Summary:

It is imperative that students are able to identify the purpose for their writing as well as their target audience. Students need to be able to clearly understand their writing task and how they are going to be evaluated. Not only that, but students must also come to realize that writing is a process - it is something that occurs over time and a writer must come back to a piece multiple times to make improvements. While teaching the writing process does take time, the skills students learn throughout that process are invaluable for life beyond high school.

Standards Alignment:

(CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.9-10.5) Develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach, focusing on addressing what is most significant for a specific purpose and audience.

Resources and Activities:

Challenge-Based Learning Assessment Option - After teaching students how to write an argument, have students self-select a school issue they would like to see changed/improved. This can be done collaboratively, and by having students exchange their assigned essays using Google Drive, they can begin to see how the writing process takes time but is necessary before publishing for others to see.

Revising and Editing - Use Google Drive to encourage students to view the work of their peers or edit or leave comments on any shared file or folder. Students can quickly and easily access their documents from any device with Drive, and this tool will allow students to streamline sharing their work with others. Drive allows many people to work on a document at the same time, thus giving students the opportunity to see simultaneously.

Publishing Student Work - Use Edublogs to create a class blog. Argumentative writing demands for students to have their voices heard over the din of the worldwide web. Edublog is a creative outlet for teachers to publish student work safely, including podcasts, video, and documents. Students will see the impact their work can have on others as they promote their blog and watch their work reach hundreds or thousands of people across the globe.