Two writers consult (Butterfly, 11th grader, with teacher Mark Bickford)
A classroom of adolescents bent over their writing assignments and loving it? Every middle school and high school teacher is well aware of the inward groans and CliffsNotes sales that reading and writing assignments generate. A change in attitude may require a paradigm shift in the classroom.
Students and teachers at The Community School in South Tamworth have happily existed in that “shifted paradigm” for years. Taking advantage of the small class sizes, English teachers use techniques developed by Nancie Atwell, award-winning teacher and founder of the Center for Teaching and Learning. “Writers need regular frequent chunks of time they can count on, anticipate, and plan for,” asserts Atwood (1998, In the Middle: Writing, Reading, and Learning with Adolescents, p. 91), and by writers she means your teenager and mine!
Can academic excellence really flourish in an environment without lectures and worksheets, where students read and write what interests them? Learning from mini-lessons and one-on-one student/teacher conferences, students at The Community School are writing poetry, essays, well-researched reports, creative non-fiction and fantasy.
“I structure my classes to offer a lot of guided independence,” explains 9th through 11th grade English teacher Mark Bickford. “I have regular one-on-one conferences, where I sit down with a student and we discuss the writings he or she has been working on, what works, what doesn’t work, what to focus on for further revisions. Students appreciate this because they are not stuck doing something that overwhelms them or bores them. I can closely track student progress, engage in meaningful discussions about writing, and challenge students to stretch themselves.”
Students are part of the writing process from beginning to end. Because of their high level of ownership and the direct, individualized feedback of their teacher, they invest more and learn more. Working through multiple drafts, students quickly learn editing skills. “My primary goal as a teacher is to structure an environment where learning is relevant, joyful, and rigorous,” says Bickford who shares his own writing with his students. “Almost all my learning activities are based upon the higher-level skills we need to make our way through life: analysis, judgment, synthesis, and evaluation.”
The Community School is a non-sectarian, private day school for boys and girls in grades 7 – 12, serving students from central New Hampshire and neighboring communities in Maine. Bus transportation and financial aid are available. Applications are currently being accepted. To read some of the student essays and fiction written this year, click on “student work.” For more information or to schedule a tour of the school, call 323-7000.
Eleventh graders compose in the library
Raetha Stoddard reading 8th grader Ronnie's work
