State's General Grading Rubric For Writing example essay topic

Indian land rights Tribal Affiliations The injustices that happened long ago are still not fixed and need to be, because they are visible everyday through the hardships these people face. Introduction Ever since Europeans discovered America Native Americans began losing the irland progress Information Rules Information Rules I. Chapter 1 In this book Carl Shapiro and Hal R. Varian provide an overview of the competitive playing field of the network economy, and highlight the key economic rules that govern it. They assert that one does not need a New Economics to understand the New In-service In-service and Student Enhancement Program For Increasing Student Scores on the State Writing Assessment. Abstract: An in-service program will be developed to train all teachers in the grading guidelines for the State Writing Assessment. Teachers will be train in the grading of essays according to the General Grading Rubric developed by the State. Additionally, teachers will be helped to incorporate writing into their curriculums.

On the student side, an assessment of current writing skills will be given to all 10th graders. The assessment will be graded by a team of English teachers, and both students and parents will be notified of the results. Students who are deemed to be at risk of failing the Writing Assessment will be scheduled to attend after school enhancement programs designed to raise their writing skills. The goal of the program is to raise the number of students who pass the Writing Assessment by 10%. Problem statement: Last year a significant number of Glasgow's 10th graders failed the writing component of the State Assessment. In an era of school choice and accountability, raising our scores is very important.

Eighth grader and their parents are using these scores to choose high schools. Unless Glasgow raises the scores on the Writing Assessment, there is a strong chance that the "best and brightest" will choose another high school. Indeed, there is some evidence that this is already happening. Additionally, the retention of our current students depends on our ability to maintain high academic achievement especially on statewide measurements.

Therefore, a strong diagnostic and remedial program along with a school-wide emphasis on writing is needed to improve overall student writing scores on the State Writing Assessment. Goals: 1) Identify 10th graders who are performing below the acceptable level on the State Writing Assessment. 2) Train teachers across the curriculum in the General Grading Rubric for Writing. 3) Develop a targeted enhancement program to improve student writing ability. 4) Contact and involve parents the process of improving students writing. 5) Communicate to the student population the State's writing expectations.

6) Fully train staff across the curriculum to use and evaluate writing in their programs. 7) Create a long-term link between the English department and all other departments to facilitate writing across the curriculum in ways that meet the State's writing standards. Objectives: To increase by 10% the average number of 10th grade students who pass the State Writing Assessment. Procedures: Date: Activity Oct. 2 English staff training Oct. 8-10 Administer essay prompt to 10th grade English classes. Oct. March 29 State Writing assessment administered To be announced State publication of test scores Evaluation: Evaluation will consist of examining the 10th grade scores on the Writing Assessment.

The increased percentage of students passing the test will be the primary benchmark and the previous year's percentage of passing students will be the baseline. Secondarily, the overall improvement in terms of average score received will be established and compared to the previous year's average score. The English department will keep longitudinal data on these evaluation measures. Dissemination: The results of the State testing will be announced in the school's newsletter to parents and at the 1st faculty meeting after the results are published by the State. An effort will be made to have an official school comment be printed in the issue of the newspaper which publishes the results of the test. The comment will address our goal of a 10% increase.

Additionally, the improvement shown by Glasgow's students in terms of our goals will be posted. The focus of our public statements must be in the level of attainment we have achieved in reaching our goal. Personnel: Active personnel will consist of English teachers who will be trained in grading according to the State's General Grading Rubric for Writing. All English teachers will be partnered with other departments to work as buddies in assisting across-the-curriculum writing. Additionally, 6 teachers will be trained to work in the remedial writing program where they will work in the after-school enhancement program with those students identified as writing below the State Standards. Budget: Item Expense Initial training during English Dept meetings No cost Faculty training during scheduled in-service No cost Development of curriculum 2 days 6 staff + 1 coordinator at $25 per hour 2 hours 2 days = $700 Enhancement days 7 staff @ $25 2 hrs 3 days per week 22 weeks = $23,100 Total $23,800 Materials will be provided by the English Department out of allotted supplies.

Criterion Checklist for Understanding the New State Writing Standards 1) Have you seen the State's General Grading Rubric for Writing 2) Do you use the Rubric when evaluating student writing in your class 3) Could you explain to students how they could improve their writing according to the Standards 4) Would you like to learn more about evaluating student writing by using the State's General Grading Rubric 5) Did you know that how students perform on the State's Writing Assessment influences other students' desire to attend Glasgow High School 6) Do you agree that all teachers share in the responsibility to develop their students' writing ability 7) Are you interested in helping our students here at Glasgow meet the State Standards on the Writing Assessment Personal Accountability System This year I took on a difficult assignment. The assignment is 10th grade general English. Historically, no teacher has established ownership of this program and the result has been a weak curriculum and consequently discipline problems. This fall the failure rate in my class was high and in one class behavior was awful. I identified 2 areas in which I wanted to be more accountable: focus and organization. I hoped that these would allow students to be more accountable in the areas in which they were weak: preparation and performance.

The first thing I changed to increase focus is to simplify the curriculum. Instead of a long unit consisting several readings, several vocabulary list, and multiple writing exercises, I have reorganized the course into weekly units focusing on 1 reading, 1 vocabulary list, and 1 extended writing assignment. Each week ends with a quiz on the reading assignment and the vocabulary. Class activities and discussions are kept in an organized notebook which I collect and grade. Organization is greatly improved by the new weekly unit system. Students are put on notice that all the week's work is due on Friday when the quiz is given.

The week's work is posted on a board dedicated to this class. The point values of each assignment are posted. Additionally, due dates are established at the beginning of the week. Each Friday, I grade the week's quiz and calculate the weekly unit grade for all students. They receive both the quiz grade and their weekly unit grade 1st thing on Monday, and the students record these in a grade sheet I gave to them.

At the halfway mark of this marking period, the new system has resulted in a 95% passing rate.