Bay Area

Notes for Accreditation Meeting May, 2004
 
Our group met on May 18, 2004.
We re-examined the profile data and the identified critical academic needs. And saw that writing and math were indeed critical nees.
We selected the expected schoolwide learning results that correlate with the critical academic needs.
 
Our group has been assigned writing as a focus. 
Each group member brought writing samples to share.  Catherine Miller also brought samples to share and a rubric for evaluating the writing samples which could be attached to the samples.
 
Using the rubric, we evaluated each sample, then discussed what we observed and brainstormed ideas to help the school make activities leading to competent writing a focus across the curriculum.
 
It was suggested that we should encourage parents to make writing more of a focus in grades K-3, even though the current California standards for that grade do not emphasize writing.
 
It was suggested that to help our parents and students do this, writing ideas and curriculum recommendations might be included in the newsletter month to month.
 
It was suggested that it would help our students to have an audience for their writing, something which is present in a site-based classroom situation but isn't always in a homeschool situation.  Suggestions for providing that audience included the possibility of a series of monthly writing contests for poetry, essays and creative pieces such as short stories.  Winners and honorable mentions could be featured in a special section of the newsletter where student work would be featured.
 
If the newsletter became too unwieldy as a result of adding these things, we might want to consider starting a separate student literary publication, to which students could also submit letters or pieces of writing expressing their opinions, sharing and recommending favorite books, or writing about interesting experiences such as travel or special activities they participate in.  This would be a way to share and communicate with other students, and it might motivate them to write more.  (This occurred to me as I was writing up the notes.)
 
It was suggested that the writing contests should have an overall theme month to month.
 
It was suggested that grade appropriate writing rubrics be made available to parents in the parent resource section of our website so that they would have an objective means of evaluating student writing.  ES's could deliver these to parents without computer access.
 
It was suggested that well written and well read books on tape would be a wonderful resource for families in which the parents have limited vocabulary or education, or limited time to read to their children.  Students need to be exposed to correct, rich language, and books on tape would provide them with an opportunity to hear good readers using language well and correctly.  Using language correctly in speaking would hopefully carry over to their writing.
 
The above suggestion was made in response to an expressed concern that the general level of spoken language and committment to reading to children was not the same in all families, and that this could lead to differences in ability with spoken language and writing in our students.   Even with the best intentions, parents with a limited vocabulary and poor reading skills might not be able to give their homeschooled children the same exposure to correct language and passion for reading that they would get in theory from their teachers or other children in a regular classroom situation.  Books on tape would be one way to address this.