Princeton Charter School (PCS) offers a public choice for students in kindergarten through grade eight. By explaining the PCS approach to teaching writing, this pamphlet, like the others in the Learning at PCS series, intends to help parents make an informed choice in schooling for their children.

What are PCS's basic objectives and procedures in teaching writing?

A major element in the PCS language arts program is learning to use the written language well. The main components of the writing program include expository and creative writing, with emphasis on organization, grammar, syntax, spelling, and penmanship. At PCS, writing is not limited to language arts classes; students are expected to produce written work on a regular basis in history and science as well.

PCS's basic strategies in teaching writing are presented in the school's Charter:

The acquisition of writing skills progresses in conjunction with reading. Students in Kindergarten and first grade write simple sentences. In second and third grade, they write stories, poems, letters, and book reports, and begin to learn the formal writing process of outlining, drafting, revising, and editing. Students in fourth grade refine composition skills such as paragraphing, dialogue, and more complex sentence structure. Emphasis is on expository and expressive writing that is well organized with introductions, conclusions, and a coherent flow of ideas. Students write every day, and assignments are selected to encourage writings of all types, imaginative and expressive as well as expository and analytical. Instruction in grammar begins in first grade. As their knowledge of sentence and paragraph structure, grammar, spelling, and vocabulary progresses, students are expected to apply these skills to their writings in all subject areas. By the end of eighth grade, students' writing should exhibit coherent thought, appropriate vocabulary, correct syntax, and style.

How are writing skills developed over the elementary and middle school years at PCS?

In the primary grades, writing skills emphasize handwriting, spelling, and grammar. The goal is to help students write simple sentences with correct spelling, capitalization, and punctuation. In these early school years, writing mechanics are emphasized and linked with reading, listening, and speaking skills. In the middle school grades, as students' cognitive development moves from the concrete to the more abstract, the writing program includes expressive and expository writing, as well as grammar, syntax and language mechanics, vocabulary, and spelling. Students in these grades practice writing in a variety of forms: stories, poems, letters, reviews, editorials, dialogues and research reports. By grade eight, students will master a well-organized, grammatically correct, five-paragraph essay, and begin to develop their own personal style in writing. PCS eighth graders will spend much of their writing time working on more advanced projects, including developed creative pieces and research papers with references.

What are some examples of writing skills students develop at PCS?

Some examples of writing assignments at PCS are:

• In grade three, students concentrate on format and paragraph structure, including a topic sentence, supporting details, coherence, and unity.
• In grade six, student writing assignments include creative, analytical, expository prose, and argumentation. Papers are graded on the basis of organizational structure, content, language, and mechanics.
• In grade eight, students are asked to write analytical, expository, and personal essays; the aim is to help students use textual evidence and develop clear theses with solid support.

Milestones are significant learning tasks that all students are expected to complete during a school year. Most milestones include a writing component. For example:

• In grade two, students compose a letter to a family member describing a day in school.
• In grade eight, students prepare a research paper on an historical subject. Students receive guidance from both English and history teachers; the final papers are evaluated by specialists in the community (who are not PCS faculty members).

How are writing skills assessed at PCS?

PCS faculty grade student papers based on specific criteria such as organization, content, grammatical usage, and spelling. Every year, PCS students take a comprehensive writing exam, as a part of the Educational Records Bureau (ERB) test. This test is widely used in independent schools. At PCS, the ERB writing exam is employed to test students' writing mechanics and writing process as well as their actual ability to write, as one part of the exam requires students to produce a timed essay.

How do PCS students perform on external measures of their writing skills?

At every grade level, PCS students outperform their counterparts in the suburban schools norms group, and often surpass their peers in independent schools. This is true not only for class averages; students in the highest and lowest achievement groups at PCS are consistently one and a half to two times as strong as those in their norms groups. Typically, the tests show a significant scoring increase after a student's first year at PCS.

Princeton Charter School is a public school open to all applicants, with priority give to local residents whose tax dollars provide most of the school's budget. PCS serves 280 students in kindergarten through grade eight. The school has single-grade classes in kindergarten through grade four, housed in its lower school building, and two classes each in grades five through eight, housed in its upper school building. PCS is located at 575 Ewing Street in Princeton Township, New Jersey. For further information, please call the school at 609-924-0575, or visit our web site: http://www.pcs.k12.nj.us