On one of the warmer days this school year, students at St. Mary School in Paris went outdoors to write in their writer’s notebooks during a CLASS Works writer’s workshop. Clockwise from the right are eighth-grader Cassady Merritt, and seventh-graders Eyriana Brown, Charlee Walker and Sarah Ellis (in foreground).

PARIS — St. Mary School is the first school in Illinois to use the Indianapolis-based Connecting Learning Assures Successful Students (CLASS) program, which includes coaches and summer institutes ranging in topics from behavior, classroom settings, literacy and more. The school model used lifelines, instead of character traits, as an integral part of the curriculum. Its two life goals are treat people right, and do the right thing, which serves as the basis for lifelines, and includes cooperation, organization, perseverance, and honesty among many other qualities.

St. Mary’s is assigned two coaches, one for junior high and one for elementary level, who provide teachers current and engaging resources to use in the classroom. As part of a writer’s workshop, each student receives a composition notebook to be used as a writer’s notebook. As the first activity, students are asked to list possible story ideas in their notebooks and to write a list of memories, events and other stories they encountered in their lives. Then, junior high coach Jim McMillan asked the students to start a list of “Things that hurt” and “Things that sparkle.” McMillan stressed the importance of having lists at hand from different categories to help with alternate styles of writing, especially sensory writing that appeals to the five senses. A “Things that …” list helps students use descriptive language and learn to adapt their writing for their audience, he said.

“As a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher, I know how crucial it is for students to learn how to write,” St. Mary’s teacher Brittany Taylor said. “Most students are intimidated by the whole process of writing. But my students love their writer’s notebooks. They are adding more entries to their lists and eager to begin more descriptive stories. Their enthusiasm is apparent by the protest when it is time to put aside the notebook.”

For more information about CLASS, visit www.classworksforme.com or contact St. Mary's School.