Portfolio of Jan Abernethy
DOMAIN ONE: PLANNING AND PREPARATION
1a Demonstrating Knowledge of Content and Pedagogy
Below is a curriculum for writing that I put together from a variety of sources. It includes links to websites, SMART Notebook files, PowerPoint files, interesting word lists, and ways to teach students to organize their writing. The original file is a SMART notebook file that holds all of the files in one place. Many of the files are interactive and the students enjoy learning from them. The interesting word lists are introduced one list at a time, copied and kept in students
folders for future references. Students treasure these lists and use them regularly in their writing. I have included a few examples of rubrics, word lists and interactive files. As often as possible, students are asked to write for real purposes
to real people.
BE SURE TO GIVE THIS PAGE TIME TO LOAD.
Writing Curriculum
After studying the Constiution of the United States, each student was given one of the Amendments to interpret using a few words and a picture. We put the pages together to create a book. Students were then allowed to choose anyone in the world to send their Constitution book. Some sent theirs to people they knew, while others sent them to politicians, celebrities, heroes, or musicians.
The personalization of the letter helped students to take pride in their writing. The rubric is very specific and students were given a lot of help to follow it, since it was probably the first rubric they have ever used. In addition to the grading rubric,
I provided an example letter and a list of editing questions for
students to help them examine their writing before turning it in.
The Constitution Project
Writing Notebook File
A mix from a variety of sources, this curriculum provides many of the prerequisites, help for common mistakes students make in writing, and resources to help students improve their writing. They have been gathered over the past seventeen years, and I continue to find more resources and add them to this file. By using a SmartBoard file, I am able to attach the files or add links to them. Therefore, when I see a need to visit a specific skill, I know right where to go to find it. You can click through the file above and get a general idea, but many of the files may have lost their use when I exported the file from SMART Notebook to PowerPoint.
Writing should have a purpose!
