Small School Has The Write Stuff

A writing program at a new small school helps over 80% of students taking the state writing test meet or exceed benchmarks, nearly 18% above the statewide average.

The Academy of Arts and Academics (A3) opened in the fall of 2006 in Springfield, Oregon with funding and technical assistance from E3: Employers for Education Excellence and the Oregon Small Schools Initiative.  The school is a new small arts-themed high school that combines a full academic college preparatory curriculum with media and theatre arts experiences.  A3 targets students who have a passion for the arts, and who may not be well served by the traditional large high school environment.  Over 60% are identified as low-income, which is significantly higher than the district average, and many students struggled to succeed in middle school. 

Innovative Teachers & Practices

When school started in the fall, the A3 staff noticed a large number of students were struggling with basic writing skills.  Working collaboratively and quickly, one of the benefits of small schools, the staff developed a strategy to integrate writing into arts projects, and set aside time to work in small writing groups every single day of the week.

Nissie Ellison, Languages Arts teacher, led the development of the program and established the goals and objectives.  She met weekly with the teaching staff to outline teaching practices and show examples of work that would help students to improve their writing skills.

Michael Fisher, A3’s school director, calls Nissie the “Goddess of the Writing Program,” for her leadership, creativity and for her collaborative style of working with the entire A3 staff.  “She has really energized the staff and students around this effort,” said Fisher.

Nissie Ellison has been teaching language arts for over 13 years in California and Oregon, and jumped at the chance to work for A3.  “I’ve always wanted to work in a school that was doing this kind of creative integration of arts and academics,” said Ellison.  “Relationships are so important at this age. This program is about writing and challenging students, but it’s also about supporting and mentoring them.”

The workshops met daily for 45 minutes in small groups of 10-12 students and focused on a specific writing assignments using, and learning about, specific writing styles such as Narrative, Persuasive and Reflective.  Students produced written drafts of work every day and were encouraged, supported and “critiqued” on their progress.  It’s in those sessions that teachers worked with students to discuss use of language, word placement, sentence structure, grammar, and spelling. It’s also where they taught critical thinking skills and encouraged students to higher levels of achievement.

During the first term of the school year, staff focused on working with the narrative style and encouraged students to make up their own stories. “We wrote about everything under the sun, but mostly about students’ personal interests.” said Ellison, “The students chose their topics, but we really worked on sentence structure and grammar. It was a great way to engage students and have some fun while learning fundamentals.” 

In the second term, teachers and students worked on expanding and contracting vocabulary using a number of different exercises.  One such exercise used the visual arts and poetry.  Working in pairs, students took multiple photographs of themselves all over the school at different angles – profile, extreme close-up, back lit, etc.  Students picked their three favorite photos to create a photo collage and then wrote a 25 word poem about themselves. 

Once their poem had been created, students had to carefully edit it down to just 10 words, and then again, down to just 5 words.  The vocabulary exercise challenged students to think deeply about words and what they mean, and to edit their poems down to the essential words that described them.  Great discussions about words and their meaning followed.

“I really liked the photo/poetry project,” said Jasmine, a freshman with a long-time interest in visual arts. “It was really fun and hard at the same time to keep making fewer and fewer words…to find just the right words about the photos that best described me. I learned a lot about words.”

(Jasmine, freshman at A3, with one of her art projects.)

In the third term, A3 students worked on persuasive essays selecting topics that challenged them to really understand issues from both sides.  For many students this involved doing research on the Internet, or in the library, to gather historical background information on their topic of choice.  Students wrote persuasive essays, usually requiring four drafts, and then included an art project based on the topic.

Jasmine selected the topic of religion and its impact on society for her persuasive essay. She spent over ten hours doing research on religious intolerance, religious persecution, agnostics, atheists, and the social and political impact of religion on the world over the centuries.  “We looked at topics from both sides of the issue,” said Jasmine. “That’s how you build a good persuasive argument.”

Jasmine produced four drafts of her essay and shared it with her teacher and several of her fellow students who provided critical feedback and challenged her assumptions. “I learned so much about religion,” said Jasmine. “Some religions tell people how to live and act, and what to do.  Some are just “way out there”, and really what we need to do is just respect each other.”

As an educator, Nissie Ellison knows that this kind of exercise helps students learn to be critical thinkers, as well as better writers. “That’s really the goal of this program,” said Ellison. “I’m helping students come out of their shell and explore a subject they are very passionate about at the same time we’re working on writing skills.”

Promising Results

In April, over 80% of A3 students who took the statewide writing test met or exceeded state benchmarks.  The statewide average is just over 63%.

“I am extremely proud of our students and teachers for the results we are seeing so far in our writing program,” said Michael Fisher.  “There is still much work to be done, and innovative programs like this that integrates arts and academics, and challenge students to be inventive and critical thinkers, are what makes A3 a special small school.”

The Academy of Arts & Academics has only just begun its second year as a new small high school, but already it is demonstrating attributes of a successful small school.  They have established a small school environment that focuses on relationships and challenging classes, and they have put together a team of passionate and talented educators who are “shaking up the old model” and successfully utilizing innovative best practices to help improve student achievement.  Congratulations A3 on having the Write Stuff!

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