During Parent Writing Night I told some of you that I was going to create a writing resource page for you. Well here it is... I attempted a couple of names for it So you think you can write; Writing with the Stars or even Ugly Writing - but I think I'll just stick with the basics
Parent Writing Resources
Presented in HD
Writing Process - The road map
This is the process of writing. Yeah I know I just reread the title, but what does that mean. Well this is looking at how we write in order to get the most bang for our buck. It breaks down in stages:
Prewriting
This is the stage when we look at what are we going to write and why. It may take the form of a list, a web, an outline or even as adults just jotting things down.
We want the kids to focus on a couple key questions while they are planning:
Role- Who is the author? This effects what words they will use. What will they talk about? How will they say it?
Audience - Who are they saying it to? This effects again what ideas will they talk about. Will they explain vocabulary? How will you adress your audience
Format - What style will you use to write? Maybe you'll write a letter, a journal entry, a story, a newspaper article etc...
Topics - What are you writing about? Possibly animals, your morning, your teacher giving you more homework.
Strong Verbs - Why are you writing? This is usually the hardest one for kids. Things like Are you writing to persuade, inform, entertain, analyze or even tattle.
This is the stage where students are "puking on paper". They just need to get it out of their system and write what they would say outloud. This is difficult for a lot of kids because they get hung up on a beginning and don't know how to start. I always tell them write - This is my beginning - and go.
Sometimes we use partners to help us draft. They write down what I say and I write down what they say. Quick and easy way to start the process.
Sometimes the kids get to use "phones" to listen to them talk and record what they say.
This is where we look at how the piece sounds. Things like: Should I shuffle around the paragraphs so it makes more sense?; How does my title sound?; Am I using vocabulary over my readers head? come into play. This is where we look at the 6 traits of Good Writing.
Sometimes the kids get to use "phones" to listen to them talk and reflect and change what they hear.
This is where we look at grammar. Things like Are my sentences capitalized?; Do I have punctuation at the end of all of my sentences?; Are my paragraphs indented? are what the writer should be asking. Specifically we look at Conventions here.
Publishing
This is where we look at how the piece looks. Traditionally it has come with the mantra 'Use your best handwriting!' Personally, welcome to the 21st century - handwriting doesn't cut it anymore! Pictures, fonts, hyperlinks, columns are all things that you can use to draw your reader in, and make the piece easier to read.
PUB 103 Voice thread under Publishing in 6+1
6+1 Traits - What makes good writing good
Ideas
This trait looks at focus in the piece. Details rule supreme here. They need to make sense, be interesting and show something new. A sign of a piece that is weak in idea is the reader is often very confused after readin the piece.
Rubric for Idea
Parent Revision for Idea
Organization
Suprise, suprise I know this trait deals with what order we write in. Often kids write like they think - all over the place. The purpose of this trait is to reign in those stray ideas in and lead the reader where you want to go. Having to reread the piece multiple times to figure out what the author is talking about is a pretty good signal that they need some help in Organization.
Rubric for Organization
Parent Revision for Organization
Voice
Humourous, depressing, suspensful and exhausting all are feelings you can get from reading a piece of writing. Voice is the trait that we use to talk about what emotions and individuality the author brings to the table. Typically seen as the tree hugging cousin by Organization, most kids have excellent voice but gradually lose it over the years to formulaic writing. Most college textbooks are an example of poor Voice.
Rubric for Voice
Parent Revision for Voice
Word Choice
Careful selection of words can change drab sentences like 'I went to the store.' to 'I hustled to Meijer on December 24th.' Word Choice looks at how precise the author was with word selection. I know if I'm sick of hearing good, cool, fun then you probably are as well. Be wary of this one though because kids love to use the Thesaurus - yet often weild it ineptly. Example 'Frigid students make sure they empathy about cohorts.' While there are some fun words in the mix, they used them incorrectly.
Rubric for Word Choice
Parent Revision for Word Choice
Sentence Fluency
This is the trait that I have the most trouble teaching. It deals with how the piece actually sounds. I'm verbous and love to talk, so I tend to use long sentences all the time. Look at it this way, do you always have an enourmous meal? No some of us have snacks here and there. This looks at did the author use a variety of sentence structures. A good sign that a piece is week in Sentence Fluency is if every sentence sounds the same.
Rubric for Sentence Fluency
Parent Revision for Sentence Fluency
Conventions
This is what most people thing good writing includes because its what they have been taught - GRAMMAR. Yes it plays a part in good writing, however it isn't the only thing. If that was the case, we all would revere the book 'Dick and Jane' as a literary masterpiece.
This is the +1 trait. It doesn't "really" count but it does. This is what it looks like. Yes good writing can be messy but being the realist I am will anyone look at it? Furthermore wouldn't it be nice to see some diagrams and such. This one qualifies as a trait simply because us teachers have a Type A personality.
Once a year, in the great land of Mich-igan a dreaded beast descends upon the land! Prior to its annual visit the wisened tutors work themselves into a frenzy attempting to prepare the young apprentices to battle the monstrocity. Alas the hideous MEAP beast leave countless naives, sages and royality beaten and frustrated in its wake. However a select few always emerge victorious and are recognized for their writing prowness.
See while few knew it, the MEAP beast was a misunderstood creature. It was created by an haphazard wizard to do good. It was created with the sole purpose of showing the townfolk, sages, and monarchs who were their strongest writers. Those who were decimated would know what they needed to work on and sages would know what to prepare their students for in the future. And so it existed for several years. The townfolk during the time were reluctant players but participated because they saw the greater good.
Then an idiotic wizard named W. G. Hsub cast an evil curse on the beast. See he felt that the students were not learning fast enough and wanted to hold the towns coffers for ransom if every year more students did not defeat the beast. While this sounds good in theory, things like less affluent towns had less money to spend on higher quality weapons, and thus their students went to battle with wood swords. Some towns had rouge alchemist selling potions to hoodlums leaving and coming at all hours. These town's knights had less sleep than anticipated, and resulted in tired warriors fighting the beast. As a result these below par towns failed miserably and recieved even less money from the king because of the dreaded AYP curse.
Thankfully a group of wisened mages, who collectively call themselves the Michigan Department of Education, decided to attempt to get back to more basic times and show EVERYONE how to navagate and combat the dreaded monster. Because in the end the beast really did have good intentions: showing growth, showing strengths and weaknesses, and showing how students compare on a state level. And while everyone doesn't live happily ever after they at least understand the nature of the beast.
While this may seem silly, at least you understand why we have the test. My personal goal for next year to to have at least 7 writers get top marks on the MEAP. Considering last year we had none its a tall order.
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