"What do I do?": Writing Assignments for the Classroom

I decided to share what writing expectations I use for my personal classroom along with some research behind each chosen writing assignment. Before an intensive writing course in my graduate program, I had never truly considered why I was having my students complete certain writing assignments and how they benefited the students. Hopefully this is helpful for at least one English teacher; although, I'm sure it could help other content area teachers as well. :)

Bell Ringers

Students will complete weekly bell ringers. A bell ringer is a brief writing assignment at the start of the class. The topic of the bell ringer is usually review or prompting for a new lesson. At least one grammar element is also focused on for each bell ringer to reinforce those fundamental skills (Strong, 2012, p. 71-73). Bell ringers count as participation, which is 10% of the students’ total grade.

Reflection Journals

The purpose of a reflection journal is for students to practice literary analysis without the intensity of an entire essay. Students will be given writing prompts or thought-provoking questions directly related to the literature they are studying. The focus will be on at least one literary element or the plot of the story. Students should only expect to write at least one paragraph. Another crucial part of the reflection journal is to make real-life application (Strong, 2012, p. 24-25). Reflection journals count as quiz grades, which is 10% of the students’ grade.

Free-Writes

At least once a week, students will have a portion of class to free-write. This assignment will not be graded, and it will literally be “free” with no required topic or prompt. Once of the greatest benefits of writing is to express emotions and clear the mind. I believe free-writes will help students emotionally (Strong, 2012, p. 19-20). They will also help students increase their confidence in writing. Many students are intimidated by larger writing assignments, but regular writing helps students become more comfortable and confident.

Literary Analyses

Students will write a literary analysis in first, second and third quarter. Each literary analysis is worth a major assessment like tests, which is 60% of the students’ total grade. The teacher will assign the first and third topics; students can choose their own topic for the second literary analysis. The first paper will start as only a two-page literary analysis, and the other two will steadily increase in length and rigor (Strong, 2012, p. 100-102). The first and second papers will only require students to use the literary text, but the third paper will require some outside sources. The second paper requires an additional one-page reflection. The third paper requires an additional two-page worldview analysis.

Research Paper

Students in the entire high school complete an intense research paper during the fourth quarter. The freshmen and juniors complete a science research paper. The sophomores and seniors complete a history research paper. This research paper is interdisciplinary and partnered with the science and history teachers. Both content area teachers will grade the paper, and both content area teachers will record the grade for their class. Students get to choose a topic within those content areas that interests them the most in an attempt to increase student motivation for such an assignment (Strong, 2012, p. 133-134). The project is broken into four phases: the initial research phase where students submit their annotated bibliography, the thesis and outline phase, the rough draft phase, and the final draft submission. In first semester, the students take a semester exam worth 20% of the entire semester grade. In second semester, the research paper instead counts as the semester exam, which is worth 20% of the second semester grade.

References

Strong, W. (2012). Coaching writing in content areas, 2E. Pearson.