Student Work in Procedural Writing 2009

Four times a year, each grade level comes together around a set of student work to develop a parent friendly example of what work should look like this time of year. In this case, each first grade teacher brings a piece of procedural writing to the table. They have just completed a unit on procedural writing, so each first grader has completed at least one piece of standard work for his end-of-year portfolio. The idea is not to bring the best piece or the worst piece, but a piece that the teacher feels meets the standard and is typical of the pieces being written in her classroom. Each teacher presents her piece and explains to the group why she feels the piece meets standard. Next the teachers decide as a group on the one piece that best meets the standard and represents the work they expect to see this time of year. In this case, first grade teachers selected John's work, How to Ride a Bike.

As a group the teachers write the commentary. In this case, first grade teacher Haley Alvarado acted as the facilitator for the group while Debbie Harbour acted as the scribe. The teachers created the Standard Snapshot below.

Standard Snapshots were developed to help parents understand what standard work looks like and to help them discern how their own child is doing in Writing. Parents will receive a copy of the Standard Snapshot above showing them what standard work for procedural writing looks like this time of year in first grade. Attached to the standard work is a piece of their own child's procedural writing. The parent can then compare how their own child is doing compared to a standard piece. Since very little writing actually goes home for the parents to see during the year (all student work is kept in a folder in the classroom), this gives the parent a view (or a "snapshot") into what is going on in the classroom. On Friday Standard Snapshots will go home for each grade in the school. This work also helps us benchmark our own work over time. As we review the Standard Snapshots over the years, we can actually see the progress in our own teaching and expectations!