Meaningful Writing

1. Meaningful Writing

2. Communication Triangle Text/Format: essay, news article, letter Writer/Perspective: Who is speaking? Reader/Audience: Who are you speaking to?

3. Anticipatory Set • Encourage students to take a stance by creating an anticipatory set to introduce a new area of study • Compose five to ten statements about the concept • Ask students to indicate whether they agree or disagree with each statement • Tabulate class results with a show of hands • Return to results and ask if anyone wants to revise their thinking after the students complete the lesson

4. Attributes of Effective Writing Prompts • Active vs. Passive • States Position/Takes Stance vs. Narrative • Critical Thinking vs. Reiteration • Supported with Evidence vs. Opinion • Specific vs. General • Personal/Relevant vs. Who Cares?

5. Proof Paragraph • Topic Sentence: Assertion a. Evidence #1: statement of evidence, explanation of why it supports assertion. b. Evidence #2: statement of evidence, explanation of why it supports assertion. c. Evidence #3: statement of evidence, explanation of why it supports assertion. 2. Concluding/Transition sentence: refers to assertion and evidence.

6. Proof Essay 1. Thesis Paragraph a. Topic sentence: thesis of essay. b. Explanation of thesis. c. Preview of evidence. d. Transition sentence. 2. Proof Paragraph #1 a. Topic Sentence: Assertion b. Evidence #1: statement of evidence, explanation of why it supports assertion. c. Evidence #2: statement of evidence, explanation of why it supports assertion. d. Evidence #3: statement of evidence, explanation of why it supports assertion. e. Concluding/Transition sentence: refers to assertion and evidence. 3. Proof Paragraph #2 a. Topic Sentence: Assertion b. Evidence #1: statement of evidence, explanation of why it supports assertion. c. Evidence #2: statement of evidence, explanation of why it supports assertion. d. Evidence #3: statement of evidence, explanation of why it supports assertion. e. Concluding/Transition sentence: refers to assertion and evidence. 4. Concluding Paragraph a. Restatement of thesis. b. Summary of evidence. c. Why it matters.

7. Graphic Organizers Graphic Organizers • Using graphic organizers, students can categorize and organize information, making text more accessible. • Use of these visual tools aids in explanation and review. • Graphic organizers can be used to show cause-effect, compare-contrast, sequencing, whole-part, and other concepts or relationships.

8. Rubrics • Can be used as a tool for giving expectations, evaluating and reporting student achievement • Provide rubrics to students when assigning work • Guide instruction by clarifying individual students’ strengths and weaknesses and provide opportunity for authentic evaluation • Communicate the expectations of the assignment to students and parents • Involve students in the assessment process • Create tasks and rubrics to assess student understanding of standards and performance of skills

9. Cornell Notes

10. K-W-L

11. Challenge Statements • Challenge Statements are carefully crafted prompts that employ an appropriate amount of ambiguity. • They are a statement, not a question. • Challenge statements encourage students to take a stance when writing and require more explanatory demand than typical text writing tasks. • Responses to challenge statements can include drawings.

12. Text Mining 1. Text Mining provides students with a more targeted reading of text. There is a written product that will be used for a defined purpose. 2. Select the reading and provide a guide to relevant information through questions, graphic organizers, etc. 3. Students will read the selection and respond to the guide in whatever form dictated. These may include: • Filling in a data table • Completing a graphic organizer. • Writing a sentence on the context (big idea or conceptual relationship) of the writing. • Writing a description of the structure of the information. • Writing interpretations of pictures, data, or graphs included in the reading selection.

13. Sources Communication Triangle: Kinneavy, James. A theory of discourse: The aims of discourse. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1971. Anticipatory Set: Sean Leddy, 2006. Attributes of Effective Writing Prompts: Sacramento Area Science Project Proof Paragraph: Gibson, Anna Lee. Advanced Placement English Writing Manual and Literary Guide. Wise, VA: Wise County Vocational-Technical Center, 1992. Proof Essay: Gibson, Anna Lee. Advanced Placement English Writing Manual and Literary Guide. Wise, VA: Wise County Vocational-Technical Center, 1992. Graphic Organizers: Forte, Imogene and Sandra Schurr. Standards-Based Science: Graphic Organizers, Rubrics, and Writing Prompts for Middle Grade Students. Incentive Publications, 2001. Rubrics: Glickman-Bond, Jane and Kelly Rose. Creating and Using Rubrics in Today’s Classrooms. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, 2006. Cornell Notes: Walter Pauk, Cornell University K-W-L: K-W-L: Carr, E., and Ogle, D., K-W-L Plus: A strategy for comprehension and summarization. Journal of Reading, Volume 30, Number 7, pages 626-63, 1987. Challenge Statements: Sacramento Area Science Project Text Mining: Greene, Stuart. Mining Texts in Reading to Write. Occasional Paper 29, National Writing Project Publications, October, 1991.