Cobb County Writing Fair
Please remind all of the upcoming Writing Fair, which:
* encourages students at each local school to write in any genre and to follow the complete writing process to publish their writing;
* involves a team in judging student writing submitted at the local school to identify one winner per grade level;
* receives school winners from each participating school which are sent to the County (1 entry per grade level, K – 5) for a second judging;
* identifies one winner from each grade level K – 12 to be submitted for competition in the state-level Georgia Young Authors Writing Competition.
An excellent way to showcase your hard work and the writing proficiency of your students is to enter the Cobb County School District Writing Fair. The 2010-11 Cobb County Writing Fair Brochure and Pamphlet detailing guidelines, the district scoring rubric, and entry form are attached. Please distribute this information to the appropriate instructional leaders to coordinate the local school writing fair competition. Please read and follow the published directions carefully and submit one entry per grade level to the county office, Curriculum and Instruction, attention Deborah Chester, on or before March 11, 2011. A completed entry form must accompany each entry (see attached). Entries that are received on or before the due date will be judged to determine district level winners.
CCSD Writing Fair Brochure 2010-11
CCSD Writing Fair Entry Form
Writing Fair Pamphlet 2010-11
Writing Fair Top Ten for Curr Briefings and ELA Blog 2010-11
Writing Fair 2010-11 Scoring Rubric
As you begin to work with the writing scores, the link to the state site might help:
http://gadoe.org/ci_testing.aspx?PageReq=CITestingWA5
In addition to many support pieces online at the state site the interpretive guide is at:
http://gadoe.org/DMGetDocument.aspx/Grade%205%20Interpretive%20Guide%202007.pdf?p=6CC6799F8C1371F68E544085B735F99715EE593C232B8AD3165788DD363A6BA2&Type=D
Guidelines are as follows:
Each paper is scored by two raters. Raters who score the student compositions are trained to understand and use the standardized scoring system. The raters score each paper independently. Each of the four domains of effective writing is evaluated. Although these domains are interrelated during the writing process, a strength or area of challenge is scored only once under a particular domain. Scores in each domain range from 1 to 5 (5 being the highest score). The total weighted raw scores range from 10 (1’s in all four domains) to 50 (5’s in all four domains). A score of "1 to 5" is assigned to each domain by each rater.
These scores represent a continuum of writing that ranges from inadequate to minimal to good to very good. Points on the continuum are defined by the scoring rubric for each domain. Each score point itself represents a range of papers. Domain scores are combined to obtain a total score for each student. In combining the domain scores, the Content score is given a weight of 40%; the other domains of Organization, Style, and Conventions are given a weight of 20% each. The total score is then converted to a three-digit scaled score. There are three performance levels represented: Does Not Meet (100-199), Meets (200-249), and Exceeds(250+).
Because the 100-250+ is a scale score – there is not an absolute formula to which we have access for calculating the conversion from the 1-5 scores to the scale score. That is done at the state level and is weighted differently based on the performance on the various prompts.
Conferencing with students about their writing is an excellent way to move them towards meeting or exceeding the standards for their grade level. Here are some suggestions on how to schedule, conduct and document conferences.
Download suggestions_for_conducting_writing_conferences.doc
These examples provide Cobb County student writing samples along with teacher commentary in Powerpoint files. You may choose to use them for classroom instruction to introduce the idea of commentary, if you wish. In addition, there is a link to the state website where other examples are now available.
Download 1st_grade_writing_commentary.ppt
Download 2nd_grade_writing_commentary.ppt
Download 3rd_grade_commentary.ppt
Download 4th_grade_writing_commentary.ppt
Download 5th_grade_commentary.ppt
Download kindergarten_commentary.ppt
http://www.georgiastandards.org/elaframework.aspx?PageReq=ELAFRStudentwork
Here is a suggested timeline for teaching the Persuasive Writing lessons from the 5th grade PICASSO lessons. Print the PICASSO lessons and use the suggested timeline to see the order in which you might teach them.
Download suggested_timeline_of_persuasive_writing_lessons.doc
Do you long for an enjoyable way to give your students review in identifying and using the parts of speech? Students can apply their grammar knowledge as they write Wacky Tales on http://www.eduplace.com/tales/. This website would be a great addition to a computer literacy station.
Want a sure fire way to prepare your students for the Fifth Grade Georgia Writing Assessment? Then the RUPR lessons are for you! Ralph Fletcher and Joann Portalupi have developed a writing strategy to teach students how to read and understand what a prompt is asking them to do, which enhances their success on the Georgia Writing Assessment. Click below to see the two lessons, several extension ideas, and information on how to embed prompt writing in your writing block.
Download rupr_lessons_12.doc
Download writing_prompts_for_rupr.doc