HISTORY OF THE PROJECT

In 2006, a group of teachers and instructional facilitators in partnership with the University of California’s Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP,) initiated the Writing Proficiency Project (WPP,), which has evolved into a district-wide initiative impacting over 350 teachers and 20,000 students. The goals of the project are to improve the teaching of writing and to develop common understanding of grade-level standards and grade-level writing proficiency. Some foundational components of our initiative include a Process Writing Assessment (PWA) for grades K-9, a grade-level sequence for expository writing with a priority-writing genre for each grade level. Each school selects a teacher-leader to facilitate the calibration and scoring of student writing compositions. In addition to rubrics, anchor papers, training papers, and protocols for scoring, the project provides Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) of teachers and administrators with tools and resources necessary to engage in a site-based cycle of inquiry around writing including ongoing professional development on how to improve instruction based on these assessments.

Kindergarten to 3rd Grade

Children in grades K-2 are developing writers focused on expressing their ideas in print. As readers they are just beginning to encounter and differentiate between the genres. As writers their capacity to explore and express themselves using the parameters of genre emerges as their exposure to literature grows. Therefore, although the K-2 Process Writing Assessment prompts do fall into the different categories of writing genres that children are expected to practice (according to the California Language Arts Standards for these grade levels), they are assessed primarily on the basis of their written expression and not their mastery of genre.
In Kindergarten particularly, the PWA recognizes that genre cannot be of central concern to emerging writers. By the third grade, the lessons and prompts focus more particularly on the characteristics of the different genres that the K-2 children have been exposed to over the years. Therefore, the rubrics do include guidelines for assessing students’ mastery of the characteristics of the genres tested. The PWA in grades 4-9 assesses children in a same genre all year, to allow teachers to evaluate students’ progress in that particular type of writing. The K-3 PWA  instead introduces children gradually to the different writing genres over the course of four years, and therefore the prompts in any given year fall into different genres.

Upper Elementary and Middle Grades

Six types of writing form the basis of a genre progression designed to support students in mastering a range of academic demands as well as deepen the professional practice of teachers.  Current research on writing instruction and demands for expository writing in the workplace and college informed the writing types (or genres) selection. The writing sequence is designed to:

• engage early writers
• respond to the developmental needs at each of the different grades
• prepare students for state writing assessments
• provide development in critical thinking that is the basis of all writing
• link writing instruction across all grade levels

The writing types are outlined below:
Grade 4 - Response to Literature
Grade 5 - Expository: Description
Grade 6 - Expository: Report on Information
Grade 7 - Persuasive
Grade 8 - Response to Literature

High School Writing

Preparing students for workplace and college success requires a focus on more rigorous habits of mind and writing that responds critically to text. A 2001 report on academic literacy the California community colleges, state colleges, and universities identified the most crucial academic skills for student success beyond the K-12 classroom. They report, among a number of other findings, that

• Only 1/3 of entering college students are sufficiently prepared for the two most frequently assigned writing tasks: analyzing information or arguments and synthesizing information from several sources, according to faculty respondents.
• Faculty expects students to reexamine their thesis, to consider and reconsider additional points or arguments, to reshape and reconstruct as they compose, and to submit carefully revised and edited work.

After three years of focus on expository and research writing, we have significantly revised our thinking about the demands of 9th grade writing and revised the PWA to reflect a more rigorous writing standard of writing in response to an expository passage. This writing requires students to understand a passage and the position of its author and to respond by taking a position. This kind of writing prepares students for college writing expectations and closely aligns to the writing students will do in other content areas. In 10th and 11th grade history classes, students will respond to Document Based Questions and write analytical essays that develop and support a thesis statement with historical evidence, analysis, and interpretation. Additionally, we are promoting the use of Expository Reading and Writing English modules developed by CSU. These modules are based mainly on non-fiction texts, that emphasize the in-depth study of expository, analytical, and argumentative reading and writing.

Our Beliefs About Writing

In addition to a sequence of writing types and features, the Writing Proficiency Project promotes these essential ideas about writing:

• Writing is a complex activity; more than just a skill or talent, it is a means of inquiry and expression for learning in all grades and disciplines. Writing is the most visible expression of what students know and how well they have learned it. Students write to learn.
• Writing helps to develop higher order thinking skills: analyzing, synthesizing, evaluating, and interpreting.
• Writing is inquiry, problem solving, and discovery. Writing can deepen learning.
• Writing is a powerful tool to communicate one’s ideas, experiences, and personal struggles.

The Writing Proficiency Project promotes these ideas about writing instruction:

• In the classroom, there should be a balance of on-demand and student-generated writing and there is a balance between direct and process-based instruction.
• Students need support through all stages of the writing process. Teachers ought to plan using the gradual release of responsibility model.
• Second language learners and struggling writers receive differentiated instruction and frequent, consistent feedback.
• Writing instruction happens on a daily basis.
• Students analyze and talk about their own and other students' writing.
• Teachers need support to develop themselves as writers and learn the craft of writing.

Contact Information:

Writing Proficiency Project Coach, High School
Amy Brooks Gottesfeld
amy.brooks@ousd.k12.ca.us
510-879-4647 

Elementary School Writing Coach
David Braden
David.braden@ousd.k12.ca.us
510-879-1959

Middle School Writing Coach
Steph Travaille
stephanie.travaille@ousd.k12.ca.us
510-879-2997

English Language Arts Manager
Sarah Breed
Sarah.breed@ousd.k12.ca.us
510-879-8272