Writers In Residence

According to a BBC report from a few days ago, some schools have in-house writers to help young kids become better writers. It's fantastic, because then they learn to develop good habits. They also learn to shape their own writing style, and of course, learn to read. Do you think this kind of "scheme" as they call "plans" in Britain, would ever happen in the good ol' US of A?

School's In Session!

As much as we don't want to believe it....

Today in History: September 11

In the "Think About It & Write It!" guide, I describe the benefits of what I call "speed writing," where you write freely and quickly about a topic without worrying about grammar, punctuation, style - all the things that make people nervous about writing. I'm taking this day to do a little speed writing of my own to reflect on all the changes, both good and bad, that have happened since September 11, 2001. I have a friend who died on that day and I think throughout the year about his family and how even though these years have passed, the time probably doesn't lessen their pain. So I'm spending today hoping that all of the good that we do, even the little things, outweigh the bad.

Whew!

I don't know about you, but this school year has crept up on me, knocked my feet out from under me, and swept me away! Things are starting to settle down now that there's some repetition, but time is always marching on:

The deadline to register for the next SAT is coming up quickly! According to the CollegeBoard, Next Friday, Sept. 19 is the LATE deadline for the October 4th exam, only a few weeks away! But don't worry too much - there's still plenty of time to work on studying and getting your essay writing skills in gear. I work well under pressure - do you?

SAT scores stay at lowest level in nearly a decade? I'm not surprised.

I just read an article from a few days ago about SAT scores being so low. Who's surprised? Not this tutor. Not everyone can afford an expensive test prep program even though a LOT of kids want to go to college. The article shows a graph of dipping critical and math scores, but what's more important to me is the big dip on the graph for the Writing section. Students just aren't getting the info they need from schools to take a test, and teachers in schools shouldn't coach students to ace a standardized test. If they do, then they're not learning anything, and that's really unfortunate. What's also unfortunate is the sharp contrast in scores, with black students' scores being tragically lower than white and Asian students' scores.