In Common User Guide
Navigating and using the resource to improve instruction. 3-pg doc.
-
What In Common Includes
The In Common materials include two types of resources for each of the writing types.
- On-demand writing: The pieces in this set were written independently to a text-based prompt. Use them to more deeply understand each writing type at a particular grade level or to trace the progression of a standard from grade level to grade level.
- Range of writing: To be college- and career-ready, students need to be able to write for a range of purposes and audiences. To do this proficiently, students need regular opportunities to write –for extended periods of time and in shorter timeframes.. The pieces in this set provide some examples of what a “range of writing” deeply integrated with classroom content might include. Pieces are drawn from a variety of content areas and written for a variety of purposes and audiences.
Each piece has been transcribed as the student wrote it, with the same errors in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation as the original. Only CCSS Writing Standards 1, 2, and 3 were considered when selecting these pieces. Mastery of conventions (addressed in the Language Standards) was not evaluated.
Pieces are annotated to show their relationship to CCSS Writing Standards 1-3. Some annotations appear in the sidebars. In the sidebar annotations, exact wording from the standard is distinguished by bold font. Care was taken to use the exact wording of the standard where possible. More extensive commentary is available in a box at the end of each piece.
There are at least two versions of the same piece in each file. The first is annotated and includes commentary designed to help educators better understand how the features of the piece relate to the descriptors in the standard. Each file also contains a version of the piece that has been transcribed, but not annotated.
-
How to Use In Common
Ideas for use include:
- Use one of the professional development activitiesat your next staff meeting or with your PLC.
- Use your college- and career-ready standards to annotate one of the un-annotated pieces. Discuss your observations with your colleagues, and compare them to the annotated version in the collection.
- Analyze a span of on-demand prompted pieces in a single writing type (for example, K–5 opinion pieces) to develop a clearer understanding of the developmental progression across grade levels.
- Use the “Revised and Edited” version of a piece as a model for students when you are teaching writing. Discuss the elements of effective writing described in your standards. In what ways is this an effective piece? How might this piece be improved?
- Look at a set of grade-level pieces in all of the three writing types and note the differences and similarities between the pieces. How, for example, are the argument pieces similar to the informative/explanatory pieces at your grade level? Which skills and techniques can be practiced and reinforced across writing types?
- Compare the on-demand prompted piece at your grade level with the range of writing pieces. What are the similarities and differences in writing independently from a prompt and writing that stems from classroom content and instruction? What does this imply for your practice?
- Look, across several grade levels, at the range of writing pieces in one writing type. Each writing type is broad and encompasses many familiar genres. What kinds of pieces (reports, response to text, procedure, etc.) are part of informative/explanatory writing? Argument/opinion? Narrative? What does this imply for your instruction?
- Examine a collection of range of writing pieces at, above, and below the grade you teach. What ideas can you get from these pieces about integrating writing and content in the curriculum?
- The Story of In Common
- Collection of All In Common, Writing Samples, K-12