Warm-up Instructions

1. Warm-up Instructions Pick up a grammar warm-up sheet from the turn-in table. Complete the sheet according to the instructions. Take out a grading pen to check it. Work on reading your Call of the Wild book or read a book from my back shelf.

2. Writing Review and Development Examine the relationship between critical review and positive development. Analyze and apply feedback to writing. Use a rubric to guide work. Work: revise outlines to re-submit tomorrow using rubric, notes, and feedback.

3. Title your notes: Writing Review & Development Complete each item below per the instructions. Brainstorm a list of jobs or particular fields in which people consistently need to evaluate and improve their skills. What developments, achievements, or products do you see in our society that demonstrate a desire to evaluate and improve? How do you think critical review improves writing?

4. Overall Strengths As a grade, students demonstrated mastery of the basic structure of a well-developed paragraph more than 80% of the time. Student writing consistently included transitions over 90% of the time. Students included the topic in the topic sentence 100% of the time. This is a record!

5. How to Build on Strengths To further strengthen paragraph structure: introduce sub-topics clearly To improve transition usage and impact: use at least two of the transition punctuation methods use higher-level transitions, and stick to transitions from the hand-out Therefore, no more basic transitions such as first/firstly/to start off, second/next, or third/lastly.

6. How to Build on Strengths 3. To further improve topic sentences: Keep your topic sentence fairly simple and direct. (For instance, avoid using a semi-colon or making the topic sentence overly long, or 15+ words). Check your topic sentence for supporting details. If you find any, move them to support later in the paragraph (example. Haiku is a short poem with a 5-7-5 syllable format.) Read your topic sentence out loud and revise it out loud. (Consider how you might say this in an interview.)

7. Place the writing strategies in the appropriate targeted strength column. Paragraph Structure Topic Sentences Transitions Avoid jumping topics or sub-topics within a paragraph. Use at least two methods to punctuate transitions. Compose a topic sentence that is relatively short and to-the-point. Introduce sub-topics before delving into description or support. Use high-level transitions from the worksheet that are not sequence transitions. Avoid using a semi-colon in the topic sentence, and keep the topic sentence to one-sentence long.

8. Application: What are your personal strengths? Using the rubric for your paragraph, record the top two or three (2-3) categories in which you scored the highest. What strengths does this feedback reveal? What can you do to build on these strengths?

9. How important is each area targeted for writing improvement? Rank the potential target areas in 1 minute. Most 
important Ideas and Organization Word Choice (WC) Mechanics (punctuation, spelling . . .) Topic Sentence Composition Presentation Least important

10. Area to Improve: Target One Ideas and Organization Connect ideas to writing prompt and rubric Clearly introduce the sub-topic in a paragraph before providing support Use transitions to signal shifts from one part of the paragraph to another. Example: There are many aspects that serve to describe the modern lyric poem. Specifically, the history of the lyric poem reveals where it earned its name. In ancient Greece, poets such as Sappho and . . . Suggestions highlight vocabulary in the writing prompt to use in your response be nice to sub-topics and give them their own introductory sentences use the rubric to grade your own paper, and initial each section to ensure that you do not miss any targeted skills

11. Area to Improve: Target Two 2. Mechanics (grammar, punctuation, capitalization) Commas Capitalization Semi-colon vs. colon usage Avoid: dashes parentheses unless citing a source over-using semi-colons (more than three times in an essay)

12. Area to Improve: Target Three Strive for higher overall word choice. Focus on improving verbs, especially to be, have, and do verbs. Identify certain words and phrases that should be avoided: Avoid: thing, stuff, a lot, lots, great, bad, good, someone, something, some time, sort of, kind of . . . Overly repeated and vague pronouns In my opinion . . . I think that . . . Now I will tell you . . .

13. Place the writing strategies in the appropriate targeted skill column. Ideas & Organization Mechanics Word Choice Use semi-colons (;) to join two independent clauses, or otherwise complete sentences. Use transitions to signal when you move from one part of a paragraph to another, such as shifting from a sub-topic to its support. Avoid words like "thing," "a lot," "stuff" and "good" or "bad." Highlight vocabulary in the writing prompt, and use that same vocabulary in your response. Check your work for sentence fragments when you revise. Find creative verbs for common verbs like "be" Always remember to add a comma after a transition. Introduce each sub-topic before you begin providing support for it. Check writing for over-use of pronouns. Also, check for pronouns that do not actually replace the intended word.

14. Review: Where do you most need to improve? Using the rubric for your paragraph, record the two or three (2-3) categories in which you scored the lowest. What specific skills to improve does this feedback reveal? What can you do to improve these skills?

15. Work Time: Revise your outline based on the rubric and what we studied today. Put your header on your outline rubric. Using a sheet of construction paper, go through each item on the rubric with your outline, and initial each section as you review and revise it. If you finish revising your outline, you may use it to begin drafting your topic paragraphs. (Wait to compose introductions and conclusions until we study them in class.)