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TITLE: Theme Essays
TASK DEVELOPER: Kimberly Smith
CONTENT AREA AND GRADE: 10th Grade Application English
TARGET TEACHING DATE: April 23-27, 2007
SCHOOL: John F. Kennedy High School
STANDARDS:
WRITING - GRADE 9-12
STANDARD 3.2 WRITING: All students will write in clear, concise, organized language that varies in content and form for different audiences and purposes.
Strand A. Writing as a Process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, postwriting): By the end of grade 12, students will:
1. Engage in the full writing process by writing daily and for sustained amounts of time.
2. Use strategies such as graphic organizers and outlines to plan and write drafts according to the intended message, audience, and purpose for writing.
3. Analyze and revise writing to improve style, focus and organization, coherence, clarity of thought, sophisticated word choice and sentence variety, and subtlety of meaning.
4. Review and edit work for spelling, usage, clarity, and fluency.
Strand B. Writing as a Product (resulting in a formal product or publication): By the end of grade 12, students will:
3. Draft a thesis statement and support/defend it through highly developed ideas and content, organization, and paragraph development.
9. Provide compelling openings and strong closure to written pieces.
Strand C. Mechanics, Spelling, and Handwriting: By the end of grade 12, students will:
1. Use Standard English conventions in all writing, such as sentence structure, grammar and usage, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling.
2. Demonstrate a well-developed knowledge of English syntax to express ideas in a lively and effective personal style.
4. Use transition words to reinforce a logical progression of ideas.
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PERFORMANCES:
- The students will write an essay expressing a theme in the novel.
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SETTING:
Real World Setting: Education
You are a book critic. Your boss asks you to read Imani in Never Say Goodbye and determine it's theme. You are then to discuss in a structure analysis how well the theme is portrayed in the novel. Your review will determine if a publisher wants to work with Jackie Hardrick on future novels.
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SMARTSKILLS:
Level I: Acquiring Data - Data students will acquire in this standards-based task:
Skills: Writing Skills
Concepts: Brainstorming, Analyzing Themes
Processes: Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Producing a Final Draft
Level II: Visualizing Information - Data from Level I that are visualized as information in this standards-based task:
Organizing: Brainstormed ideas must be organized into a coherent manner
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PREFERENCES:
Student Involvement - The students will complete the task as a cooperative group.
Instruction - Activities will be organized and delivered by differentiating the activities or strategies to offer appropriate ways for students to learn.
Special Education Accommodations - Students with special needs will be given additional time to complete task and other modifications and accommodations will be made to facilitate their learning.
Customer for Student Work - The student will present their work as evidence of task completion to peers and the teacher.
Assessment of Student Work - The following people will be involved in assessing student work generated to complete the task: The student's teacher.
Assessment of Student Work - The following forms of assessment will be used to determine progress and results: Essay
Reporting Results - The assessment results will be reported as a score point on a rubric.
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ACTIVITIES:
Quality-Driven Teaching
Activity 1: Setting High Expectations
Estimated time for this activity: 35 minutes
- Step 1. Class will begin with a discussion. The students will determine five themes in the novel.
- Step 2. Students will be organized into groups of four students. In these groups, the students will be given a theme they are to analyze. The students will find three examples of the theme being portrayed in the novel and complete a graphic organizer. They must include the page number next to the example.
- Step 3. The students will determine who is to write the introduction/conclusion, first body paragraph, second body paragraph and third body paragraph.
Materials for this activity: Imani in Never Say Goodbye novels, Dittoes, Rubric
Student product or performance for this activity: Graphic organizers, Group Activity
Activity 2: Activating Prior Knowledge
Estimated time for this activity: 40 minutes
- Step 1. The students will begin in their groups. They will review their examples and graphic organizers for the theme they are to write about. Each student will write their part of the essay.
- Step 2. Each group member will share their paragraph with the other group members. It is the groups responsibility to critique each paragraph appropriately.
- Step 3. With about 10 minutes left of the period the teacher will review transitional words, clever opening and closing statements, and proper quoting techniques. The class will take notes.
Technology for this activity: Over-head Projector
Materials for this activity: Graphic Organizers, Rubric
Student product or performance for this activity: Five complete paragraphs, Group Activity
Scoring tool for this activity: NJ Scoring Rubric
Activity 3: Editing/Revising
Estimated time for this activity: 40 minutes
- Step 1. Class will begin in groups. The students will take out their notes about transitional words, clever opening and closing statements, and proper quoting techniques. One student will write the complete paragraph as the other group members input their ideas of transitions and techniques.
- Step 2. Each group member will be given a chance to read the essay and revise and edit it.
- Step 3. The group will then review the rubric and score their essay.
Technology for this activity: Over-head Projector
Materials for this activity:Graphic Organizers, Individual Paragraphs, Class Notes
Student product or performance for this activity: Written Essays
Scoring tool for this activity: NJ Scoring Rubric
Activity 4: Visualizing Information
Estimated time for this activity: 35 minutes
- Step 1. The groups will take out their complete essays. A model essay will be displayed on the over-head projector.
- Step 2. The class will discuss the strong points of the model essay. The groups will evaluate their essays and determine the strong/weak points of their essays.
- Step 3. The groups will rewrite their essays where necessary.
Technology for this activity: Over-head Projector
Materials for this activity: Rough Drafts of Written Essay
Student product or performance for this activity: Group Activity, Revised Written Essay
Scoring tool for this activity: NJ Scoring Rubric
Activity 5: Applying Knowledge
Estimated time for this activity: 35 minutes
- Step 1. Each group will present their theme analysis to the class.
