Education expert hosting session for Altoona Area
Altoona Area faculty of all subjects are in an in-service session today to learn how to boost student achievement through getting students to write; students of all ages will simultaneously gain a deeper understanding of subjects across the curriculum and skills to write a winning college paper or a promotion-earning memo in the workforce, the instructor leading the program said.
John Collins, founder and managing director of Collins Education Associates LLC, is visiting Altoona to provide teachers with his achievement-through-writing approach to teaching.
Math or science teachers may be skeptical of blending writing with their assignments, but Kelly Livermore, Altoona Area High School instructional coach, said she hopes they see the ease of implementing Collins’ program.
“It forms to everyone’s content areas,” she said. “We are taking what we are already doing and making it better.”
“I think this will support student achievement. Writing is thinking, and when you can write about something, you really have a deeper understanding of it,” she said.
Collins’ visit was funded by the district administration, she said, and on Thursday, administrators took the lead in classrooms so 20 teachers could attend a professional development day before the full in-service session today.
Collins’ method was introduced last year to four Altoona English teachers who piloted the program in the fourth semester.
“From the third semester last year to the fourth, students showed a marked difference,” said 12th-grade English teacher Dave McCarter. “We have high expectations, but what my seniors produced went even beyond that.”
Collins has been developing the program for more than 20 years, making tweaks along the way, he said.
With national Common Core standards adopted in various ways by states in 2012, Collins adjusted his program.
“We didn’t have national standards four years ago. When they came out, we tweaked the program to follow the standards. It was easy,” he said.
“If kids are writing, they are engaged, and they discover things they don’t know. They say, ‘I thought I knew that, but wow,'” he said.
Mirror Staff Writer Russ O’Reilly is at 946-7435.
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