McDowell R Persuasive Writing Unit Interdisciplinary Writing Unit Persuasive Writing 2nd Grade READ 7140 Summer 2007 Rachael McDowell 1 McDowell R Persuasive Writing Unit Interdisciplinary Writing Unit School and Student Characteristics and Individual Differences School System and School Your name and grade level Mrs Rachael McDowell Name of school system Tift County Schools Name of school Len Lastinger Primary School School s Student Characteristics Students 259 Number of boys 211 Number of girls 5 10 Age range Ethnicity number of students 134 African American 11 Asian American Native American 93 Hispanic 218 Caucasian 19 Other Reading Achievement Give percentages Based on CRCT Scores 43 Above average or advanced skill level 49 Average or intermediate skill 8 Below average skill level Writing Achievement Give percentages Based on Georgia 3rd Grade Writing Assessment 38 Above average or advanced skill level 56 Average or intermediate skill 6 Below average skill level Classroom s Student Characteristics 9 Number of boys 10 Number of girls 7 8 Age range Ethnicity number of students 6 African American Asian American Native American 3 Hispanic 9 Caucasian 1 Other 2 McDowell R Persuasive Writing Unit Reading Achievement Give percentages Based on CRCT Scores 24 Above average or advanced skill level 62 Average or intermediate skill 14 Below average skill level Writing Achievement Give percentages Based on County 2nd Grade Writing Rubric 28 Above average or advanced skill level 54 Average or intermediate skill 28 Below average skill level Classroom Organization Check as many as apply Homogeneous Heterogeneous Self Contained Team Teaching Departmentalized Parallel Block List other programs Individual Differences Students Attending Pull Out or Supplementary Programs number of students Title I Reading 2 Gifted Early Intervention Program Safety Net List other programs Language Proficiency number of students 16 English language 3 Bilingual Other languages List other languages Spanish Students with Individual Education Plans IEP number of students Blind or visual impairment Deaf or hearing impairment Developmental delay 2 Emotional or behavioral disorder 1 Learning disability Mild intellectual disability Other health impairment Physical disability 1 Speech Other 3 McDowell R Persuasive Writing Unit 4 Student Interest Survey I want to know all about you Name Date Tell me your favorite color animal TV show food sport game person thing to do at school I ve travelled to I don t like McDowell R 2007 Student interest survey Unpublished document Valdosta State University Valdosta GA Georgia Grade 3 Writing Assessment Description The writing assessment for grade three consists of teacher evaluation of student writing using an analytic scoring system The Grade 3 Assessment and Instructional Guide contains the scoring rubric types of writing required by the GPS narrative informational persuasive and response to literature good practices for the instruction of writing sample student papers and ways to McDowell R Persuasive Writing Unit 5 evaluate student writing Using representative samples of student writing third grade teachers are to use the analytic scoring rubrics in the Guide to determine the performance levels in each domain for each child in the classroom Teachers collect writing samples by providing many opportunities for students to produce the various types of writing throughout the year Types of Writing Covered by the Grade 3 Writing Assessment Narrative o Relating Personal Experience Writing assignments should direct students to recount an event grounded in their own experiences The assignment should elicit a story with a plot and characters rather than a list Creating an Imaginative Story Writing Assignments should direct students to produce stories that are grounded in imagination or fantasy Informational o o o o o Writing Assignments may be related to all content areas specified in the Grade 3 GPS and may be produced during content area instruction Writing assignments may be related to any type of non fiction writing whose purpose is to inform or explain a topic to a reader Students should incorporate information from resources books on line sources etc without copying the information verbatim Paraphrasing information and using technical vocabulary from source material is appropriate for the informational assessment sample For example the informational samples collected for this guide on the topic of minerals may use technical vocabulary such as igneous metamorphic or sedimentary rocks Persuasive o o The writing assignment should direct students to take a position on an issue or topic that they are familiar with The assignment may occur after the class has researched the issue or read related texts o The assignment may be part of a lesson on the issue in a particular content area Response to Literature o o o The assignment should direct students to form and support a position in response to a text they have read The assignment should be linked to a specific piece of literature short stories biographies fables plays poetry and chapter books Plot summaries or the retelling of an entire story are not appropriate responses to literature McDowell R Persuasive Writing Unit 6 Time Line Because writing assessment at grade three is an outgrowth of the writing instruction program each elementary school or system should develop a plan at the beginning of the school year for teaching the four genres of writing and collecting assessment samples There is no correct order for teaching the writing genres in a school year Teachers may choose to teach all four genres of writing throughout the school year or teachers may choose to teach each genre at a particular time in the school year Some school systems integrate Response to Literature into the Reading Workshop curriculum and teach it throughout the school year simultaneously with the other three genres The writing process should be taught throughout the third grade year regardless of the order in which the genres are taught The steps of the writing process prewriting drafting revising editing and publishing should be taught throughout the year because third graders may not have fully learned this process and will need help applying each stage of the process to each genre of writing For each genre teachers should model the steps of the writing process providing assistance and conferencing at each step Writing samples produced with the teacher s