Our Philosophy

• All students can think, and all students can write.

• Formula/structure is a place to start for students who need it; some don’t need it at all. We want students to leave the formula behind when they are ready to do so. Breaking the formula is called weaving – mixing evidence and analysis / concrete detail and commentary.

• Consistency of the program outweighs individual teacher preference. Everyone abides by majority vote.

• Common terminology for the paragraph and essay helps students learn.

• Writing is a process that includes decoding the prompt, reading and annotating one or more texts, completing the JSWP graphic organizers, drafting, editing, revising, and following the guidelines of the rubric. All of these steps are required.

• Meeting regularly to talk about student work is critical.

What We Do In Class

• We color-code the paragraph and the essay in our presentations (black, blue, red, and green pens).

• We use rubrics for each step in the process and the final product.

• We see students in one-to-one conferencing as often as possible.

• For each student, we have multiyear, cumulative writing portfolios through jswponline.com.

• We write with each other and with our students (Shared Writing); “We can’t teach what we don’t do” (Carol Jago).

• We follow the Gradual Release of Responsibility Methodology.