Oakland Unified School District

Writing Proficiency Project

Process Writing Assessment (PWA)

Third Grade

Fall

Expository Letter:

Mystery Pen Pals

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3rd Grade Fall Prompt

Expository Letter: MYSTERY PEN PALS Overview of week* Suggested time

Day One Introduce Project

--Introduce letter genre --Activate background knowledge

20-30 minutes

Day Two Read Aloud and Genre Study --Review friendly letter components 40-60 minutes

Days Three & Four

Pre-write—Develop Ideas --Web organizer

--Write clues 45-60 minutes

Day Five Assessment Day—Write! --Write friendly letters to pen pals 45-60 minutes

* You may distribute the time allotted to each activity differently across the days, combining or splitting lessons as seems appropriate, taking up to four weeks to complete them all. Summary of Activities The teacher generates interest by reading aloud to the class a letter written by herself or by a collaborating teacher, inviting them to participate in a Mystery Pen Pal project. Students are told that they will each write a letter to a mystery pen pal (in the same class or in another class), and get one in return. In their letters, the students will not identify themselves, but instead attempt to describe themselves so that their pen pals can guess who they are. The teacher activates background knowledge by asking students about previous experience with letters or pen pals.

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The class shares a read-aloud featuring letters (Dear Peter Rabbit, by Alma Flor Ada, or other teacher-selected book) and guessing the fairy-tale authors of several letters in the story. Then the whole class reviews the genre by identifying the purpose and conventions of each structural component of friendly letters. A reference chart describing the friendly letter structure remains posted throughout the assessment week. Students develop ideas by brainstorming ways in which they can describe themselves to their pen pals and by completing a web organizer. If given the opportunity, they may practice translating notes into complete sentences by writing clues. Finally, students write letters describing themselves to their mystery pen pals. After initial attempts at revision and editing, this first draft is collected for assessment. CA Standards Addressed by the Fall 3rd Grade PWA 1.0 Writing Strategies Organization and Focus 1.1 Create a single paragraph: a. Develop a topic sentence. b. Include simple supporting facts and details. Penmanship 1.2 Write legibly in cursive or joined italic, allowing margins and correct

spacing between letters in a word and words in a sentence. 2.0 Writing Applications (Genres and Their Characteristics) 2.2 Write descriptions that use concrete sensory details to present and

support unified impressions of people, places, things, or experiences. 2.3 Write personal and formal letters, thank-you notes, and invitations:

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a. Show awareness of the knowledge and interests of the audience and establish a purpose and context. b. Include the date, proper salutation, body, closing, and signature. 1.0 Written and Oral English Language Conventions Sentence Structure 1.1 Understand and be able to use complete and correct declarative,

interrogative, imperative, and exclamatory sentences in writing and speaking.

Grammar 1.2 Identify subjects and verbs that are in agreement and identify and

use pronouns, adjectives, compound words, and articles correctly in writing and speaking.

1.3 Identify and use past, present, and future verb tenses properly in

writing and speaking. 1.4 Identify and use subjects and verbs correctly in speaking and writing

simple sentences. Punctuation 1.5 Punctuate dates, city and state, and titles of books correctly. 1.6 Use commas in dates, locations, and addresses and for items in a series. Capitalization 1.7 Capitalize geographical names, holidays, historical periods, and

special events correctly. Spelling 1.8 Spell correctly one-syllable words that have blends, contractions,

compounds, orthographic patterns (e.g., qu, consonant doubling, changing the ending of a word from -y to -ies when forming the plural), and common homophones (e.g., hair-hare).

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Pre-Teaching: SUGGESTED MINI-LESSONS If your writing program has not already included these mini-lessons so far this school year, you may want to take some time in the weeks preceding Assessment Day to teach any of the following lessons you think would be most beneficial to your students’ success as writers.

