Making the Writing Target Clear

Could you hit a moving target??? Our Students Can’t Either!

Students who could identify the learning scored 27 percentile points higher than those who could not. (Marzano, 2005) Neither teachers nor students can succeed without a clear vision of what students must know and be able to do, or without the ability to translate that vision into actions that result in high quality work (Stiggins, 1997). To meet standards, students must understand the meaning of standards and be able to translate them into guidelines they can use. The process of leading students to express a standard in their own words in terms of observable criteria can produce goals for student work that are specific, understandable, and appropriately challenging (Rolheiser & Ross, 2000). Research Shows…

Why Use Targets: Something to aim at. Helps raise the expectations. Motivates learners. Provide something against which the learning can be measured and give a basis for improvements.

To have students score a 3 or higher on the district writing assessment. What does our target look like? 3 or 4

Find the grade level below yours and read their papers. (Except Kindergarten) Find your grade level and read its papers. Find the grade level above yours and read their papers. What’s a 3 or 4 Look Like Across the Grades What can you learn from seeing where your students are coming from and where they need to go? Discuss with your team…

 Share what a look like with students.  Share and explain the rubric that will be used to score their writing. Teach students how to use this rubric. Create a Kid-Friendly Version that students can use to self- assess.  Hold a class discussion about what is different about the papers. Make a Venn Diagram.  Have students compare their own writing to a 3 or 4 paper. What’s the same? What’s missing?  Create a binder or bulletin board of “Bull's-Eye Papers”. These would be papers that hit our target. Students can easily find these papers as models of how to hit the target and to compare their own writing against.  Create a shared writing experience. Students can then keep this piece in their writing folders as a sample of great writing. (This would be a great thing to have me model!)  Have a chart that the class creates a list “What Great 2 nd Grade Writing Looks Like”. How to Share the Target with Students

Team Talk Time Currently… Have you shared the “Target” with your students? If so, how? What success did you have with this? What challenges did you find? In the near future… What new plans to do you have for sharing the “Target” with your class? What ideas are you considering using? Do you want Melissa’s help with any of this? If so send her an . She would love to help!

With a Clear Target… We’ll make more Bull’s-Eyes!