Differentiating Content, Delivery and Assessment -

As I have mentioned before, writing instruction is where I am putting most of my time and energy in regards to curriculum development.  I teach at a continuation high school and many of my students, for one reason or another, have never written an essay, EVER.  I know that for many of my students I am the last English teacher they will ever have and that feels like a huge responsibility to carry around.  I want them to know how to write.  After a couple of years of trial and error, I finally figured out a successful sequence that supports my students in writing.   Over the last 4-5 years I have seen a steady increase in the number of students who submit a final draft process papers.  This year 23 out of 25 students in my 5th period class submitted a passing final essay.  The sequencing is continually getting longer as I add more supports based on new ideas or the ever changing readiness of my students.  

I will be addressing the 11-12 grade Common Core writing standard 1a, specifically, in the following teaching plan.  This standard includes writing a clear claim and logically sequencing your claim, counterclaims, refutes, reasons and evidence.  As a department we made the decision to teach argument writing exclusively since changing genres of writing was very difficult for our students.  We decided that if they were seeing the same type of organization and getting to practice an argument essay in all of their English classes, (and social science classes now too) then they really have a chance at mastering this skill.  Then I began working on how I was going to teach my class how to write an argument paragraph that will eventually turn into an argument paper.

3rd quarter my class studies the concept of juvenile justice.  The first assignment I give them is their essay packet with a prompt that states To what extent to do you agree with the current law that juveniles can be tried as adults and sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole.    The students understand they will have to put together a minimum of a 5 paragraph essay to respond to that topic.  They have all sat in classes where the teacher hands out the prompt and tells them to get going writing their essay.  I reassure them this in not the case here and from there I can begin my writing instruction.  They have a greater incentive to pay attention because they know they have to eventually write an essay.  

I generally start with a paragraph pre-test and ask them to write 8 sentences.  I want them to submit what they would consider a very organized paragraph, on either why it is good to have a law in place that will sentence violent juvenile killers as adults or they can write one paragraph about why it is not good to have a law that can result in juveniles getting life sentences with no chance of parole.  I just give them a paper with the prompt at the top and blank lines on which to write.  I do not build in any supports because I need to see what they can do on their own.  This is my pretest or pre-evaluation.  From the results of this paragraph writing, I can determine where I need to begin with my instruction.  

I initially deliver my basic essay instruction through the use of PowerPoint.  I like that it’s visual and it allows me to include YouTube videos and extra little interesting supplementary information.  On my PowerPoint I have definitions and examples of each piece of an argument paragraph.  The students take notes on the definitions of words like, claim, reason, evidence, analysis, counterargument,refute and concluding sentence.  I have a paragraph organizer that I typically use for any struggling writer that has boxes with the names of the pieces of the paragraph and empty space for the students to write in each of those pieces  of a paragraph.  On that paper are the titles of the pieces on the left hand side of the paper, the students write in the descriptions of the pieces.  I usually have a picture, cartoon, or video to go with each piece, and finally a sample that the students copy down into the larger boxes of empty space.  When this lesson is finished, each of my students has a clear description of the pieces of their paragraph, a suggested order, and a sample paragraph I wrote for them.  Now, it is also made perfectly clear that the organization is flexible and might make sense to kids to organize differently.  That is perfectly fine with me.  Some writers prefer to begin their paragraphs with the counter reason and I agree that that is an effective way to construct an argument so the students have some freedom, which allows my stronger writers a chance to break out of the mold and develop their own style, but the organizer supports students who are not sure how to get started or what comes next when writing.

I usually have the students read the paragraph aloud a couple of times with their A/B partners so the structure can be reinforced on a deeper level.  The students will have the conceptual redundancy of reading the words from the PowerPoint, they will have written the sentences down, and they now will have a chance to read the sentences a few times.  I like one partner to read the claim, reason, evidence, analysis, refute and concluding sentence and the other partner to read the counterargument.   Getting the students to understand that the counter is the other side’s position and not theirs is one of the greatest challenges and I find that if the students can read the paragraph out loud it helps to hear one voice on the other side.  It also helps them understand that the counter and the refute need to be tied together, which is another serious challenge.  