Materials for this activity: Revised Written Essays
Student product or performance for this activity: Group Presentations
Scoring tool for this activity: NJ Scoring Rubric
Source: http://www.learningfront.com
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SCORING:
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New Jersey Registered Holistic Scoring Rubric - GEPA/HSPA
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In Scoring, consider the grid of written
language |
Inadequate Command |
Limited Command |
Partial Command |
Adequate Command |
Strong Command |
Superior Command |
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Score
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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| Content & Organization |
- May lack opening and/or closing
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- May lack opening and/or closing |
- May lack opening and/or closing |
- Generally has opening and/or closing |
- Opening and closing |
- Opening and closing |
| - Minimal response to topic; uncertain focus |
- Attempts to focus
- May drift or shift focus |
- Usually has single focus |
- Single focus |
- Single focus
- Sense of unity and coherence
- Key ideas developed |
- Single, distinct focus
- Unified and coherent
- Well-developed |
| - No planning evident; disorganized |
- Attempts organization
- Few, if any, transitions between ideas |
- Some lapses or flaws in organization
- May lack some transitions between ideas |
- Ideas loosely connected
- Transition evident |
- Logical progression of ideas
- Moderately fluent
- Attempts compositional risks |
- Logical progression of ideas
- Fluent, cohesive
- Composi-tional risks successful |
| - Details random, inappropriate, or barely apparent |
- Details lack elaboration, i.e., highlight paper |
- Repetitious details
- Several unelaborated details |
- Uneven development of details |
- Details appropriate and varied |
-Details effective, vivid, explicit, and/or pertinent |
| Usage |
- No apparent control
- Severe/
numerous errors |
- Numerous errors |
- Errors/ patterns of errors may be evident |
- Some errors that do not interfere with meaning |
- Few errors |
- Very few, if any, errors |
| Sentence Structure |
-Assortment of incomplete and/or incorrect sentences |
- Excessive monotony/ same structure
Numerous errors |
- Little variety in syntax
- Some errors |
- Some errors that do not interfere with meaning |
- Few errors |
- Very few, if any, errors |
| Mechanics |
- Errors so severe they detract from meaning |
-Numerous serious errors |
- Patterns of errors evident |
- No consistent pattern of errors
- Some errors that do not interfere with meaning |
- Few errors |
- Very few, if any, errors |
| Non-Scorable Responses |
NR = No Response |
Student wrote too little to allow reliable judgement of his/her writing. |
| OT = Off Topic/ Off Task |
Student did not write on the assigned topic/task, or the student attempted to copy the prompt. |
| NE = Not English |
Student wrote in a language other than English. |
| WF = Wrong Format |
Student refused to write on the topic, or the writing task folder was blank. |
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Content & Organization
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Usage
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Sentence Construction
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Mechanics
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- Communicates intended message to intended audience
- Relates to topic
- Opening and closing
- Focused
- Logical progression of ideas
- Transitions
- Appropriate details and information |
- Tense formation
- Subject-verb agreement
- Pronouns usage/agreement
- Word choice/meaning
- Proper modifiers |
- Variety of type, structure, and length
- Correct construction |
- Spelling
-Capitalization
- Punctuation |
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| Source: http://www.njpep.org/assessment/TestSpecs/LangArts/Scoring/RubricsNJwritingHolistic.html |
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RESULTS:
Organize: I will use the following chart to display student data for each time that I assess and score the same learning standard(s):
Data-Driven Teaching and Results
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Data-Driven Results
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Directions: Complete this chart for each content standard and aligned scoring tool used to measure student performance in classrooms. In order to judge student growth across assessments, record data from only one scoring tool on one chart.
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| Content Standard: 3.2 |
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Students
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Scoring Results
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Last Name and First Name
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Male
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Female
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All Students
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| 1. Group one |
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4
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| 2. Group two |
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5
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| 3. Group three |
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5
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| 4. Group four |
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6
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| 5. Group five |
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3
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| 6. Group six |
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6
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| 7. Group seven |
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4
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| 8. Group eight |
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3
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| 9. Group nine |
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6
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| # Of groups at the Advanced Performance Level |
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5
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| # Of groups at the Proficient Performance Level |
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2
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| # Of groups at the Basic Performance Level |
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2 |
| % of groups equal to or greater than the Proficient Level (Total # of students at the proficient and advanced levels divided by the total number of students) |
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78% |
Analyze: I will examine the data in the chart to look for trends, contributing factors, and implications of student performance over a series of assessments of the same learning standard.
Trends: Majority of the groups were able to write a paper at the advanced and proficient performance levels. Only two of the nine groups wrote a paper at the basic level. None of the groups wrote an essay at the below proficient level.
Contributing factors: Most of the students worked well together. Many of the students were willing to work with their other group members in order to complete the assignment and do it well. The students were put into groups based on writing ability. The stronger writers were grouped with the weaker writers. So every group consisted of at least one strong writer and at least one weak writer. Many of the stronger writers were willing to help the other group members in order to write a advanced/proficient paper. Unfortunately some of the stronger writers did not seem to enjoy working with others and were adamant about not helping the weaker writers. And so, the overall essay they turned in was not to it's full potential.
Implications for student performance: Although many of the students initially did not want to work in groups, in the end they made the most of it. If the students were to write the essay individually, many students would not have done so well (based on the fact that I've been assessing their writing this year).
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