MICHELLE MONTALLI and MICHELLE NIETO 

Our Writing & Literacy Program helps students become better readers, writers, and thinkers.  It also prepares students for reading and writing proficiency in subsequent grade levels.  During “Shared Reading” young readers are expected to ponder and reflect on what someone else has written. 

In “Writer’s Workshop” students are asked to write more deeply, deliberately, and conceptually.  In the example of personal narratives students focus on a “small moment” within a day instead of writing about the entire day.  Over a three-week period students write several drafts, reviewing each draft until they arrive at a published piece.  Sam J.’s Adventures in Wave Riding, is an example of the writing that students created in Mrs. Gillespie’s Grade 2 classroom last spring. 

What can we do to make our children better readers, writers, and thinkers?

• Use an extended vocabulary with our children
• ask our children “What are you going to write about today?” 
• select well-written books with “original-thinking” themes for our children to read.

This program, which is funded in part by the Foundation, is a perfect example of how the Foundation works closely with the school to enrich and enhance learning at Torrey Pines. All TPES teachers are familiar with the Writing & Literacy Program and are able to incorporate it into their teaching.