Peabody school officials seek progress in writing

PEABODY – West Memorial School Principal Thomas P. Cornacchio said that the school?s curriculum needs to focus more on writing and composition based on MCAS scores.?Anytime the state asks the kids to write, we need to do better,” Cornacchio said to the school committee Thursday night at a school improvement plan meeting.While the school overall did well in reading and literature, West Memorial fell short of the state average and has not seen adequate growth in that area over the years.?The writing scores are not moving as fast as they should be,” he said. “That is something we need to focus on.”The principal explained to the committee his goals to improve this weakness.?I don?t think you need an expensive program,” Cornacchio said. “I think you just need to roll up your sleeves and start writing. The kids need to be writing every day.”Cornacchio wants to see students writing across the curriculum and not just in English class. “Writing is hard work and kids need to know that,” he said.He also suggested that each grade level focus on a specific genre. For example, the first grade would focus on narrative writing and fourth grade would focus on report writing, said Cornacchio. “That way they will be experts on each genre once they leave the school,” he said.Cornacchio said giving writing a purpose will also help the students. “One class this year wrote letters to soldiers in the Middle East,” Cornacchio said. “The kids were so excited to write them letters and writing became very important to them then.”One-hundred and twenty-eight students participated in the 2011 MCAS from West Memorial. Forty-five were third graders, 33 were fourth graders and 50 were fifth graders. Over 30 percent of the students who took the MCAS fell within the students with disabilities category.John E. McCarthy School principal Raymond Smoyer also discussed his goals with the school committee. The McCarthy school also wants to focus more on writing. Smoyer said it was a subject the whole city should take a closer look at.While they want to focus more on writing and composition, they were the best in the northeast region for advanced reading in the third grade.McCarthy doesn?t have as many special-needs students as West Memorial does but they do have more low-income students. Thirty percent of the student body population is made up of low-income students.?You need to think about what these kids go home to. You are talking foster kids, drug addicts, prostitution,” Smoyer said. “You are talking really nasty stuff.”That is why McCarthy focuses on the social and emotional needs of the students. “They need to feel good about themselves first or they are not going to succeed in life,” Smoyer said. “I think we are getting better at this.”Smoyer said all the teachers in the school will get together grade-by-grade and develop a game plan on what they think that individual grade needs to work on and improve.Sara Brown may be reached at [email protected]