Nancy Martinez received what turned out to be a welcome surprise on Tuesday.
Each of her class sessions at Manteca High consisted of a 10-minute writing activity. And that was regardless of whether it was P.E., geometry, biology or even an elective course.
“They had to tailor their writing to each class,” Principal Doug McCreath said.
It was all part of the National Writing Project’s “Day of the Writer” as declared by the Senate earlier this month, with the event scheduled to be celebrated each Oct. 20.
The writing activity wasn’t just for students.
“Teachers and administrators are also doing this activity throughout the day,” English instructor Elyce Silva said.
She was the one credited for formulating this idea at MHS, according to McCreath.
“It was a great idea on Elyce’s part to encourage writing throughout the day,” he said.
In conjunction with Day of the Writer, the school held its first-ever writing contest, with the winners in each subject area scheduled to receive recognition at some point next week, Silva said.
Meanwhile, Martinez was asked to describe herself in Deanna Diggs’ Geometry class by using each letter in her name.
The MHS sophomore indicated that those letters represented a characteristic, with the percentage of each tallying 100 percent.
“If students can write about something, it means that they understand (the class),” Silva said.
Added Martinez: “I liked that we had changed things up today from our normal routine.”
In particular, she enjoyed her English activity entitled “Wishes.”
Martinez said that “wishes are like magic – in this world, we make our own magic.”
Devin Cooper also enjoyed the writing activity.
“It was fun once I got going,” he said.
His favorite was also the English writing activity “Wishes” along with that of the letter to a part of the body as assigned during P.E.
In Ai Vu’s Biology class, Cooper had the task of writing about a cell in the activity entitled, “For What I Am – What I am not.”
For the MHS sophomore, he was looking forward to writing creatively about a cell.
Each of her class sessions at Manteca High consisted of a 10-minute writing activity. And that was regardless of whether it was P.E., geometry, biology or even an elective course.
“They had to tailor their writing to each class,” Principal Doug McCreath said.
It was all part of the National Writing Project’s “Day of the Writer” as declared by the Senate earlier this month, with the event scheduled to be celebrated each Oct. 20.
The writing activity wasn’t just for students.
“Teachers and administrators are also doing this activity throughout the day,” English instructor Elyce Silva said.
She was the one credited for formulating this idea at MHS, according to McCreath.
“It was a great idea on Elyce’s part to encourage writing throughout the day,” he said.
In conjunction with Day of the Writer, the school held its first-ever writing contest, with the winners in each subject area scheduled to receive recognition at some point next week, Silva said.
Meanwhile, Martinez was asked to describe herself in Deanna Diggs’ Geometry class by using each letter in her name.
The MHS sophomore indicated that those letters represented a characteristic, with the percentage of each tallying 100 percent.
“If students can write about something, it means that they understand (the class),” Silva said.
Added Martinez: “I liked that we had changed things up today from our normal routine.”
In particular, she enjoyed her English activity entitled “Wishes.”
Martinez said that “wishes are like magic – in this world, we make our own magic.”
Devin Cooper also enjoyed the writing activity.
“It was fun once I got going,” he said.
His favorite was also the English writing activity “Wishes” along with that of the letter to a part of the body as assigned during P.E.
In Ai Vu’s Biology class, Cooper had the task of writing about a cell in the activity entitled, “For What I Am – What I am not.”
For the MHS sophomore, he was looking forward to writing creatively about a cell.
