More About Writing Elements of Good Writing Instruction Prompt Writing Evaluation vs. Assessment

Writing Instruction Schedule time for daily writing Daily instruction helps to improve writing Use mini-lessons to teach The writing process The rubric The 6+ Traits of writing….one quality at a time Good writing by using models Teach PAT

PAT Purpose Audience Topic Begin with real audiences Write to moms and dads, the governor, and etc. PAT

Use Models Work from examples of well-written pieces to show characteristics of effective writing. newspaper articles magazine articles student writing examples from writing books

Give Open-Ended Writing Assignments Move to non-fiction writing Be thorough and work slowly Include awareness of the author’s voice

The end result of this experience should be a solid understanding of Quality Writing and the development of good, strong life-long writers.

They will not be prepared to take the ISTEP But.... They will not be prepared to take the ISTEP

Writing & the ISTEP

Teach Students How to Write to a Prompt Remember that writing to a prompt is a writing genre. Show students how to highlight the important words in a prompt. Teach students how to allocate their time. Set up formal writing experiences that require students to address a writing prompt. (4 times per year)

Teach P.A.T. Purpose Audience Topic Give students writing prompts and have them highlight, underline, or circle the words in the prompt that answer the PAT questions.

ISTEP+ Audience Talk about the unusual aspect of the audience when writing to the ISTEP prompt. Use funny pictures and refer to them as the ISTEP graders. The graders will not know them and so they will need more details in their writing. Swap papers with another teacher and have them grade them to drive home the objective aspect of the graders.

How to Use Time Walk students through a timed prompt Break the time into segments Make an anchor chart that you post in your room. Create this chart with the students

50 Minutes (5) Read prompt and underline key words (5) Figure out the PAT (5) Brainstorm using a graphic organizer (Students need to use a different organizer every year. This is something you can teach.) (5) Reread the prompt before you start to write

(15) Write draft, reread, and revise (10) Reread prompt and add, delete, and edit (5) Last minute cleanup The last minute cleanup should include looking through the editing checklist that is part of the prompt.

The Pre-Writing Guides

Sample of a Graphic Organizer Provided

Use the Checklist Provided This shows what those “graders” are going to be looking for in your writing. Use this list as your 5 minute clean-up time

Hints Some students write for 5 minutes and sit for 45. Thinking out loud with students about the time factor will help some students use their time more effectively. Some students will want to write that they do not like rainy days. You have to point out that the prompt does not ask them to address this issue. Go over the fact that some prompts might require them to create information. Show students how to use the pre-writing questions to form their paragraphs. Using these questions for the content will insure that they are staying on topic. Some students are read the directions to everything all day and every day except on the ISTEP Writing Prompt. (Is this true?) Teach introductions and conclusions as part of a mini-lesson

Ideas Get together and set up a schedule to swap papers to grade Write several prompts as a grade level and give these to students in a formal timed test situation. Get a base line sample from your students before you start your workshop format and before you teach students how to write to a formal prompt. This will give you an idea of what type of work students will be doing for the ISTEP Test. After you instruct your students, give them another formal test and compare the writing samples.

Assessment Assessment needs to match the criteria The criteria must be known and understood by students before writing instruction begins Lessons should fall under the same purposes as the scoring

Evaluation Summative Product-Oriented Prescriptive Judgmental Fixed Comparative Competitive

Assessment Formative Process-Oriented Reflective Diagnostic Flexible Absolute Cooperative

Principals of Assessment To improve teaching, teachers must define learning outcomes and measure their attainment. To improve learning, students must learn how to use feedback to assess their own progress. The best assessment derives from teachers’ questions about their own teaching.

Assessment motivates student involvement Systematic assessment is the foundation for improvement in instruction. Assessment motivates student involvement Thomas Angelo and Patricia Cross 1993

Resources OWL On Line Writing Lab http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/concord/teacherlinks/sixtraits/sixtraits.html Donald Graves A Fresh Look at Writing Heinemann 1994 Susan Page “Improving the Quality of Student Writing” 2001