Desert Wind Middle School highlights cross‑curricular writing pilot that teachers say boosted student proficiency

Desert Wind Middle School presented a classroom spotlight Monday evening to the Maricopa Unified School District governing board describing a cross‑curricular, project‑based writing unit that teachers said moved most participating students from below‑grade proficiency to grade level or above.

Principal Bald, representing Desert Wind Middle School, told the board the Team Luigi project used the Write From the Beginning and Beyond curriculum and incorporated indicators from the ASU Next Education Workforce instrument, including student voice and dynamic student grouping. "Our vision is that 100% of students are reading or doing math at or above grade level by the time they leave middle school," Principal Bald said.

Teachers said the unit was funded in part by the district's Vision Budget and began with three days of professional learning. Mr. Liren, a member of the Team Luigi teaching staff, described how the unit blended English language arts, social studies, science and math standards so students could publish interdisciplinary essays that demonstrate mastery of multiple standards.

Two sixth‑grade students read excerpts of their work to the board. "I am proud to share Team Luigi's project based learning with you," said sixth‑grader Brooklyn Stanley. Randy Acosta Madrid, another sixth‑grader, said the curriculum helped him apply writing skills in other subjects: "My teachers taught me that it could also be applied in other content areas. For example, in my essay, I was able to compute operations fluently in decimals."

Presenters showed a graph based on a modified rubric from the Write From the Beginning and Beyond program. According to the presentation, initial distributions concentrated many students in "below" and "approaching" proficiency levels; after the unit, most students displayed current performance at or above grade level. The presenters described the rubric as having been expanded to assess mastery across multiple content areas.

Teachers and staff described several implementation details: Team Luigi revised rubrics for each content area, used thinking maps (circle and tree maps) to help students gather and organize ideas, and included English Learner students through the school's structured English immersion program. Miss Ejem, the district's structured English immersion teacher who participated with Team Luigi, was singled out as an extended team member whose students were included in the project.

Ms. Ursol, speaking for Team Luigi, said the group's next steps include instituting a schoolwide publishing event to showcase student work across the district's elementary campuses and continuing cross‑content implementation of the curriculum. Copies of student books were brought to the meeting for board members to view.

The spotlight presentation closed with board members recognizing the student authors and thanking staff. Board President Robert Downey and Superintendent Dr. Lopeman congratulated students and teachers on the work and the presentation.

Supporting details from the presentation: teachers held three days of pre‑semester professional learning with ASU; student artifacts (books) were displayed at the meeting; the project rubric was modified to evaluate standards mastery across subjects; and elementary campuses will be invited to future publishing events.