Raising the Educational Achievement of Secondary School Students - Volume 2 Profiles of Promising Practices - 1995

A r c h i v e d I n f o r m a t i o n

Engaging Students in Writing Across the Curriculum Using Portfolios to Improve Language Arts Instruction

Grizzly Hill School
North San Juan, California

Key Characteristics

Language arts program encourages students to write in all classes, not just English

Students maintain portfolios in which they demonstrate their proficiencies

Annual portfolio reviews help teachers reflect on their teaching styles
Number of Students: 170
Grades Served: 4-8

Racial/Ethnic Breakdown:

94% White

6% Hispanic or American Indian

Eligible for Free/Reduced-Price Lunch: 70%
Chapter 1 Program: Yes
Major Sources of Outside Funding: California Department of Education Middle Schools Demonstration Program

Overview

During her first two years at Grizzly Hill, Bonnie avoided writing like the plague. When she began the sixth grade in 1992, however, all her teachers--not just the one who taught language arts--began requiring a significant amount of writing in their classes. Besides the essays she had always written for English, she found that, in science, she was now required to write analytic observation-description papers discussing experiments she had conducted during class. And in math, her teacher integrated creative writing techniques into geometry. To her surprise, Bonnie enjoyed the change and learned that the writing process can use a number of different styles--many of which are fun. At the end of the year, Bonnie's teacher and her colleagues review Bonnie's portfolio to assess the progress of the language arts program at Grizzly Hill and make plans for next year.

Beginning in 1989 with a grant from the California Department of Education, the Grizzly Hill School has developed a model language arts program that features writing across the curriculum, portfolio assessment, and capstone projects for eighth-grade students.

School Context

Grizzly Hill is located in a rural county in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The school is 40 minutes from the nearest major grocery store and 90 minutes from Sacramento. The teachers have long been a tight-knit group. Most teachers have been teaching at Grizzly Hill since it opened in 1986, and most have more than ten years of teaching experience. In addition, the isolation of the area in which they live and work contributes to cohesiveness.

In 1989, the school received a grant from the California Department of Education to develop a model language arts program to meet four objectives: (1) engage students in writing across the curriculum; (2) provide students with writing experience in the eight domains of writing delineated in the state assessment program; (3) give students experience in all stages of the writing process; and (4) assess students' writing skills through the use of portfolios. Initially, the school used its grant to fund two teachers to attend the California Literature Project, a month-long training institute at California State University in Sacramento. The teachers received instruction on how to use portfolios in their own classes and began a rigorous writing program, but the school had no mechanism through which to institutionalize the process. However, in 1991, things began to change when a new principal convened a faculty retreat to discuss how to strengthen the curriculum and qualify for a second language arts grant.

Major Program Features

In response to the principal's challenge to create a stronger curriculum, the faculty members divided into four groups, each responsible for developing a plan to meet one of the four grant objectives. Each group identified (1) knowledge and skills that students need in order to meet the objective, (2) areas where staff need training, and (3) ways to determine whether students and staff were meeting the objectives. At a meeting in November 1991, the school faculty adopted all four plans. During the rest of the school year, the teachers received training in the various stages of the writing process, the eight domains of writing specified in the California assessment program, writing across the curriculum, and the use of portfolios to conduct holistic writing assessments. They also began to implement the changes described below.

Writing Across the Curriculum

Teaching the writing process. Students practice the writing process in all their classes. They brainstorm ideas; prepare outlines; write rough drafts; share their work with peers, teachers, and parents; edit; and complete final drafts. Most teachers hang posters showing these stages in their classrooms. Students also learn to write for specific purposes--stories, reports, autobiographical incidents, problem-solution papers, biographical sketches, speculations about cause and effect, observation-description papers, and evaluations.
Writing in all classes. Students write extensively in all of their classes. In science, for example, students complete a writing assignment at the end of each unit. Eighth graders studying the heart are asked to write a problem-solution paper about tobacco. They identify a problem related to the heart and caused by tobacco, explain how tobacco causes the problem, and discuss the effects of reducing tobacco on the heart. Also in science, sixth graders learn how to write speculation papers about cause and effect, create stories, and write evaluations. One sixth-grade group studying the scientific process of photosynthesis wrote and illustrated story books for younger children on photosynthesis. In math, most teachers assign weekly writing problems. In one fifth-grade class, students were asked to choose a geometrical shape and write an autobiographical incident based on that shape.
All-school writing exercises. Twice a year, every student at Grizzly Hill creates a writing sample based on the same prompt. The writing samples are scored by teachers using rubrics that they have developed. In 1993-94, each student was asked to write a problem-solution paper in the form of a letter to the principal in which they identified a problem, issue, or situation in their classroom or school, proposed several solutions, chose one solution, and explained their selection. Teachers invited seventh- and eighth-grade students to evaluate and score the writing samples. According to the principal, students learned ways to enhance their writing through this exchange with teachers.
Capstone projects. Each year in the spring, eighth graders conduct an extended research project on a local environmental or community issue. Students work alone or in small groups to research, write, and produce multi-media presentations of their findings. They present the results of their work during a special evening ceremony in front of parents, teachers, and other students.
In 1994, one student made a sound and slide presentation of the eighth graders' trip to Sailor Basin, an old growth forest. Another student wrote a report on the effects of logging under the three- acre exemption in Nevada County. Three students created a database of information about brown and rainbow trout in Spring Creek. Another group wrote a report on the effects of pollution on forests, water, and people. In developing their presentations, students received assistance from individuals from the Bureau of Land Management, the Yuba Watershed Institute, and the Sierra Biodiversity Institute.

