The Rockstar Wall in the classroom of English teacher Vanessa Melvin, has nothing to do with music. Instead, it’s all about showcasing writing samples from her students. 

“One goal of the board is to boost the students up and show off their work when they’ve written something truly amazing,” Melvin said. “I even added a gold star for a bit of pizazz.”

For freshman Ashvita Suresh Kumar, it was really exciting for her writing to be on the “Rockstar Wall”.

“It feels incredible to have my work on the Rockstar Wall because it is a display of my effort and work that has paid off,” Kumar said. “While writing, I made sure that my paragraph was a representation of my best work.”

After being displayed for a while, Melvin lets students take their writing home and she hopes the board sets an example to other students in the classroom. 

“The other purpose is to show other students what exemplary level writing looks like in hopes they’ll mimic the style and improve in their own writing,” Melvin said. 

No grades are displayed on the Rockstar Wall, instead, it’s all about meeting Melvin’s standards. 

“Essentially the work is organized, clear, highly insightful, and responds to the prompt directly,” Melvin said. “Generally the work is reflective of higher level thinking.”

Freshman Samyuktha Shanthakumar, whose writing was put up on the board, says that the best way for students to meet the exemplary level is for them to throw their ideas out and revise as they go.

“I would recommend that they put out all their ideas of the book into the document at once and create a draft which can later be edited and polished to create the final product,” Shanthakumar said. 

Melvin believes that what is most important is learning the content and improving on it rather than just focusing on the actual grade.

“It’s not about the grade,” Melvin said. “Kids need to get over that mentality and focus on the skills that are being acquired instead.”