corinth Matera and her writing coaches meet in the Media Center and will help writers with anything from brainstorming, to research, to editing or grammar.

A few years ago Matera came up with the idea of a writing center. “It grew out of conversations that the English department has been having for years and then [conversations] that I had with our former principal, Cecilia Sadler,” Matera said.

Once the English department decided that the project was a go, it went to all of the department chairs for each of the different subjects, and then to the instructional leadership team of the school. Just last spring the money for the center came around and they were finally able to start the new program.

After doing an early on survey Matera developed a world language schedule for coaches that speak Spanish, French, and German. Although Henderson has been one of the few students who have visited the center for world language help, the door is always open.

Senior Vivi Grieco became a writing coach for an independent project to get an English credit and comes everyday for 4th hour. After Matera came to her class and announced that the writing center was opening and needed coaches she thought it “would be a great idea.”

“I really like it because I think I’ve met a lot of people that I wouldn’t meet in classes,” Greico said. “It’s a different thing to edit someone’s paper, than to talk them through how they want to improve it rather than how you would improve it, and I feel like that was a big learning experience for me that i really enjoyed.”

Coaches have also ventured outside the cozy glass cubby in the back of the media center, taking their skills to classrooms around the school. Liberal Arts director Delania Haug is one of the teachers who has used coaches in her class.

“I think the really cool thing about it is, it’s peers helping peers,” Haug stated. “I think that’s really one of the best parts of the whole way it’s organized, is that it’s students getting trained to look at other students work. Because I think it can be sometimes less intimidating for a writer to have a peer looking at their work than an adult.”

“I’m really excited about how much we’ve been able to do so quickly,” Matera stated, and she couldn’t have done it without any of the 50 writing coaches. Before they could jump into appointments with students the coaches attended two training sessions where they worked in example writing conferences and later reflected on them. However, even after their training ended the coach’s learning continued.

“It’s hardly ever that there’s one coach and one writer in a room,” Matera elaborated. “So usually I’m there or somebody else is there listening and can then give some feedback about how they [coaches] did.” This gives the coaches an ongoing way to advance their teaching skills and writing.

“Ms. Matera was very helpful too, it’s a very warm and welcoming environment,” said Henderson. “It helped my essay by… a lot.”

Although it was his first and only visit, Henderson plans to go again in the future. The sophomore is just one of about 200 students who have utilized the writing center for book reports, college essays, research, basic writing skills, and so much more.

The writing center is always open in the back of the media center to any student in need. Any and all things literature can be attended to with an appointment. Or simply drop in, bring a pass or make sure it’s your lunch and get ready to write!