DECEMBER 10, 2024 Meeting of the Wakefield School Committee (Screen capture WCAT)
By NEIL ZOLOT
WAKEFIELD — Students in writing classes are using new tools to improve their techniques, the EmPOWER sequence and the Brain Frame organizational tool. “We’re asking kids to write and giving them a clear process,” Middle and High School English Language Arts Curriculum Coordinator Margaret Messier told the School Committee in a Literacy Update during the meeting Tuesday, December 10. “The focus is on the how of writing not the what, regardless of what they’re writing. It makes them more independent in the writing process.”
EmPOWER is an acronym for Evaluate, Make a Plan, Organize, Work, Evaluate and Rework.
More specifically, students will evaluate and future out what the need to include in their work, make a plan and organize their thoughts to figure how they can put their ideas in writing, re-evaluate during the thought process to fine tune their work and write and rewrite along the way.
One tool to help facilitate the EmPOWER process is Brain Frames, which can provide a visual organizational translation of work that is designed by the student. “It encourages independence by not giving them a standard graphic organizer,” Messier explained. “It’s less limiting than a standard organizer.”
Brain Frames’ own literature describes it as “a tool that can be used in the organization step of the writing process, but can also be used as a comprehension tool and note organizer across content areas. Brain Frames makes invisible language patterns visible by showing students how to organize their thinking so they can see the patterns of language graphically.”
Steps include “tell what I know, explain cause and effects, sort ideas into categories, make connections between ideas, compare and/or contrast and sequence ideas in order.”
They also have a sample poster that includes sections for sharing connections, categorizing, sequencing and showing causes and telling.
These steps, according to Brain Frames, help students “understand what they hear and read, organize ideas in logical ways, write stories, paragraphs, and essays that make sense and share their thoughts and ideas with confidence.”
Messier reported during their recent visit, representatives of the accreditation body New England Association of Schools and Colleges were impressed with the widespread use of Brain Frames.
The School Department is also following ELA Common Core State Standard steps of building knowledge through content rich nonfiction and teaching reading, writing and speaking grounded in evidence from literary and informational texts.
Grades K-4 ELA Curriculum Coordinator Val Drinan added students are being encouraged to include both sides of an issue in their argumentative or opinionated writing.
Assistant Superintendent Kara Mauro feels these practices mean “by the time they get to High School students will have a lot in their toolbox.”
Earlier in the meeting, Superintendent Doug Lyons explained NEASC sends people to school systems every two years to monitor progress and thanked Mauro for organizing meetings with Curriculum Coordinators. “They’ve been in classes and faculty meetings and we’ve gotten favorable feedback,” he said.
School Committee Chairman Stephen Ingalls added, “It’s great to hear feedback from outside the district.”
—————
Lyons also mentioned a “topping off ceremony” will be held at the high school 10 a.m. Friday, December 20 when the last piece of steel is put in place for the new building. “The topping off ceremony is a tradition and a milestone that signifies the placement of the final structural beam and the completion of a building’s structural framework,” he said. “The Bond Construction team, headed by Site Superintendent Jerry Hammersly has invited students and staff to sign their names to the beam that will be set in place and embedded in the bones of the new building. That is a thing students and staff will always remember.”
It is hoped the school will open in January 2027. “This could change as construction appears to be ahead of schedule, but that could change as well,” Lyons said.
A WORKER kneels under the sign for the new Wakefield Memorial High School construction site. (Mark Sardella Photo)