This process normally takes two days and on the third day of instruction I put the students into groups of two which will eventually combine into groups of 4.  I usually have 24 ish students in my class so I typically use  6 groups of 4.  I have three sample paragraphs that I have laminated and cut up into strips.  I mix up the strips for one paragraph and put them in an envelope.  Each pair gets one envelope.  Eight pairs will get paragraph 1, 8 pairs will get paragraph 2, and 8 pairs will get paragraph 3.  With their partners I ask them to read the sentence strips and decide together the correct order of the sentences.  I can pair stronger students with developing students to make sure the conversation is beneficial for both.  Part of the assignment is to have a rationale for why each piece is placed where they placed it. Once the pair thinks they have a logical order, I put them into groups of 4 and when the group of 4 agrees I put them into groups of 8 who all have the same paragraph  and ask them to all agree on the best order.  The conversations this assignment yields are amazing. Students argue about transitions and are using the language we have been working on and ironically enough, are sharpening their persuasive skills all at the same time.   I like the strip assignment because it appeals to the kinesthetic learners and that is a challenge in an English class.  Students can activate a different part of their brain when trying to make sense of someone else’s writing.  It is almost like learning to grade writing.  I became a much better writer after I was tasked with grading essays.  This assignment works for my verbal learners, my interpersonal learners, it supports my language learners and special education students, and as previously mentioned, it supports my advanced students who are taking the time to explain to another student why a sentence needs to be place in a certain order.  When all 8 students agree I will finally take a look at what they have done and I can ask questions and call on students to answer why they put certain sentences where they did.  This is another informal assessment I can use to continue to develop supports for students who may need them.  

Now that I feel my students are ready to branch out on their own, I create three different writing prompt/organizers.  The more challenging prompt mirrors the essay prompt:  Write one paragraph arguing The extent to which  you agree with the judge’s decision in the Savannah Dietrich case?  My advanced students will get this more open prompt with blank lines underneath.  My emerging level students will get an organizer, like the one we worked with the first day, to help them organize their paragraph.  Their prompt will ask them to: Write one paragraph in which you fully agree or disagree with the judge’s decision in the Savannah Dietrich case.  Even though the wording of the prompt is different, I will be able to know how ready the students are in terms of organizing their thoughts and persuasiveness. Some of my special education students, depending on their accommodations and my assessment of their readiness, will get the same prompt as above and a paragraph frame.  I have had some students who begin developing their writing by simply filling in the blanks of a paragraph I have already set up for them.  I provide sentence starters and transitions to get them writing something.   A lot of what needs to be changed in these cases is attitudes about writing.  With the right supports all students can feel successful which will result in even greater learning.  

Once the students have their prompts, I hand out a differentiated reading passage on Savannah Dietrich, a rape victim.  Her attackers were juveniles who admitted what they did after video footage emerged of their actions.  The judge ordered Savannah to keep the names of her attackers private.  Many people were outraged by the judge’s order.  All three reading selections are about the same article, but they are at different reading levels.  One article is straight out of the newspaper.  One article has the definitions or pictures of difficult or important words in the article integrated into the passage.  The third article is one I usually edit and modify to fit the needs of the struggling readers in my class.  Now that everyone has the appropriate reading passage and writing support they are ready to go.

The assessment piece of the plan is the paragraph the students produce on their own.  I have an argument paragraph rubric and will spend more time later on asking the students to read, grade, and discuss sample paragraphs so they can better understand what the rubric is asking them to do.  The students may revise/edit these initial paragraphs 2 or 3 times if necessary to move forward one level on a 6 point rubric.  I need them to be very clear on what they need to do to earn a higher score the next time they write.