Portfolios

All the students at Grizzly Hill have a portfolio that contains the writing they have produced for their classes. The portfolios include completed work, work in progress, and comments about their work from teachers, peers, and parents. Teachers use the portfolios to assess student performance; students are evaluated according to their individual progress and not in comparison with each other. At the end of the school year, each student selects one writing sample from language arts to keep in a permanent portfolio; each may also select one to three pieces of writing from other courses.

Community members whose careers or hobbies require them to keep portfolios introduced students to the concept of portfolios during the 1991-92 school year. These individuals shared their photographs, drawings, writings, and furniture samples with students. Every year the school holds a portfolio day in which professional artists display their work portfolios for students.

Once each year, Grizzly Hill also holds a portfolio night in which students share their portfolios with their families. In addition, students receive awards for academic progress and excellence, and students who have won county-wide contests are recognized. At portfolio night, each writing domain is represented by a booth. At the portfolio night in the spring of 1994, for example, there was an evaluation booth where parents tasted cookies, evaluated them, and learned from students how to write an evaluative paper.

Support for Implementation

Staff Development Opportunities

Most of the teachers at Grizzly Hill have attended month-long institutes sponsored by the California Literature Project at California State University in Sacramento. At the institutes, teachers read adult literature and divide into groups to discuss what they have read. They also receive training on portfolio assessment, writing across the curriculum, and the different stages of the writing process. Teachers who attend the month-long institute meet with their group 12 times over the course of the next two years. During these meetings, teachers share their experiences with portfolios and writing across the curriculum. Besides meeting on a regular basis, groups visit other schools to share their experiences. The Literature Project also offers two-day workshops four or five times a year that address current topics in education.

Portfolio Reviews

Each year, a review team consisting of the principal and two teachers visits each classroom and examines three portfolios. By looking at a few portfolios, the team can determine whether students are writing in at least three domains, whether they are writing in all their classes, and whether they are practicing the different stages of the writing process. After reviewing the portfolios, the team meets with the classroom teacher to provide feedback. Teachers say they welcome these reviews because they allow time for reflection on their teaching in a collegial situation. According to the principal, the reviews are a cornerstone of the language arts program at the school.

Evidence of Success

Eighth-grade students at Grizzly Hill take the California Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) in several subjects. They also complete a writing sample, as do all of the eighth graders in the county. Before 1991, the students at Grizzly Hill typically had high reading scores on the CTBS, and average scores in other areas. Their scores on the writing sample, though, were among the lowest in the county--with between one-half and two-thirds of them failing. In the past three years, Grizzly Hill eighth-graders have maintained their strong CTBS scores in English and have improved their performance on the writing sample. Sixty-five to 90 percent have passed the writing sample during the past three years, giving Grizzly Hill one of the highest passing rates in the county.

In 1992, Grizzly Hill was selected by the California State Department of Education to receive a second three-year grant and become a dissemination site for its language arts program. Accordingly, the school hosted a one-day conference, attended by 40 teachers from throughout northern California. Visiting teachers observed classrooms in the morning and met with teachers in the afternoon. Because Grizzly Hill is a dissemination site, one teacher currently serves as a coach for a school that has received a middle school demonstration project grant to develop a model language arts program. In addition, the whole faculty will serve as consultants in 1994-95 to a different school during its program quality review, a cyclical review process in which a school identifies a problem area and requests assistance from another school. This school has asked the faculty at Grizzly Hill to help them in the area of language arts.

Teachers indicated that the emphasis on writing in every subject has changed their approach to teaching. Teachers have to plan their curriculum and instructional methods in ways that promote higher-order thinking skills and lead to engaging writing assignments. They can't rely on textbooks and worksheets, and they can't focus on teaching discreet skills. According to a sixth-grade teacher, "The emphasis on writing has made a big difference. The students perceive themselves as authors, and they are comfortable working collaboratively to critique each other's work. This wouldn't have happened if we were still using worksheets."

The principal commented on the language arts program: "The culture of the school has changed with this program. If I were to leave, this part of the school would stay. The teachers feel a sense of ownership towards it.
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