Argumentation

Expository

Literary

Narrative

Assessing

Academic Progress

Professional Development Strategy

3-year comprehensive progression plan

Formative assessments occur throughout a course. Their goal is to monitor student learning and provide ongoing feedback that teachers use to improve their teaching and that students use to improve their learning. An example of a formative assessment is the graphic organizer in the Jane Schaffer Academic Writing Program. Each graphic organizer assesses a particular skill in the writing process, and the accumulation of these skills leads to the finished product – a body paragraph and/or an essay. Formative and summative assessments are important for students, parents, teachers, and administrators to understand the progress students are making as they move from one grade level to the next or from one institution to the next.

A summative assessment, on the other hand, evaluates student learning at the end of an instructional unit, typically by comparing it against some standard or benchmark. Summative assessments are often called high stakes, which means they have a high point value. A midterm exam or an essay, for example, could be considered summative. Some states and universities also require students to take summative assessments to graduate, to gain college credit, and/or to be accepted into a program.

JSWP provides workshops and webinars, as well as materials, to assist teachers as they guide students to perform well on these academic requirements in grades 3-8 and high school. Modes include argumentation, expository, informational, literary analysis, narrative, opinion, and persuasive.

Services Offered

  • ELA Modes of Writing

  • Academic Writing in Subject Content Areas

  • English Language Learner Academic Vocabulary and Writing Skill Development

  • Learning Support & Special Education Writing SKill

  • Development

  • Become a JSWP Trainer within your School

  • Skill Based Webinars

  • Independent Courses

  • Curricular Units of Study

  • Classroom Materials

  • JSWP On-Line Digital

  • JSWP Google Docs