Writing
Jill Turner, Writing Coach
USA Today
http://www.usatoday.com/educate
Students can access any of these websites from home:
Encyclopedia Britanica |
Nettrekker |
Facts for Learning |
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User Name: ocps |
User name: ocps1 |
User name: stonewall |
Password: |
Password: ocps1 |
Password: Jackson |
Key Features: Full text in Spanish World Atlas Webster's Dictionary Spanish translator Interactive activities (for all subjects) Timelines Teacher Resources Video clips MLA/APA citation All ability levels |
Key Features: Kid-safe search engine Teacher Resources ELL version Read-aloud feature 15 translation dictionaries All ability levels |
Key Features: Reference library Library/research skills Weekly Reader articles Picture gallery Almanac in Spanish Homework corner Funk & Wagnall |
FCAT Explorer (student) |
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User Name: first initial, last name (no space in between) |
Password: |
Key Features: Reading Math Science All ability levels Benchmark-based Interactive Coaching for incorrect answers |
Eleven Key Elements of Effective Writing Instruction
1. Writing Strategies:
Teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and editing their compositions
2. Summarization:
Explicitly and systematically teaching students how to summarize texts
3. Collaborative Writing:
Instructional arrangements in which adolescents work together to plan, draft, revise, and edit their
compositions
4. Specific Product Goals:
Specific, reachable goals for the writing they are to complete
5. Word Processing:
Using computers and word processors as instructional supports for writing assignments
6. Sentence Combining:
Teaching students to construct more complex, sophisticated sentences
7. Prewriting:
Engaging students in activities designed to help them generate or organize ideas for their composition
8. Inquiry Activities:
Engaging students in analyzing immediate, concrete data to help them develop ideas and content for a
particular writing task
9. Process Writing Approach:
Interweaving a number of writing instructional activities in a workshop environment that stresses
extended writing opportunities, writing for authentic audiences, personalized instruction, and cycles of writing
10. Study of Models:
Providing students with opportunities to read, analyze, and emulate models of good writing
11. Writing for Content Learning:
Using writing as a tool for learning content material
From Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High School -
A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York (Graham and Perin, 2006).