Power Standards

• Write opinion pieces on authentic topics supporting a perspective with a clear introduction, structured reasons, and a concluding statement. (W 3.1, 3.1a & L 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, & 3.5)
• Write explanatory texts about authentic topics logically organizing and sequencing details and information while incorporating appropriate academic language. (W 3.2, 3.2b & L 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, & 3.5)
• Write narratives to develop authentic or imaginative experiences by using the characters’ actions, thoughts and feelings while choosing words and phrases to convey ideas precisely. (W 3.3, 3.3b & L 3.1, 3.2, 3.4, & 3.5)

*See student writing examples on Appendix C of the Common Core document

Power Standards Critical Content

In the language of instruction, students will…

• Write routinely over extended time frames and shorter time frames for a range of discipline-specific tasks, purposes, and audiences
• Write 3 or more long-form writing pieces to final draft
• In all types of writing:
  • Plan, develop, and organize writing according to task, purpose and audience
  • Understand writing as a process of planning, revising, and editing
  • Use precise and/or academic language and vocabulary specific to the topic
  • Choose words and phrases to add effect or interest when writing or speaking
  • Apply conventions of the written language
• Write opinion pieces on topics and texts supporting points of view
  • Create an organizational structure* to:
    • Introduce the topic and opinion
    • Provide and explain an opinion and organize and support with reasons
    • End writing by providing a concluding statement or paragraph
  • Use linking words or phrase (e.g., because, therefore, since, for example)

  *(Organizational Structures include: chronological, compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution)

• Write informational/explanatory texts that tell about a topic and convey ideas and information clearly
  • Introduce a topic clearly and group related information together
  • Develop the topic with facts, definitions, and details and include an illustration in written pieces if necessary
  • End the pieces by providing a concluding statement or paragraph
  • Use words and phrases like “also”, “another”, “and”, “more”, and “but” to connect ideas that should be grouped together
• Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events
  • Begin a story by describing a situation and introducing a narrator and/or characters
  • Organize a series of events in order
    • Use dialogue and descriptions of actions, thoughts, and feelings to tell the story
    • Show the response of the character to the events
    • Use temporal words and phrases such as before, during, and after
  • Write a conclusion that provides a sense of closure
• Apply Grade-Level Conventions of Grammar (See ELA specific considerations)

Additional Critical Content

• Identify and use technology to research, produce and publish writing
• Define research and explain how it is different from other types of writing
• Research a topic to answer questions and/or gain information
• Gather relevant information from print and digital sources about a topic
• Remember and share information from experiences about a topic
• Take brief notes and sort information into categories using graphic organizers
• Explain how spoken language differ from written language

Essential Understandings

• Effective writing, which communicates clearly to the intended audience and fulfills its specific purpose, provides a means of discovery, of communication, of argument, and of creative expression.
• Effective writing is the result of multi-stage, collaborative and reflective processes.
• Research-based ideas and arguments can influence an audience’s understanding and beliefs.
• Text structures allow writers to communicate with an audience in appropriate and meaningful ways in order to achieve the intended purpose.

Factual Guiding Questions

• What are the traits of effective writing?
• What’s the purpose of writing and how does one develop it?
• What is the writing process?
• When a word doesn’t make sense, what can one do?
• How does one use prior knowledge to figure out what is not known?

Conceptual Guiding Questions

• How does one communicate effectively through writing?
• What makes a resource reliable or credible?
• Why is it important to use one’s own words when writing?
• How does author’s voice impact an audience?
• How can one improve the quality of a piece of writing?
• Why are conventions important?

Engaging/Debatable Guiding Questions

• What do good writers do?
• What do good researchers do?
• “What I say” versus “how I say it”, does it really matter?

Language General Transfer-Students must draw upon the following…

Common features of the writing system

• Capitalization
• Punctuation
• Lines or other spatial constraints of the writing
• Concepts of sentence and paragraph formation

Non-cognitive transfer

• Attention
• Listening
• Concentration
• Persistence
• Task completion

Self-esteem transfer

• Being literate
• Feeling capable
• Possessing specific competencies
• Achieving
• Believing in one’s ability to learn

Common among all languages

• Develop Oral Language
• Match speech to print
• Contextualized literacy instruction
• Meaningful
• Active
• Comparative
• Recurrent

