I could write about any of the conferences I have had this year with any of my

students, but a conference I had with a student before we went on spring break really
challenged me. I did not assign the essay I helped her with, and I have never taught the
genre that she was writing
This is the first year I love where I work, and the first time in the 7 years that I
have taught I feel that every teacher I have encountered in my school truly cares about the
students and their success. When a senior from Environmental Club showed up after
school on the Friday before Spring break at 3:00 and asked, Ms. can you help me out
with this scholarship essay? I did not dare decline. We have a 77% graduation rate. I was
so excited Brejanae was planning on going to college. I asked her how it was going
(cheat sheet).
I think its going ok. Ive written two paragraphs. Heres what I have. Do you
think its good?! she asked. Oh how they love that question! I read the two paragraphs.
Everything was spelled wrong, there was no direction. It was not good, it was awful. I
looked at the prompt and none of it was addressed in her two paragraphs. I asked her to
read the essay to me. She read it out loud, but with a puzzled look. I could tell no teacher
had ever told her to read her writing out loud before. She immediately recognized the
grammatical errors. I told her to underline them as she went so she could go back and fix
them later. As much as I try to teach the writer, not the writing as suggested by
Anderson, unfortunately sometimes we have to fix the writing when a deadline is
approaching and a scholarship committee will not overlook 15 grammatical errors in two
paragraphs (Anderson, 2000, p. 8). When she finished I asked her what the main idea of
her writing was. She told me it was about why she wanted to go to college. Then we read

the prompt. Write about a time when you faced adversity in your life, and how you
overcame it. Tell about your long-term goals, and how you will achieve them through
your desired program of study.
After she read it to me I asked her what the big idea of her piece was (cheat
sheet). Like Anderson suggests, I wanted to have a conversation with Brejanae, not tell
her what I already knew was wrong (Anderson, 2000, p. 7). She knew she did not answer
any of the prompt. I knew answering the prompt would be my teaching moment. She told
me her two paragraphs were about why she wanted to go to college not about a moment
of adversity she had faced or what her long term goals were. I asked her if she could tell
me and of the things the prompt was asking, but she did not know what adversity meant.
We were 10 minutes in and I was not feeling good about the conversation. I realized the
strategy or technique I needed to help Bre with was to understand how to answer a
prompt (Anderson, 2000, p. 9). I thought I could give her several prompts throughout the
week, maybe even incorporate some into my Do Nows (because Im sure everyone
needed help with this). I needed the weekend to look up some mentor texts of good
scholarship essays, maybe even to the same question. I wanted to bring them in on
Monday and then have her add some major detail to the essay, and then we could revisit it
later that week after she fixed her first draft. I asked Bre when a good time would be to
meet with her the next week. She asked, Arent college people pretty hard-core about
deadlines?
I hesitated, When is this due Brejanae?
5:00 she said.
5:00 today. It wasnt a question.

There I was, 3:30, ready to pick my kids up early from daycare like I had been
planning to do every day that week. Not today. Bre have a seat at my computer, take 30
minutes, look up what adversity means, and try to write about a time you faced it and
succeeded. Im getting some coffee. Ill be right back.
I returned 15 minutes later. She was looking at the screen with fury. Hows it
going Bre? I didnt need to ask. The tears were running down her face. She had only
typed three more sentences in 15 minutes. How are your typing skills there lady? I
joked. The last sentence she types was When my little brother was 8 years old he died.
Now I was in tears. Being a mother ruins your ability to filter tears when you read about
dead children. I told Bre to tell me the story and I would type for her. She started
describing this situation where her brother died when he was 8, she was one of 14 kids
and her parents only gave her negative attention. They constantly told her she would not
succeed in life, she would never graduate high school (neither did they) and that she was
worthless. I just typed word for word what she said. I read it back to her and it sounded
very real, unlike the two paragraphs she had previously written which seemed like she
copied from someone or somewhere.
Bre told me countless stories of people who told her she would be nothing, and I
just kept typing. When I finished, we looked at them, and to help Bre be reflective in her
writing as Anderson suggests, I asked her which one she thought answered the prompt the
most (Anderson, 2000, p. 9). Sadly, we ended up on the dead brother. As mentioned in
the Anderson article, I wanted Brejanae to know that I was grateful she shared her story
with me. I told her that what she said about her brother was amazing, and it was truly a
time when she had faced adversity and overcame. I also expressed to her that I could not

imagine what that must have been like as a little kid to go through something like that,
and that I was glad that she did not let that situation define her (Anderson, 2000, p. 23).
After Bre polished up the time she faced adversity, I asked her to look at the
second part of the prompt again. Unfortunately we were at 4:30 and almost at the
deadline. I asked her how she should approach answering the prompt. She said she would
just write down some of her goals and then write about how those goals would fit in with
her chosen line of study. She read what she wrote back to me, mentioning things like how
goal was to protect children from domestic abuse, and how entering the criminal justice
field would enable her to do this. She was spot on, so I let her read over it one more time,
ask me any more clarifying questions she had about whether and where she addressed the
prompt. She sent it at 4:52.
The conference went well. If nothing else, Bre definitely has a better
understanding of how to answer a prompt, and I still plan to do some after we return from
break. I also know from past experience things will be better between her and I (not that
they were bad before), and that shell have my back when the 38 students in 4th hour start
talking a little too loudly. That is what I enjoy the most from conferences, the connections
I can make with students and the things I learn from them, and usually the greater mutual
respect that comes from the interactions we have together.

Update 4/7 She got it!