Teaching the Writer (Argument) by Dr. Smith

What are they? What are they looking at?
Their essentially standards that are assigned a grade level for acceptable student performance. Looks at the different skills used for each category and how the skills in each category build upon one another. Not all students are the same, so it accounts for diversity in student learning.

How do the descriptors and qualifiers change as they progress through grades 5-9? Look at STRUCTURE and identify the progressive trend. Then do the same for DEVELOPMENT and CONVENTIONS.
Structure - Moves from basic comprehension to more higher level thinking (ex. Overall "made claim or thesis" to "develop argument with convincing evidence and acknowledging other perspectives"
Development - encourages higher level thinking through moving from explicit understandings to writing effectively enough where the reader creates their own meaning
Conventions - moves from asking students to attempt to use spelling and punctuation to the best of their ability to using spelling and punctuation correctly and effectively throughout their writing.

What are the implications and possibilities for teaching?

Would have to be used for some sort of writing based unit. Could be used as a pre-assessment to be discussed with the student over the course of the semester. We would discuss what the student is already doing well and then explain to them the steps they would need to take to get to the level we would like them to get to.

What do you notice about the rubric as it might connect to the Learning Progressions? What are the points of connection? How is the rubric different from the learning progressions?

The two correlate because you could use the rubric as a supplement to the learning progressions. The learning progression would be used over a longer period of time, while the rubric would help the teacher and student identify where the student is in the learning progression.

They are the same because they both move from lower level thinking and writing skills to higher level skills,

Different because the rubric assigns points to what the student is completing and correlates with an actual grade, where the progression is more so just a checklist.

Look at the Examples of Exemplars and consider how you might use it to inform your teaching for the writers you will encounter.

We would use this as a model for our students effective argumentation writing in each area of their paper and also shows how the paper develops from beginning to end. It shows effective snippets of writing for each portion of the paper.

Look at Cindy's draft against the Learning Progressions for Argument. Where might you begin with this writer teaching into what the she is currently developing and trying to master? Where might you push Cindy to work and focus right now?

She has a good introduction that states her claim and then previews what is going to be discussed. Solid ending, which uses effective transition, gives a small insight into how she feels about the issues and restates all of the points she made.

Needs to improve on varying word choice (ex. "this reveals"), doesn't use transitions as effectively as she should.

Look at Kah Soon's piece against the Learning Progressions for Argument. Where might you begin with this writer teaching into what he is currently developing and trying to master? Where might you push Kah Soon to work and focus right now?

Does good job of stating his opining/thesis statement explicitly. Does a good job of elaborating, spelling and punctuation/structure.

Currently developing a lead, his transitions, and his ending, but all need improvement. Offers solution at the end, but doesn't explicitly connect to the rest of the paper.

Look at Gio's Letter against the rubric? Where would you place him in each domain. Justify your ideas.

Lead - 4

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