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STANDARD 3.2 (WRITING) ALL STUDENTS WILL WRITE IN CLEAR, CONCISE, ORGANIZED LANGUAGE THAT VARIES IN CONTENT AND FORM FOR DIFFERENT AUDIENCES AND PURPOSES.
Descriptive Statement: Writing is a complex process that begins with the recording of one’s thoughts. It is used for composition, communication, expression, learning, and engaging the reader. Proficient writers use a repertoire of strategies that enables them to vary form, style, and conventions in order to write for different purposes, audiences, and contexts. Students should have multiple opportunities to craft and practice writing, to generate ideas, and to refine, evaluate, and publish their writing. In a successful writing program, students develop and demonstrate fluency in all phases of the writing process, including prewriting, drafting, revising, editing of multiple drafts, and postwriting processes that include publishing, presenting, evaluating, and/or performing.
Students should be helped to understand the recursive nature and shifting perspectives of the writing process, in moving from the role of writer to the role of reader and back again. It is important for students to understand that writers write, then plan and revise, and then write again. They will learn to appreciate writing not only as a product, but also as a process and mode of thinking and communicating. "By the mysterious alchemy of the written word, we range over time and space, expanding our experiences, enriching our souls, and ultimately becoming more fully, more consciously human" (Keene, 1999). Students should recognize that what they hear, speak, read, and view contributes to the content and quality of their writing.
Cumulative Progress Indicators
Building upon knowledge and skills gained in preceding grades, by the end of Grade 8, students will:
A. Writing as a Process (prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, postwriting) 1. Write stories or scripts with well-developed characters, setting, dialogue, clear conflict and resolution, and sufficient descriptive detail. 2. Write multi-paragraph compositions that have clear topic development, logical organization, effective use of detail, and variety in sentence structure. 3. Generate and narrow topics by considering purpose, audience, and form with a variety of strategies (e.g., graphic organizers, brainstorming, technology-assisted processes). 4. Revise and edit drafts by rereading for content and organization, usage, sentence construction, mechanics, and word choice. 5. Utilize the New Jersey Registered Holistic scoring rubric to improve and evaluate their writing and the writing of peers. 6. Compose, revise, edit, and publish writing using appropriate word processing software. 7. Reflect on own writing, noting strengths and setting goals for improvement.
B. Writing as a Product (resulting in a formal product or publication) 1. Extend knowledge of specific characteristics, structures, and appropriate voice and tone of selected genres and use this knowledge in creating written work, considering the purpose, audience, and context of the writing. 2. Write various types of prose, such as short stories, biographies, autobiographies, or memoirs that contain narrative elements.
C. Mechanics, Spelling, and Handwriting 1. Use Standard English conventions in all writing, such as sentence structure, grammar and usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling. 2. Use a variety of sentence types correctly, including combinations of independent and dependent clauses, prepositional and adverbial phrases, and varied sentence openings to develop a lively and effective personal style. 3. Understand and use parallelism, including similar grammatical forms, to present items in a series or to organize ideas for emphasis. 4. Refine the use of subordination, coordination, apposition, and other devices to indicate relationships between ideas. 5. Use transition words to reinforce a logical progression of ideas. 6. Edit writing for correct grammar, usage, capitalization, punctuation, and spelling. 7. Use a variety of reference materials, such as a dictionary, thesaurus, grammar reference, and/or internet/software resources to edit written work. 8. Write legibly in manuscript or cursive to meet district standards.
D. Writing Forms, Audiences, and Purposes (exploring a variety of forms) 1. Gather, select, and organize the most effective information appropriate to a topic, task, and audience. 4. Write personal narratives, short stories, memoirs, poetry, and persuasive and expository text that relate clear, coherent events, or situations through the use of specific details. 5. Use narrative and descriptive writing techniques that show compositional risks (e.g., dialogue, literary devices sensory words and phrases, background information, thoughts and feelings of characters, comparison and contrast of characters.) 6. Use a variety of primary and secondary sources to understand the value of each when writing a research report. 7. Write reports based on research and include citations, quotations, and works cited page. 8. Explore the central idea or theme of an informational reading and support analysis with details from the article and personal experiences. 9. Demonstrate writing clarity and supportive evidence when answering open-ended and essay questions across the curriculum. 11. Present evidence when writing persuasive essays, examples, and justification to support arguments. 12. Choose an appropriate organizing strategy such as cause/effect, pro and con, parody, to effectively present a topic, point of view, or argument. 13. Use of a personal style and voice effectively to support the purpose and engage the audience of a piece of writing. 14. Maintain a collection of writing (e.g., a literacy folder, or a literacy portfolio). 15. Review scoring criteria of relevant rubrics.
Link to Standard 3.2 High School
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