Writing on Demand for the Common Core State Standards Assessments

What will students be asked to do when faced with the writing tasks on the Common Core State Standards assessments? What are the instructional shifts teachers will need to make so that students can understand and master them? Kelly Sassi and Anne Ruggles Gere unpack the PARCC and Smarter Balanced approaches to writing assessment, and provide effective strategies to help students develop as writers as well as prepare for the new writing tasks.

Writing on Demand for the Common Core State Standard Assessments provides teachers with the principles of effective writing and then shows how to apply those principles to the Common Core assessments. Samples of performance tasks with student responses illustrate the importance of helping writers:

analyze prompts, including those of Smarter Balanced and PARCC
build reading skills that support text-dependent writing
transfer writing strategies to science and social studies
manage time in a digital space.

Producing an effective piece of writing can be challenging in any timed writing context. Give your students the strategies they’ll need to succeed on the Common Core State Standards writing assessments- and become better writers for life.