We have developed a specific 6-step process that every student can employ to respond to writing tasks on high stakes assessments. This straightforward process allows students to focus on the content of the response rather than worrying too much about how their essays should be structured. Participants will walk through this process using the current released items. Relevant activities paired with the scoring process will impart ways to provide corrective instruction based upon each student’s level of development.

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• Lack of structured support for students responding to informative and argumentative writing tasks
  
  
• Difficulty in teaching students how to analyze, synthesize, and cite textual evidence across multiple sources
  
  
• Challenges in helping students meet the specific demands and expectations of prompts

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1. Deconstructing Prompts: 

Educators will gain techniques for teaching students how to identify genre, text requirements, and the assertions in prompts, enabling a clear understanding of task expectations.

2. Strategic Evidence Use and Organization: 

Participants will learn methods to help students gather relevant evidence, distinguish between direct and indirect references, and structure their essays using outlines that align with thesis claims and genre-specific elements.

3. Rubric-Aligned Writing and Revision: 

Teachers will understand how to guide students through writing and revising essays that fulfill all rubric components—reading comprehension, written expression, and language conventions—maximizing potential scores on assessments.