The Writin' Titan Program was founded September 2013 to help students improve their writing skills. In over nine years, our nearly 100 trained coaches have conducted over 2,000 tutoring sessions. Initially, the program operated just at the junior high. However, in the fall of 2017, we opened a center at the high school. Below, you'll find various artifacts detailing how our program works and the principles by which we operate.
2018-19 JH Writin' Titan Advertisement (shown to all 7th & 8th grade students.
2017-18 JH Writin' Titan Advertisement (shown to all 7th & 8th grade students).
"State of the Schools" Open House Presentation--Nov. 2015 The Writin' Titans presented an overview of our program to interested community members in our school district. Coaches Mya Gramm, Ashlyn Mool, and Allison Kelly spoke, along with Mr. Martin.
Illinois State Writing Project--2015 Summer Institute Mr. Martin and Writin' Titan Coaches Nathan Donaldson, Brayden Krug, and Carson Lane presented the attached PowerPoint, "A Student-led Writing Center in Action: The Writin' Titan Program."
Dr. Julie Cheville, Mr. Martin, and eight Writin' Titan coaches presented the attached PowerPoint, entitled "Student-led Writing Centers: Addressing the Common Core and Improving Student Writing."
School Board/ISU Presentation Mr. Martin and coaches Paige Metz, Corbin Heiken, and Grace Vinson presented the following PowerPoint to the school board in April 2014. The final four slides were added for a presentation Mr. Martin made to the 2014 Illinois State Writing Project Summer Institute.
"Writin' Titans Show Promise" The attached scanned pdf is a copy of an article from the local newspaper, The El Paso Journal, detailing our school board presentation. (Note, the author somehow construed my name to be Brian Barton. My name is actually Rich Martin. They also mistook Paige's and Grace's names)
"Writin' Titans Visit with Pontiac Students" In March 2015, high school English teacher Mike Soares and nine of his students from Pontiac High School visited EPG to learn about the Writin' Titan Program and tour our writing center. Mr. Soares and his students plan to open their own writing center at Pontiac High School in the fall of 2015.
Below is our first commercial. It was produced in October 2013 to show students how the Writin' Titan Program works. This was shown in all the junior high language arts classes.
Our second video, featuring a superhero theme, is below. It was produced in October 2014.
Below is our commercial from 2015, directed by seventh grader Ella Newcomb.
Here are two commercials from 2016-2017. The first was directed by Ella Newcomb. The second was animated by Tony Crispin.
Recruiting Pamphlet The attached MS Publisher file is a pamphlet Mr. Martin has used to recruit coaches for the program. It outlines the different incentives coaches can receive for their work.
Tentative Logistics and Rationale This MS Word document is a staff handout explaining the basic operation and rationale for our writing center.
Student Flyer This MS Word document was handed to all junior high students at the beginning of the year to explain how they can use the Writin' Titan Program.
Below are ads our Writin' Titan coaches created on PowerPoint and posted around the school to promote our program.
Writin' Titans Help Third Grade Classroom This is another article that appeared on our district's website, detailing how our coaches helped Mr. Watson's third graders with several writing projects.