writingmodels9-12

=Writing Models 9-12=

**References**

 * Bibliography**

[|A Significant Influence: Describing an Important Teacher in Your Life] from Readwritethink : All of us have had a teacher who has made a profound difference in our lives—someone who changed our lives, made us think more deeply, set our feet on the right path. Perhaps it was a teacher we met in a classroom, but it could just have easily been a coach, a youth group leader, a family or community elder, or religious leader. In this project, students write a tribute to such a teacher, someone who has taught them an important lesson that they still remember. The personal essays that students write for this lesson are then published in a class collection. Because writing about someone who has been a significant influence is a typical topic for college application essays, the lesson’s extensions include resources for writing more traditional, formal papers.
 * Sample Lessons**

[|A Poem of Possibilities: Thinking about the Future] from Readwritethink Combining poetry writing, potential publication, and a way to process the pressures of change, this activity delights students. Inspired by John Updike’s poem “Ex-Basketball Player,” each student creates a poem or prose poem presenting a vivid picture of who he or she will be and the life he or she will lead five years in the future. Sealed in a stamped envelope, each letter poem is mailed by the teacher five years later. This activity is especially appropriate for high school seniors, often suffering from “senioritis” and the stress of post-high school decision making, but can be used effectively with any students in a state of transition (i.e., those moving from middle school to high school).

[|Analyzing and Comparing Medieval and Modern Ballads] from Readwritethink Students read and analyze medieval English ballads and discuss them in class and then use their kinesthetic abilities to act out a ballad of their choice. Using the Venn diagram tool, students next compare medieval ballads with modern ones. After familiarizing themselves with ballad themes and forms, students write their own original ballads. Finally, students engage in self-reflection on their group performances and on the literary characteristics of their ballads.

[|Brochures: Writing for Audience and Purpose] from Readwritethink This brochure assignment follows another writing assignment, giving students the opportunity to see how shifting purposes and audiences creates changes in their strategies as writers—in the stance they take, in the information they use or leave out, and in the processes they follow to complete the task. After exploring published brochures, students determine key questions about their previously-used topic and conduct necessary inquiry before working through the writing process to create their own informative brochure which incorporates visual elements as part of the informative communication.

[|Communicating on Local Issues: Exploring Audience in Persuasive Letter Writing] from Readwritethink This unit will ask students to identify and then research a local issue that concerns them, using Internet and print sources. They will then argue a position on this issue in letters to two different audiences, addressing their own purpose and considering the needs of the audience in each letter. Students will work with peer groups as they draft and revise their letters before sending them to their intended readers.

[|Designing Effective Poster Presentations] from Readwritethink Students design informational posters, focusing on a current research project. The lesson includes an exploration of the genre, a review of informational writing components, and details on effective poster design. If desired, students can present their posters in class or at a school-wide research fair.

[|Help Wanted: Writing Professional Resumes] from Readwritethink In this series of seven class sessions, students will work through the process of creating a professional resume. With a special emphasis on helping students learn about resumes as professional documents, this lesson will discuss why writers create resumes, why they must consider the rhetorical situation of the resume, and why both content and presentation are so important in this type of writing. Students will analyze and critique existing resumes, create their own resume and tailor it to a real job posting, peer review resumes for content and presentation, and then present their resumes as professional documents to the class.

[|Persuading an Audience: Writing Effective Letters to the Editor] from Readwritethink Students write a persuasive letter to the editor of a newspaper, focusing on a current local or national issue and requesting a specific action or response from readers. The lesson includes an exploration of the genre, a review of persuasive writing structure and letter format, and an emphasis on multi-draft writing. Students can mail their letters to the newspapers, giving the project the potential of publication outside the classroom.

[|So What Do You Think? Writing a Review] from Readwritethink Teenagers are often outspoken and opinionated. Writing reviews of the literature they read gives them a chance to express their ideas while developing style and voice. After examining samples of movie, music, restaurant, and book reviews, students devise guidelines for writing interesting and informative reviews. They then produce their own reviews of the literature they’re reading in class—and compare their ideas and their pieces with the work of published reviewers. Though this lesson is illustrated with examples from student and professional reviews of Raymond Carver’s writing, the techniques can be used with whatever literature students are reading.

[|Writing Technical Instructions] from Readwritethink Learning to write technical instructions is challenging. Writers must consider audience, purpose, context, length, and complexity—plus the specific content of the instructions, such as the steps in using a stapler. In this lesson, students walk through the process of creating technical instructions by analyzing existing instructions, choosing an audience and writing their own instructions, receiving user feedback, and then revising and publishing their instructions.

__Writing Anchors__ Jan Wells, Janine Reid (Pembrook Publishers) "Explicit lessons that identify criteria, offer strategic support, and lead students to take ownership of their writing."
 * Lesson resources**

__Writing Frameworks__ David Whitehead (Pembrook Publishers) "Easy to use structures for creating confident, successful writers."

A joint project of the International Reading Association and National Council of Teachers of English, this site provides highest quality practices and resources in language arts.
 * http://www.readwritethink.org/index.asp

http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/instruction/ELA/6-12/Writing/6-12%20Exemplars.htm One school district’s set of writing models for a variety of assignments.

http://www.thewritesource.com/studentmodels/#inc This is a website of The Write Source - a company that supports writing instruction. There are several samples found here for a variety of assignments.

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/ Famous speeches

http://www.merlynspen.org/ This site publishes student writing

http://go.hrw.com/eolang/modbank/ Holt, Rinehart and Wilson’s writing models bank.**