Full Description
Enhance your students' writing skills and boost their scores on standardized writing tests!
In today's high-stakes environment, standardized test scores not only gauge student performance, but are also linked to a school's status and the funding it receives. This helpful resource provides educators with a classroom-tested writing curriculum that has proven to boost student scores on standardized writing tests while helping them develop skills for lifelong writing success.
The authors offer structured, day-to-day lesson plans linked to national standards; easy-to-use writing tools; and carefully crafted, unscripted lessons that cover a scope and follow a sequence that aims for student success. This curriculum is designed to help you:
Become a confident writing teacher
Prepare your students for all practical applications of writing
Provide students with the analytical tools and skills they need to succeed on standardized writing tests
Accommodate students' strengths and weaknesses
Create confident readers and writers of your most reluctant students
Your students need more than writing prompts and grammar lessons to ensure they will have lifelong writing success. Finally--a way for teachers to provide quality writing instruction that allows them to meet testing demands on time and with confidence!
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Authors
1. No-Brainers and Bosses: Laying the Foundation
Curriculum Overview
Goals
Instruction Framework
Preparing to Teach
Week 1 Lesson Plans (Focus: Pretests and Prompt Differentiation)
2. Pickle Sandwiches and TCUPSS: Beginning Expository Writing
Week 2 Lesson Plans (Focus: The Expository Writing Process)
3. Rainbow Words and Awe-Inspiring Adjectives: Enhancing Expository
Week 3 Lesson Plans (Focus: Author's Voice)
Week 3 Lesson Plans (Focus: Author's Voice)
Week 5 Lesson Plans (Focus: Pace and Independence)
4. It all Started With a Tier Cake: Directing Narrative Structure
Week 6 Lesson Plans (Focus: Narrative Story Structure)
5. Ask for Likely Similes and Vivacious Verbs: Enhancing Narratives
Week 7 Lesson Plans (Focus: Syntax)
Week 8 Lesson Plans (Focus: Strong Verbs)
Week 9 Lesson Plans (Focus: Similes)
6. Dressing Things Up: Independent Writing
Week 10 Lesson Plans (Focus: Metaphors)
Week 11 Lesson Plans (Focus: Quotations)
Week 12 Lesson Plans (Focus: Sensory Details and Skeleton Plans)
Week 13 Lesson Plans (Focus: Hooks and Correcting Slang)
Week 14 Lesson Plans (Focus: Timed Writing)
Week 15 Lesson Plans (Focus: Anecdotes)
7. The Improvement Process: Diagnosing and Fixing Problems
Week 16 Lesson Plans (Focus: Grammar and Using a Rubric)
Week 17 Lesson Plans (Focus: Clarifying Problems)
Week 18 Lesson Plans (Focus: Elaboration)
Week 19 Lesson Plans (Focus: Conferencing and Self Reflection)
Week 20 Lesson Plans (Focus: Organization)
Week 21 Lesson Plans (Focus: Planning Difficult Prompts)
Week 22 Lesson Plans (Focus: Common Grammar Problems)
Week 23 Lesson Plans (Focus: Style, Voice, and Elaboration)
8. Timers and Deadlines: Preparing for a Test
Week 24 Lesson Plans (Focus: Reviewing the Basics)
Week 25 Lesson Plans (Focus: Writing Papers from Given Plans)
Week 26 Lesson Plans (Focus: Cooperative Writing)
Week 27 Lesson Plans (Focus: Studying for a Test)
9. Beyond Tests and Essays: Applying Expository Writing Knowledge
An Overview of the Projects
Adapting the Original Framework
Planning the Remaining School Year
Expository-Related Projects
Project #1: Newspaper Writing
Introducing Newspaper Journalism
Editorials, Part One
Editorials, Part Two
Interviews and Feature Articles, Part One
Interviews and Feature Articles, Part Two
Breaking News Articles
A Mini School Newspaper
Project #2: Subject Reports
Introducing Subject Reports
Research
Writing Subject Reports
Project #3: List Poetry
Personal List Poem
Contrasting Lists Poem
Object List Poem
10. Beyond Tests and Stories: Applying Narrative Writing Knowledge
Narrative-Related Projects
Project #1: Autobiography
First Few Years
Family, Home, School, and the Future
Project #2: Chapter Books
Character Sketches
From Outline to Story Draft
Project #3: Plays
Introducing Plays and Sketches
Three-Act Plays (Group Lesson)
Three-Act Plays (Independent Practice)
Project #4: Narrative Poetry
One Sentence Narrative Poems
Humorous Story Poems
Real Life Ballads
11. Writing Outside the Lines: Advanced Lessons
Using This Chapter
Advanced Narrative Writing
Point of View: Who Is Telling the Story?
Tense: Once Upon a Time in the Future
Characterization, Part One: Nose Pickers and Football Quarterbacks
Characterization, Part Two: What Color Are Your Socks?
Setting: It was a Dark and Stormy Night
Hooks: Beyond Bangs
Plot and Pace: And Then What?
Plot and Pace: And Then What?
Symbols and Themes: What's Your Drift?
Putting it all Together: The Complete Package!
Advanced Expository Writing
Essay Topics: My Own Prompts
Non-Prompted Writing: Organized Free Writing
Knowledge-Based Writing: I'm the Expert - Listen to Me
Contemplations: What's Your Theory?
12. Going School-Wide: Ideas to Create a Spiraling Curriculum
Specific Writing Goals
Adapting the Curriculum
Kindergarten
The Graphic Organizer
Sample Lessons
Suggested writing Topics
First Grade
The Graphic Organizer
The Graphic Organizer
Suggested Writing Topics
Second Grade
The Graphic Organizer
Sample Lessons
Suggested Writing Topics
Resources
Index
