No grades, just the ABCs of writing

At present, the Minnetonka High School Writing Center is a small neat room with three tables, about a half-dozen computers, a few bookshelves and two staff members.

However, the staff members and residents who spent more than a year working to open it believe the center will help transform the school into a community of writers.

"When you're in theater, sports or band, you have 100 practices and four performances. But you usually write in performance situations" -- such as tests and papers, said writing center coordinator Maggie Shea.

Shea said the writing center, which opened last month, will work to bridge that gap by providing one-on-one writing counseling. Students can drop in or make appointments with her or Kate Callahan, the center's assistant coordinator, before, during or after school.

"A lot of it is talking through their ideas," Shea said.

'A safe space'

Such one-stop writing hubs have been fixtures on college campuses for decades. The University of Minnesota Center for Writing was established as early as the 1970s, said Kirsten Jamsen, the center's director.

Jamsen said in addition to the Minnetonka program, she's aware of a writing center at St. Paul Central High School. The concept is slowly gaining ground in high schools around the country, she said.

Shea said she's met directors of high school writing centers in Chicago, New York, Seattle and St. Louis at national conferences.

"There's definitely a lot of talk about high school writing centers across the country right now," Jamsen said. "It's the ideal world. It strips away grades and says 'let's just talk about writing.' It's a safe space for people to talk about writing."

On a recent afternoon, Callahan worked with three sophomores who needed help with essays they wrote about "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain.

She went over a paper with Charlie Ann Anderson, 16, first while Hayleigh McLellan, 15, and Ming Lin, 16, read each other their papers and offered advice. Shea worked with another student at the next table.

"My paragraphs are really long, so maybe I'm saying things too many times," Anderson said.

Callahan agreed. While looking through Anderson's essay, she noticed that one paragraph stretched across several pages.

"That's always better than the alternative," Callahan said. "It's much easier to cut from your writing than it is to add to it."

The duo reviewed the paper for about 10 minutes to make sure each paragraph contained one key idea that supported her thesis. Callahan repeated that process with the other students.

"She helped me simplify my ideas," Anderson said. "It helped me a lot."

The three said they had heard about the center in their English classes.

Outside support

Although many youth writing programs are supported by universities or literary centers, Minnetonka's center is supported by the district's foundation.

The Minnetonka Public Schools Foundation agreed to provide $50,000 a year for five years to staff and operate the center.

It's the first project supported by the foundation's $700,000 endowment fund, said Kate Bryant, a Minnetonka parent and foundation board member.

The fund is primarily supported by the annual Dream Maker's Dinner. Bryant said the fifth-annual dinner will be held at 6 p.m. on Feb. 9 at the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel, 7800 Normandale Blvd.

"Now we've funded our first dream project for the district and we need to think about the second project," Bryant said.

District residents and parents launched the foundation in 1987. The foundation awards about $40,000 in grants to district teachers for innovative programs each year. Bryant said the writing center seemed like a great investment because every student at the high school can benefit from it.

"Writing takes a lot of practice, and most kids don't get to practice. And when they do, it's graded. That's sort of mean," Bryant said.

"We loved that it [the center] was interdisciplinary, for all ages. And we loved that it could support and enhance students on an individual level while supporting the school's overall curriculum."

Patrice Relerford • 612-673-4395