Mini-Lessons on the Management of Writers’ Workshop

• How to use materials: including where to find them, when they are available, how to share them, how to take care of them (cap pens, sharpen pencils, etc.), how to put them away • Think-pair-share • Silent writing time

Mini-Lessons on Conventions of Print

• Parts of a Friendly Letter: date, salutation, body, closing, signature, appropriate punctuation

• Indentation of paragraphs • Ending punctuation for sentences: period, question mark, exclamation point

• Writing the date: commas • Capitalization: proper nouns, titles, initials, beginning of sentences, greetings, months, days

• Sight words • How to use a Word Wall • How to use spelling resources: Word Wall, dictionary • Spelling demons • Word Study Mini-Lessons on the Writer’s Craft

• Everyone is a writer • Adding detail • Sensory description • Notetaking to record ideas in brief form • Pre-Writing: using a Web Organizer • Crossing out to delete text • Using carets to add text • How to proofread your writing

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Teacher Instructions: GETTING READY 1) Review all introductory material and instructions in this manual, and prepare materials for the lessons prior to beginning assessment. For all PWA lessons preceding Assessment Day, feel free to make any modifications that seem appropriate to the needs and abilities of your current class. This might mean adding, skipping or changing lessons/materials, according to your expert judgment as classroom teacher. See page 6 for some suggested mini-lessons you may wish to teach prior to beginning the assessment. IMPORTANT: On Assessment Day, be sure to follow instructions exactly, with NO modification of materials or procedure. See pages 8-10 for details. 2) During your regular Writers’ Workshop or Language Arts time, introduce the lessons over the course of one to four weeks. 3) After Assessment Day, collect assessments and evaluate in grade level teams, using the included rubric and forthcoming anchor papers to guide scoring. 4) SUGGESTED-Continue the writing process with the students, helping them revise, edit and publish or present their work. Teaching Tip: Throughout the instructions, look for teaching tips marked with this symbol.

Say: Throughout the instructions, look for the words you will say aloud to students marked with this symbol. Except on assessment day, feel free to modify the language you use with your students to suit their vocabulary, interest and understanding.

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Teacher Instructions: ASSESSMENT DAY

1. The assessment must be completed in one sitting. You may wish to schedule the assessment before recess or lunch to accommodate students who need more time to finish the prompt (whether because they write slowly, want to complete very detailed drawings, have a lot to write, or have an IEP indicating extended time for assessments). Students who have not finished may get up, get their food, then return to their table to finish drawing and writing. Midway through the writing time, reassure students who are worried about running out of time about the plan to give them more time. 2. It is essential that you transcribe all emergent student writing for later assessment. Students who are not yet writing phonetically to create decipherable text should be asked to read their work aloud to you. Record what the student says below the text, even if it does not match. Use both the student writing and the transcription for assessment. See teaching tips on next page for management ideas. 3. This assessment may be conducted entirely in students’ primary language. Writing in primary language may be assessed using the grade level rubric by a teacher literate in that language.

Teaching Tips for Assessment Day

Have the children complete the assessment at a time when they normally write.

Be sure children know what to do when they finish writing. It should be an independent, silent activity that is commonly available (so as not to provoke undue motivation to finish writing quickly in order to get to the second activity). Suggestions: silent reading or coloring a take-home book.

Some students may need regular reminders about time elapsed or a time deadline in order to finish their writing. A timer may be helpful.

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You may wish to allow time for students to share their writing with each other or the class at the end of the activity or later in the day

You may want to administer the assessment to small groups of six children at a time while the rest of the class works on their journals. This will make it easier for you to transcribe student writing. Or, you may choose to transcribe and score only six samples altogether. To determine which six samples to collect, do an alternate ranking of your students’ writing ability. See below for an example.

Alternate Ranking Example: For a class of 20, number a sheet of blank paper from 1-20. Write the name of the student who most excels in writing in the #1 spot. Then write the name of the student most challenged in writing in the #20 spot. Continue by listing the second-best writer in the #2 spot, and the second-worst writer in the #19 spot, and so on until every child has been assigned a “rank.” Divide the list into thirds, and choose two students from the top, middle, and bottom third. Be sure to transcribe those student stories, make copies, and bring those six samples only to the collaborative scoring session. Keep in mind that an alternate ranking is a subjective assessment, and that collaborative scoring of a writing sample using a common rubric will produce a more accurate picture of each student’s strengths and weaknesses in writing, as well as provide information about strengths and weaknesses in your writing program.

