“Why do you want to be a reading coach at a middle or high school?”
Reading coaches help kids and teens improve their reading skills in middle and high schools. The hiring manager may ask you why you want to be a reading coach if you apply for this job. If you give a good answer to this question, the interviewer will learn more about you, which will increase your chances of getting the job. To give a good answer to this question, it can help to learn more about the steps you can take.
This article talks about why employers ask, “Why do you want to be a secondary reading coach?” and gives examples of how to answer the question.
Why middle or high school employers want to know why you want to be a reading coach
Interviews help with the hiring process because they show the interviewer more about who you are and what you can do. Here are some reasons why a high school reading coach employer might want to know why you want the job:
- Learn more about you: Why you want to be a reading coach can tell the hiring manager more about you. People may try to figure out who you are by looking at your values, morals, and plans for the future.
- Assess your passions. The interviewer wants to know if there are some parts of the job you are more interested in than others. It can help them figure out how you can make their school a better place to learn.
- Find out if you should be on the team: The interviewer can learn more about your skills and personality by asking you this question. Depending on what they find out, they might use the information to figure out where you might fit in with the rest of the staff.
- Figure out how to teach. How well you do as a reading coach depends a lot on how you teach. Depending on how you answer, the hiring manager may be able to learn more about how you deal with students and teachable moments.
How to answer the question, “Why do you want to be a reading coach for high school students?”
To talk about why you want to be a high school reading coach in an interview, follow these steps:
1. Read the job posting.
When getting ready to answer this question, reading the job description can be helpful. Use the information there to learn more about what the school or institution wants in a teacher. By doing this, you can choose to focus on the parts of your style and personality that match their goals. For example, a job description might say that the best person for the job has a good attitude in the classroom.
Example: “I became a secondary reading coach because I have always been very active and focused, and I knew I could bring that to the classroom. My positive attitude can help students get through hard reading lessons and keep learning. I’ve always been positive and easy to talk to, and I think that makes the kids feel good about reading and learning.”
2. Use a story to explain something
Stories are a great way to get information across and make an impression on the person in charge of hiring. If there’s a story behind why you want to become a reading coach, you could use it to explain your goals and career path. It could help the hiring manager remember you among all the other candidates.
Example: “I wasn’t a good reader when I was young, so I was always behind the other kids. I didn’t want to read any more because it made me feel bad. At school, we had a reading teacher who was so kind and patient, and she helped me see things in a new way. I finally caught up to the other kids and could read much better than they could. That teacher made me love reading and teaching, so I became a reading coach for students in middle school and high school.”
3. Be aware of your skills
You can use the way you answer this question to practice reading and teaching. You can say that you want to be a reading coach because you are a natural leader or because you are good at talking to people. Some skills you should work on are leadership, working with others, critical thinking, and empathy.
Example: “I like to solve problems, and being able to think critically is one of my best skills. I used to help other kids with their homework when it was too hard for them, and I would find ways to help them understand things they didn’t understand before. I love coming up with solutions to problems so I can help a student finally learn a skill or understand a hard idea.”
4. Emphasize your value
Show why you want to be a reading coach by talking about things you’ve done in the past. You can talk about how you helped another educational institution or situation and how that makes you want to get better as an educator. For example, if you’ve worked with kids as a volunteer or in a daycare, you can show how that experience helps your career and motivates you to do well.
Example: “When I was a reading assistant, we didn’t have many tools and there were too many kids who needed help. We had trouble meeting with every student who was learning to read, and I knew we had to do something. I set up fundraisers and started a new meeting system called the “buddy system” so that we could pair up kids at the same reading level and help them both at the same time. It helped us get things done faster and help every student. So I could help make changes like this, I became a reading coach. I want to help kids no matter what is going on.”
How to respond
Here are some answers that you can use as models for your own work:
Example 1
“I loved to read when I was a kid, but my sister hated it. When we were in high school, we got into a fight about it, and she said she didn’t like it when she came across a word she didn’t know. I was determined to make her change her mind. Since she liked soccer, I started buying her books about it. I gave her a dictionary so she could look up words she didn’t know. She still says that I made her want to read because I was so persistent, which is why I became a reading coach.”
Example 2
“When I first went to college, I was a general education major. I knew I wanted to teach, but I didn’t know what I wanted to teach. I thought I could teach without specializing in any one subject. I took a class on different ways to read in the fall of my second year, and it made me realize that the same text can be enjoyed in so many different ways. I got ideas from seeing how other people read. That’s when I realized I wanted to help everyone find their own way to read, just like I did.”
Example 3
“I am a natural leader and I love helping other people. I thought I wanted to be president when I was young so I could make big changes and help people. When I went to college, a teacher and I shared a room. We both helped out at the same after-school program, which is where I learned that the best way to make a difference was to help one child at a time. I switched my major to teaching, and because I love to read, it was easy to choose a focus.”
