ORGANIZATION OF THE WRITING STANDARD

The Writing Standard is divided into three strands: Writing Process, Writing Elements, and Writing Applications. Each strand is divided into concepts that broadly define the skills and knowledge that students are expected to know and demonstrate in writing.  Performance objectives within each concept more specifically delineate the tasks to be taught and learned.

The organization of the Writing Standard does not imply that the teaching and learning of writing should be fragmented or compartmentalized. The order of the strands, concepts, and performance objectives are not intended to be a progression or hierarchy of literacy instruction, with individual performance objectives taught in isolation.  Effective instruction incorporates multiple performance objectives into an integrated experience of learning for the student.

A balanced approach to implementing the Writing Standard recognizes that not all skills and knowledge receive equal emphasis at all times.  As students progress as maturing writers, emphasis of concepts or performance objectives will vary to meet their changing needs.

The itemized portions of the performance objectives, shown with lettering, provide the specific content that is to be learned by students as part of the outcome of the performance objective.

The format of this itemized list does not imply that all components must be taught in one lesson or in any particular order. Teachers should decide how best to organize the content to fit the needs of their students.

An e.g. in a performance objective indicates a non-exhaustive list of examples provided as options; other examples may be appropriate but are not included. Teachers may use these examples or others of their own choosing. In contrast, an i.e. precedes a specific list of items in which all of the items should be included in instruction.

Due to the nature of the content, some performance objectives are repeated in subsequent grade levels. It is understood that the complexity, depth, and difficulty of the performance objective’s content will increase from one grade level to the next.

It is recommended that educators view the Writing Standard as a continuum across all grade levels. If students lack proficiency in skills from previous grades, remediation should occur prior to addressing related grade level objectives Likewise, students who demonstrate proficiency of grade level objectives may be challenged with subsequent grade level expectations. Therefore, the Writing Standard format is designed to allow each educator easy access to the performance objectives of preceding, current, and subsequent grade levels.