Expository/Informational Writing conveys information or educates a reader on a topic. In academic settings, the expository/informational response or essay is the most widespread of all the modes of writing because most content area teachers ask students to explain new learning through writing. Students are given a content-specific topic and are asked to write about the topic in a short-constructed response, an essay, or a research paper. Both formative assessments and summative assessments require writing. So, even when students know the answer to a question, many times they struggle to write their answers effectively. That's where Jane Schaffer Academic Writing® comes to the rescue!
Whether a third-grade student is asked to explain the difference between the seasons; or, an eighth-grade student is asked to write a lab report for science; or, an eleventh-grade student is asked to analyze the Gettysburg Address, the Jane Schaffer Academic Writing Program gives teachers and students the tools to create and communicate a logical and coherent piece of writing about what they have researched, what they have studied, and what they have learned.
JSWP uses common terminology that allows teachers and students to talk about writing from a shared perspective and understanding. Through every step of the writing process, teachers are able to communicate clearly their expectations, and students can meet those expectations in their written responses. Students no longer anxiously wonder if they are delivering what the teacher wants, and teachers have language to provide solid instruction in order to teach writing rather than just assign writing.
After thirty-five years of reviewing writing samples for ever-evolving high-stakes tests, including state and national tests, Advanced Placement® exams, and the International Baccalaureate Program, Dr. Louis and the Jane Schaffer Academic Writing Program provide teachers and students with insight and skill regarding expository/informational writing to achieve higher scores.
JSWP helps teachers learn how to design the most effective expository/informational response or essay prompts, and students learn the important skill of decoding these writing prompts so that the students know the specifics of a writing assignment before the writing begins. There are no more blank stares or confusion about the purpose of the writing assignment.
The JSWP color-coded method of writing also applies to close reading. Students learn to annotate their texts in the same colors that they learned in their JSWP writing lessons so that students make connections between their close reading of a text and their own writing across-the-curriculum.
JSWP helps students to understand how to evaluate and use the best evidence to support their assertions when writing an expository/informational response or essay.
Providing insightful, thoughtful, and erudite analysis can be one of the most difficult challenges for educators to teach and one of the most frustrating and ambiguous ideas and skills for students to understand and learn. JSWP provides a method of asking questions and unpacking thoughts so that those thoughts transfer from the students’ minds onto their papers or computer screens.
JSWP offers specific expository/informational graphic organizers. Students follow a prewriting process to draft their writing assignments; and through the famous "JSWP Shaping Sheet," they practice grammar skills, integrate effective transitions, improve their vocabulary, and learn revision and editing techniques prior to submitting their writing assignments to their teachers for a grade.
