Duplin County Schools Middle Grades Writing Plan Meeting September 9, 2009

1. Duplin County SchoolsMiddle Grades Writing Plan MeetingSeptember 9, 2009 Phillip Middleton, Director of Middle Grades Joshua Hunter, Literacy Coach

2. Introduction Writers on Writing

3. NCDPI Goals of the NC Writing Instruction & Assessment System • To encourage student writing throughout the school year. • To encourage writing to be taught and assessed in all content areas. • To support schools in the use of writing assignments as part of a formative assessment process that informs instruction. • To support schools and teachers in gathering local benchmark and summative writing data.

4. NCDPI Goals of the NC Writing Instruction & Assessment System • To encourage student writing throughout the school year. • To encourage writing to be taught and assessed in all content areas. • To support schools in the use of writing assignments as part of a formative assessment process that informs instruction. • To support schools and teachers in gathering local benchmark and summative writing data.

5. Review of 6th Grade Writing Plan Expressive writing is the writing focus for sixth graders. Expressive

6. Review of 6th Grade Writing Plan Expressive writing is the writing focus for sixth graders. Expressive

7. Writing Performance Expectations for Grade Six • One Content-Specific Writing Sample • One On-Demand Writing Sample

8. Notable Changes • There are no notable changes in scoring and documentation from the 08-09 writing plan. • The completion date is April 30, 2010.

9. Review of 7th Grade Writing Plan • Argumentative writing is the writing focus for seventh graders. Argumentative

10. Writing Performance Expectations for Grade Seven • Two Content-Specific Writing Samples • Two On-Demand Writing Samples

12. Notations/Changes • Students may use the full features of word processing systems as they complete content-specific and on-demand writings. • Teachers may use the DPI sample prompts as exemplars or create their own prompts for the completion of the content-specific writing requirements. • There are no notable changes in storage or documentation.

14. Review of 8thGrade Writing Plan Informational writing is the writing focus for eighth graders. Informational

15. Writing Performance Expectations for Grade Eight • One Content-Specific Writing Sample • One On-Demand Writing Sample

16. Content Specific Writing Sample • One Research Project in Written and Presentational Form as a Content-Specific Writing Sample

17. Research Guide

18. Changes • There are no notable changes in scoring or documentation. • Sixth grade teachers pass flash drives to seventh grade teachers. • Seventh grade teachers pass flash drives to eighth grade teachers. • Eighth grade teachers pass flash drives to Mr. Middleton.

19. Feedback Questions, Comments, Concerns