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To all teachers of writing, grades 7-12:
There are no shortcuts to writing achievement breakthroughs within your classrooms.
Yet, many teachers continue to opt for quick fix activities that teach students to spot conventional errors...
But that do not guide them to go beyond the language skills they brought with them when they entered the classroom.
Our goal is guide students to develop enthusiasm for word choice, for precision, and for finding language that communicates powerfully and clearly.
Daily oral language will not do it. Merely assigning more writing will not do it. Neither will school-wide writing across the curriculum programs fulfill this expectation.
A teacher of writing must engender a love of language within his/her students, and must have a curriculum that builds enthusiasm for writing at the same time that it overcomes the language laziness and resistance that often goes hand in hand with adolescence.
Such a teacher has a high goal: to meet students where they are...and then take them to where they are not: toward much higher language choice and sentence construction skill levels.
Breakthrough achievements in writing achievement require teachers to transform student awareness of language possibilities, and to equip them with the tools they need to move beyond self-limiting, entry-level language patterns.
More writing is not the same as better writing; and group-editing efforts to correct an elementary sentence do not change its nature as an elementary sentence. Neither do these group editing efforts transform student awareness of what might be possible.
Student writing breakthroughs can only be achieved in a writing program that is lively, easy to teach, and that combines systematic, cumulative skill development with short, high interest assignments that are designed for frequent closure and quick turnaround. A program where students put in the effort, master a technique, and then can quickly see the results of their achievement.
In a high powered writing achievement program, students must be guided to do the work, not study or review rubrics, or prepare for standardized tests. Students will easily surpass standardized test expectations once their classrooms have become laboratories for skill development and application.
The Topschools writing program is the product of over thirty years of teaching reading, writing and thinking at the secondary level. My constant goal: how to find the key to unlock student resistance to writing and to thinking about, and valuing written expression. Standardized test score results for my student writers are available here.
This is what high energy English classrooms should be about:
The excitement of exploring the beauty and precision of language...
The acquisition of the skills necessary to write and read increasingly complex and effective sentence patterns...
Developing the abiliity to generate richer, more varied sentences that naturally compel writers to provide higher
levels of evidence and supporting detail...
...And the satisfaction of seeing one's writing skills grow on a daily basis.
Why shouldn't a writing class be the most exciting class in the entire school?
Imagine a selection of sentences written by your 7th-12th graders as part of a short (two paragraph) creative writing assignment entitled "Still Life: An Old Work Shoe":
"...a slothful bootlace curls, loops and winds dronishly through the rusty, metal holes, creating a clustered, knotted look"
"...its worn, brass eyelets rusting, the dreary shoe tugs toothlessly at a besmirched, spurious lace..."
"descending and submerging, a criss-cross patterned sole sinks into the damp, boggy soil..."
"a seam, ravelling and slipping, arches around the worn and dusty surface...a mucky, sweat-blemished shoe tongue cowers between two mountains of uplifting leather..."
"a silver, dulled hook, its metal oxidizing, holds out its ends to clasp on to ancient, threadbare laces..."
These sentences are independent creations--not fill the blanks templates created by the instructor. They were crafted by secondary students who were half-way through an 18 week curriculum that developed voice and fluency at the same time that it developed sentence construction skills.
Overwritten as they are, these sentences are emblematic of a dramatically heightened awareness of the precision and descriptive power of language. This awareness is the important thing...and its cross-curricular transferability extends to every writing and reading assignment made in each and every class.
Using the same program that I have used with over 5,000 students, teachers guide their classes through a seamless series of concrete, easily teachable lessons that lead to proficiency. No textbooks are required; no handouts are distributed.
Regardless of background or preparation, teachers now have the opportunity to become the master writing instructors that each aspires to be. I invite all teachers of writing--whether novices or experts--to join me on this instructional journey.
Impact for Teachers:
Topschools writing curriculum guides teachers & students through a seamless sequence of short, high interest writing activities that develop voice, fluency, analytical power, and sentence construction skills. Activities are focused, have clear targets, and provide for frequent closure and student demonstration. Sharing and demonstration of student work develops confidence, as well as pride in new learning. Lessons are designed to be taught effectively, whether the teacher is a veteran or a newcomer to composition and sentence construction. I provide one year of unlimited email support in order to guarantee teacher success. Questions about the curriculum, about instructional strategies, about next steps--all will be responded to within 24 hours or less. This curriculum addresses and challenges the full spectrum of student abilities--from those below grade level to those in Advanced Placment courses.
