RIGOROUS WRITING through
VERTICAL ALIGNMENT
Day 1: Forsyth
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HOW DOES VERTICAL ALIGNMENT WORK WITH
GPS?
WHY SHOULD STUDENTS WRITE?
HOW DO SCHOOL LEADERS ARTICULATE A
VERTICALLY ALIGNED WRITING PROGRAM?
HOW DO TEACHERS ENSURE THAT WRITING
ASSIGNMENTS ARE RIGOROUS AND RELEVANT?
KATHY COX: “WE WILL LEAD THE NATION IN IMPROVING STUDENT
ACHIEVEMENT.”
Bookkeeping issues
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 8 am-3:30 pm
 Break at 9:30 (10 minutes)
 Lunch from 11:30 until 12:45
 Break at 2:15 (10 minutes)
 Dismissal at 3:30
 Please feel free to stretch, go to the restroom, etc.
when you wish.
 Also, please turn off your cell phones.

Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
Activity 1: What Do I Know?
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 Receive a bingo card.
 Listen closely to the term.
 Volunteer a comment regarding the term (i.e., What
does the term mean to you as an educator?)
 Shout out when you achieve “Bingo.”
 Receive your prize!!!

Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
Begin a year with the end in mind…
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Why Vertical Alignment?
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•C U R R I C U L U M F O C U S D U R I N G P L A N N I N G T I M E
•F O C U S O N S T U D E N T S ’ A C A D E M I C G R O W T H
•V E R T I C A L “ C O N N E C T E D N E S S ” C O N V E R S A T I O N S
LEAD TO AWARENESS OF COMPLETE STANDARDS
PROCESS
•C O L L A B O R A T I O N L E A D S T O D E V E L O P M E N T A L K 12 PROGRAM
•I M P A C T O F V E R T I C A L A L I G N M E N T O N
ASSESSMENT
•D A T A A N A L Y S I S A C R O S S G R A D E L E V E L S
•K A T H Y C O X :
“WE WILL LEAD THE NATION IN IMPROVING STUDENT
ACHIEVEMENT.”
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Vertical Teaming and Alignment of Standards
 Rigor
 Relevance
 Relationships

Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
Rigorous and Relevant Learning
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Reasons
 A changing world
 A need to motivate students
 An emphasis on essential skills and

knowledge
A shift focus from teaching to learning
A reduction in the overloaded curriculum
A unified perspective and focus
A preparation for state tests

Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
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Statistical Facts Continued
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 One third of college freshmen are remedial

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students
(NCES, 2004; AEE, 2006a)
Freshmen are unprepared for rigors of
college (ACT, 2007)
Evaluation of ELA/GPS
70% of high school students graduate on time
34% of graduates are ready for college
(Education Week, 2007; Greene & Winters,
2005)
Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
Original Terms
New Terms
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 Evaluation
•Creating
 Synthesis
•Evaluating
 Analysis
•Analyzing
 Application
•Applying
 Comprehension
•Understanding
 Knowledge
•Remembering
(Based on Pohl, 2000, Learning to Think, Thinking to Learn, p. 8)
BLOOM’S REVISED TAXONOMY
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Creating
Generating new ideas, products, or ways of viewing things
Designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing.
Evaluating
Justifying a decision or course of action
Checking, hypothesizing, critiquing, experimenting, judging
Analyzing
Breaking information into parts to explore understandings and relationships
Comparing, organizing, deconstructing, interrogating, finding
Applying
Using information in another familiar situation
Implementing, carrying out, using, executing
Understanding
Explaining ideas or concepts
Interpreting, summarizing, paraphrasing, classifying, explaining
Remembering
Recalling information
Recognizing, listing, describing, retrieving, naming, finding
Activity 2: Putting the standards/elements in order
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 Get in pairs
 Review the set of standards and elements
 Label the grade level associated with each standard
and the set of elements
 Highlight key words that show level of thinking
 Highlight key words that show progression of
skills/knowledge
 Discussion

Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
Activity 3: Recognizing Rigor
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 Please pair with another member of the group
 Receive two different writing samples
 Receive two “Rigor and Relevance” rubrics
 Evaluate your samples
 Discuss why you rated as you did
 General discussion with the group

Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
Activity 4: Examination of tasks
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 Read and highlight key words (What must the
student do? What skills must the student have?
What standards are evident?)
 Discussion

Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
What Does ELA Vertical Alignment
Look Like in Georgia?
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PLEASE REFER TO THE
FOLLOWING HANDOUTS OF
VERTICALLY-ALIGNED GPS
EXAMPLES DEVELOPED BY
THE ELA TEAM
KATHY COX:
“WE WILL LEAD THE NATION IN IMPROVING STUDENT
ACHIEVEMENT.”
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Handout
#1
Writing
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Handout
#2
Conventions
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For early writers—Be
consistent
Emphasize the reading
and writing connection
Provide daily
opportunities to organize,
transcribe, and edit
Offer a variety of writing
assignments appropriate
to abilities
Build skills of letter
formation, spelling, and
sentence generation
Compose in stages:
generating and organizing
ideas, producing a draft,
sharing with others to get
feedback, revising, editing,
proofreading, and
publishing
What are the foundations of early
writing?
Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
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1.
Writing strategies
2.
Summarization
3.
Collaborative writing
4.
Specific product goals
5.
Word processing
6.
Sentence combining
7.
Prewriting
8.
Inquiry activities
9.
Process writing
approach
10. Study of models
11. Writing for content
learning
12. Reading/writing
connection
What are the elements of effective
adolescent writing instruction?
Source: A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York, Writing Next:
Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and
High Schools. (2007).
Activity 5: Developing a strong writing program
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 List 5 components you feel are absolute “non-
negotiables” for a strong writing program.
 Share ideas
 From the list, choose the 5 that are necessary for
Forsyth (Where do we begin?)

Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
Some ideas for a “strong writing” program
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 Triple Vision (Know what comes before you, what you

are suppose to address, and what comes after you).
LOTS—(Language of the Standards)
Anchor Papers
Minimum expectations from each grade level
Avoiding an “abundance of redundancy”
Understanding and demanding rigor
Writing to Learn, Writing to Demonstrate, Authentic
(Real World) Writing
Reading and Writing Connection

Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
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Activity 6: What do you want for Forsyth?
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 Model how to vertically
 Chart what types of
align (Persuasive)—Use
the handout from earlier.
assignments you would
want in each area—
elementary, middle, and
high—for each genre.
 Groups: 2 elementary
teachers, 2 middle school
teachers, 2 high school
teachers
 Each group will share.

Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving
Student Achievement.”
Advantages to Vertical Teaming and Alignment
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 Sense of belonging for both teachers
and students
 Maximum use of teachers’ strengths
 Development of rigor in tasks
 Decrease in repetition
Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
Next Steps for Forsyth
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 Groups need to align all the writing standards (Choose a
format that is easy to follow and that highlights the
elements).
 Decide what specific assignments might be required at
each grade; you may create a list.
 Find anchor papers for each genre so your teachers have
a guide.
 Monitor the writing as a school and as a department.
Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”
“The research is crystal clear: schools that do
well insist that their students write every day
and [are] provided regular and timely feedback”
(National Commission on Writing)
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Final Thought
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 Successful Vertical Alignment Has
Graduation As Its Mission and Vision
=
We are here to help!!!
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 Mary Stout, ELA Program Manager,
mstout@doe.k12.ga.us
 Kim Jeffcoat, ELA Program Specialist,
kjeffcoat@doe.k12.ga.us
Kathy Cox: “We will Lead the Nation in Improving Student Achievement.”