Posts in Assessing Writing
The Two Sides of Our Writing Brain: Supporting Student Writers in Process
The Two Sides of Our Writing Brain: Supporting Student Writers in Process

Breaking the writing process up into two powerful sides of the brain can help students be more effective in the writing process. Let’s look at four different techniques to make this happen in the high school English classroom.

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Best Practices, Reading & Writing, Writing Mini-lessons, Editing & Revision, Assessing Writing, Philosophies on WritingAmanda CardenasHigh School ELA, AP, ap language, alternate assessmentComment
Three Strategies for Providing Feedback on Student Writing
Three Strategies for Providing Feedback on Student Writing

Grading essays, or any written work for that matter, can be time consuming. So, as writing teachers, it’s important that we find efficient strategies for being able to provide constructive feedback but in a timely manner.

Here are three strategies for providing high-quality feedback on student writing.

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Assessing Writing, Best PracticesMeredith Dobbsgrading writing, essay grading, peer revision, feedback, essay feedbackComment
Writing Workshop Resource Roundup
Writing Workshop Resource Roundup

We know as English teachers that writing workshop is a foundational approach to writing instruction in the modern classroom. But if you’re like me, I am always searching for new tips, tools, and resources for implementing writer’s workshop— to make it more manageable for me as a teacher as well as more approachable for my students.

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Assessing Writing, Best Practices, The Writing Process, Writing Workshop, Writing Mini-lessonsMeredith Dobbswriting workshop, workshop, writer's workshopComment
Creative Activities and Games for Citing and Embedding Quotations!
Creative Activities and Games for Citing and Embedding Quotations!

Do your students struggle with citing and embedding quotations within their writing? I feel like I teach, reteach, teach again, remind again, comment again and again within feedback about these same skills… all. Year. Long. My Students tend to struggle with the formula for citing that text evidence correctly. I find that they frequently forget to move that end punctuation to after the citation, and they absolutely love to add the abbreviation for page into that citation. I cannot quite figure out why, but they just want to through the letters ‘pg.’ right in the middle of that parenthetical citation.

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Assessing Writing, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessonsGuest Userciting evidence, citing text evidence, citing quotations, embedding quotations, embedding text evidence Comments
Tone and Mood Writing - Writing Games and Unique Assessments to Teach Tone and Mood
Tone and Mood Writing - Writing Games and Unique Assessments to Teach Tone and Mood

Getting students to fully grasp the concept of tone and mood can be a truly difficult and daunting task. Students can have a very difficult time separating the mood they feel while reading from the author’s tone while writing. It can be even more challenging for students to think about the mood they wish a reader to feel while they are writing, which can require them to disregard their own tone.

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Assessing Writing, Mentor Texts, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessonsGuest UserWriting Assessment, Writing with Tone and Mood, Tone and Mood Assessment, Teaching Tone and Mood, Assessing Tone and Mood, Creating Tone in Writing, Creating Mood in WritingComment
10 Easy Ways to Reduce your Grading Time
10 Easy Ways to Reduce your Grading Time

As a writing teacher, the grading load can be pretty overwhelming. We’ve all carried that tattered folder stuffed with papers to and fro, to and fro, dragging it along to family vacations, coffee shops, and anywhere else where we think we might actually find the time to sit down and give feedback. But ack. Somehow the time never seems to come. And the folder just keeps getting more battered.

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Best Practices, Assessing WritingGuest Usergrading, management, classroom managementComment
Four Back-to-School Diagnostic Assignments for Secondary ELA
Four Back-to-School Diagnostic Assignments for Secondary ELA

Assessing individual student skills at the beginning of the school year is important for teachers to establish a baseline from which to monitor student growth.  This is especially important at the secondary level where we have an influx of students from diverse educational backgrounds all converging into one larger secondary school. 

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Assessing Writing, Writing AssignmentsMeredith Dobbsdiagnostic essay, diagnosticComment
Literary Analysis Writing
Literary Analysis Writing

Within a literary analysis, students are required to think deeply about a given text, then make inferences and provide evidence to support that inference. Not only does the skill of drafting a quality literary analysis response support students in high school English classes, but will essentially define much of their English coursework in college.

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Best Practices, Differentiating Writing, Modes of Writing, The Writing Process, Writing Assignments, Assessing WritingGuest Userliterary analysis, literary analysis writing, literary analysis lessons, teaching literary analysis, english lessons, ELA lessons, #iteachenglish, #iteachhighschool, Literary writingComment
9 Ways to Get Secondary Students to Enjoy Writing
9 Ways to Get Secondary Students to Enjoy Writing

How can teachers help older students enjoy writing? Negativity and reluctance is a mindset that is established early on. However, in middle and high school, certain teaching approaches and strategies can help to change the way students view themselves as writers. Create a positive writing culture and maintain it through the year. These nine approaches can help.