For ELL students transitioning from a bilingual 2nd grade class, this will be their first assessment ever in written English. Be sure to take into account the ELD equivalency levels on the rubric when scoring student work. Provide extra encouragement and reassurance for students nervous about writing in English.

After the assessment, give students the opportunity to revise, edit and publish their work. In individual writing conferences, help students identify ways to improve their letters by adding more detail or description, identifying missing words or text, deleting

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unnecessary/uninteresting material, or improving word choice. With each student individually or in small groups, reread what they have written together and invite them to correct errors in spelling, capitalization or punctuation. Help students check to make sure they have correctly used all components of the Friendly Letter structure. Focus on no more than 1-2 types of error, and use a color pen to correct them on the draft. Students can then rewrite their letters using their best printing and spacing, making the corrections indicated on the draft. These letters can then be sent to their pen pals.

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Materials & Photocopies

Day One: INTRODUCE PROJECT

Mystery Letter written to class by teacher or collaborating teacher (for ideas, see the Sample Letters on page 11 and section on Mystery Letter Options, page 12)

Day Two: READ-ALOUD & GENRE STUDY Dear Peter Rabbit, by Alma Flor Ada, or other teacher-selected literature containing a letter (see Suggested Books on page 38)

(Optional) Collection of books about letters (see page 38 for suggestions) Overhead projector or similar technology Overhead marker

Transparency photocopy of a letter from the read aloud book, with the addresses deleted

Pre-made chart of the Friendly Letter Format (see page 18) (Optional) Copies of Friendly Letter Format (see page 18) for each

student’s Writing Folder Chart paper Chart marker Post-its

Days Three & Four: PRE-WRITE—DEVELOP IDEAS Web graphic organizers (photocopy from page 29 or make your own

using page 28) Pencils and Writing Folders

Day Five: ASSESSMENT DAY—WRITE! Class supply of prompt paper: (2-sided copies of pages 32-33 and 2-sided copies of pages 34-35 and 36-37 for prolific writers) Pencils with no erasers Erasers Writing Folders Familiar spelling resources

For Scoring: 6 copies each of Scoring Rubric and completed half-page Cover Sheet (page 39)

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Day One: INTRODUCE PROJECT (20-30 minutes)

Academic language that children may need to know for this lesson: letter mystery clue Read Mystery Letter 1) Generate interest At circle time, generate excitement by showing the children a Mystery Letter (sample letters below) written just to them. Show them the envelope and the address before asking them if you should open it and read it. Point out that there is no return address, which means you don’t know who sent the letter. Then, read the letter with great drama. Sample Mystery Letter A— from collaborating teacher

Sample Mystery Letter B— from you, the classroom teacher

Date Dear Third Graders in ________’s Class, I am one of the teachers at ____________ Elementary School. Perhaps you’ve seen me around. The students in my class would like to be your pen pals. Pen pals write letters to each other to get to know one another. Maybe we could also plan some fun activities to do together. But there’s a problem. This is a Mystery Pen Pal Project we’re talking about. That means you need to guess who I am before we can get started. Let me give you some clues. [Include third paragraph here with clues as to the Mystery Teacher’s identity.] If you can guess who I am, then we can start the pen pal project. Your teacher can help you write letters to your Mystery Pen Pals in my class. I wonder if my students will be able to guess who you are! Sincerely, The Mystery Teacher

Date Dear Class, I am one of the teachers at this school. I am writing to you to invite you to be part of the Mystery Pen Pal Project. This means that each of you will get to have a pen pal who is another third grader. You will write each other letters to get to know each other and become friends. But there is one difficulty. Since Mystery Pen Pals don’t sign their names to their letters, you will have to guess who your pen pals are by the clues they write in their letters. And your pen pals will have to guess who you are from the clues you put in your letter. Can you guess who I am?

[Include some clues about yourself.

Sincerely, The Mystery Teacher

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Mystery Letter Options This unit works best when children have an authentic audience for their Mystery Letters. Mystery Letter A is an example of the letter a collaborating teacher in your school could write to your class inviting them to establish pen pal relationships with the students in his/her class. Mystery Letter B is a letter you could write if you intend to pair students with a pen pal in your own class. Some options for pen pals include: Students in your own class writing to each other Students in another third grade class taking the PWA (If there are an uneven number of classes at the third grade level and all teachers want to do an interclass exchange, you can pool all the students and tell them that their Mystery Pen Pal could be anyone in the entire third grade!) Students in another grade, older or younger You could also use a letter you received sometime in your life from a pen pal to start this unit.

