Adults may feel qualms in the face of a blank piece of paper or blinking cursor, but for young students just learning to form letters, writing can be outright daunting.
And thus the Bank of Colorado’s Innovation Award, which went to Sunnyside Elementary School for its writing-fluency program for second-graders. Originally the brainchild of teacher Melissa Vance, who tested the idea in her classroom last spring, the cause has been picked up by Lori Smith. Vance has retired.
“Second-graders are amazingly articulate,” Smith said. “They use correct scientific words, use bigger and more complex words than they can write. If you’ve ever talked to a second-grader about a passion of theirs, they talk, talk, talk. But ask them to write it down, and they start panicking.”
The writing-fluency program uses technology to get students past that panic.
Using Siri, they will dictate essays and reports into an iPad, then edit them using keyboarding skills and interactive whiteboards.
“Talking to Siri helps with articulation, too,” Smith said. “They have to slow down, speak clearly, so they not only become better writers, they become better speakers.”
Smith observed Vance in her classroom and helped edit the grant application, so she already understands how it works.
“These are technologies our children need to use,” Smith said. “And writing isn’t just about forming letters, it’s about writing paragraphs and descriptive, personal experiences. With technology, all the stress of physically writing is removed.”
The school is in the process of getting iPads for the 23 students in Smith’s classroom, Sunnyside Principal Dylan Connell said, and as soon as the program is fully implemented, other teachers at the school and within Durango School District 9-R will have an opportunity to observe it in action.
That’s what happened with the 2014 Innovation Award winner, Kelly Von Stroh, at Animas Valley Elementary School.
She researched and found a successful reading program for English-language learners, then used the monetary grant from the award to attend a training in Washington, D.C. The difference between native speakers and students learning English at the same time they’re learning to read is that English-language learners need to learn the vocabulary in context, not by rote, she said.
The Durango Education Foundation, which manages the granting process for Bank of Colorado, estimates that Von Stroh’s program benefited almost 2,000 students, as it was not only observed by other 9-R teachers but was taught at a regional conference.
abutler@durangoherald.com