Impact for Students:
Undeveloped language skills can impose limits on the depth and quality of student thinking. In this curriculum, students learn to design, write and read sentences that force higher order language and thinking skills. With skills like these, students overpower standardized tests that measure student thinking, writing and reading.
Overview of Topschools Writing Program:
Q: How do students learn?
A: Students learn by receiving clear instructions about what is expected, clear
examples of what is expected, and numerous in-class opportunities to
practice and to share their mastery of learning targets.
Q: How do students internalize this learning?
A: Repetition and reinforcement are the keys: clear tactics for sentence
construction are presented, and students are obligated to reproduce and
share these during class in short, targeted writing assignments.
Q: How can students buy into this curriculum and its activities?
A: Short, very specific, high interest descriptive writing activities create clear
targets, and provide quick closure, success and reinforcement.
Students can clearly see their writing skills grow on a daily basis.
Opportunities for group collaboration create shared discovery and
enthusiasm for learning in the classroom.
Q: Is this another grammar program? I already have a room full of grammar texts.
A: We all do. And we have all tried to use them, or their workbook derivatives at one time or another in order to teach writing skills. The Topschools program has a heavy grammatical and sentence construction emphasis, absolutely. Because it is about the English language and its use, the contents of the program, when read as a list of topics, look very much like the contents of a grammar book: verbals, appositives, introductory participial phrases and so on.
But here the similarity ends. The Topschools program is a method; a way of teaching, a way of practicing, a way of engaging students, and a way of sequencing specific learning activities so that each adds to what has come before as they guide the student to mastery. This is the method that has been missing from our instructional practice; and this absence has made writing instruction such a daunting task for so many--especially for students.
Q: What does "one year email support" mean for me as a teacher?
A: I am committed to your success as an educator. Purchasers of this program have one year unlimited email support. I will collegially respond to your questions about the curriculum, about sentence structure, about grammar, and about instructional strategies within 24 hours of receipt of your query. Brainstorms and troubleshooting questions are very welcome.The achievement of your students--and your success in teaching them--are very important to me.
Topschools Writing is Not A Traditional Approach:
Emphasis on in-class laboratory learning
Emphasis on interaction, frequent closure, frequent feedback/formative
assessment
De-emphasis on daily grading—the work is done in class and students know
instantly how they stand
Emphasis on application of new learning NOW
Emphasis on starting with simple concepts and moving to highly challenging
complexity
Emphasis on short sentence and multiple sentence assignments that target
skills and provide quick turnaround and classroom critique
Emphasis on “getting it," “demonstrating it” and “using it”
Emphasis on observation & discovery
Opportunities for group collaboration, but always an emphasis on individual
products and accountability
Required classroom materials: One good quality thesaurus for each student. One dictionary per two students.
Sample Mastery Targets for Voice, Fluency and Precision
Verbs and verbals applied
Prepositional phrases & agreement issues
Powerful word cache development
Troubleshooting six forms of redundancy
Pathetic fallacy for voice
Deploying parts of speech for voice and precision
Powerful introductory & non-essential participial phrases—applied
Powerful appositives applied
Verb tense mastery—applied
Introductory adverb clauses applied for richness & complexity
Non essential subordinate clauses applied
Sentence marking activities: keep it simple
Comma rules applied based on word function and
sentence structure
Simple, compound & complex sentences—applied and constructed
Short high interest creative writing assignments that become the template for
all future assignments that are teacher generated
Topschools 9-18 week Writing Curriculum CD contents: teacher guide to a seamless series of learning activities that develop proficiency in sentence construction and language use.
Single Teacher License & CD w/ one year email support: $269.
Multiple Teacher School Site License & CD w/ one year email support: $359.
Please email me with your questions. Checks and school district purchase orders are also acceptable.
*This personal note followed a classroom visitation. Bellevue International has been ranked by Newsweek as #11 in the nation for academic achievement in 2006. The test scores section of this website covers Bellevue International's achievement history all the way back to 1993.
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