Saturday academies stress writing

As Rowan-Salisbury Schools focus more attention on writing, some schools aren’t limiting their efforts to the normal school day.

North Rowan and Knox middle schools launched Saturday “writing academies” this year to help improve students’ scores.

“They are studying the same things, we’re just doing a different approach,” said Middle School Literacy Specialist Karen Lilly-Bowyer. “It’s the same end result, they’re just going at it in a different way.”

At North Rowan Middle, writing academy students are meeting for six Saturdays, from 8:30 a.m. to noon each day. This Saturday marks the last one.

Jean Kennedy, a language arts, social studies and exploratory teacher, chairs of the school’s writing committee and said school officials saw the need for a remedial writing program.

The program aims to help students meet the state’s Gateway standards for eighth grade — and to create enthusiasm for learning.

Eighth graders must pass the gateway test at the end of the academic year to move to the ninth grade. The program also helps seventh graders with a state writing assessment they will take March 5.

North Rowan officials invited all seventh graders to participate and especially eighth graders who did not pass the seventh-grade writing test.

Though the academy is not mandatory, North Rowan officials wrote to the parents of more than 300 students. Thirty eighth graders and 100 seventh graders participated.

Although not the response the school officials had hoped for, Kennedy was pleased, nonetheless, considering this is the first year.

Kennedy said the committee wanted to involve all academic disciplines in the academy. All academy teachers — 10 to 11 teachers each Saturday — volunteered their time.

“I think it says a lot about their dedication and commitment to our students,” Kennedy said.

One Saturday, the eighth graders went on a history scavenger hunt in the library, searching for information on the states.

On Mad Scientist Day, science teachers came up with a number of experiments for the students.

Math teachers worked on problem solving one Saturday, and students worked on computers another weekend.

Students participated in a job shadowing activity where they picked a person to interview about his or her career.

And each week’s activity has been incorporated into a writing exercise.

This Saturday, eighth graders will work on a writing prompt and seventh graders will do reflections and journal writing.

“The students have been very positive,” Kennedy said.

They hope to continue the program next year.

A Saturday educational program is not new to Knox Middle, according to Shirley Holt, assistant principal for curriculum.

The school has had a Saturday academy before that focused on math and reading. But this time, the staff is focusing on writing with a more direct approach, Holt said.

Like its counterpart at North Rowan Middle, Knox’s writing academy started about six weekends ago and will wrap up this Saturday.

About 75 seventh- and eighth-grade students have worked on writing from 9 to 11 a.m. at Knox.

Although this is a good turn out, Holt said they would like to see more students participate.

At this point, the program is not mandatory because the school cannot provide transportation.

“We don’t always get the students who need to be here,” Holt said. “They don’t always see fit to come.”

Holt said school officials hope to offer transportation in the future and make the program mandatory.

Students use papers they wrote during the week and work on them in small groups with teachers. The ratio is about 12-to-1.

After the writing academy wraps up, a Saturday program in math and reading will start and continue until the end of April.

Six teachers who work with the program are given a stipend for their time.

Holt said the Knox team already has seen a “remarkable improvement” in students’ writing skills.

Contact Jillian McCartney at 704-797-4253 or jmccartney@salisburypost.com .