Wheatmore High School
School-wide Writing Initiative
Writing is an essential skill for all students. And we recognize that for students to become good writers, they must write! Therefore, our writing plan for this year will be school-wide and oriented toward the professional of writing in each content area.
When writing is given a school-wide emphasis, students improve their understanding of the disciplines that emphasize writing, practice their writing in several classrooms, and grasp the importance of writing outside the English classroom. In addition, interdepartmental cooperation is encouraged (Glatthorn, 1981).
A curriculum-wide program can involve direct intervention by the English department in content area assignments, an approach taken by Boston University's College of Basic Studies. In a more informal program, English teachers may provide instructional materials to content area teachers and/or offer assistance to interested students with content area writing assignments (Lehr, 1982).
A curriculum-wide writing program will best succeed when administrators do the following:
--acquire interdepartmental cooperation by ascertaining needs and perceptions of content area teachers
--develop program objectives for both students and teachers including in-service opportunities for teachers who need more support in the specific skills so writing.
-demonstrate to parents a commitment to writing improvement. Administrators and teachers can inform parents of student progress, suggest ways to improve children's writing at home, and provide assistance to parents who want to improve their own writing. Identifying and using parent talents for tutoring or in-service consulting can also be beneficial (Glatthorn, 1981).
Programs that effectively meet the instructional needs of both students and teachers as well as public demands have the above features in common. Carefully adapted to individual schools or districts, any one or all of these features can go a long way toward improving the quality of composition instruction.
References
Glatthorn, Allan A. "Writing in the Schools: Improvement through Effective Leadership."
Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals, 1981.
Holbrook, Hilary T. “Qualities of Effective Writing Programs. ERIC Clearinghouse on
Reading and Communication Skills Urbana, IL. 1984.
Lehr, Fran. "ERIC/RCS Report: Promoting Schoolwide Writing." ENGLISH EDUCATION
14 (February 1982):47-52.
Content Area Writing
Each department will choose writing styles that are appropriate for their content area. These may include narrative, expository, step analysis, and summarization. A history teacher may choose a journal where students are asked to compare historical events with current events in the students’ lives. A biology teacher may ask students to use vocabulary in context. An algebra teacher may use writing to help students understand the abstractions of math.
Top 9 Tips to Cut Writing Assignment Grading Time (By Melissa Kelly, About.com Guide)
Grading writing assignments can be very time consuming. Some teachers even avoid writing assignments and essays altogether. Thus, it is critical to use procedures which give students writing practice while saving time and not overburdening the teacher with grading. Try some of the following grading suggestions, keeping in mind that students' writing skills improve with practice and with the use of rubrics to grade each other's writing.
1. Use Peer Evaluation
Distribute rubrics to students asking each to read and score three of his or her peers' essays in a specific amount of time. After grading an essay, they should staple the rubric to the back of it so as not to influence the next evaluator. If necessary, check off students who have completed the required number of evaluations; however, I have found that students do this willingly. Collect the essays, check off that they were completed on time, and return them to be revised.
2. Grade Holistically
Use a single letter or number based on a rubric such as the one used with The Florida Writes Program. To do this, put your pen down and simply read and sort assignments into piles according to score. When finished with a class, check each pile to see if they are consistent in quality, then write the score at the top. This allows you to grade a large number of papers quickly. It is best used with final drafts after students have used a rubric to grade one another's writing and made improvements.
3. Use Portfolios
Have students create a portfolio of checked-off writing assignments from which they select the best to be graded. An alternative approach is to have the student select one of three consecutive essay assignments to be graded.
4. Grade Only a Few from a Class Set - Roll the Die!
Use a roll of a die to match numbers selected by students in order to select from eight to ten essays that you will be grading in-depth, checking off the others.
5. Grade Only a Few from a Class Set - Keep them Guessing!
Tell students you will make an in-depth evaluation of a few essays from each class set and check off the others. Students will not know when theirs will be graded in-depth.
6. Grade Only Part of the Assignment
Grade only one paragraph of each essay in depth. Don't tell students ahead of time which paragraph it will be though.
7. Grade Only One or Two Elements
Have students write at the top of their papers, "Evaluation for (element) " followed by a line for your grade for that element. It is helpful to also write "My estimate _____" and fill in their estimate their grade for that element.
8. Have Students Write in Journals Which Are Not Graded
Require only that they write either for a specified amount of time, that they fill a specified amount of space, or that they write a specified number of words.
9. Use Two Highlighters
Grade writing assignments using only two colored highlighters with one color for strengths, and the other for errors. If a paper has many errors, mark only a couple you think the student should work on first so that you don't cause the student to give up.
MECHANICS AND STYLE
- Is it clear what the student's point of view is?
- Does the student control tone? Is the essay free of grammatical errors?
- Is the essay punctuated appropriately?
- Do citations and bibliography follow the correct format?
- Is the prose clear or do you puzzle over individual sentences?
- Are words spelled correctly?