During the week beginning April 1(during Spring Break, just before students bring report cards home), students will bring home their writing folder and portfolio of completed writing pieces for parents to look over. There will be a form to sign stating that this has been done. Hopefully this will help explain the grade on the report card and give parents a chance to talk over expectations for the new term. There is also a place for parents to ask questions, but of course this can be done at any time, through phone calls, notes, e-mails, etc. For credit, the student must return the form on Monday, April 10. No credit will be given for this assignment if late.
Throughout the term students will be given assignments to complete in class. These will mainly be practices in prompted writing and assignments in Write Source 2000 that will help them to improve their writing. For the most part these will be completed in class. Students should only need to take these home if absent or not using class time wisely.
Each term we focus on a specific genre of writing. The first term will be expository writing, one of the genres tested on the F-CAT writing test. This second term our focus will be on persuasive writing, the second (and usually considered more difficult) genre tested on the F-CAT Writing test. The third term will emphasize poetry. The last term we will study letter writing. We will have lessons in class on the genre studied each term. Students should take good notes and refer to notes and handouts. One of the pieces this time needs to be a letter, written in proper format (including using a friendly letter format for friends and relatives and a business letter format for others). Students are encouraged to write one in the form of a letter to the editor because it could be mailed to the "Gainesville Sun" and earn extra credit for pulblishing. Other letters can receive some publishing credit if a response to the letter is received (note: two copies of the final copy will need to be made--one to mail, and one to file in the student's portfolio). On the date indicated, students will be tested on their ability to apply what is learned about letter writing in an F-CAT like testing situation where students will be given a prompt and expected to write the entire letter in the time given.
Students will be given a handout which requires them to do some self-reflection about their writing. It will ask several questions about the process of writing and their individual results. It is intended to give me feedback about the writing program and also encourage the student to think about his/her own writing. It is almost identical to the one done for extra credit last term, so if students did it then, they should use that one and the feedback on it to do this one. Students will have lots of time to do this. It requires a parent signature because I believe parents can have valuabel input on helping children make evaluations and set future goals.
Students will be sending their portfoilos on to seventh grade. I have told the students that next year's teachers will actually receive the portfolios before they met the students, so it is a form of introduction. In the portfolio will be the piece (all drafts and conference record sheet) that the student choose as the one to best represent him/her as a writer. There will also be a listing of all pieces completed in sixth grade. Students have been told about this since the first day of the last term, because they are encouraged to write that best piece and increase the number of pieces in the portfolio if they are not happy with the current status. Along with these two things will be a letter to next year's teacher telling him/her about the student as a writer and explaining why the piece included best represents him/her as a writer. The letter should also include what the student accomplished in sixth grade and what the student hopes to accomplish in seventh grade. It can also include other information the student would like the teacher to know about him/her. It should be written in proper letter format, as we studied this term, and could be addressed to Seventh Grade Writing Teacher, or World's Best Writing Teacher, or Tiger Teacher, etc. If done early enough, this could also count as a piece as long as it goes through the writing process.