By Traci Newell

Above, the Step Up to Writing program uses color-coded signals to teach.

Los Altos School District teachers will begin using the Step Up to Writing program this year to give kindergartners to 6th-graders consistent, progressive training in good writing.

Step Up to Writing, a pilot program in some schools last year, uses a step-by-step approach to the writing process.

Children learn how to build a paragraph. The program uses the colors of a traffic signal to make it easier for children to visualize and organize information and ideas.

Students then learn how to write effective topic sentences to strengthen paragraph writing. Exercises explain how to make a draft, how to revise, edit, make a final copy and proofread it.

As the program progresses, students are prepared to write well-developed and well-supported research essays, which are generally assigned during the fifth grade.

Step Up to Writing was introduced during summer school two years ago. This year, $55,000 in funding from the Los Altos Education Foundation will pay for training teachers in the program

“Everyone really likes it, which is why we embraced it districtwide,” said Patty Weisman, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “I think the students liked it. The program is very clear. The teachers thought it was very user friendly.”

Weisman said the program is intended to build upon a Houghton Mifflin language arts program already in use.

“We wanted to give teachers a consistent instructional program,” she said. “By having one common vocabulary and a common set of strategies, there can really be a scaffold and sequential writing program.”