St. Hugh’s crafts better writers

Thursday, Nov. 9, 2006

To build a strong proficiency and efficiency in writing and communicational skills in pupils’ before they enter high school, St. Hugh’s Catholic School has begun to incorporate a greater writing component into other subjects including math and science.

The Greenbelt-based St. Hugh’s Catholic School is under the Washington Archdiocese, which comprises its own standards, based on nationwide standards from public and private schools.

Although catholic schools do not adhere to the state standardized guidelines like public and private school do, they still have an evaluation performance measure for students called the Terra Nova which is a nationally assessment test said Kelly Branaman, the Washington Archdiocese K-12 curriculum director.

‘‘We’re trying to incorporate writing into our religion courses, math where students would have to write their math problem out,” said Principal Chris Trott. ‘‘We’re looking to have more consistency in writing ability so before students reach high school they can write strong term papers and essays and at least have the foundation to build upon.”

The writing program is catered to fourth through eighth grade pupils.

The Terra Nova Assessment began adding a writing portion for fourth- and seventh-grade pupils in 2003, who instead of completing the test in a multiple choice format by merely filling out the bubbles had to write answers to open ended questions and fill in bubbles. Pupils in grades second, third, fifth, sixth and eighth use only multiple choice for the Terra Nova assessment. Eighth graders in catholic also take the High School Assessments test.

‘‘I have to applaud the teachers at St. Hugh’s for trying to create a higher goal for a consistent evaluation process for fourth through eighth graders,” Branaman said.

St. Hugh’s Writing⁄Reading Specialist Sue O’Brien has been working with teachers and devising activities that would involve more writing into the other studies Trott said.

The fact that more technology is eliminating proper long writing, for the younger generation with e-mail and internet, Branaman said having a greater emphasis on writing and proper speech skills is more vital than ever.

‘‘Our goal is to consistently teach students the effective use of speech, writing and reading,” Branaman said.

Former St. Hughes Principal Liz Whelan said the school’s renewed interest in improving pupils’ writing skills began 10 years ago, when the school became an accredited school with one of the goals being the creation of a specific writing curriculum.

‘‘With new textbooks teachers began to look at how to improve and build on a good writing curriculum.” Whelan said.

Darren Harris, the father of fifth-grade pupil Kendel Harris, said that St. Hugh’s seems to stress writing and reading.

‘‘No matter what profession you go into, whether it’s science or mathematics expressing yourself appropriately is needed and the only way to do that is to be a good writer and reader,” Darren Harris said.

For pupils Kindergarten to third-grade, more emphasis is placed on reading.

‘‘Being a fluent writer and fluent reader is two sides of a coin, they go hand and hand,” Branaman said.

E-mail Marcus Ngbea atmngbea@gazette.net.