Activate and Build Background Knowledge 2) Short discussion Ask children to make a show of hands in response to the following questions.

Say: Have you ever gotten a letter before? Have you ever written a letter? Have you ever had a pen pal? Ask follow-up questions (such as, What was the most special letter you ever wrote/received?) to elicit some details from a few students.

Teaching Tip: Have students bring in special letters they may have received and saved to share with the class. A few students take turns sharing short stories about letters in their lives.

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Teaching Tip: During the group discussion, you can use name sticks to promote broader participation among ELL students. Simply write every student’s name on a wooden clothespin or popsicle stick and keep in a can. To choose the next speaker, pick one name from the can. Keep choosing different names until all students have had an opportunity to speak. Introduction of Project 3) Conclusion

Say: We are going to write some letters of our own. We will write Mystery Letters to a pen pal in (name of class). They will be Mystery Letters because in the letter we will introduce ourselves to our pen pals by telling them all about ourselves, but we won’t sign our names. So our pen pals will have to guess who we are! You will also get a letter from a pen pal in (name of class), and you will have to use the clues in the letter to guess who it is. We will start work on our letters tomorrow! Leave the Mystery Letter posted in an accessible place throughout the assessment week.

Teaching Tip: When pairing pen pals, give careful thought and attention to students struggling to acquire English or students trying to socially adjust to their new class or school.

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Day Two: READ ALOUD & GENRE STUDY (40-60 minutes in 1-2 sessions)

Academic language that children may need to know for this lesson: letter email salutation author sender recipient comma indentation closing sincerely signature convention analyze format genre sign (as in “sign your name”)

Read Aloud (20-30 minutes) 1) Read Dear Peter Rabbit (or other teacher selection) aloud to the class. For the first few letters, encourage the students to guess the authors of the letters before reading the signature. Then read the entire story. If there is time for more discussion, ask some follow-up questions.

Say: How do the characters get to know each other through their letters? What did you learn about the characters from reading their letters?

Say: Later on we will look more closely at how these characters wrote such interesting friendly letters.

Teaching Tip: Any read-aloud that features friendly letters as part of the story will function for this unit. If it is a longer read-aloud and the letters come later into the book, start reading it with the class in advance of assessment week. Or, you can just read the selection/chapter that contains the letter. You can also use a familiar book that the children have already read. See Suggested Books on page 38 for ideas. Mini-Lesson: Friendly Letter Genre (20-30 minutes) 2) Analyze friendly letter structure and components Direct the students’ attention to a copy of one of the letters from the read-aloud projected on an overhead screen. Remind the students which letter it is (recipient and author).

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Say: Whenever we write a friendly letter, we follow a special format, which you may already know something about. This format is different from the way we write other things, like lists or stories. For example, notice that the date is written here at the top of the page, a little to the right. All friendly letters have the date written in that special place.

Say: Everybody look carefully at this letter and see if you can notice something special about the way it is written.

Teaching Tip: Friendly letters first appear in the California Language Arts Standards in the second grade (Writing Applications 2.2). All incoming third graders should already know how to “write a friendly letter complete with the date, salutation, body, closing and signature.” 3) Think-Pair-Share

Say: Turn to the person sitting next to you and take turns whispering one thing you noticed about the letter. When I give you the signal, stop talking and look at me.

For two minutes, students discuss what they notice about the format of the friendly letter with a partner.

Signal for the students’ attention. Then call on several students to make key points about the format of a friendly letter.

Say: What do you think this part of the letter is for? Students briefly share ideas about the friendly letter format and letters

vs. emails.

Teaching Tip: The more familiar students are with the Think-Pair-Share structure, the more successful it will be. Establish clear ground rules for level of noise and signals for starting and stopping. Discuss,

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model and practice active listening. Consider assigning seats in the group gathering area so that children can have long-term partners for these mini-discussions. ELL students may be partnered with English-speaking students for the Think-Pair-Share to provide them with language models. Use the Think-Pair-Share strategy across the curriculum. See page 19 for more tips. 4) Review Reveal the following chart.

