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McHugh offers writing lab for students in grades seven through 12

Writing labGiana Kall remembered how her writing improved with Elena McHugh as her eighth-grade English teacher and decided to visit McHugh’s writing lab two years later to ask her to help proofread an essay.

“She read it, gave me some suggestions. It was mostly grammar, but it really helped me a lot and I appreciated it,” said Kall.

Kall, now a sophomore, entered the essay and won the opportunity to represent the district at the Hugh O’Brien Youth Leadership New York East seminar at the University at Albany May 31-June 2.

McHugh is in her second year overseeing the writing lab, an initiative taken by the district in the 2022-2023 school year. She is available sixth period each day and one day a week after school with the day determined by which day she’s free from after school meetings. The writing lab, which is available for students in grades seven through 12, may be open for eighth and ninth periods if McHugh is not visiting an English or social studies class to assist students with their essays.

McHugh will help students through the process of writing an essay or report from preparing an outline to offering suggestions after proofreading a paper.

In addition to the writing lab, McHugh is also teaching Mystery Horror and Suspense and a seventh-grade writing lab.

“I’m really trying to empower students to know and believe they can put their best foot forward in their writing, and writing is an opportunity for them to show off what they know,” said McHugh.

McHugh offered the following two writing tips.

“When you write about yourself, you want to convey that you are coachable, and you are curious,” she said. “You want to convey that you might not have all the answers and there definitely have been times you had to accept you don’t have all the answers, but you’re excited to learn them.”

McHugh said about research writing, “give yourself permission to change your mind and let research guide you in the thought process, because what’s also very cool about research writing is you get to demonstrate the unfolding of understanding something for the first time.”