Pine Cobble Students Recognized in Writing Competition| 03:46PM / Tuesday, May 06, 2014 | |
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Pine Cobble students have been recognized for the sixth consecutive year in the Letters About Literature writing competition.
Fifth-grader Will McDonough and sixth-grader Merrie Benjamin both won honors designations, ranking them in the top 1 percent of young writers in Massachusetts. Jack Gitterman, in fifth grade, was a semi-finalist.
During the past six years, a total of 12 Pine Cobble students have been recognized by this competition, which has between 3,000 and 5,000 entrants in Massachusetts alone every year.
Letters About Literature is a national reading and writing program that asks students in Grades 4 through 12 to write letters to authors whose work has made a significant difference in their lives. It is sponsored nationally by the Library of Congress and Target Stores. The evaluation process includes review first by national panelists, then by in-state judges.
Pine Cobble fifth-grade students took on the challenge as a part of a classroom assignment on writing, with support from teacher Cornelia Alden.
McDonough wrote to C.S. Lewis about "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," noting how the character Peter found strength in the face of disappointment. Gitterman wrote to Tim Green about "Unstoppable," the story of a foster child determined to play football.
Last year, as a fifth-grader, Merrie won an honors designation (also working with Alden). This year, although it was not a part of her curriculum, Benjamin submitted a letter independently – to JK Rowling about Harry Potter – and won an honors designation a second year in a row.
"Writing is one of the most important skills we can teach students, and it's one of the hardest things to teach," said Sue Wells, Pine Cobble's head of school. "Writing well is never simple; it's a deeply involved process of finding and trusting one’s voice, articulating complex ideas, learning to hear constructive criticism, editing and revising, self-evaluation … and then doing the whole thing over again."
Writing well is one of four 21st century skills ranked "most important" by more than 400 business leaders according to a study by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills; more than 80 percent of those surveyed ranked high school graduates in America as "deficient" in this skill.
"Teaching writing requires a tremendous amount of support, trust, and one-on-one dialogue," added Wells. "That's precisely why it's so hard for so many schools to do it well."
Wells notes that the Pine Cobble curriculum emphasizes outstanding writing at every grade. The school integrates writing into all subjects — including math, science, history, and art. Pine Cobble has a dedicated writing coach, Linda Bernard, who works hands-on with students in all grades and leads a school-wide writing initiative for differentiated writing instruction. A beloved fifth-grade teacher for many years, Bernard was honored two years ago by the commonwealth of Massachusetts for excellence in teaching writing.
Students of all ages at Pine Cobble are exposed to a broad range of literature, and they are expected to develop skills writing many different styles — fiction, non-fiction, prose, poetry, plays, letters, expository writing, reports, persuasive essays, biographies, and more. Strong emphasis is placed not only on the initial work, but also a multistep editing process. Students read much of their work in front of audiences – part of Pine Cobble's related emphasis on oral communications and public speaking.
"To have 12 students recognized, from literally tens of thousands over six years, is an absolutely incredible honor," said Wells. Pine Cobble has deliberately small classrooms – between 10 and 15 in any given year – which makes these numbers even more impressive, she said. "It's a great testament to how hard our faculty work helping each student find his or her voice."
McDonough and Benjamin will be honored during a ceremony at the State House in Boston on Tuesday, May 27.
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