Elements of Elementary Writing

1. Elements of Elementary Writing Nikki Jones and Stephanie Coletto Department of Curriculum Development & School Improvement

2. Our Curriculum The Next Generation Sunshine State Standards

3. 4. Strand Reading Language Arts Strands 1 – Reading Process 2 – Literary Analysis 3 – Writing Process 4 – Writing Applications 5 – Communication 6 – Information and Media Literacy LA 4. 1. 1 Subject Grade Standard Benchmark

4. The Writing Process • Prewriting • Drafting • Revising • Editing • Publishing

5. Writing Applications Creative: personal narratives realistic fiction memoirs fairy tales Informative: procedures essays recipes how-to books • Persuasive: • reviews letters • essays advertisements

6. 60 Minute Writing Block

7. 30 Minute Writing Block

8. Curriculum Frameworks • Scope for Benchmarks by Trimester • Time Frame for Units of Study • Student Targets • AYP Support • Tutorial Support • Calendar • Benchmarks • Lesson Plans (Resource Only) • Assessments (PBW & Embedded) • Additional Resources

11. Lesson Plan • Title • Student Target • Materials • Vocabulary • Lesson/Activity • Wrap-up • Daily Assessment • Strategies • Standard/Benchmark • School-based Standard • Other Activities and • Resources • Reteaching/Enrichment

12. Goals of the Writing Curriculum Frameworks To ensure that all of the Sunshine State Standards are taught in the designated grade levels over the course of a school year

13. Goals of the Writing Curriculum Frameworks To develop life long writers equipped with the skills and strategies necessary to be effective communicators

14. Scoring Student Writing Using Rubrics and Anchor Papers

15. Quote “Good writing teachers assess student writers everyday. One of the most important things, if not the most important thing, that defines good writing teachers is that they are constantly learning about their students as writers. For good writing teachers, writing is a habit of mind.” Carl Anderson

16. Assessment The Payoffs Assessment enables us to: • Get to know students’ strengths and needs as writers • Tailor our teaching to students’ individual needs in writing conferences • Plan minilessons for our units to focus on the collective needs of our students • Decide how and when to offer support to writers

17. Assessment Assessment answers the most pressing question: WHAT DO I TEACH THIS CHILD?

18. Our Tools • Genre Checklists • Conferring Notes • Rubrics

19. What is a Rubric? • A scoring tool that lists the criteria for a piece of work or “what counts” • Describes how performance varies across the scoring scale • Enables students to be aware of the criteria by which they will be judged • Describes levels of quality for each of the criteria, usually on a point scale

20. FLORIDA'S FOURTH GRADE RUBRIC

21. PALM BEACH WRITES - FIRST GRADE RUBRIC

22. Allowable Interpretations When students write to a prompt: • They are allowed considerable latitude in their interpretation of the prompt; therefore the words in the prompt may be broadly defined • The explanation may be fact or fantasy • The student may present information as “factual” even if the information is not based on fact • Explanations do not need to be logical • Narration, description, and persuasive will “work” if they are used to explain the answer

23. Scoring vs. Grading Scoring • Looks at what’s right • Considers what’s there • Has a sense of completeness • Is Holistic Grading • Looks at what’s wrong • Considers what’s missing • Tries to improve essay • Is Analytical

24. Scoring Categories • Focus • Support • Organization • Conventions Although all are equal, support “appeared” to be the most vital.

25. What Does it all Mean? • Focus • Support • Organization • Conventions

26. FOCUS Stay on the subject • FOCUS - how clearly the paper • presents and maintains: • a clear main idea, • theme, or • unifying point

27. Things to Consider FOCUS • Is the message clear? • Is the whole paper about the topic? • Is there enough informationincluded?

28. ORGANIZATION • the structure or plan of development (beginning, middle, end) • whether the points logically relate to one another • the use of transitional words or phrases to signal the relationship of the supporting ideas to the main idea, theme, or unifying point, and • the connections between and among the sentences

29. Things to Consider • The lead makes the story interesting to the reader • Ideas are connected with transitions • The reader can followthe story easily • The story has an endingthat works well and makes you think

30. SUPPORT • SUPPORT- the quality of the details used to explain, clarify, or define • word choice • specific details • dialogue (internal and external) • voice • figurative language • details that create a picture in the reader’s • mind

31. Things to Consider VOICE • Does this story really sound like the writer? • Do I feel something when I read this? • Would I love to read more?

32. Thingsto Consider • POWERFUL WORDS • My words make picturesin your mind. • This is the best wayto say this. • I used vivid verbs! • I bet a phrase or two will stick in your mind.

33. Things to Consider • SENTENCES • Is the paper easyto read aloud? • Do the sentences begin in different ways? • Are some sentences short, and some long?

34. Goal of Support Development Use of extension and elaboration to provide clear and sufficient support of the central idea

35. Layers of Support Bare Extended I like to go to school because it is fun especially when the teacher lets us play games at recess. We play kickball, tag and hula hoops. We run and jump and talk with our friends and get to know them. We usually go out for recess after lunch, but sometimes in the morning after math. reason explanation evidence Layered

36. CONVENTIONS • CONVENTIONS - • punctuation, • capitalization, • spelling, and • grammar

37. Things to Consider • Are the sentences complete and do they sound right? • Do sentences begin with a capital letterand end with a punctuation mark? • Are most words spelled correctly?

38. Characteristics of Good Writing • It has purpose, focus, and is clear • Its organization makes sense; it follows a clear order and logical sequence • It moves through time • If it is a story, it is written so that… • the reader pictures the action and the setting • the reader actually hears the characters speaking • it shows rather than tells • strong verbs bring the piece to life

39. Characteristics of Good Writing • It is written for readability • It has precise word choice • Sentence length and type is varied • It makes effective use of literary devices • It uses reader-friendly conventions (grammar, spelling, punctuation)

40. 2009 Prompts and Links Grade 4 Writing to Explain (Expository) Directed the student to think about and explain why it is important to follow rules Writing to Tell a Story (Narrative) Directed the student to write a story about a time he or she had a day off from school Link for Expository Anchor Set: http://fcat.fldoe.org/pdf/Gr4-Expository_AnchorSet.pdf Link for Narrative Anchor Set: http://fcat.fldoe.org/pdf/Gr4-Narrative_AnchorSet.pdf

41. Score Essays Using the Rubric • Read the essays in the score point of a 3 and a 4 in the anchor sets • Read the writing pieces in your packet • Give them a score • Discuss the scores you each gave with the people at your table • Let’s discuss

42. 2009 FCAT WRITES CD • All student essays are included on the CD • The tool provides teachers with student writing samples (at various score points) from their school • Teachers can print the samples they have selected to analyze for instructional trends and/or instructional practices • Remove all personal information or any information that could identify a student prior to using any essay as an instructional tool in class

43. Palm Beach Writes

44. EDW for Teachers MENU Click Run to enter student data

45. Click here to select the prompt number Directions Click on the pre-determined PBW entry date Student names and ID numbers Expository: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13 Narrative (Grades 1-4) Persuasive (Grades 5+): 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14

46. If you clicked “submit” and realize that you made a mistake, you must wait until the next morning to correct the mistake.

47. If you already clicked submit and realize that you made an error, click on the prompt arrow. Select the prompt number to correct the data. If you can’t remember the prompt number, click on the date. You can also search for it by the administration date. Once you have pulled up the prompt, student scores can be changed. Remember to press Submit!!

48. STUDENT DATA REPORT

49. Select your sorting preference and click “Run Report.”