Developing Proficient Writers 

1. Developing Proficient Writers  Barren County Schools Plan to Develop Proficiency 2006

2. Barren County Classrooms

3. Category 1: Writing to Learn 

4. Category 1: Purpose of Writing to Learn Activities • To help student assimilate learning • To help students remember information • The audience is the learner

5. Writer’s Notebook Reading Response Journal Learning Log Class Journal Dialogue Journal Opinion Journal Sketch Journal Response Paragraph Personal Journal Observation Logs Learning Logs Grammar Log Do Now’s Category 1: Writing to Learn Samples

6. Category 1: Writing to Learn • Often a response to a prompt • Intended to promote student’s understanding of content and stimulates thinking • Indicates how well a student understands what has been taught • Open to student’s thinking • Brief, single draft writing (never corrected) • Not real world form or authentic • Can be written in or out of class • May give credit for it, but never graded

7. Category 2: Writing to Demonstrate Learning 

8. Category 2: Writing to Demonstrate Learning • The purpose is to demonstrate learning • The audience is the teacher • Requires students to think and respond at higher levels

9. Category 2: Writing to Demonstrate Learning Examples • Answer to open response • Test answer • Summary reading • Explanation or summary of activity • Book, research, or library report • Lab report • Essay for a quiz

10. Category 2: Writing to Demonstrate Learning • Is a response to a school exercise, prompt, or teacher assignment • Demonstrates to the teacher that the student has completed assigned work • Intended to assess learning • Correct answers with standard explanations • Usually a single draft, not in a real world form and not intended for authentic readership

11. Category 3: Authentic Writing 

12. Category 3: Authentic Writing • The purpose is to synthesize, analyze, or evaluate what the student has learned • To communicate with a wider audience outside the classroom in a real world form 

13. Articles Editorials Text for speeches Letters Memos Proposals Reviews Short Stories Chapters for a book Manuals Picture books for children Personal Narratives Memoirs Poems Plays, scripts Category 3: Authentic Writing Samples

14. Category 3: Authentic Writing • May be written in response to teacher prompt, but defined to some extent by student • Specific authentic purpose in a real world form writing is driven by the purpose • Intended to develop student writing skills • Reveals student ownership • Usually taken through full writing process

15. Category 3: Authentic Writing Is the only writing appropriate for inclusion in the assessment portfolio

16. Barren County’s Writing Plan Must Do’s • All classrooms will focus on the three categories of writing • All writing will be embedded in units of study • Students will be reading and discussing the kind of material they will be writing • All students will receive regular feedback on writing progress • Student work will be celebrated • Move from compliance to culture change 