Learn how to correctly analyze and score a written performance task. Example work shows annotated think alouds for grading. Teachers also have access to graphic organizers for helping writers succeed,

When it comes to love and midsummer nights, confessions are tricky. Learners place themselves in the shoes of a character from William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and explain how a character manipulated another character in...

Students examine the Florida Writes! Rubric and discuss the basic elements of the scoring system. In small groups, they use the rubric to discuss and score several student essays.

Young scholars develop a rubric or scoring guide to assess newpaper articles. They rate the story and write the reasons for the rating. An Essay Scoring Guide is attached for reference.

Never again will you need to worry about coming up with a writing prompt! This packet contains, as it says, 501 prompts that are suitable for fourth graders on up. The prompts are paired into four categories (persuasive, expository,...

The Women's Rights movement is the focus of an engaging and collaborative exercise, in which young historians use information found in textbooks, class notes, and the provided documents to craft a DBQ essay.

Is it crazy to fall in love with your own work, or is that the purest love of all? Compare two renditions of the classic Greek myth Pygmalion and Galatea with a literary analysis exercise. After students compare the similarities and...

How have Mexico's largest cities help shape the destiny of that country? What insights can a ninteenth-century economist give us about population growth? Two essay-style questions help your learners unravel complicated relationships....

Is it possible to regain trust? Scholars put much thought into the subject of trust after reading Shakespeare's Macbeth. Readers work together to analyze how the character relationships develop the a message about trust. They then...

It's time to show what you know. Scholars finalize their argumentative essays by making last-minute revisions to conventions, tone, and formal style. Learners review the checklist to ensure they have met all the task requirements. They...

Add all of the pieces to complete the puzzle. Scholars apply their knowledge from the past 25 lessons to an end-of-unit writing assignment. Pupils write multi-paragraph essays comparing the author's point of view and use of rhetoric in...

Need a DBQ practice set? Whether or not your class is preparing for the AP exam, learners will benefit from analyzing primary source documents about economic and social change. For Part A, the short-answer questions, participants read...

Excerpts from classic novels make great material for standardized tests. A sample English language arts examination, part of a larger set of assessments, mixes excerpts from classic novels and more modern texts. The test includes three...

In 2011, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial opened in Washington, DC to much praise and some criticism. Part of a series of response questions from the AP® English Language and Composition exam, writers consider what factors...

When it comes to testing, practice makes perfect. A set of free-response questions from the AP® English Language and Composition exam help writers prepare for the test. Three different prompts cover topics such as monolingual English...

Don't be so critical! During the final task of the Comprehensive English Exam, scholars choose two texts from their reading to discuss a perspective given from a critical lens. The exam also includes multiple choice reading comprehension...

Prepare your class for the Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA) or any other upcoming writing test (such as the SAT) with this presentation. Complete with instructions on the composition and rubric of the test, as well as sample...

This is not your ordinary farm! Using a case study, small groups study two proposed locations for a wind farm. After researching all the information about the sites, the groups choose a site. Each team member writes up the proposal...

Use a performance task to assess third graders' ability to read informational text. After they plan a lemonade stand business, young entrepreneurs implement that plan through informational writing. The task assumes learners can...

Parenting can befuddle new moms and dads, but psychology helps! Learners explain various theories of parenting and child development using a case-study model and materials from College Board. A second practice question asks scholars to...

Discuss the importance of a lead in writing with your upper graders. They examine several examples of leads from literature and practice writing leads for pieces of artwork. They then select a topic from a list and write an introductory...

Learners write an essay from rough draft to final copy about the Underground Railroad. Civil disobedience is researched from a variety of sources. There is a prewriting exercise that is included in the lesson. The whole writing process...

Students answer questions about a folktale that is read to them. In this listening skills lesson, students practice listening to folktales and answering questions about what they hear. They listen to repetitive readings of the same...

Students search for ways to prevent stress. They conduct self-assessments, plan a stress clinic, research community resources, and write a reflective essay. Students may wear electronic heart rate monitors to demonstrate stress levels.