[MOSAIC] Another mosaic: The reading-writing connection

[Bill Roberts]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Beverlee Paul" <beverleepaul at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Another mosaic: The reading-writing connection


> Actually, until we "caught on" how to teach
> taking-the-state-writing-assessment, our kids did horrifically!  And the
> better writers they were, it seemed, the worse they did . . . because of 
> the
> timed element.  Our kids had rarely written to prompts, but they NEVER had
> experienced the paltry time limits.  We have 2 consecutive days of 
> 40-minute
> periods for our fourth graders, and all drafts must be done by then.  We 
> had
> kids who wrote a beautiful first half of something, then the time was up,
> and of course, they couldn't score well.  The games we play. . . .
>

One year I had a bunch of bright 8th graders.  About a half dozen read on 
college level and their writing reflected it.  They all made 3's out of 5's 
on the state test.  I'm sure the essays were wonderful college level essays, 
but the rubric is so simple, they only made average....LOTS of games....

Bill