Narrative Essay - Scholastic Store

Spell Checker—circles misspelled words and labels them sp .
Sentence Monitor—brackets and labels run-ons, fragments, and sentences
that do not make sense. [ ] R.O. [ ] Frag. [ ] S.S.
Mechanics Person—uses proofreading symbols to show the writer where to
correct capitalization and punctuation.
As the essay drafts are passed from one group member to another, each
person proofreads the paper, checking only the element he or she has have been
assigned. If you choose to have students take a final look at the organization of the
essay, ask partners to exchange papers and use the reproducible General Editing
Checklist for the Five-Paragraph Essay (page 27) to review their work. Instruct
the class to use the following symbols to fill in the blanks on the checklist:
✓ = everything is included
✓– = needs work
0 = not there
I always hand out a copy of the General Editing Checklist for students to keep in
their notebooks. Each time we write an essay, I encourage them take out the list
and review it carefully.
Assessment
To assess each student’s completed paper, I use the
Rubric for a Five-Paragraph Essay (page 28), an analytic guide
based on the criteria defined by the Pennsylvania Department
of Education: focus, organization, content, usage, and style.
I like this rubric because it is generic enough to use with
most five-paragraph essays.
Although the steps involved in introducing a thoughtful,
well-constructed essay are time-consuming, the end product
is worth the effort. The process outlined here is the most
effective one I have used to date; quite simply, it has improved
the quality and content of my students’ essay writing. I believe
the process works well because of the strategies employed.
Modeling, repetition, practice, peer interaction, graphic
organizers, and color coding are all supported by current
brain research (Jensen, 1998; Sprenger, 1999).
Teacher
Have students bring
in photographs or
draw pictures of the
heroes referred to in
their essays. Create a
bulletin board display
or a Student Heroes
book. Read a few of
the essays out loud on
Back-to-School Night.
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