Say: You have really done a good job analyzing the important parts of the friendly letter format. Quickly read the chart to the students, naming its parts (including the commas and indentations). If there is time, you can invite the children to share alternate closings to “sincerely.” Write them on post-it notes and stick them next to the chart. For example: Yours truly, Your friend, Hugs and kisses, XOXO, etc. Define the differences between letters and emails if students are unclear about them. 5) Conclusion

Say: I will leave this chart up on the wall so that you can refer to it as you are writing your own Mystery Letters to your pen pals. Since you won’t know who your Mystery Pen Pal is, you’ll have to address the letters to “My Mystery Pen Pal.”

Friendly Letter Format

Date Dear Name of Recipient, (comma) (indent) _________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ (indent) _________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ ________________________________ Sincerely, (comma) Name of author

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As you say this, cover the “Name of Recipient” on the sample letter on the chart with post-its and write on them: My Mystery Pen Pal.

Say: Also, instead of signing our real names, we will sign our letters “Your Mystery Pen Pal.” As you say this, cover the signature of the sample letter on the chart with post-its and write on them: Your Mystery Pen Pal.

Say: Tomorrow you will begin thinking of ideas about what you can write in your letters.

Teaching Tip: Introduce a collection of books with letters in them and encourage the class to explore them at appropriate times during the week. Invite children to look for letters in their lives: at home, in the literature they’re reading, etc. Leave the Friendly Letter Format chart (from page 18) posted in a visible location throughout assessment week.

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Best Practices in the Teaching of Writing:

Think-Pair-Share or Partner Work

Talking with a partner about writing ideas is a wonderful way to develop vocabulary and writing community. Think-Pair-Share is a teaching strategy in which the teacher asks the whole class to think silently about an explicit topic or question, then turn to a partner for a brief discussion before finally sharing their ideas out loud with the whole class. This strategy helps differentiate instruction in the whole-group setting by allowing teachers to pair students in ways that support their learning, and allowing students a chance to formulate their thoughts and develop vocabulary before being asked to participate in a whole-class discussion. However, children need clear expectations and lots of practice for any kind of partner work such as this to be successful. Some tips:

Pair children who work well together. If you have assigned seating, try assigning students sitting next to each other on the rug and/or at tables as “writing partners” for several months at a time. Model and give students the chance to explicitly practice the skills of 1) listening with kindness and attention; 2) taking turns; and 3) staying on topic. As students become more skilled at talking and working with a partner, teach them how to ask follow-up questions and give them a chance to practice this skill. Give explicit instructions and a clear guiding question before directing children to begin sharing with a partner, including the signal for attention you will use when partner sharing time is up. When partners work well together, point out to the class specific behaviors you noticed (i.e. “The whole time that Tonya was talking, I saw Maria looking straight at her and nodding her head. Tonya, I bet you could tell she was really listening!”). If problems occur, stop the action to correct them. Common problems you will need to address include: who goes first, active listening, staying on topic, kindness.

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Circulate actively as partners talk to listen to the content and help partners who are having trouble. When time and/or attention are short, limit the “share” portion of the activity to 1-2 students. Choose students whose ideas you overheard during the “pair” segment of the activity which you believe will help move thinking forward for the entire class.

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Days Three & Four: PRE-WRITE— DEVELOP IDEAS (45-60 minutes)

Academic language that children may need to know for this lesson: graphic organizer web organizer brainstorm sentence phrase word physical characteristic heritage descriptive language details identity

Mini-Lesson: Brainstorming with a Graphic Organizer 1) Connection—Why use a Graphic Organizer?

Say: Good authors spend some time brainstorming and organizing their ideas before they start writing. Many authors use graphic organizers for this. A graphic organizer is just a chart of some kind with space for writing ideas. If your class has used graphic organizers before this lesson, invite them to recall these and have some samples ready to show.

Say: The best thing about graphic organizers is that you don’t write in sentences when you are using them. You just write down single words and phrases to help you remember your ideas. 2) Teach through inquiry: sorting descriptive details into categories Show the students a copy of a blank Web Organizer (from page 27) recreated on a chart.