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Assessing Writing, Best Practices, Differentiating Writing, FREEBIES, Philosophies on Writing, Writing Assignments, Editing & RevisionMelissa Krusewriting lessons, enjoy writing, writing activities, best practices, writing culture, struggling writers, reluctant writers, writing approaches, differentiation, assessing writing, back to schoolComment
Prompt Sticks Reflection Game: An Interactive Way to Reflect Back on the School Year
Prompt Sticks Reflection Game: An Interactive Way to Reflect Back on the School Year

There are lots of creative ways to facilitate reflection at the end of the school year.  Integrating novelty into any lesson makes it more interesting, and the same concept applies to reflection questions.  So I set out to create an interactive "Prompt Sticks" Reflection Question game to get students more interested in assessing their learning at the end of the school year. 

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Best Practices, Assessing Writing, FREEBIES, Writing AssignmentsMeredith Dobbsend of year writing activities, end of year, end of year writing assignments, bespoke ela, Bespoke ELA, Bespoke, reflective writing, reflection activities for middle school students, reflection activities for the secondary student, reflection activities for high school students, reflecting lessons, reflection, reflective, reflection lessons, #reflectingonlearning, Semester Reflection, reflection game, gameComment
10 Unique and Creative Reflection Techniques & Lessons for the Secondary Student
10 Unique and Creative Reflection Techniques & Lessons for the Secondary Student

As educators, we know how critical reflection is to the learning process. Getting students to reflect- deeply and meaningfully- is often one of the most challenging lessons we teach. I have found that both my middle school and high school students will often scoff at these reflection activities, providing the least amount of effort possible to complete the task they see as meaningless. I have been searching for and creating lessons and activities that will bring interest and engagement to this task. The following

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Assessing Writing, Editing & Revision, FREEBIES, Philosophies on Writing, The Writing Process, Writing AssignmentsGuest UserSemester Reflection, reflection activities for the secondary student, reflection activities for high school students, reflection activities for middle school students, reflection lessons, reflecting lessons, #relfectionlessons, #reflectingonlearning, #edchat, #iteachtoo, #iteachenglish, #englishteachers Comment
The Best First Writing Lesson of the Year: Email Etiquette 101
The Best First Writing Lesson of the Year: Email Etiquette 101

When planning for the beginning of the year, teachers need to choose writing assignments that allow for collection of pre-assessment data while also engaging students and building a positive writing community. 

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Best Practices, Assessing Writing, Technology & Writing, Writing Assignments, Writing Mini-lessons, Writing WorkshopMelissa Krusewriter's workshop, lesson, back-to-school, email, real-world writing, best practices, career writing, mini-lessons, pre-assessmentComment
The Worst Essay of Your LIFE: A Unique Approach to Assessing Writing at the Beginning of the School Year
The Worst Essay of Your LIFE: A Unique Approach to Assessing Writing at the Beginning of the School Year

The beginning of the school year is an important time to assess the writing skill levels of new students in our English classes.  One way to do this is to assign a diagnostic essay in order to "diagnose" each student's writing level... 

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Assessing Writing, Best Practices, FREEBIES, The Writing Process, Writing Assignments, Writing WorkshopMeredith Dobbswriting topic, writing projects, writing workshop, writing, writer's workshop, writing process, writing assignments, writing topics, writer's notebook, writing assessment, essay writing, essay, diagnostic, diagnostic essay, English, english, Middle School English, High School English, high school, high-interest, targeted writing skills, common core, middle school, Middle School Language Arts, language and composition, language arts, Language Arts, engaging writers, writing skills, assessing writing, assessment Comments
Supporting Struggling Writers: 6 Strategies for Turning Struggling Students into Successful & Confident Writers!
Supporting Struggling Writers: 6 Strategies for Turning Struggling Students into Successful & Confident Writers!

6 Strategies for Turning Struggling Students into Successful & Confident Writers!

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Assessing Writing, Best Practices, Editing & Revision, FREEBIES, Philosophies on Writing, Writing AssignmentsGuest UserSupporting Struggling Writers, Teaching Writing, Writing instruction, Middle School English, Middle School Language Arts, High School English, Teaching Writing to Struggling Writers, #ela #edchat #iteachtoo #iteachmiddle #teach #teacher, #ela, #edchat, #iteachtoo, #iteachmiddle, #iteachhighschoolComment
14 Strategies to Support Struggling Writers: Build Confidence & Increase Success
14 Strategies to Support Struggling Writers: Build Confidence & Increase Success

Teaching and assessing writing can be challenging, and even more so when you're trying to identify effective ways to scaffold writing instruction for struggling students. Set teenagers up for success by incorporating these teacher-tested, student-approved strategies.

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Assessing Writing, Philosophies on Writing, Best Practices, Differentiating Writing, Writing Workshop, Writing AssignmentsMelissa KruseThe Reading & Writing Havenwriting, scaffolding writing, best practices, teaching writing, struggling writers, how to teach writing Comment