Mrs. Pendry is the bomb.com

Writing has been a crucial part of education since the first writing system was devised in 3500 BCE. Recently, however, in classes that have been infamously heavy with writing, writing has taken a back seat to standardized tests such as the SAT, ACT, AP exams, and other state testing. I interviewed a well-known and beloved teacher at West Springfield High School about her opinions of writing and education. Mrs. Pendry is an 11th grade American history teacher who loves her job.

Mrs. Pendry wholeheartedly supports writing as the most important ability in school especially for history because writing forces the students to explain their understanding of concepts, theories, and opposing viewpoints, and allows them express their own opinions. By showing the teachers what the students do or do not know, the teachers are given a better idea of where the students are and what the teachers need to go over again. It also gives the students the ability to gauge their understanding and what they need to review or work on for the next test or essay. Writing is a student’s ultimate opportunity to display their abilities and knowledge.

In regard to the aforementioned standardized tests, Mrs. Pendry believes that the writing portions are important in AP tests and would even have the multiple choice sections taken out in favor of more writing prompts. AP classes are simulations of freshman-level college classes, and in college, there are no Scantrons or anything like that. You have papers to write and take short answer tests to showcase your knowledge and abilities and learning how to write that way in high school is extremely important to your first year in college.

She believes that writing in both history and English classes (along with whatever other writing students are doing) is important because it exposes them to different formats/styles/genres of writing. This exposure leads to being more easily able to follow different formats in college and later in life because not every paper you have to write will be a five paragraph essay. For history and English writing specifically, it’s easy to see the difference. Along with the totally different subjects, history writing requires a historical past tense while English uses a literary present tense which requires a complete change in mindset when switching between writing styles.

In regard to our school’s Writing Center, Mrs. Pendry believes it is a really big help to students. From a history teacher’s perspective, the Writing Center is most useful and helpful when the tutor has taken that specific course because then the tutor already understands and has experienced the format/style of writing that is in that class whether it be a DBQ, short answer tests, or timed writing. Having a tutor who took the class also makes it more beneficial for the student because the tutor will be able to fact check the paper along with checking the writing component. This makes the Writing Center dual purpose and a great asset to teachers across the curriculum.

I finished the interview by asking her about what she thinks would be the ideal education system. In her idealistic mind, the best kind of school is one where everyone is happy. The students want to be there and want to learn. The teachers want to teach. The administrators enjoy their jobs. Her goal is to do everything in her power to make that come true and is obviously very successful because I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t like her.

For any further questions, email me.