Say: We call this kind of Graphic Organizer a Web Organizer because it looks a little like a spider web. Let’s figure out how we can use it to record our ideas for our Mystery Letters to our pen pals. Write the word “ME” in the center circle of the Web Organizer.

Say: What kinds of clues could we include in our Mystery Pen Pal Letters to help them guess who we are?

Students take turns sharing ideas about descriptive clues. As students share their ideas, generalize them into categories. For example, if a student says, “I could write that my hair is brown,” say:

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That’s a good example of what you look like. Label one of the boxes on the web “What I Look Like” and encourage the class to give examples of other physical characteristics. Continue to work with the class to identify other categories of descriptive clues, until most of the boxes are labeled. Categories could include:

• What I Look Like • Family and Heritage (language, food, origin) • Hobbies and Interests • Secrets • Favorites (books, sports, foods) • Lies (see page 22 for explanation)

Encourage the children to come up with the most descriptive language possible and use that language on the sample chart (e.g. instead of “brown hair”, write “curly dark brown hair,” etc.). See page 30 for an example of a completed Organizer. 3) Active engagement—Generating ideas for descriptive details

Say: When I tell you to, I want you to turn to the person sitting next to you and tell him one or two descriptive details that you could include in your Mystery Letter to give clues about you. Tell your partner which box you think you should write that detail in. Partners, help each other think of good details and figure out where to write them on the organizer. When I give the signal, I want you to stop talking and look at me.

Students share ideas for clues with their partners. Invite 1-3 students to share their details aloud and model writing them on the graphic organizer in note format—just one or two words per idea. Point out that you are not writing entire sentences but just short phrases and words.

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Complete All About Me Web Organizers 4) Link: Giving directions

Say: I have here some All About Me Web Organizers that I want you to use now to record your ideas about clues you could include in your Mystery Letter to help your pen pal guess your identity.

Teaching Tip: The copied All About Me organizers could already have the same labeled categories you use when creating the class Graphic Organizer chart. Leave 1-2 boxes blank so that students can fill in other categories that the class or they identify. You can use the organizer provided on page 28 or make your own using the template on page 27. If the class is already accustomed to using a particular graphic organizer whose design suits the purpose of this activity, feel free to substitute it for the ones provided. Encourage students to write at least 8-10 details on their web organizers, and remind them to record their ideas in note format. Distribute the Web Organizers and facilitate the children’s transition to independent work.

Teaching Tip: Use established systems for the distribution of papers, involving students in the set-up, clean-up and care of writing materials. Lucy Calkins suggests having students prepare for the writing activity before coming to the group gathering place for a mini-lesson and instructions. This way, students are ready to begin work immediately after the mini-lesson, carrying their ideas and teacher instructions fresh in their minds. Read Lucy Calkins for more ideas about managing Mini-Lessons effectively.

Students complete the All About Me Organizers independently.

Teaching Tip: Students may enjoy including one “lie” or exaggeration in their Organizers. Set clear rules. 5) Mid-Lesson Teaching Point As the children are working, circulate to observe and assist. Mid-lesson, briefly interrupt the class in order to:

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• share 1-2 good examples that you’ve observed in the students’ work

• address any persistent or widespread confusions • allow the students to share their ideas briefly with each other. (NOT an option if assigned pen pals are within the same class), 6) Share At the conclusion of the lesson, gather the students. If their pen pals are from another class, you may allow students to briefly share their work in one of the following ways: • students leave their work at their desk and walk around to look at each other’s papers • students sit in a circle and hold up their papers • students share their papers with one other person • students each share one favorite detail from their organizer with the class

Teaching Tip: Students may need 1-2 class periods to work on these organizers. Allow them to continue working on the All About Me Organizers on Day Four if they would like more time to add ideas. Students who finish work on their Graphic Organizers can practice writing more clues. Optional—Practice Writing Clues 7) If you think your students need the practice, you can give them time to translate some of the notes on their Organizers into clues. As students are finishing with their web organizers, call their attention back to the Web Organizer sample chart that you have posted, and hold up a packet of post-its.

