LtL5

To develop effective processes for writing in different contexts and to use a variety of strategies for discovering, developing, and analyzing data and ideas, for making sense, for revising, and for editing.
 * OBJECTIVE: **

This activity is basically aimed at giving students strategies to develop their writing skills.
 * WHAT IS THIS ACTIVITY ABOUT? **

To carry out this activity, students just have to follow the same process when facing composition or essay writing:
 * brainstorming ideas about a given topic
 * analyzing, choosing and ordering the previous ideas so that they follow the sequence: introduction - development - ending or conclusion
 * writing a draft
 * revising and editing the draft
 * writing the final version

In our school's "Pla Estratègic de Centre", one of the objectives is to improve our students' writing skills. That's why teachers agreed to carry out a project by which we were committed to make our students write different texts in class during the course, especially descriptive, narrative and argumentative texts. This last course, we have accomplished to make students write three compositions of each type per term (1st term - descriptive / 2nd term - narrative / 3rd term - argumentative). This is one in each compulsory language: Catalan, Spanish and English. The way we see it, the more our students get acquainted with this activity, the better their written outcomes will become.
 * FURTHER INFORMATION: **

We don't assess the outcomes of this activity as an ordinary piece of writing because what is important here is the process rather than the final product. To do so, we ask students to have all the steps done in a piece of paper that they have to hand in together with the final version of the composition they have been working with. Then, we provide them with some feedback that may be useful for them to improve their use of these strategies. Students keep all the papers in a portfolio where they can keep track of their evolution during the course.
 * HOW DO I ASSESS IT? **

Núria

I think assessing process is essential to develop students' strategies. I think it is very important to have clear criteria, and you seem to have reached a whole school agreement. Congratulations! That said, I am sure that soon your new concern will be quality. That would confirm you are in the right track!