On Demand Writing

On Demand Writing 30 minutes to DO YOUR BEST

Agenda 1. Modes of Writing 2. FAP 3. Steal words from the prompt

Three Possible Categories in On-Demand Writing

FAP 1. FORM 2. Audience 3. Purpose

Let’s FAP! form audience • Write an articlefor the school newspaperinformingreaders about an upcoming event • Write a letter to your teacherstating your opinion on what class pet your classroom should get • Write a letter to a new student about the importance of school rules. Support your idea by writing about a time when knowing the rules was really important purpose form purpose audience form audience purpose

PROMPT A: • Writing Situation: Your school is collecting evidence of student work for this year’s Writing Program Review. Your class has been asked to share and explain the book project where your class worked with your kindergarten buddy class to create books about friendship as part of Big Buddies / Little Buddies project. • Writing Directions: Write an essay for the review describing the special buddies book project. Be sure to explain the project and describe the benefits of the project for both the big and little buddies. • PROMPT B: • Writing Situation: Your school is considering changing the date of the annual field day from spring to fall. Those who want to keep the spring date feel spring is a perfect time for field day as a celebration of the hard work throughout the year. Those who want to change the date feel fall is the perfect time for getting families involved with the school early in the year. The school council is asking students to share their opinions. • Writing Directions: Write a letter to the school council sharing your ideas about which time of the year is best for field day. Be sure to support your ideas with reasons. • PROMPT C: • Writing Situation: Each year the fifth grade classes take a special three-day trip. In the past, the classes have gone camping at Otter Creek, taken a trip to Washington D.C., and spent a weekend at the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana. The teachers are trying to decide which trip would be the best for the classes to take this year. • Writing Directions: Write a letter to your teacher about the trip you want to take this year. Choose one of the places mentioned above, give your opinion, and tell why this would be the best place to go. • PROMPT D: • Writing Situation: The school newspaper is printing pieces about resilience—the ability to find a way to be okay after something devastating has happened. They want stories about people who have faced and overcome tremendously difficult life events. Some resilient people are celebrities, family members, teachers, or other people in the community. Resilient people are able to move forward with a positive life even after tragedies. • Writing Directions: Write a story for the school newspaper telling about someone who has shown resilience. The story can be real or imagined. Be sure to show the challenge the person faced and what he/she did to overcome the challenge. • PROMPT E: • Writing Situation: Your teacher is going to have a baby, and a substitute teacher will fill in until your teacher returns. Your regular teacher has asked you to help the sub become familiar with the class routines and procedures. • Writing Directions: Write a letter to the substitute teacher and inform him or her of three things you think he/she should know about your class and how it operates. This could include rules, schedules, or anything that you think would be helpful for the sub to know. • PROMPT F: • Writing Situation: We have all had moments when we learned a lesson the hard way or wish we had done things differently. This is a sign of growing up. The school website is featuring stories about learning life lessons. • Writing Directions: Write a story about a time when you learned a lesson the hard way and wish you had done things differently. The story can be real or imagined. Be sure to explain the choices made, consequences of those choices, and the lesson learned as a result.

Task of the prompt: to inform or explain? to offer and support an opinion? to narrate a real or imagined story? Prompt A To offer and support an opinion Prompt B To offer and support an opinion Prompt C To narrate a real or imagined story Prompt D To inform or explain Prompt E To inform/explain Prompt F To narrate a real or imagined story

STEPS TO WRITING YOUR ON DEMAND ANSWER….

Step One: Read situations and tasksStep Two: Decide on a situation and task! What topic do you know the most about and which one appeals to you the most?What topic do you know the most about?

Step Three: Read and FAP SITUATION: Summer is almost over, school has started and kids are going to have less free time to be active outside. Your school newspaper is going to publish articles about the importance of physical activity to your health and wants your ideas about how to stay active now that you are back in school. WRITING TASK: Write an article for your school paper giving your opinion about staying active and giving your ideas about how to include physical activity now that you are back in school. FORM PURPOSE AUDIENCE

Step Four: Identify key words • Key words are found in the SITUATION of the writing prompts. • Key words help you write the introductory paragraph of your response. • Key words help your audience focus on the main ideas of your response.

Finding the Important Words in a Prompt: Digging for Diamonds BBLLIINNGG!! BBLLIINNGG!! DIAMOND WORDS ARE…. WORDS THAT TELL THE PURPOSE IMPORTANT WORDS THAT ARE REPREATED WORDS THAT GIVE CLUES AB OUT THE MAIN IDEAS

Step Four: Identify key words Summer is almost over, school hasstarted and kids are going to have less free time to be active outside. Your school newspaper is going to publish articles about the importance ofphysical activity to your health and wants your ideas about how to stay active now that you are back in school.

Key words help write introduction… Summer is almost over, school hasstarted and kids are going to have less free time to be active outside. Your school newspaper is going to publish articles about the importance ofphysical activity to your health and wants your ideas about how to stay active now that you are back in school. Let’s Get A Move On: Ways To Stay Active Now that a new school year has started, we are going to have less free time to play outside. We all know that it is really important to be active for our health’s sake but what are we going to do when we are inside all day? We could moan and groan but I bet we can all find ways to stay active. Here are some suggestions…

Let’s practice the introduction! SITUATION: Some of your friends take lessons after school. They may be learning to play a musical instrument, speak a new language, program a computer, or build a birdhouse. Your principal is asking for student opinions about after school lessons and their effectiveness. WRITING TASK: Write a letter to your principal sharing your opinion about after school lessons and their effectiveness.

1. Identify Key Words in Situation2. FAP the task! SITUATION: Some of your friends take lessonsafter school. They may be learning to play amusical instrument, speak a new language, programa computer, or build a birdhouse. Your principal is asking for student opinions about after school lessons and their effectiveness. WRITING TASK: Write a letter to your principal sharing your opinion about after school lessons and their effectiveness. AUDIENCE FORM PURPOSE Dear Principal, I am writing to you to share my opinion about something important. You see, some of my friends are taking lessons after school, such as learning to play an instrument, speaking a new language, programming a computer and even building birdhouses. I want you to know that I think these are great opportunities for my friends and they are learning so much by taking those lessons.

On Demand Writing