Writing on Demand for the Common Core State Standards Assessments

What will students be asked to do when faced with the writing tasks on the Common Core State Standards assessments?  What are the instructional shifts teachers will need to make so that students can understand and master them?  Kelly Sassi and Anne Ruggles Gere unpack the PARCC and Smarter Balanced approaches to writing assessment, and provide effective strategies to help students develop as writers as well as prepare for the new writing tasks.

Writing on Demand for the Common Core State Standard Assessments provides teachers with the principles of effective writing and then shows how to apply those principles to the Common Core assessments.  Samples of performance tasks with student responses illustrate the importance of helping writers:

• analyze prompts, including those of Smarter Balanced and PARCC
• build reading skills that support text-dependent writing
• transfer writing strategies to science and social studies
• manage time in a digital space.

Producing an effective piece of writing can be challenging in any timed writing context.  Give your students the strategies they’ll need to succeed on the Common Core State Standards writing assessments― and become better writers for life.

Leila Christenbury is Commonwealth Professor of English Education at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, and a 40-year veteran teacher both in secondary English and higher education.  She is a former editor of English Journal and past president of the National Council of Teachers of English.  In recognition of her account of returning to teach in the English classroom, she is the recipient of both the  David H. Russell Award for Distinguished Research in Teaching and the James N. Britton Award for Educational Research. Leila has recently  served as NCTE's Council Historian for the organization's centennial and, at  VCU, she has been professor, department chair, and interim dean.

Anne Ruggles Gere is Gertrude Buck Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan, where she directs the Sweetland Center for Writing and serves as co-chair of the Ph.D. in English and Education.  An associate director of the Oakland Writing Project, she has a long history with the NWP.  Her most recent book for teachers is Textual Complexity: Supporting Student Readers, an e-book from NCTE.

Kelly Sassi is an assistant professor of English and Education at North Dakota State University in Fargo. She taught high school English in Fairbanks, Alaska for six years before pursuing her doctorate at the University of Michigan. Currently, she co-directs the Red River Valley Writing Project and works closely with teachers in transitioning to the Common Core State Standards. She teaches methods courses in English, Young Adult Literature, and graduate courses in composition. Her areas of research include writing on demand, pedagogical approaches to Native American literature(s), and teaching for social justice.