This is My Life
Building Success in
On-Demand
Writing
A pathway that has proven successful with students
Objective
To describe the process I went through
to build a successful on-demand writing
program for my 7th grade students.
I’m going to describe my thinking and
practice carefully and critically with the
hope of creating a lively dialogue that
will result in all of you either taking away
new ideas to try, or else sharing your
discoveries and adding to mine.
Applications for
On-Demand Writing
1. District benchmark writing prompts
2. Grades 4 and 7 California Writing Standards
Test
3. CAHSEE
4. College SAT’s and ACT’s
5. CSET English exam
6. Others?
What I Learned About
How to Prepare Students
for Success With
On-Demand Writing
My Thinking & Practice
Year
Number
Possible
Student
Group
Avg.
School
Average
District
Average
2007/2008
8
5.8
5.8
5.7
2008/2009
8
5.1
5.0
5.2
2009/2010
8
6.2
6.2
6.2
2010/2011
8
7.5
7.3
6.6
Start With Information
My objective is for the students to recall the structure
and format of a response to literature essay if asked
to write one on-demand.
This is a process that helps them with that recall.
Steps I Have Taken
1. Literary Response Essay – Procedures
and Reminders
2. Together, review a sample of a
response to literature essay
3. Complete an outline
4. Rough draft
5. Final draft response to literature essay
Review Before The State Test
1. State grading rubric
2. Read & review state released sample
response to literature writing prompt
3. Let’s pause here and see if we have what
we need to successfully write an essay
according to the state prompt
4. Go back to the state grading rubric, trade
papers with a partner, read their paper,
then assign them a grade
5. Sample student responses with grades
It’s a Wrap!
 Where would your sample written paper fall
according to the rubric?
 Did you have the materials and skills to write a
quality on-demand response to literature essay?
 Is there anything you can share with us that
would lend further assistance to this task? If so,
please share!
 Did we meet our objective: To describe the
process I went through to build a successful ondemand writing program for my 7th grade
students?