AHS hosts field trip for Harmon English students

This year, tenth grade English teacher Melissa Lindley and seventh grade English teacher LaQuita Timberlake teamed up to create a new writing experience for their students. For some of the essays they write, the seventh-grade students receive feedback from their tenth-grade counterparts, making the writing process more personal and productive through one-on-one feedback.

“Every year, a teacher needs to set a professional goal. So this year I decided my professional goal would be to create a writing program between my students and younger students. I chose seventh grade because I know Mrs. Timberlake and our teaching philosophies are the same,” said Lindley.

At the beginning of the year, Timberlake sent Lindley her students’ essays, which Lindley then distributed to her new tenth-graders. The only stipulation was that the students working together couldn’t already know each other. In this way, the students were likely to stay on task while also getting the opportunity to make new friends.

At first, the exchange was paper-based. “The seventh-graders wrote an expository essay, which the tenth-graders read and responded to with written comments. Then, the second time the seventh-grade students shared their narrative with the tenth-graders through google docs,” said Lindley.

Referring to the collaboration, seventh-grader Emily Pierce said, “It helped us with the skill of comparing and contrasting facts.”

Having revised two essays together, the students gathered in person on December 5th, during an in-school field trip at Aurora High School to work on the middle school students’ latest assignment. They wrote about an the article “Big Fish in Troubled Waters” by Stephen Ornes, and discussed potential improvements to their work.

“This time we isolated a problem that both of our students had in writing. I decided to do sentence variety,” said Lindley. “Almost all of the tenth-graders’ sentences began with ‘Hester’ or ‘this,’ and almost all of the seventh-graders started their sentences with ‘he’ or ‘this.’ I taught my students nine different versions of sentence variety, four of which they then taught to the seventh-graders. My students made a handout for them.”

Seventh-grader Faith Carlson said, “My writing coach helped me evolve in my writing because I used to start my sentences with the same words, but now that I went to the high school and met with my writing coach, I am making sure to change up the beginning of my sentences.”

The upper halls of AHS transformed into a writing workshop, consisting of 45 tenth-grade students and 96 seventh-grade students. Assistant Superintendent Mike Roberto and Harmon’s Assistant Principal Mike Janatovitch weaved through groups of students, happily observing the students’ work.

“One of the benefits is students hearing the same things from a different source. There have been so many times when my students tell me what their writing coaches have said, and it is the same advice I have given,” said Timberlake. “Even though it wasn't planned, the high school coaches have taught my students to provide better feedback to their peers. Teaching students to offer comments on the writing of others is challenging for myriad reasons, but my students offer better suggestions than they ever have in the past, and I am sure it is because of their writing coaches.”

Tenth-grade mentor Hannah Mohan said, “I think… that they learned to write better from somebody who is still a student and relates to them instead of just having a teacher tell them.”

The learning also worked in the opposite direction.

“I feel looking at these younger students' writing pieces makes me reflect on my own writing style and simple mistakes I make in my writing that I need to fix,” said tenth-grader Sydney Verel.

In addition to improving their writing skills, the students valued the opportunity for building new relationships.

“We got to meet our coaches and get to know them at a personal level. They did work to improve our writing and still asked some questions about ourselves,” said seventh-grade student Spencer McCrae.

“We talked a lot about just about everything. The sports we do… the clubs we are in,” said Mohan, who worked with three seventh-graders.

“One of the most important parts of this project is the human connection. Mr. Janatovich came with us to the high school and mentioned that when my students are freshmen, their coaches will still be at the high school. All my students will know at least one upperclassman, which is wonderful,” said Timberlake.

She added, “We sometimes forget about the intangibles, but they are so important. To see my students with their coaches, smiling and talking about writing, is such a powerful image because it means positive connections were made.”

Likewise, Mohan said, “I hope they at least know they have somebody to come to when they need help.”

Caitlin Hensley, one of Timberlake’s students, spoke for all when she said, “Overall, I think it was a lot of fun and that we should do it again.”

Lindley said, “I know my students have enjoyed doing it. We’ve had seventh-graders go into conferences with Mrs. Timberlake asking if they can take their mentors to Starbucks because they want to thank them.”

“It was cool to meet someone new,” said seventh-grader Mariah Penn.

Furthermore, Lindley and Timberlake expressed their gratitude towards all of the teachers who made the field trip possible. “Teachers were willing to give up their rooms and rearrange their assignments to allow students to leave their classes for the day. I know the meeting inconvenienced many teachers, but they were wonderfully supportive, which we truly appreciate,” said Timberlake.

By sacrificing their class time and creating alternative lessons, the teachers demonstrated their support of writers.

Lindley and Timberlake plan to continue the student collaboration throughout the next semester and in the years to come.

“I would like for the writers and coaches to meet at least once more but twice would be even better. It would be wonderful for the coaches to come to Harmon at the end of the year to celebrate everyone's accomplishments,” said Timberlake.

“Now there are other teachers at the middle school that want to do this,” said Lindley, “We started small, in a controlled environment, and now we can add another layer.”

Timberlake said, “I would also love to take my seventh graders to Leighton to work with fourth or fifth graders next year. I could envision those fourth or fifth graders going to Miller to work with little ones. I may be going overboard, but I love this program and want everyone to have this opportunity.”