Elementary schools revive art of writing

By Laura Johnston

Southeast Missourian

First graders at Clippard Elementary School will know more about sentence structure, revising a story and grammar and punctuation when school ends, but the lessons in writing and reading aren't nearly as fun as becoming published authors.

The students have spent the school year writing in a journal and will take one entry and turn it into a book, complete with illustrations. Whether it's a story about a new pet, a family trip or just a letter to a friend, the students are writing and learning to read simultaneously.

Keeping daily writing notebooks gives them good practice and helps them better understand what they've read, said Missy Ashby, a first-grade teacher at Clippard.

Ashby admits that when she first started using the new teaching method, called balanced literacy, she was skeptical that it would work, but it has. "What's been interesting is the terminology that you can use. If you say, 'OK we're going to revise your story,' they know what you're talking about."

The elementary school, like all the others in the Cape Girardeau district, is putting a greater emphasis on students' writing through the journals and books.

A report issued last month by the National Commission on Writing says that writing has been shortchanged as an important component of American education.

"Writing is how students connect the dots in their knowledge," the report said.

And area educators would agree. "They're miles above where they were when we started," said principal Sydney Herbst. "If they can write then they can read."

The commission's report makes some strong reccommendations, like asking that each state develop a comprehensive writing policy and double the amount of time that students spend writing. The report also asks that all teachers be trained in how to teach writing and that writing be emphasized in all courses.

Cape Girardeau public schools are already putting an emphasis on writing skills, in part because it helps prepare students for the Missouri Assessment Program, which tests students at different grade levels on their math, communications arts, science and social studies skills.

Research has shown that for students to learn to read, they also need to know how to write, said Cathy Evans, assistant superintendent for the district. So the district has spent four years making curriculum changes that incorporate reading and writing.

"Missouri is one of the top 19 states taking the lead on making that change and Cape is right there with it," Evans said.

Ashby begins the school year modeling how to write for her students, but "throughout the year they progress and take over their own writing."

The students choose which story they'll turn into a book and then work on revisions and editing for their book. "They get really excited about it because it's like being a real author."

And it helps the students understand reading, she said. Because they've had to write a topic sentence in a paragraph, they know how to find one in a story they're reading, she said.

"It just builds," Ashby said. "If they can get this going in the kindergarten and first grade, then they've already gotten their feet wet."

ljohnston@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126