“If you touch a rock, you touch the past. If you touch a flower you touch the present. If you touch a child, you touch the future.”
~ Author unknown
Today I’m handing the Mic to my best friend and wife. We are teaching a writer’s workshop for fourth graders starting this afternoon, and celebrating with her very first guest post. Daisy’s ready to write full time now. Starting on Monday, you can catch her three times a week in her office over at Namas Daisy.
When it comes to setting goals and realizing results, there are 3 certain conclusions.
Mia’s principal gave a keynote address on Back to School night with an overview of student achievement. We saw the overall picture of the school’s academic performance; growth, decline, and yearly progress by grade in math, reading and language arts.
These numbers made perfect sense to me and I naturally honed in on the high stakes year – fourth grade. Fourth grade is where the rubber meets the road. It’s considered a high stakes testing year because it is the first one when students take a writing exam in addition to general testing. Fourth grade standardized scores are used as one indicator to determine placement for middle school programs such as GATE (gifted and talented) and special performing arts programs.
Students are given a writing task and accompanying prompt. The prompt may be “Narrative Writing,” “Summary Writing,” or “Response to Literature.” The students do not know which genre will be administered, and the teacher’s goal is to ensure they are prepared for whatever is tested by the state. This year’s exam falls on March 10th.
Mia’s principal noted the decline in scores in English-Language Arts. Sean and I looked at each other… he knew what I was thinking… this is how we could give back to our school.
Every parent signs a school-home compact agreement requiring parents to pledge the following: “As a parent at _______ school, I know that knowledgeable, involved, encouraging parents have children with positive attitudes toward school. As the parent/guardian, I will do the following…
There is a list of 6 things you agree to do. I won’t bore you with all 6, but #4 on the list, “contribute at least 10 hours of support to the school,” sent sirens through my mind. We need to teach a writer’s workshop for the 4th graders, I thought, crunching test scores in my head. Since my last position in a public school was teaching 35 4th graders how to make a habit of lifelong writing, it seemed natural for Writer Dad and I to roll up our sleeves and get busy modeling some good old fashioned nuts and bolts.
What do good writers do? What does good writing look or sound like, and how do you get there?
Needless to say, our principal was thrilled with our action plan to assist 30 students for 10 weeks in an endeavor to make them more proficient writers. Tomorrow is day 1 of our journey. We have our mobile classroom (a small carry-on with wheels) packed with writing tools and an agenda to bulk up, buck up and attack a prompt with confidence. Max and Mia will be in the back of the classroom writing along with the class.
Why not? Start early, finish strong.
We are all teachers with or without a degree. Teachers wield influence, volunteer your time to a school. You may be the only stable adult in a child’s life, the only person passing on culture or hope. The only ones who dreams for them that they might find a brighter tomorrow.
Daisy
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