STAAR WRITING WORKSHOP ( Strategies to engage students in the classroom ) Presentation by: Anna Zambrano and Cassandra Torres

Today’s Agenda Introduction Finding a Cure for Writer’s Block STAAR Essay Prompt Connecting the Prompt using Teacher Modeling 3 Minute Essay Connecting Literature to our Personal Stories Using TEA Released tests to make practice prompts for our students Analyzing Strategy for Secondary Teachers

HELPING YOUR STUDENTS CONNECT WITH THE TOPIC Most students have a very hard time connecting with STAAR topics. They tend to get writers block and have no idea how to connect with the generic topic. In order to get them to connect with various topics, teachers need to model how they would go about elaborating on different types of prompts.

Essay Prompt Write an essay explaining the importance of standing up for yourself. ***Reminder that you can use this process with any grade by making modifications to the prompt or the story you decide to tell to your students.***

My Story… Dr. Lynch + Dr. Palmer + Dr. Wilson = ( College Professor) (Dean of College)(Dr. Lynch’s Dept. Head)

3 minute essay I will now give you 3 minutes to write your own “mini essay” using the prompt I just gave you. After those 3 minutes are up, you will turn to a neighbor and give them a little summary about what you wrote about. When you have finished please count the number of lines you used! ( 2 minutes)

Now Let’s Share! Would anyone like to share a brief summary of what you and your partner discussed? How could you see yourself using a method like this in your classroom? How would you modify it?

How can we connect this to literature in the classroom? We have just finished going over the teacher modeled example. Now you may be asking yourself how I can connect this type of learning to a story, picture, or quote that the STAAR test might use as a prompt? Well let’s see for ourselves.

QR CODE and TEA WEBSITE TEA WEBSITE FOR RELEASED TESTS: A.English 1 p. 26 B.7 th grade p. 06 C.English 2 p stions/

Released STAAR Test Prompts from 2013 ENGLISH 2ENGLISH 17 TH GRADE WRITING

Taking STAAR prompts and implementing them with your students. Like many of the STAAR examples you have just seen, we can use the following methods with your students at any grade level…

Some of you may know this famous woman… Rosa Parks, like many of the stories we just wrote down, stood up for herself during a difficult time. I have chosen this story because it connects the most to my own personal story and the prompt I made for it. Compare and contrast My person story vs. A historical occurrence Here is where we can make the connection to the kids. Background knowledge!!!!!

English 2 / 7 th grade Example When we are confident in a decision, all our fear seems to go away. Write an essay explaining how a decision you made eliminated any fear you had.

For the English 2 and 7 th grade Teachers… How would you normally present a prompt like this to your students? With the new information you have received, how would you modify your lessons to help your students connect with the prompt? Would any of the elementary teachers use this kind of prompt in a modified way? How so? How can junior high teachers prepare their students to not only utilize this during 7 th grade STAAR, but prepare them for high school as well?

English 1 Example Examine the picture to the left. Write a story about a time when you have gotten into serious trouble. Be sure that your story is interesting and complete and contains a plot and engaging characters.

English 1 Teachers… Not only does is this picture used as a tool for a prompt, but it also includes inferencing. If you compare the picture from the previous slide to the example on the TEA website, you see that the author inferences a topic from the two pictures. How could elementary and junior high teachers use pictures to help prepare students for this type of inferencing on essays? How would high school teachers modify this type of lesson to not only help with inferencing, but to connect it to writing? VS.

QR CODE and WEBSITE FOR STRATEGY FORMAT WEBSITE: 2W9mhoI4VpuWEJ4d25mM1dKV UE/edit?pli=1 2W9mhoI4VpuWEJ4d25mM1dKV UE/edit?pli=1

THANK YOU