Which—from your observations of writing instruction—do you
believe would make the most difference in helping our Nevada
students achieve better writing results? Rank these three ideas:
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to better balance their test
preparation activities with authentic writing instruction.
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to use more strategies that push
students to the analysis and evaluation level (Bloom’s) when teaching
reading and writing.
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to improve their abilities to model
and teach both authentic pre-writing and revision strategies.
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to better balance their test
preparation activities with authentic writing instruction.
Third Grade:
• No Direct Test Preparation
• Two Creative Narrative Lessons
• Two Personal Narrative Lessons
Fourth Grade:
• Three Practice Prompts (Spring)
• ..with pre-writing strategies
• …with annotated samples &
“Sparklers”
• Three Follow-up Lessons
• …focused on the “Seven Elements of
a Differentiated Writing Lesson”
Fifth Grade:
• Three Practice Prompts (Fall)
• ..with pre-writing strategies
• …with annotated samples &
“Sparklers”
• Three Follow-up Lessons
• …focused on the “Seven Elements of
a Differentiated Writing Lesson”
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to better balance their test
preparation activities with authentic writing instruction.
Pictured here are fourth graders posing with
their final drafts of the follow-up lesson they
did after spending a week writing a practice
passage akin to the type of writing they’d do
on our state test as fifth graders.
The follow-up lesson lasted three weeks as
they went through the entire writing process.
The students set goals for themselves to
work on during the follow-up based on the
scores they received from the practice
prompt they wrote to.
Imagine what stronger writers Nevada would
have if they practiced three times in their
fourth grade year—a month in between
practices—and followed each practice
prompt with an authentic narrative writing
lesson.
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to better balance their test
preparation activities with authentic writing instruction.
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to use more strategies that push
students to the analysis and evaluation level (Bloom’s) when teaching
reading and writing.
“First Pen” chapter
(featured in the fifth grade section of the “Show Me” Guide)
An “Olympic Committee Task” for you to analyze and evaluate this
mentor text:
_____
_____
_____
_____
Fletcher has chosen memorable and relevant details to
tell his story (idea development);
Fletcher’s personality is revealed, and he really sounds
like he has written about a topic he cares about. (voice);
Fletcher’s use of adjectives, verbs, and sentence variety
proves he has a great command of language (word
choice & sentence fluency);
Fletcher spelled all his words correctly (conventions).
Your task: Work with a fellow “judge” to decide which three skills from the four above
made this writing worth publishing; then, of those three, decide which one was his “Gold
Medal skill,” his “Silver Medal skill,” and his “Bronze Level skill.”
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to use more strategies that push
students to the analysis and evaluation level (Bloom’s) when teaching
reading and writing.
Writing inspired by the “First Pen” chapter
(featured in the fifth grade section of the “Show Me” Guide)
An “Olympic Committee Task” for you to analyze and evaluate this
student sample:
_____
_____
_____
_____
John has chosen memorable and relevant details to
tell his story (idea development);
John’s personality is revealed, and he really sounds
like he has written about a topic he cares about. (voice);
John’s use of adjectives, verbs, and sentence variety
proves he has a great command of language (word
choice & sentence fluency);
John spelled all his words correctly (conventions).
Your task: Work with a fellow “judge” to decide which three skills from the four above
made this writing worth publishing; then, of those three, decide which one was his “Gold
Medal skill,” his “Silver Medal skill,” and his “Bronze Level skill.”
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to use more strategies that push
students to the analysis and evaluation level (Bloom’s) when teaching
reading and writing.
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to use more strategies that push
students to the analysis and evaluation level (Bloom’s) when teaching
reading and writing.
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to improve their abilities to model
and teach both authentic pre-writing and revision strategies.
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to improve their abilities to model
and teach both authentic pre-writing and revision strategies.
____ Nevada teachers (K-12) need to improve their abilities to model
and teach both authentic pre-writing and revision strategies.