Faculty Trained: Institute For Excellence in Writing (IEW)

In a world where communication technology is ever more ubiquitous, children’s ability to use that technology to communicate articulately and clearly using proper grammar, writing, and speaking skills sadly seems to continue to decline.  R.M. Ruggles, the editor of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication (ASJMC) journal Insights writes in their Spring 2006 Issue: “For the 35 years I was a journalism teacher and administrator, I watched, partly in horror but also in puzzled fascination, as students entered journalism studies with less and less grasp of grammar and spelling.”

At Prince of Peace Catholic School, our students will not enter high school without a solid grounding in English grammar and writing skills.

To target this key communications task at POPCS, we have partnered with the Institute for Excellence in Writing (IEW), a non-profit organization dedicated to “training teachers in a clear, sequential, effective method of teaching writing that reinforces curricular content such as history, science, and literature.”  In August, 2009, an IEW consultant spent two days training POPCS faculty on “Teaching Structure and Style.” Training continued in October 2009 with day three, then a follow up with the consultant on day four in each classroom at each grade level.

Since then, our students beginning in K5 have been building their skills and achieving their goals in "structure and style."  That's great education!

Skills our students learn in the classroom include: