Writing Exemplars and Scoring Guides

Jen — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 04:02:47 +0000

Later this week I will be looking at student writing with teachers. I put together the following materials so that we can reference them when we work together and thought perhaps you might find them useful as well.

Writing Exemplars

Writing Exemplars (also called sample or “anchor” papers) are used to help students, teachers, administrators, and parents learn what the expectations are for writers at any given grade level. They also serve as a great way to develop an understanding of how to score students’ writing.

The following sites have posted exemplars that could be used as you start to evaluate the writing program in your school:

GRADES K-5

Oregon Grade 3 - includes five levels of Narrative, Expository, and Imaginative writing
Oregon Grade 5 - includes five levels of Narrative, Expository, Persuasive, and Imaginative writing
Exemplars.com – includes a small sampling of K-4 writing lessons and exemplars (exemplars are found toward the bottom of each page)
Houghten Mifflin Benchmark Papers – each set shows a range of scores for all modes taught in grades K-5 Houghton Mifflin English. An analysis of each model is also provided.
Anchor Papers for Emergent Readers

GRADES 6-8

Oregon Grade 6 – includes five levels of Narrative, Expository, Persuasive, and Imaginative writing
Oregon Grade 8 – includes five levels of Narrative, Expository, Persuasive, and Imaginative writing
6 + 1 Trait Writing Scored Examples

GRADES 9-12

MULTI-AGE LEVELS

Ontario Grades 1-8 – the site includes four levels of annotated writing for each grade as well as copies of the assessment rubrics
New Zealand Curriculum Exemplars – the site includes poetic writing character development and personal experience, as well as transactional explanation and argument exemplars
Nova Scotia 1-8 Exemplars
The Writing Site - select a grade level (1-12) and a genre to explore various writing exemplars
Write Source – grades 1-12 (simple exemplars)

Scoring Guides

Scoring guides serve as rubrics or check lists that teachers can use to assess student writing. They may vary from state to state and district to district, but should all have similar criteria that incorporates the various traits of writing: ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions.

The following sites have posted writing scoring guides that you can review and consider as you develop assessments for your district:

New York State Guide to the Grades 3-8 Testing Program
Oregon Department of Education Official Scoring Guide, Writing 2009-2010
Bakersfield Writing Prompts and Scoring Guides K-8 (also includes writing exemplars)
Missouri Dept. of Education Scoring Guides 3, 7, 11
6 + 1 Writing Rubric
Student Friendly Writing Rubric (MS age appropriate)
Practice Scoring 6 + 1 Writing Traits

Cooperative and Collaborative Learning Strategies

Jen — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:37:30 +0000

I recently worked with a teacher who decided that whole group instruction was not meeting the needs of her students. She decided to split her students in two groups, but was having trouble splitting herself between the two large groups. We discussed some cooperative strategies that might help her find a balance. Today I am sharing some of the resources I sent her following our discussion. I steered away from Web 2.0 collaborative tools (which was hard for me to do) and focused on providing links that described strategies. I hope you find the following information helpful and would certainly welcome additional strategy resources and links you are willing to share.

Collaborative learning is a method of teaching and learning in which students team together to explore a significant question or create a meaningful project.

Cooperative learning is a specific kind of collaborative learning. In cooperative learning, students work together in small groups on a structured activity. They are individually accountable for their work, and the work of the group as a whole is also assessed. Cooperative groups work face-to-face and learn to work as a team.”

To effectively implement collaborative and cooperative strategies in your classroom the following environmental issues need to be in place:

Students need to feel safe, but also challenged.
Groups need to be small enough that everyone can contribute
The task students work together on must be clearly defined.

To learn more about using Cooperative Learning techniques in your classroom I would strongly suggest the following resource: Concept to Classroom: Cooperative and Collaborative Learning Workshop . You can work through the Free, self-pace workshop to determine how cooperative strategies can best be implemented in your classroom.

After you have explored the Concept to Classroom self-paced workshop you may find the following resources helpful as well:

Implementing Small-Group Instruction: Insights from Successful Practitioners
Cooperative Learning: Seventeen Pros and Seventeen Cons + Ten Tips for Success - online article by Dr. Spencer Kagan
Cooperative and Collaborative Learning Study Guides and Strategies – tips and strategies for upper level students

Farr-Out Links to Learning » Super Strategies

Writing Exemplars and Scoring Guides

Cooperative and Collaborative Learning Strategies