02-27-24 Athena Elementary
Yolanda Westerberg Literacy Instruction
Third graders recently got down to the serious business of working on their writing skills. They
were led by Yolanda Westerberg, literacy consultant and longtime educator provided through
the Oregon Trail Regional Educator Network (REN).
On this day, Westerberg was teaching about opinion writing. “OK, so remember, in this type of
writing you have to pick one side, you can’t like both choices,” Westerberg instructed the young
learners. After giving some examples on the board, she let the students loose on their own
sentences. Then students shared their work as she asked them questions like: does your
sentence have a capital letter? is there space between each word? is every word spelled
correctly and does your sentence have a period at the end? “Woo-hoo!” was the resounding
chorus as students checked their writing.
Third-grade teacher Emily Hansell was moving around the room, offering guidance and
suggestions. She said having this structured, interactive curriculum has definitely helped her
students understand more about the types of writing and improved their writing. “Yolanda
really keeps them engaged, and I have been impressed by how focused and involved they are in
the process,” Hansell said.
The writing instruction and materials that Westerberg is sharing is new to teachers in
kindergarten through third grades at Athena Elementary, and she models lessons with each
new writing unit. She also provides Professional Development sessions with the teachers at the
end of the school day.
Principal Kerri Coffman said teachers are excited about writing using this program, as it can be
difficult to teach writing effectively. Having all classes in grades kindergarten through sixth
grade use the same terminology, the same style of working, and consistency of expectations is
beneficial. “All of our teachers are on board and putting in extra effort to become better writing
teachers, which is our goal. Rarely in a school building do you see 100% of your teachers
embracing a curriculum like they are. We are seeing even our youngest writers taking their
work to publishing, it is very exciting,” Coffman said.