New elementary writing program restores passion for process

Bill San Antonio

Charles Leone, the Manhasset School District’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said Tuesday that the district’s new elementary school-level writing program has revealed a passion for reading and writing among students that has been largely unseen in recent years.

“The real exciting part is it teaches the craft, skills and grammar needed for high-quality writing while simultaneously engaging the students,” Leone said. “It’s really wonderful.”

The program, called Writing Fundamentals Units of Study and created by Schoolwide Inc., was incorporated into Munsey Park and Shelter Rock elementary school classes last September and aligns with the Common Core education standards, he said.

A detailed explanation of Writing Fundamentals, from its curriculum to in-class faculty instruction, was provided during a presentation at Thursday’s Board of Education meeting by Leone, district English coordinator Patrick O’Reilly, Munsey Park teachers Amy Macaluso and Meg Blank and Shelter Rock teachers Debbie Franciotti and Pat Dlugokencky. 

Leone said the district began searching for an elementary school writing program in 2013 and narrowed their selections to three before choosing Writing Fundamentals, which according to a Powerpoint presentation used Thursday provides “multiple opportunities for students to think deeply and critically about what they read and write, from analyzing writer’s craft, to planning and revising their drafts, to publishing a piece of writing with a clear purpose and with audience awareness.”

The program utilizes the “writing process” model popularized in modern education, which teaches a series of techniques that begin with thoroughly understanding the subject about which one is writing before following through to a completed piece of writing.

Class work consists of mini lessons, independent writing, peer and teacher conferences and group sharing.

Students are taught individual writing skills through analyzing texts meant to be informative and entertaining, Leone said.

“One day, they might be studying leads, so they’ll start reading something and then they’ll actually stop class and ask what about the text made you want to continue reading,” he said. “Those kinds of skills, the use of commas in dialogue, for example, could be another skill of writing.”

The district also held training sessions for teachers in the fall and spring in which Writing Fundamentals professionals were taught lesson planning and curriculum within their own classrooms.

“It really brought life to the level of rigor and the expectations of what the program was supposed to have for the teachers,” Leone said.

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