McCann Associates

Literacy has the potential to increase student achievement in all classes, not just Language Arts. Better writing skills equal increased cross-curricular academic performance, higher graduation rates, improved state assessment and college entrance exam scores, and more professional opportunities after graduation.

The National Commission on Writing warns that writing is "The Neglected R" and cites the latest NAEP scores as proof. "The quality of writing must be improved if students are to succeed in college and in life," the Commission's report concludes.

Using MY Access!® in the classroom, educators can improve students' writing skills by:

• Delivering writing assignments more frequently
• Conducting early diagnosis of students' writing proficiency
• Providing remediation and individualized instruction
• Monitoring formative writing performance by student and class
• Conducting peer reviews of writing assignments
• Encouraging a one-to-one learning environment
• Motivating students to improve their writing skills through more frequent writing and editing
• Supporting developing writers or ELL students with multilingual feedback linked to proficiency level