I saw this story in the PI today. I sure hope it makes its way to the schools in our neighborhood, which would have lots of kids that are learning English as a second language.
Program teaches children power of the pen
By Jessica Blanchard
The first is two nearly bare pages, with two garbled sentences, illustrated by a single pencil drawing. The second, a tale about a little girl's morning routine, has much more detail, the words and pictures filling three full pages. The cheery sketches are carefully labeled: house, flowers, fence, sun.
The author is a second-grader who is learning English as a second language — and the two stories were written just over two months apart.
"It's so incredible to see the growth," said Dan Coles, the literacy program manager for Seattle Public Schools.
snip
Four elementary schools are testing out the Writer's Workshop program this year: Coe, Olympic Hills, Madrona and Loyal Heights. District officials hope to eventually expand the program to all the elementary schools.
Read the whole story at seattlepi.nwsource.com.
