The Saddle River Day School Difference: Where Students Transform Research into Real-World Solutions + OPEN HOUSE March 17th & 19th
- 1 day ago
- 5 min read
What is it that makes Saddle River Day School such a unique and special place? Some would say it’s the academic rigor, the engaged, curious students, the dedicated faculty, or the tight-knit community. They would all be correct. But what sets Saddle River Day School apart, our real differentiating factor, is that we have created a curriculum and an environment in which students have the confidence, agency, and tools to take risks, to identify a problem that needs to be solved, then to engage in the research and prototyping necessary, and sometimes even produce a product or service that not only solves the problem but that has commercial applications and broad market appeal as well. Sophie Gutter, Class of 2027, personifies the kind of independent, thoughtful, innovative, entrepreneurial student Saddle River Day School develops each of its students to be.
Sophie arrived at Saddle River Day School in the 9th grade and enrolled in the Gateway Diplomas program, a signature SRDS offering. Early on, she began exploring a challenge she had identified: how to help students more effectively develop strong writing skills. “I know that writing is a critical skill for many jobs and everyday encounters,” she explains, “so not having it can really set one back.”
Sophie began researching the reasons students find it challenging to master writing skills such as sentence construction, organization of ideas, paragraph development, and clear articulation of concepts. She discovered that writing instruction, unlike subjects such as math or reading, is inherently subjective. It lacks formulas and standardized methods that make it more straightforward to teach and learn. Additionally, because writing involves so many variables and each student benefits from a slightly different approach, providing the highly individualized feedback that leads to meaningful growth can be difficult in traditional classroom settings. If only there were a way to use technology to analyze a student’s present capabilities, identify strengths and weaknesses, and then provide exercises, examples, and learning modules that helped students improve their writing, all while reporting their progress back to classroom teachers, enabling the teachers to pinpoint exactly the kind of assistance each student required. A tool like this didn’t exist, so Sophie built it. And that’s how the Writing Mastery program came into being.
Writing Mastery is a software program that teaches writing through a structured, multi-sensory approach. Intended for use by students who write at the 1st – 12th grade level, Writing Mastery is easy for students to use independently with features like read aloud buttons, user friendly interfaces, fun colors and a reward system, making it engaging and accessible for even the youngest students, while making it an essential tool for older students.
Students start out by taking a baseline assessment that directs them to one of four levels within the program: sentence structure, simple paragraphs, extended paragraphs, and five paragraph essays. Once students are placed in their appropriate skill level, they are guided through instruction, then prompted to try their new skills on their own. Artificial Intelligence reviews each piece of writing the student submits and provides feedback based on an established rubric for success. The student’s instructor receives the same feedback with supporting analytics in the teacher portal, and from that, can provide targeted comments and instruction.
Identifying and researching an issue, then designing, building and implementing the solution, are all components of the Saddle River Day School Gateway Diploma program. But what makes this program so distinctive is that each student enrolled in the program has their own path, timeline, and journey. Students are able to pursue a topic that is an interest or a passion in almost any discipline. Much of the work is self-directed but students are supported, guided, and mentored by the SRDS faculty, administration, and occasionally members of the greater SRDS family.
During her sophomore year, Sophie set two goals for her Gateway Diploma project: make Writing Mastery fully functional and bring it into classrooms. Now, as a junior, she is writing and presenting the paper that is one of the requirements before receiving her Gateway Diploma. During the course of her research and development, last year, the market for the Writing Mastery program evolved. She originally envisioned Writing Mastery as being used in traditional classrooms, but she has found that it has applications within the homeschooling community, as well as with students who are hospitalized for treatment and need alternative schooling options. Writing Mastery is also currently being used in two schools in Malawi, helping to offset the workload of teachers in classrooms that are often multi-level and large. Sophie envisions Writing Mastery as being a beneficial tool for all under-funded or overcrowded schools globally, in addition to being an invaluable tool for students who excel and students who can benefit from individualized instruction.
Sophie says that some of the skills she has learned through the process of developing Writing Mastery are entrepreneurship, resilience, adaptability, and public speaking. She has spoken in front of organizations including at the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Symposium on AI and the Future of Learning, and she has received a grant for her work, part of which she applied towards purchasing laptops so more students in the schools in Africa can have access to her program. She credits her teachers at SRDS for their commitment and passion, and her fellow students for their encouragement and support.
The Saddle River Day School Mission Statement reads, “We inspire each child to achieve personal and academic excellence and to become a caring and ethical contributor to society.” Our core values are Everyone Counts, Love of Learning, and Intellectual Risk-taking. No doubt, Sophie Gutter embodies our mission and vision. But our defining characteristic, our competitive advantage, is that Sophie is only one of the many SRDS students who are making a difference. We are lucky that our remarkable SRDS students change the world for the better, every day, in big ways and small.
VISIT SADDLE RIVER DAY SCHOOL
Grades 9-12 Information Session and Tour - Tuesday, March 17 at 9:00 am
Grades 5-8 Information Session and Tour - Thursday, March 19 at 9:00 am
Now is the right time to invest in your child's education. At SRDS we teach students how to think and not what to think, and we prepare students to be innovators, thinkers, and leaders.
To register for an event, please email or call Kris Sweeny in the Office of Admissions ksweeny@saddleriverday.org or (201) 327-4050.
Saddle River Day School
Pre-K3 to Grade 12
147 Chestnut Ridge Road • Saddle River, NJ 07458 • Tel: 201.327.4050
About Saddle River Day School
Established in 1957, Saddle River Day School is a Pre-K3 through grade 12, co-ed, independent school serving just under 600 students. The school provides a robust curriculum and inspires students to achieve academic and personal excellence by teaching them how to think and not what to think. Each division (Lower PreK3-4th; Middle 5th-8th; Upper 9th-12th) offers a signature yearlong research program.
Saddle River Day also offers 30+ advanced placement and honors level courses, a full range of visual and performing arts as well as interscholastic athletics (grades 6th-12th), and highly individualized college counseling to encourage students to discover their passions and prepare them for whatever comes next. SRDS graduates are thriving at colleges like Duke, Columbia, Cornell, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, NYU, Northwestern, Villanova and Wake Forest.
For more information about the project or Saddle River Day School, please visit saddleriverday.org.
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