Why Students Should Write from Day One

Writing Instruction

The first week of school is a busy time–learning procedures, establishing expectations, building relationships–but it is also important to use this time to get a writing sample from students. While writing from a portfolio or from last year’s teacher is helpful, it is even more important to get a recent writing sample from students so you can determine where they are right now. Here are some of my favorite writing activities for back to school!

Colored Pencils next to black text about writing at the back to school

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What Do You Want Student Writing to Reveal?

First, decide what you want to get from student writing: a sense of their personality and voice? An assessment of their stamina? A show of their technical skills (summary, citation, etc.)? A demonstration of formal abilities (structure, evidence, etc.)? Or do I just want to get to know my student?

Once you know what you’re looking for in a student writing sample, it’s time to design the writing task. Here are my favorite writing tasks for the beginning of the year.

To get a sense of personality and voice, I forgo the usual beginning of the year letter-to-the-teacher and ask students to take a stand on a school issue. Sometimes I ask them to write about why lunch should be longer, why we should play music during passing time, or why we should ban homework. These writing prompts are impersonal enough that everyone can comfortably approach a prompt. Plus, students usually want to share their ideas with one another, so this is a good way to get students talking early in the semester. Additionally, reading these answers gives me a sense of a student’s voice and ability to use evidence and reasoning to support his or her claims.

Assessing Writing Stamina and Technical Skill

When I am interested in a student’s writing stamina, I pull out an ACT or SAT-writing prompt and give students 30 minutes to address the prompt. These prompts are complex enough that students should need the full 30 minutes to address the prompt. So the students that take the most time often produce the most compelling responses. This also gives me an assessment of a student’s ability to work with academic language and in a structured manner.

In order to assess students’ technical skills, I will ask students to research and find a credible, reliable article related to a current issue (climate change, the refugee crisis, student debt relief). Then, I will ask students to write a summary that focuses on the author’s argument. This assignment gives me a sense of students’ familiarity with research, their ability to determine a source’s credibility, and an idea of their ability to break down an author’s argument.

Evaluating Analytical Writing

When I need to know about students’ formal skills, I choose a short story or let students choose a short story. And then I give them this prompt: How does the author use figurative language to support the story’s theme? This prompt is challenging in that it asks students to identify and analyze the author’s use of language and a theme. Then, this prompt asks students to respond in an organized manner. So I also get an idea of students’ ability to select and incorporate text evidence within a structured paragraph.

Of all the prompts listed here, this one gives the best picture of student’s holistic writing skills. In order to assess these skills, I use an Easy Short Answer Rubric. Since I am interested in students’ skills at first blush, I do not show them the rubric until after they have a response. This provides us an opportunity to discuss the rubric, discuss the differences between student work and the rubric, and lets students revise as needed.

My Favorite Back-to-School Writing Activity

However, my favorite writing activity for the beginning of the year is creative and gives me a sense of my students as individuals. I ask students to create their own Coat of Arms and then to write about their work. This activity grew out of my Medieval Romance unit. And it quickly became one of my favorite writing activities. If I am not able to do this activity at the beginning of the year, I adapt this plan for a reading later in the year and have students make a Coat of Arms for one of the characters we read about.

Writing this post has me excited for the coming school year. I can’t wait to meet my new students and get to know them as writers and readers. Here are some other fun ideas and posts for back-to-school: