Gretchen Bernabei, a highly coveted writing specialist was brought in on Oct. 23 to help teachers with strategies to implement in classrooms. Elementary through high school teachers traveled from several districts in the North Texas area to hear Bernabei speak.
The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) test, especially the English and writing, has caused some concern among area teachers, and Bernabei came to Argyle to offer teachers a variety of methods for implementing change in their writing instruction.
“The purpose of the workshop was to learn about writing and pass the strategies on to the students,” AHS department chair Leighann Fenter said. ,
Fenter also said she learned new activities to apply in her eleventh grade AP and dual credit English classes.
“She offered practical and easy to apply planning strategies such as the 11 minute essay where students are guided by the teacher,” Fenter said.
Senior English teacher Stacy Short said she the workshop would help her apply new techniques in the classroom.
“One of the things Bernabei reminded me of was the concept of experience, that all good writing comes from personal experience of some kind,“ Short said. “My students are writing biographies throughout the year, so one thing I can add from the training will be the Kernel Method that helps bring that experience and applies all the senses into their writing,” she said.
Jeanna Sutton, who teaches English I and II as well as ESL class, also plans to make use of the popular 11 minute essay more in her own classroom.
“I will incorporate some of the strategies I learned into warm-ups for my classes,” freshman English teacher Jennifer Fischer said. “But my favorite part of the workshop was learning new things and learning how all my colleagues plan to incorporate the strategies they learned into their work.”
Overall the day was full of productivity for the teachers and everyone came away from the workshop with some new tips to enhance their teaching styles.
When asked to describe the day in five words or less, Fenter offered that the day was “engaging and practical” and Fischer added that “It was inspiring and helpful.”
