Mapuana Jones is an oasis of literacy in a school where 86 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunch. Seeing opportunity where others see barriers, Ms. Jones immerses her students in reading and writing, providing a caring classroom environment that includes student-centered learning activities, cooperative group projects, and an attention to individual learning styles. Under her tutelage, seventh-grade test scores on the writing portion of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test rose by 25 percent. As the school's writing chairperson, Ms. Jones works with colleagues to strengthen writing skills not only among her own students but for all students across grade levels and content areas. She patiently shows what it means to be a writer, modeling the various stages of the writing process herself and inviting students to question, experiment, share and discover. High school teachers have remarked on the high quality of writing among students that come from Ms. Jones's class. As one fellow teacher put it, learning in Ms. Jones's class is "a joyous adventure."
