Intermediate and Secondary Classes Teaching Writing Intermediate and Secondary Classes Part 2

Writing is not caught. It must be taught. Anita L. Archer, Ph.D. author, consultant, teacher archerteach@aol.com

Review Big Ideas Focus on limited number of genre. Teach the critical foundation skills to mastery. Break down complex tasks. Provide explicit instruction. Provide judicious practice. Provide immediate feedback. Consider motivation. Frontload writing. Have students write short products often. Teach “Process Writing” including the what and how.

WHAT Consider the Six Traits Ask yourself, what are the CRITICAL ATTRIBUTES of a well-written product. Consider the Six Traits Ideas Organization Word Choice Voice Sentence Fluency Conventions Consider the descriptions in the Standards. Analyze an example to determine the critical attributes.

What Design a simple, easy to understand RUBRIC. Consider introducing only a portion of the rubric initially. Focus on ideas (content), organization, and conventions. Provide an EXAMPLE to illustrate the critical attributes. (Optional) Guide students in analyzing a non-example to determine missing attributes.

Rubric - Summary of Article Content of Summary Student Rating Teacher Rating 1. Topic - Is the topic of the original article stated? Yes No 2. Main Idea/Opinion - Is the main idea of the article (or author’s position) clearly stated? 3. Major Points/Reasons - Does the summary focus on the major points, reasons, and/ or information from the article? 4. Accurate - Are the major points, reasons, and/or information accurate? 5. Own Words - Is the summary written in your own words? 6. Concise - Is the summary shorter than the original article? 7. Combined Ideas - Are some of the ideas combined into longer, more sophisticated sentences? 8. Understanding - Is the summary easy to understand? Yes No

Rubric - Summary of Article Conventions Student Rating Teacher 1. Handwriting - Is the handwriting legible? Yes No 2. Spelling - Are the words spelled correctly, particularly the words found in the article? 3. Capitalization - Is correct capitalization used including capitalization of the first word in the sentence and proper names of people, places, and things? 4. Punctuation - Is correct punctuation used including a period at the end of each telling sentence?

Example - Summary (Illustrates all of the attributes.) Summary - Just Say No to Uniforms In this article, Theresa Jenkins expresses her contention that schools should not require students to wear uniforms. She believes that requiring uniforms could have many negative outcomes including robbing children of their individuality, requiring them to wear clothing that is not matched to their body type, and increasing the wardrobe budget for families to cover the cost of regular clothing and uniforms.

HOW Planning - Plan Writing - Write Revising - Revise Editing - Edit Writing Process Planning - Plan Writing - Write Revising - Revise Editing - Edit Publishing - Publish

HOW – Writing Process Plan Plan your writing. Write Write your first draft. Revise Change your writing to make it better. Edit Check your spelling, capitals, and punctuation. Publish Share your writing.

HOW - Plan Plan T = Task/Topic A = Audience P = Purpose Analyze Prompt 1. As you know, it is not just adults who commit crimes of robbery, assault, or murder. These can also be committed by youth. Many believe that parents should be jailed or fined for the crimes of their children. Do you agree or disagree with this action? Write an essay for the general public that argues your position.

HOW - Plan Plan Think Use logical arguments and experiences or Research Gather evidence from a variety of digital and print sources

HOW - Plan Writing frames Strategies Think Sheets Plan - Organize Scaffold organization of written product Writing frames Strategies Think Sheets

Think Sheets

Think Sheet – Web Topic

Think Sheet – Web Why I love Fall Cooler Weather Leaves change color Favorite Sports

Think Sheet – Web Topic

Think Sheet – Web Why I love Fall Colder Weather Leaves change color Red, gold, orange rain Colder Weather Leaves change color cool breezes Leaves cover yards Favorite Sports football games baseball World Series

Think Sheet – T chart Topic: Why I love Fall colder weather rain cool breezes leaves change color red, gold, orange cover yards favorite sports football games baseball World Series

Think Sheets Examples Argument/Persuasive Essay Informative Product Narrative Autobiographical Incident

HOW – Revise Revise Is your writing clear? How can you make it better? Read it aloud (whisper) to yourself. How can you make it better? Fix up your writing.

Revise When you analyze and revise use ARMS. Add Add details, sentences, and words. Remove Remove words and sentences that are not needed or don’t make sense. Move Move words and sentences that fit in another place. Substitute Substitute boring words interesting words redundant words new words dead words alive words simple sentence powerful sentences

HOW – Edit Edit Check your spelling. Check your capitals. Check your punctuation. Fix up your writing.

Edit - COPS Strategy Capitalization Overall Appearance Punctuation Spelling

Exit Ticket Today I learned… I was surprised by… Name: Directions: Complete _____________ of these statements.   Today I learned… I was surprised by… The most useful thing I will take from this lesson is... One thing I am not sure about is…. The main thing I want to find out more about is…. After this session, I feel… I might have gotten more from this lesson if….

Exit Ticket – Your turn. 3. The most useful thing I will take from this session is

HOW – Publish Share Read your exit ticket to your partner.

Thank You May we remember : Writing is not caught. It must be taught.