Writing across curriculum is a writing prompts initiative that is not new to the District.  While it had been done in the past, it had fallen into disuse.  As the District began to look at its curriculum needs, it was decided that the initiative would be restarted.  A pilot program began this spring after months of intensive effort on the part of Literacy Coach Dr. Therone Wade to develop appropriate content for each subject area.

The District has an obligation to promote growth and a responsibility to have our students write effectively, regardless of their individual levels of achievement.  In order to strengthen all students' writing skills, short items for students to read and then write about have been designed for every subject area.  The idea and method of implementation was carefully scrutinized by the Senior High School Principal, Director of Secondary Education, and Distinguished Educators from the Pennsylvania Department of Education prior to launching the pilot.

With the process now in place, the writing prompt initiative will be standard procedure for all students in all subject areas in the fall of 2010.

The Westmoreland County Association of School Librarians, in conjunction with the Greensburg Salem Middle and High Schools, sponsor an annual Westmoreland Interscholastic Reading Competition (WIRC). This competition is held at Seton Hill University, and teams of students from Grades 6-12 have the opportunity to compete to see who can correctly answer the most questions about books they have read. Over 50 high school teams and 50 middle school teams participate for first through fifth place in this Outstanding Reading Olympics. The high school teams are assigned a list of 30 titles, and the middle school teams read from a list of 40.  The individual rounds of competition place two different schools against each other, each team receiving 15 questions (high school) and 20 questions (middle school).  High schools compete in four rounds, while the middle compete in three.  The team scoring the most points at the end of each round is declared the winner.  The team with the most overall points after all rounds is crowned WIRC Champion.

The Penn Hills reading teams, known as the Page Turners, begin their preparation for the competition over the summer.  The reading list is distributed to all interested students before they leave for summer vacation, giving them the opportunity to read on their own.  In October, sponsors meet with all interested students, conduct a presentation about the competition, place them on teams, and have them continue reading the books.  They track what students read and meet with them at least once a month.  As the in-house Linton and High School competitions draw closer, sponsors conduct frequent lunch meetings with each team and review questions on each title.  Beginning in February, the lunch meetings take place weekly.

The in-house Linton and High School preliminary competitions are held one week before the Seton Hill competition.  Through this process, students are selected based on their content knowledge, number of books read, and performance in the in-house competitions.  Once selected, these students move on to represent Penn Hills at both the High School and Middle School Westmoreland Interscholastic Reading Competition.  This past year, the District had 3 middle school teams and 2 high school teams compete at the WIRC.  Overall, Penn Hills had approximately 150 students in Grades 6-12 participate.

 
The high school Gold team took 4th place out of 40 teams and the remaining high school team took 14th.  The middle school teams took 4th, 14th, and 18th out of 50.  The 4th place team from the middle school had the highest score of any round, answering all 20 questions correctly.  Such a perfect round has never happened at this competition before.

At a special public voting meeting on March 24th, the Penn Hills School Board voted to change the District's program of studies, eliminating 18 programs and adding 6 to the 2010-11 offerings.  The eliminated programs include Science I (Earth Science), Journalism III, Speech, Writing for Publication, Animation, Current Events, Government and Politics, Visual Ensemble, Digital Photography III, Foods III, Foods IV, Foods for Fitness, Gourmet Foods, Crafts I, Crafts II, Creative Hobbies, Ceramics III, and Computer 101.  Courses added include Basic Applied Statistics, Family and Consumer Science (9th grade), Robotics I (as a course), Introduction to Calculus, Career Exploration (9th grade), and Robotics II (as a pilot).  With these changes, each grade will still have the option for a large number of varying electives outside of the core/required classes.  For 9th grade, there are 35 (including 18 at Forbes Road), 10th grade has 57, 11th grade has 70, and 12th grade has 94.  A complete list of courses in the 2010-11 Program of Studies can be found on the District website under the Senior High School Program of Studies link or by clicking here.

On April 6th, Linton Language Arts Teacher Angele Keeley will be hosting a book talk, question/answer session, and a luncheon with Anne Frank's stepsister, Eva Schloss.  For those who might not know, Anne Frank was a German-born Jewish teenager who died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp but whose observations on life in a diary published posthumously have allowed her to live on to future generations.  Ms. Schloss herself was sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, where she lost her father and her brother.  Her mother survived and later married Anne's father after his family died in the Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen camps.
 
Because the District recognizes the importance of the experience, the program on April 6th has been extended to other schools in Allegheny County, and Gateway, McKeesport, Deer Lakes, and Keystone Oaks will be participating via video conferencing.  The event will also be webcast over the Internet.  In addition, the 11th graders at our Senior High will be video conferenced in.  These would be many of the same students who were involved when Ms. Schloss first came to Linton 2 years ago.  This year's accelerated 9th grade will be present for the entire event.  The 8th grade gifted students will be present for the question/answer session.  

To prepare, Ms. Keeley's students studied the background of the Holocaust.  They attended a Holocaust Seminar sponsored by the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh at the University of Pittsburgh.  Her students also read, journaled, and discussed Eva's Story, Ms. Schloss' novel.  Ms. Keeley's 9th grade students created PowerPoint projects on assigned chapters of the novel that are being used to give background to the 8th and 11th grade students who are participating in the event.

Two years ago when Ms. Schloss visited, Ms. Keeley said the experience was so positive.  "The students were enthralled," she explained, "and we talked about it for days."  She went on to say that she still has students talk about it and every year has students in classes asking if there is  going to be another day like that.  She said that she and her students worked so hard on the last event, and it was awesome to hear how much it was enjoyed by the visitors and that they wanted to come back.
 
The students will have the opportunity to not only ask questions about Ms. Schloss' experience and the Holocaust, but they also get the chance to interact with her and see that she is a normal person who was affected by this horrible event, Keeley explained.  "It helps the students realize that the people impacted were everyday people just like them," she said, adding that "this really opens their eyes to tolerance and understanding and accepting differences in each other."  The event also provides a great chance for students to discuss the difference between right and wrong and how the right thing is not always the most popular thing, she explained.  They also learn about responsibility for their actions.  "This is an experience that I can't teach them in a classroom," she said.

Ms. Keeley said she thinks it is so important for her students to not just read about the events but to meet the people who survived and persevered.  Ms. Schloss is so positive and compassionate.  "It's so important for the students to see that even though she suffered a horrible tragedy," she explained, "she can be optimistic and doesn't use it as an excuse to lash out and shut down."  Ms. Schloss turned her life into something positive, Ms. Keeley said, adding, "Kids today need to see that because many are suffering from tragedies in their own lives.  They can relate to her and they can use her as a role model."