Language Arts

A Good Place to Write

To help students become writers, our school creates a writing program that has seven components.

Structure

Our teachers provide highly predictable classrooms where students have access to all of the other components of the writing program.

A Time to Write Each Day

Students need daily writing time to be able to move their pieces along until they accomplish what they set out to do.

Demonstration

Writing is a craft that must be modeled just like any good apprenticeship in the arts or in sports. Our teachers model what they expect.

Choice

When children choose their own topics, we can expect more of their writing.

Expectation

We ask students what they are working on in order to become better writers. Students work with teachers to develop high expectations of themselves as writers.

Response

The end of each writing period is set aside for sharing students’ writing and their learning experiences during their writing.

Evaluation

Students acquire the skills to not only select their own topics, but also how to determine whether their choices are good ones. They learn how to evaluate their own work. Teachers show students how to read their own work by modeling their own process for them.