A Quick Writing Unit to Help You Assess Writers' Assets

Happy New Year, teacher friends. I hope your summer has been full of joy and rest. Thank you for coming back for another year.

Regardless of what my curriculum or pacing guide says, one of my first jobs when students walk into my classroom at the beginning of the year is to assess what they can already do on their own. Sometimes I find out I need to “go back” and re-teach skills from previous classes, and sometimes I find out that the things I was planning to teach aren’t necessary — students have them under control already.

To be a responsive teacher, we have to discover the assets students are bringing to our class.

I designed this quick miniature writing unit to help me do just that: to get to know my students and see what they are already achieving and attempting as writers.

Now, before we begin, you’ll need to take a deep breath. We will not be doing a lot of teaching in this unit. We could, there is plenty of good stuff to teach in these essays, but instead I want to give writers a bit of guidance and then see where they end up. That makes this unit perfect for the beginning of the year OR as a mid-course assessment.

Here’s how I’m going to be creating a quick snapshot of writers at the beginning of the year:

Members of the Moving Writers Community will receive the whole unit plan with resources + the downloadable assessment tool on Saturday morning!

Member of the Moving Writers Community also receive one free professional development session of their choosing each year, access to a monthly chat, one complete reading or writing unit per month, and a monthly, crowdsourced Q&A article. We’d love for you to join us in this new school year!