My Teaching Philosophy
Dear Coach,
I hope you don’t mind that I’m calling you coach. I’m thinking that I have two coachesthis year. Coach [name omitted] is my [sport omitted] coach and you are my writing coach. . . .

Far from “minding,” I was delighted to read these words in an e-mail from an international student enrolled in my first year composition class. Just weeks earlier, during the Writing Program’s orientation for new writing instructors, we had asked everyone to draw pictures of their metaphors for teaching. My own sketch, a rudimentary self-portrait, showed me standing on the sidelines of a classroom wearing a whistle around my neck: teacher as coach.

I’ve always been more of a bookworm than an athlete, but other members of my family are involved in athletics, and over the years I’ve come to see coaching as a productive model for my own teaching and have tried to adopt some of its precepts as I understand them. For example:
1. See even the least experienced athletes as players.
Coaches, I’ve noticed, encourage even their least experienced athletes to see themselves as real players. When I teach a writing class, I want my students to see themselves as writers; when I teach a methods course or a seminar in teaching, I want my students to see themselves as teachers; when I conduct a workshop or teach a course for experienced classroom teachers, I want them to see themselves as reflective practitioners and/or classroom researchers. To this end, I offer lots of opportunities for my students to engage in writing, teaching, reflection, and research; to identify and practice the skills they need; to identify and explore the strategies that successful writers, teachers, and teacher researchers have used in the past; and to adapt those strategies to meet their own needs.
Click here for illustrative anecdote.
2. Take the game seriously.
Others may an athletic competition as “just a game,” but successful coaches and players take their sports seriously. Part of my job as a teacher is helping students understand why writing matters so they can take it seriously. Another part is taking their work seriously myself.
Click here for illustrative anecdote.
3. Treat the players with respect.
Not all coaches treat their players with respect, but those who don’t run the risk of making headlines or (at some levels) losing their jobs. Teachers who don’t treat their students with respect risk disrupting the teaching-learning process to the point where they can no longer do their jobs effectively.
Click here for illustrative anecdote.
4. Identify each player’s strengths.
In order to be successful, a coach needs to be able to identify each player’s strengths and capitalize on them. This ability is even more important for teachers. Howard Gardner’s work with multiple intelligences has institutionalized the notion that students’ individual strengths can be used as gateways to learning in all subject areas. Patricia Dunn’s work in Sketching, Talking, Moving, shows composition instructors in particular how to help students succeed in the writing classroom even when their primary intelligences are not verbal/linguistic.
Click here for illustrative anecdote.
5. See every player as a developing player.
Most athletic teams are composed of players with ability levels ranging from the unparalleled to the not-quite-ready-for-competition-at-this-level. The coach’s job is to ensure that every player makes progress, whether that means moving from the not-quite-ready to the competent or from the unparalleled to the better-than-anyone-could-have-imagined
Click here for illustrative anecdote.
6. Allow time for practice.
Players’ growth over time is largely attributable to the fact that coaches see “the big game” as the tip of the iceberg. The critical mass that keeps the tip above water is time allowed for practice. Successful coaches don’t spend a lot of time lecturing about “how the game is played.” They get the players on the field as quickly as possible and watch for teachable moments. Offering suggestions and encouragement from the sidelines is crucial, but the players have to be engaged in the task at hand. Punters need to punt; setters need to set . . .
Click here for illustrative anecdote.
7. Watch the films and develop a game plan.
To those who don’t coach, it looks like pretty cushy occupation: show up for a few hours of practice and stand on the sidelines shouting instructions on game day. How tough can it be? What the casual observer doesn’t see is the enormous amount of work behind the scenes, watching films, planning drills, determining line-ups, designing game plans, and more
Click here for illustrative anecdote.
8. Have a “Plan B,” too.
In sports—as in life—things don’t always go according to plan. Sometimes the star of the team comes down with the flu on game day. Sometimes that team that’s been running the ball all season comes out and puts it in the air. Sometimes the line-up changes and a lefty comes up instead of a right-handed batter. In sports—as in life—it’s always good to have a back-up plan.
Click here for illustrative anecdote.
9. Understand the power of teamwork
“There is no ‘I’ in ‘team,’” they say, and every successful coach knows it’s true. Championship teams are those that exceed the sum of the individual players’ abilities. They grow from a coaching philosophy and a team culture that values the contribution of every team member—from the most gifted to the last one off the bench. Good teachers, too, know that every student has something to contribute. The trick is to find out what it is and to create opportunities for other students to see and come to value it.
10. Be a student of the game.
I once asked my husband, who works in athletics, whether it would be possible to coach a sport one had never played. “Possible,” he said, “but unless you have some playing experience, it’s hard to coach a sport for a long time at a high level.” Most coaches have played the sport they coach. Equally important, however, they’ve made a study of the game. They know their sports inside and out and, thus, they have an much deeper understanding than the average spectator—or even the average player.
Click here for illustrative anecdote.
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Last modified September 16, 2005