By By BEN RAYMOND LODE / Niles Daily Star
NILES -- Ballard Elementary School fourth graders on Tuesday night showed that the Writers Workshop the school adopted K-6 in January last year has paid off.
The fourth graders on Tuesday read some of the stories they have written since to parents and visitors who came to Author's Night at the Ballard Library.
The Writers Workshop is a program, while encouraging them to write, teaches students about the many different genres that can be used in writing, such as fantasy, poetry, realistic fiction, narrative non-fiction, book reviews and even jokes.
The workshops are also designed to give the students more freedom of choice on what to write, that way hopefully motivating students to write more.
The program was implemented because the school found their students falling behind in writing skills.
Mary Rouse, whose daughter Emily was among the Fourth graders who has written stories that were read Tuesday, said she has seen a change in her daughters attitude to writing since the school adopted the program.
Rouse also said her daughter is not just writing more, but her new motivation for writing has also led her to read more.
But parents aren't the only ones noticing the change in their students attitude to writing.
Jennifer Simmons, fourth grade teacher and Author's Night organizer, said she and her students have enjoyed working with the program since it its implementation.
She said it has improved the students writing and has enabled them to expand on the writing genres they are good at.
Now, she said, it seems like writing has become fun rather than a painful ordeal.