Wednesday, January 1, 2003
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Wednesday, January 1, 2003 |
High school students help fifth-graders improve writing skillsAn innovative collaboration between Fayetteville Intermediate and Fayette County High schools is helping some fifth-grade students improve their writing skills. Every Wednesday students from Ashley Lawson's creative writing class at Fayette County High trek over to Fayetteville Intermediate to work with students in Sherri Mendoza's and Misty Brown's classrooms. For approximately one hour, 19 high schoolers take over the classrooms and teach the younger students the components to creative writing. The high school students use a workshop format giving the fifth-graders different topic ideas to write about and then acting as writing coaches to help them develop a story from start to finish. Since the collaboration started just a few months ago, teachers at Fayetteville Intermediate report seeing improvements in their student's writing skills including longer, more detailed stories. "The kids seem to enjoy and get excited about writing. Even the ones we have struggled with this year to get to write just a few sentences are finding enjoyment in writing," said Brown. "It has been a pleasure to watch the high school students interact so well with our students. They teach the fifth-graders on whatever level they are at and encourage them to write at a higher level." The goal of the collaboration for Fayetteville Intermediate is to improve its writing scores through teaching students that writing is a process and giving them ideas on how they can be more creative in their writing. The idea for the collaboration between the two schools came from Lawson. Each year her creative writing students, who apply for and are selected specifically for the class, ask if they can work with elementary students. Lawson felt that this year's class size and makeup was conducive to such a program. She says she expects the collaboration to be not only beneficial to the fifth-graders, but also an expanded learning experience for her students. "I think both students are going to greatly benefit. The younger students see the high schoolers as 'cool' and are more willing to take risks in writing for them than with an adult. High schoolers can also better relate to the frustrations of writing as they are students themselves. For the high schoolers, well, you learn best by teaching so I hope to see some growth in their own writing processes," said Lawson. Students in Fayette County High's creative writing course focus on self-exploration and development through writing as well as design and publish the school's literary magazine, Pieces. The students stay busy throughout the year not only working on the magazine but also fundraising to obtain money to publish it. Unlike school newspapers in the county, the magazine receives no funding from the school system. It costs approximately $5,000 to publish Pieces annually and the students raise the money themselves through sponsorships, advertisements and fundraisers. Lawson says their enthusiasm to take on yet another project says a lot about the character of her students. "This is a huge task and I believe that their willingness to work with the fifth-graders in addition to their own writing and fundraising tasks is admirable," she added. The collaborative project between the two schools is in its final stages. Lawson says she hopes to have some selections written by the fifth-graders to include in the 2003 edition of the magazine.
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