“Filling in the Gap” Middle School Writing vs.

High School Writing

Luther Barnett

Veronica Bradley

SSWWP 2014

Santee-Wateree Writing Project

We met at the SWWP, a graduate class that helps teachers become better writers so that they can better assist their students.

The SWWP was founded in 1988 and is a part of the National Writing Project.

Having experienced the class, we would encourage all of you to take part in it.

We believe that effective writers are avid readers.

What are Middle School Teachers Preparing Students For?

Palmetto Assessment of State Standards (PASS)

Characteristics of the Test

1. Not Timed

2. Students are expected to brainstorm, complete a rough draft, and final draft

3. Students are given a non text based prompt (Describe your favorite holiday)

Synopsis of the Middle School Writing Process

•Types of Writing (Personal Narrative, Expository, Descriptive, Persuasive)

•Writing Prompt (Deciphering the prompt)

•The Writing Process (Brainstorm/Outline, Rough Draft, Edit, Revise, Rough Draft, Final Draft)

•15 point Scoring Rubric

Conversion of the 15 Point Scoring Rubric

15 = 10014 = 9513= 9012 = 8511 = 8010 = 759 = 708 = 657 = 606 = 55…

Your Turn / Put Yourself in their ShoesTake 5 minutes to write on the Prompt Below

Many people believe that television violence has a negative effect on society because it promotes violence. Do you agree or disagree? Use specific reasons and examples to support your response.

Afterwards…

Switch papers with your neighbor and use the 15 point rubric to assess only the voice category.

Be sure to give feedback

If you were the teacher….1. Read the student’s paper and then

evaluate them using the 15 point scoring rubric. Be sure to support your grade with a rationale.

2. Partner share

3. Group Share

High School Teaching Upper Level English:

Advanced Placementand

International Baccalaureate

IB Paper 1

1. Students take Paper 1 in May of the senior year.

2. Students are provided with poem and a passage of prose. They are not given a prompt. They have 2 hours to read and analyze either the poem or the passage and then compose a well-organized and sophisticated literary analysis essay.

3. Therefore, students need to be able to read a text that they have never seen before and demonstrate the ability to comprehend it and then write about it immediately.

Paper 1 Practice

In your handout, you will see Sylvia Plath's “Mirror.” Take ten minutes to read the poem and start an essay. The activity you're doing right now is one that I use regularly in both the IB and the AP class. It helps the students become faster and more efficient readers and writers.

The IB Rubric

After listening to me share a couple of student essays and explain how and why I scored them in the way that I did, use the IB rubric to score your partner's writing. Remember that you are trying to grade in the way that you would expect a completely objective party to grade. The evaluators often are in other countries, and they don't know my kids personally. All they know is the essay that they are reading. The IB rubric is available at www.ibo.org. The one I’ve given you includes a conversion scale for the grade that the students will receive in my class for the assignment.

After five minutes, we'll discuss the evaluation process as a group.

Closing the GapWhat can middle school teachers do to meet state

standards and prepare students for analytical writing?

1.Mentor Texts

Kelly Gallagher used pieces of the book Columbine to help students “recognize how writing can move beyond simply summarizing and into areas (in this case, analysis and interpretation) that sharpen the writer’s ability to think and the reader’s ability to understand” (137).

2. Read and Re-read

Reading the text several times “teaches students that asking questions is essential if they are to have any chance of moving beyond shallow interpretation” (Gallagher 148).

3. Read and Write Independently

“People who read more write better….Readers write papers that have longer development, more mature vocabulary, and better and more diverse sentence structure” (Gallagher 188). Practice writing each day.

ActivityRead the poem, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.

Use the handout to complete the first, second, and third reading of the poem.

What do you notice in the first draft reading of the poem?

What do you notice in the second draft reading of the poem?

What do you notice in the third draft reading of the poem?

Answer Each Question1. Formulate an idea of what you think the road may represent. Explain why you think that.2. Propose a reason for the ―sigh” the speaker has at the end of the poem. What are some of the reasons he may be sighing? Explain your answer.3. Propose a meaning for the line ―that has made all the difference. What are some of other meanings of that line? Which interpretation do you prefer? Why

Writing Prompt

We all have roads in our lives we decide not to take. Tell about a road in your life you chose not to take. Looking back, do you regret not taking

that road. Why? Why not? How might your life be different today had you taken that road?

Research to Support a More Varied Approach to Teaching Literary Analysis at the High School Level

Ralph Fletcher and JoAnn Portalupi argue, “Many teachers feel straightjacketed by assessment issues ranging from large-scale tests down to assigning a grade on a student’s report. These evaluations demands differ dramatically from the types of assessments built into a [writing] workshop. At first the two might seem to be unlikely bedfellows. We think otherwise” (103).

Note: The writing workshop that the authors propose is primarily for elementary and middle school, but the fluid approach to seeing how all assessment can be interconnected transcends every level of education.

Research to Support a More Varied Approach to Teaching Literary Analysis at the High School Level

Jamie Hutchinson argues that “good teachers often do everything at once—asking students to reflect on and talk about their readings and discussions in preparation for writing, and finding ways to weave the language arts together in an integral learning experience” (ix).

Note: As an editor, Hutchinson provides numerous lessons from English teachers from all over the country that encourage students to approach their study of the novel both analytically as well as personally.

Research to Support a More Varied Approach to Teaching Literary Analysis at the High School Level

Laurence Perrine defines literature in the most humanistic of terms. He says, “Literature, in other words, can be used as a gear for stepping up the intensity and increasing the range of our experience and as a glass for clarifying it. This is the literary use of language, for literature is not only an aid to living but a means of living” (Perrine 4).

Note: The title of Sound and Sense, Perrine’s book, comes from “An Essay on Criticism” by Alexander Pope, a work that embodies the best of logic as well as artistic craft. The Romantics would have disliked it, though.

Adding the Personal to the Analytical

In your handout, you will see The Poetry Project that I use in my Advanced Placement English class. I have used variations of this assignment in my IB class, but I have more flexibility with the curriculum and management of the AP class.

I ask the students to compose their own poetry, but they have to write in particular forms of verse. I ask them to find a mentor text for each poem from Sound and Sense or Elements of Literature.

The students have to write an analysis of their own poem.

In this sense, I’m encouraging creativity and structure simultaneously. It is the most challenging writing assignment I have ever designed because this aspect to its nature.

Now You Try

Earlier you read a poem by Sylvia Plath called “Mirror.” I want you to revisit that text as not just in an analytical sense but as a poet.

“Mirror” would be classified as lyric poem, which is a poem that expresses personal or emotional feelings. That is a rather large classification that encompasses many other styles of poetry.

Look at the kinds of choices that Plath makes in the crafting of her lyric. Then compose your own lyric. In a paragraph, explain how your understanding of Plath’s choice in the crafting of her poem influenced you as you wrote yours. Take 10 minutes. Then we’ll share.

Exit Slip

How can you as a middle school teacher or a high school teacher develop approaches to your teaching of literature that helps students fill the proverbial gap?

Have you ever considered collaborating with teachers from other levels to design more comprehensive approaches to teaching literature and writing?

Works Cited

Fletcher, Ralph and JoAnn Portalupi. Writing Workshop: The Essential Guide. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2001. Print.

Gallagher, Kelly. Write Like This: Teaching Real-World Writing Through Modeling and Mentor Texts. Portland: Stenhouse, 2011. Print.

Hutchison, Jaime. “Introduction.” Teaching Literature in High School: The Novel. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 1995. Print.

Perrine, Laurence. Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry Seventh Edition. New York: Harcourt, 1987. Print.