Say: I’m going to give each of you one of these post-it notes. I want you to take one of the details on your web-organizer and make it into a clue that you write on that post-it. Let me show you how to do it. Demonstrate by reading aloud one of the details on the class chart, and then transforming it into a sentence (e.g. “curly dark brown hair” becomes “My curly dark brown hair that smells like coconut shampoo.”)

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With great fanfare, distribute the post-its and admonish the students not to let anyone see their clues (especially if they have same-class pen pals).

Teaching Tip: For clues, use a selection of brightly colored post-its to add interest.

Teaching Tip: Students may enjoy using a “Privacy Wall” during this and other writing activities. Before assessment week, create a blank Privacy Wall for each child by taping two manila folders together with masking tape so that they create a private area by unfolding it and standing it upright on a desk. Allow the children time to decorate and personalize these folders with markers, collage, etc. Students can then use the privacy walls any time they are doing silent writing or other activities that require privacy or solitude. Students can store Organizers and post-it clues in the Privacy Walls or in their Writing Folders to keep them secret. 8) Conclusion

Say: Tomorrow you’ll use these organizers and clues to begin writing your letters. Leave the Web Organizer sample chart posted in an accessible place throughout assessment week.

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Day Five: ASSESSMENT DAY—WRITE! (45-60 minutes)

NOTE: Leave the Friendly Letter Format chart and other posted resources up throughout assessment week. Make sure that the students have access to all their notes and pre-writing— including the Web Organizers, Post-it clues and Writing Folders—during the assessment. Remind students about the location of dictionaries, sight word lists and any other spelling resources they know how to use prior to beginning the assessment. Generate Interest 1) Introduce Prompt paper

Say: All week we have been getting ready to write Mystery Letters to our pen pals. We read a book full of letters that friends had written to each other, and we studied those letters. We learned about the format we need to use to write a friendly letter (point to the Friendly Letter Format Chart) and you brainstormed good descriptive details that you could use in your letters to give your pen pal clues about your identify. Today we get to write our letters!

Show the two-sided samples of the prompt paper to the class. Post a sample of pages 32-33 on the board, and tell the students that they will use this paper if they plan to write a letter that will fit on one page. Indicate that students who think they will need more than one page for their letters should use pages 34-35 as the first page of the letter, and pages 36-37 as the last page of the letter. Post those two prompt paper samples on the board as well. You may want to give students an opportunity to discuss the features and differences between the papers, but do not tell them how to use the lines for the date, salutation and closing. Show writers the space for their names on the backs of the writing paper. Write “Your Mystery Pen Pal” in a prominent location and remind the students that this is how they should sign their letters.

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Give Directions 2) Give prompt

Say: Each of you has a Mystery Pen Pal—and only I know who it is! Your job today is to write a letter to your Mystery Pen Pal to help that person guess who you are. You will need to include lots of descriptive details about yourself in order to give your Pen Pal clues to guess who you are. Use your All About Me Organizers to give you ideas. When all the letters are done, I will deliver them to your Mystery Pen Pals, and give you the letters from your Mystery Pen Pals. And the guessing will begin!

Prompt: Write a letter to your Mystery Pen Pal, but do not sign your name. Instead, give your Pen Pal clues about who you are by including lots of descriptive details about you. Have fun! 3) Give guidelines

Say: This is a first draft, so the most important thing is to get your ideas down on paper. But since you will be sending this letter to your Mystery Pen Pal, it’s important that other people be able to read your writing. So do your best work on spelling, punctuation and handwriting, without erasing. If you don’t know how to spell a word, use your spelling resources or sound it out. Remember that you can look at this Friendly Letter Chart to help you use the correct format for your letter. Write! 4) After setting expectations for the activity (time, noise level, materials, getting help), distribute the prompt papers and pencils and let the children begin work.

Children work independently and silently on their Mystery Letters. As students write, circulate through the classroom to assist and encourage. Do not correct children’s errors or prompt them as they work. Do not provide spelling but encourage children to sound out unknown words or use available spelling resources.

5) Give prompts for revision and editing

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When students first indicate they are finished writing, individually give the following prompt for initial revision.

Say: See if you can add a few more clues to your letter. Use your Web Organizer to help you figure out what you haven’t yet included. When most students are nearly finished and have already gone back to add details, give the following prompt for initial editing to the whole class.

