Good morning! Please take out your writing selection and pick up a Portfolio Growth Chart! Then, write down the learning target for the day! Learning Target: Create a plan for improvement for your portfolio piece 29 Oct. 2013 “Tomorrow may be hell, but today was a good writing day, and on the good writing days nothing else matters.” ~Neil Gaiman

Agenda 10/29/13 Bellwork Portfolio growth chart Revision strategies/revision work time Reminder: We’ll be in Lab100 Wednesday and Thursday to implement your plan for improvement! **Until you show me the completed work that is due for my class, do not work on other assignments! Bring your work for English!

Bellwork 10/21/13 What do you feel is your biggest issue with this piece of writing? What do you need the most help with? “Writing is hard work. A clear sentence is no accident. Very few sentences come out right the first time, or even the third time. Remember this in moments of despair. If you find that writing is hard, it’s because it is hard.” ~William Zinsser

How to improve particular traits Look at your pink handout “Traits of Strong Writing” Look at the “DPA” rubric. Where do you think you need the most help? Have your partner read the work-what’s strong, what’s an area of growth? Remember…it doesn’t have to be “bad” to be “better!” Think about solutions-this is a ask for advice step! Use the handout from today to help here Links to various helpful tools for specific categories of improvement are listed on my blog!

Your plan for improvement chart Create this chart in Word (easier to type up your responses/cut and paste than hand write them?) Should include multiple examples of problems and solutions, with plentiful evidence supporting your fixes Will be turned in along with your portfolio piece on Friday

Plan for Improvement Problem Solution Evidence Once you’ve chosen your writing to revise, make this chart (how many lines will depend on your writing, but should be at least 3) Problem Solution Evidence

Example Problem Solution Evidence Confusing sentence structures that are kind of “rambly” -Read the sentences out loud -Cut out prepositional phrases to make sentence more direct Before: “O’Brien, in his novel, shows the reader, through his choices, how it felt to be in war, in Vietnam.” After: “In The Things They Carried, O’Brien communicates what it felt like to be in the Vietnam War.”

For the rest of the day- Have a writing conference! TALK a lot about the writing. STAY ON TASK! RECORD a lot of information (both peer notes and your notes) on the draft itself USE THE TAN HANDOUT to indentify particular areas of focus This should take all day…if you’re done too early, you’re not thinking enough about it!  Learning Target: Create a plan for improvement for your portfolio piece