Benchmark Preps

Eighth-graders are preparing for the benchmark exams at the Jones Center in Springdale. Students were focusing on literacy today. Male and female eighth graders were seperated into different classrooms. According to the Elmwood principal, boys stay more focused and girls ask more questions when the genders are split up. Plus, students don`t work with their normal teacher. Other instructors come in from area schools and even out of town to work with the students. Teachers say the change gives students a break from the school setting. "It`s kind of a day out of class, or so they think, and it`s like a grown up workshop, the kind that we go to all the time where we learn a different way of thinking," said Margaret Lockhart, one of the teachers helping the students prepare. Students seem to like the new setting as well. "We`ve been going over some writing prompts and going over a lot of english stuff and it`s been helping a lot," eighth-grader Jasmin Coultis said. It wasn`t all work though, prizes were up for grabs for students answering questions correctly. At the end of the day, one boy and one girl would take home brand new I-Pods. Students will take the benchmark exams next Wednesday and Thursday. Principal White says Elmwood`s literacy and math scores improved by seven-percent last year after using this method.