Rationale:

 

• Students face increasing expectations from teachers around writing competencies as they move through the middle years of education, transition to high school and in turn prepare for college and career.

 

• This process often leaves families wondering how to best support their children's writing as they navigate the best course through these formative and critical years.

 

• Students also face increasing expectations to engage effectively in more wide-ranging class discussions and to make formal presentations in front of audiences.

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• Many students do not have opportunities to develop advanced public speaking skills as they move through the middle years of education, transition to high school and in turn prepare for college and career.

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Purpose:

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• I determine each student's current writing and speaking competencies.

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• I advance each student by moving them through a carefully designed sequence of diverse writing activities and debates.

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• Each student acquires a more advanced and comprehensive writer’s ‘toolbox’ through intentional weekly writing experiences. The writing modes we use span a wide range but always include: informational/report writing, personal narrative, argumentative essays. I emphasize matching language choices with each writing purpose and audience. Some writing prompts derive from short pieces of literature I share with the class.

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• Each student develops greater confidence in public speaking, including the ability to develop an idea and to locate and use relevant evidence to convey information and arguments persuasively and thoroughly.

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Sample Class Overview:

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• Students share their completed writing homework assignment on google docs prior to the start of class for my review and classmate interaction.

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• The class opens with a prepared small group debate for about 20 minutes, based on topics and teams I have assigned the previous week.

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• Students use formal greetings, define key terms, advanced three arguments with supporting researched evidence and form rebuttal points while opponents are presenting. Students in turn rebut prior speakers and present their prepared arguments. I mentor each student in ways their communication and use of persuasion can further advance.

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• A short synthesis writing prompt is then usually completed

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• The class transitions to review the weekly writing exercise using a variety of methods all of which engage class participants in a meaningful way.

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• The next debate topic, teams and speaker positions are then assigned on google docs and their weekly writing prompt is also assigned. Sometimes the writing prompt and the debating topic bear an intentional relation one to the other.

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Outcomes:

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• Students engage more fully and more deeply in their regular school classes

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• Students’ school grades usually rise

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• Students lay critical foundations which enable to successfully navigate later years in their educational journey (as my testimonial page illustrates)

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