English language specific

• Demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English grammar and usage when writing or speaking:
  • Explain how nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs function in sentences
  • Use plural (more than one) and form/use regular (e.g., boy, boys) and irregular plural nouns (e.g., mouse, mice) correctly
  • Use abstract nouns (nouns that represent an idea, feeling, emotion, etc.) and use them correctly
  • Explain the difference between regular and irregular verbs and use them correctly
  • Explain the difference between simple verb tense (past, present, and future) and use correct subject-verb agreement
  • Identify the antecedent (word or group of words a pronoun replaces)
  • Make sure pronoun agrees with its antecedent
  • Make sure a singular subject pronoun has a singular verb, and plural subject pronoun has a plural verb
  • Identify comparative adjectives/adverbs (formed by adding -er, or more) and superlative adjectives/adverbs (formed by adding -est or most) and choose the correct form when writing or speaking
  • Identify coordinating conjunctions (e.g., for, and, nor, but, or , yet, so) an subordination conjunctions (e.g., after, because, if, since, while) and use them correctly
  • Write simple, compound, and complex sentences
    • Use collective nouns (a singular noun that refers to a group of people or things) correctly
    • Identify and correctly use irregular plural nouns (nouns that do not add -s to form the plural)
    • Use reflexive pronouns such as myself, yourself, and ourselves correctly
    • Use common irregular verbs and use them correctly in the past tense (like sat, hid, and told)
    • Use adjectives (words that add meaning to a noun or pronoun) and adverbs (words that add meaning to a verb, adjective, or other adverb) correctly
  • Write, rearrange, and rewrite simple and compound sentences without changing the meaning
  • Use commas and quotation marks in dialogue
  • Punctuate dialogue correctly by using commas before/after speaker tags and placing quotation marks around spoken words (e.g., “I was walking,”Christian said, “when Caleb tripped me.”)

Spanish language specific

• Edit for capitalization and punctuation
• Respect, honor and teach dialectical differences within culture and regions
• Use correct tenses to indicate the relative order of events
• Use correct Spanish word order and punctuation marks to distinguish statements, questions, exclamations, and commands
• Begin to use correct Spanish Orthography including accents and dieresis
• Employ principles of agreement related to number, gender, and case
• At a grade-appropriate level, recognize common errors, made by native speakers, in the use of the Spanish language and know how and when to correct them
• Apply the proper use “tú” and Usted in written communication
• Recognize variations in Spanish that appear in different social, cultural, and regional environments

English language development

• Understanding speech-print connections
• Being aware of audience, both formal and informal
• Meta-linguistic analysis of cross-linguistic transfer (“the Bridge”)
• Story dictation
• Shared writing

Russian language specific

• Recognize stressed and unstressed vowels in multi-syllabic words
• Recognize roots and derivatives from the same root
• Recognize stressed (loud/soft) consonant pairs, based on vowels that follow a complex word/derivative of the same root
• Common prefixes and derivational suffixes
• Connection ot the schwa sound and the r controlled words
• Decode words with common Latin suffixes
• Decode multi-syllabic words

Polish language specific

• Polish alphabet (vowels and consonants)
• Digraphs
• Hard vs. soft sounds
• Syllabication
• Accents
• Seven types of verb conjugations
• All parts of speech can be conjugated:
  • Gender (feminine, masculine, neutral)
  • Number (singular or plural)
  • Case
• Dipthongs
• Vowel combinations
• Orthography
• Specific rules for words with: Ó, u, rz, ż, ch, h, ą, ę, om, em, en, nie
• Polish specific punctuation:
  • Commas
  • Quotation marks
• Distinguish between formal and informal language usage

Informal Assessment are used during the process of brainstorming, drafting, revision and editing or class discussions.

In the language of instruction students will…

• In all types of writing
  • Identify the appropriate writing style
  • Use graphic organizers to develop ideas
  • Use transition words and phrases
  • Use prewriting strategies to formulate ideas
  • Recognize that a good piece of writing requires more than one draft.
  • Revise writing (e.g., reading aloud, checking for misunderstandings, adding and deleting details) with the help of others
  • Research a topic to answer questions and/or gain information
  • Extended Response Writing (opinion, explanatory and narrative)
  • Make a real-life connection (text to self) to words heard and read
  • Conferencing
  • Quick Writes
  • Journaling
  • Exit Slips
  • Goal Setting

Formal Assessments are used as a measure of student achievement towards master of a skill and Power Standard. Often a formal assessment will result in a grade.

In the language of instruction students will…

• Write 3 or more long-form writing pieces to final draft
• Write more than one draft with the help of teachers and classmates by editing and revising to strengthen writing
• Write stories in the correct order using temporal words like before, during, and after and create an ending for the story
• Write an opinion piece with an introduction, opinion, supporting reason, and concluding statement
• Write an explanatory piece with an introduction, supporting reasons and concluding statement
• Write a narrative piece with an introduction, supporting reasons and concluding statement
• Write facts and definitions to support the topic, and use a concluding statement
• Apply 6+1 Traits writing rubrics