Unit 1: Common Assessment
Unit 1 is a semester long and will encompass assignments that will prepare you for the common assessment at the end of the 2nd marking period. This assessment will mirror the GMAS writing task (Extended Response). There are 3 writing tasks, each a different genre of writing. Below are a few resources to help you throughout the unit.
Unit 1 is a semester long and will encompass assignments that will prepare you for the common assessment at the end of the 2nd marking period. This assessment will mirror the GMAS writing task (Extended Response). There are 3 writing tasks, each a different genre of writing. Below are a few resources to help you throughout the unit.
Writing Genres:
Descriptive WritingStudents observe carefully and choose precise language. They take notice of sensory details and create comparisons (metaphors and similes) to make their writing more powerful.
Expository WritingStudents collect and synthesize information. This writing is objective; reports are the most common type. Students use expository writing to give directions, sequence steps, compare one thing to another, explain causes and effects, or describe problems and solutions.
Journals and LettersStudents write to themselves and to specific, known audiences. Their writing is personal and often less formal than other genres. They share news, explore new ideas, and record notes. Students learn the special formatting that letters and envelopes require.
Narrative WritingStudents retell familiar stories, develop sequels for stories they have read, write stories about events in their own lives, and create original stories. They include a beginning, middle, and end in the narratives to develop the plot and characters.
Persuasive WritingPersuasion is winning someone to your viewpoint or cause using appeals to logic, moral character, and emotion. Students present their position clearly and support it with examples and evidence.
Poetry WritingStudents create word pictures and play with rhyme and other stylistic devices as they create poems. Through their wordplay, students learn that poetic language is vivid and powerful but concise and that poems can be arranged in different ways on a page.
Descriptive WritingStudents observe carefully and choose precise language. They take notice of sensory details and create comparisons (metaphors and similes) to make their writing more powerful.
- Character sketches
- Comparisons
- Descriptive essays
- Descriptive sentences
- Found poems
Expository WritingStudents collect and synthesize information. This writing is objective; reports are the most common type. Students use expository writing to give directions, sequence steps, compare one thing to another, explain causes and effects, or describe problems and solutions.
- Alphabet books
- Autobiographies
- Directions
- Essays
- Posters
- Reports
- Summaries
Journals and LettersStudents write to themselves and to specific, known audiences. Their writing is personal and often less formal than other genres. They share news, explore new ideas, and record notes. Students learn the special formatting that letters and envelopes require.
- Business letters
- Courtesy letters
- Double-entry journals
- E-mail messages
- Friendly letters
- Learning logs
- Personal journals
Narrative WritingStudents retell familiar stories, develop sequels for stories they have read, write stories about events in their own lives, and create original stories. They include a beginning, middle, and end in the narratives to develop the plot and characters.
- Original short stories
- Personal narratives
- Retellings of stories
- Sequels to stories
- Story scripts
Persuasive WritingPersuasion is winning someone to your viewpoint or cause using appeals to logic, moral character, and emotion. Students present their position clearly and support it with examples and evidence.
- Advertisements
- Book and movie reviews
- Letters to the editor
- Persuasive essays
- Persuasive letters
Poetry WritingStudents create word pictures and play with rhyme and other stylistic devices as they create poems. Through their wordplay, students learn that poetic language is vivid and powerful but concise and that poems can be arranged in different ways on a page.
- Acrostic poems
- Color poems
- Free verse Haiku “I Am” poems
- Poems for two voices