It starts with stick-figure refrigerator drawings. That's how Edgebrook Elementary School teachers train their students to write well. And it's paid off. They are ranked third in the state for their fifth-grade writing scores.
Writing is just an important form of communication.
The process of writing isn't helpful just to forming sentences. It's helpful in life. Edgebrook, where Chicago School Board President Gery Chico's children attend, starts teaching writing in kindergarten. Students are required to keep daily picture journals that teachers ask them to describe in class. By first grade, students follow a regimented spelling program that introduces them to phonetics and identifying words by sight.