Now that we are halfway through the school year and we have been working on writing skills for a while, we are going to more consistently use writing rubrics to evaluate student writing. Rubrics will be shared and explained and some student-friendly rubrics may be implemented. Shaker Lane is using the writing rubrics for grade 2-3 from Keys to Writing.
If you are interested in getting a sneak peek at them, I will post the links below. Please notes, these will not link to websites; instead the rubric will automatically download to your computer.
As many of us discussed at the December conferences, as a class we are working on repeating words from the question or prompt at the beginning of our answers/response. That ensures we start with a complete sentence, fully explain ourselves, and would help us write a clear, interesting topic sentence (called a "lead" in the rubric). We have also begun introducing and working on closing sentences or "conclusions". Additionally, you will see that capitalization and punctuation are part of the rubrics. Communicating effectively in writing means using correct mechanics so students can get their message across effectively.
A few notes: "appropriate" spelling words means spelling patterns students have worked on in grades 1-2 so far and common sight words such as who, what, they, etc. "Content expectations" are set by the teacher or assignments and usually involve a number of expected sentences, amount of writing, or the content/topic of the writing.
Here are the rubrics for the three main types of writing from Keys to Literacy. Also be a on the lookout for a modified rubric I created for reader response questions and writing prompts that don't fit in the same informational, narrative, or opinion categories.
https://keystoliteracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2-3-opinion-rubric.docx
https://keystoliteracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2-3-informational-rubric.docx
https://keystoliteracy.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/2-3-narrative-rubric.docx