Say: Before you turn your letter in, please reread it and check to make sure it will be easy for your Pen Pal to read. Did you use capital letters at the beginning of sentences? Did you put punctuation at the end of your sentences? Did you check your spelling? Did you use all the conventions of a friendly letter correctly? Make erasers and spelling resources available. 5) Conclusion Collect all the papers and see instructions for scoring and reporting.

Teaching Tip: If students’ pen pals will be members of the same class, make provisions for a special secret collection system (e.g. a closed folder near you).

Say: Look at all this fabulous writing; I can’t wait to deliver these letters to your Mystery Pen Pals!

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Prompt: Write a letter to your Mystery Pen Pal, but do not sign your name. Instead, give your Pen Pal clues about who you are by including lots of descriptive details about you. Have fun!

_____________________________ _______________________________ ________________________________________________________ ___________________________ ____________________________

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AUTHORS: Please write your first and last name on the back of each page of your story, on the lines below. Do NOT write anything else on this side of the page. Author’s First Name: ________________Author’s Last Name: ______________________

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS SPACE

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Prompt: Write a letter to your Mystery Pen Pal, but do not sign your name. Instead, give your Pen Pal clues about who you are by including lots of descriptive details about you. Have fun!

____________________________ _______________________________ ________________________________________________________

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AUTHORS: Please write your first and last name on the back of each page of your story, on the lines below. Do NOT write anything else on this side of the page. Author’s First Name: _______________ Author’s Last Name: ______________________

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS SPACE

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______________________________ ______________________________

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AUTHORS: Please write your first and last name on the back of each page of your story, on the lines below. Do NOT write anything else on this side of the page. Author’s First Name: ________________Author’s Last Name: ______________________

DO NOT WRITE IN THIS SPACE

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Suggested Books: Literature Featuring Letters

Especially for Third Grade: “The Letter,” from Frog and Toad Are Friends, by Arnold Lobel A Letter to Amy, Ezra Jack Keats Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type, Doreen Cronin Dear Bunny: A Bunny Love Story, Michaela Morgan Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School, by Mark Teague Dear Peter Rabbit, Alma Flor Ada Detective LaRue: Letters from the Investigation, by Mark Teague First Year Letters, by Julie Danneberg and Judith Dufour Love Giggle, Giggle, Quack, Giggle, Giggle, Quack, by Doreen Cronin Letters from a Desperate Dog, by Eileen Christelow (email) Letters from the Campaign Trail: LaRue for Mayor, by Mark Teague Love Letters, Arnold Adoff One Monster After Another, by Mercer Mayer The Gardener, Sarah Stewart The Jolly Postman, by Allan Ahlberg Yours Truly, Goldilocks, Alma Flor Ada Other Books Featuring Letters: Clementine’s Letter, by Sara Pennypacker and Marla Frazee Dear Mr. Henshaw, Beverly Cleary Dear Mr. President: Letters from a Slave Girl, Andrea Davis Pinkney Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue with Today’s Youth, by Rosa Parks. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J. K. Rowling I Want to Go Home, Gordon Korman Letters for our Children: Fifty Americans Share Lessons in Living, eds. Hope Edelman and Cliff Arquette Letters from Camp, by Kate Klise Letters from Rifka, by Karen Hesse Secret Letters from 0 to 10, by Susie Morgenstern The Beatrice Letters, by Lemony Snicket The Naked Mole-Rat Letters, by Mary Amato The Wide Window, Lemony Snicket

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Cover Sheet Third Grade Process Writing Assessment Fall Expository Letter: Mystery Pen Pals Teacher Name: _________________________________________________ School Name: _________________________________________________ Date administered: ______________________ Fill in the above information before photocopying. Fill in the score once the assessment has been completed and scored. Attach completed score sheet to each scored prompt with a staple or paperclip. Score: ______________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Third Grade PWA: Fall

Cover Sheet Third Grade Process Writing Assessment Fall Expository Letter: Mystery Pen Pals Teacher Name: _________________________________________________ School Name: _________________________________________________ Date administered: ______________________ Fill in the above information before photocopying. Fill in the score once the assessment has been completed and scored. Attach completed score sheet to each scored prompt with a staple or paperclip. Score: ______________________