For Posterity

As I leave Spalding Academy I am hopeful the SA Writing Rubric I helped develop will continue to be used for critiquing writing assignments.  The rubric outlines basic writing patterns for students and can be a helpful aid for both instructors and students for determining writing patterns.  I leave the rubric as a tool for future teachers to implement in any discipline.

Reflections on the Writing Month

Successes
The students wrote a lot!  The sophomores were vocal about their dislike for the writing, but as evidenced in some of their responses to the "Writing Month," in the end they did not mind the writing.
The pre-test was not only helpful, but it also presented the students with the expectation of the month ahead, that being, "you will write!"  The sophomores did write during the six week period, and so if anything, they were exposed to more writing which will only help them in the long run.

Flops
The final assignment.  While this was not a complete failure, there is much I would change about the project.  See the paragraph below for more thoughts.

If I was going to do this project again I would provide more time for in-class writing and peer-editing.  I would present actual lessons on how to write an outline, how to use in text citations, and how to create a works cited page.  I mentioned all of these topics in passing or briefly explained them, but in retrospect the students could have used more explanations and examples.

I wish I would have given more time to the final essay, the exegesis.  I would have liked more thorough results from my students, but that is harsh of me since we did not have a lot of class time for working on the assignment.

Responses from students:
"I like to write so this writing month was fun.  It was nice to write about a passage that we like and learn more about it."
"I did not enjoy writing month, not the writing part, but the homework everyday.  The exegesis was fun.  It was a good experience."
"I liked this years writing month.  Writing an exegesis was easy for me because I like to take things apart and describe it.  This was a success.  If I was you I would do it next year."
"I believe writing month was interesting.  At first, I had no idea what an exegesis was!  I got to understand the deeper meaning behind my passage."

Final Assignment: Exegesis and Homily

For the final writing assignment students were asked to perform an exegesis and present a written homily to the class. We spent several class periods composing the homilies.  The students presented them to their class in the Chapel.

This is an example of an exegesis I wrote in college that I shared with the class.
This is the prompt for the homily.
Below are two examples of student's homilies.  I scanned them onto my computer and so my comments in red are visible.

Exegesis I

Exegesis II

Below is a video of one of the sophomores presenting his homily.

Written Work Throughout the Month

While the two major assignments during the SA Writing Month were the in clas Joshua essay and the homily, the students wrote many pieces throughout the month, including a reflection on the Book of Ruth and their own Psalm.  Below are some examples of their work.  The scanned copies still have the comments I made.

Ruth Response I

Ruth Response II

Psalm I

Psalm II

Also, check out our wall wisher we used to think about psalms!

The Writing Month Slideshow

I created a google presentation that I shared with the entire class. This presentation was used for notes and activities in class. It served to keep us organized during the month. If you view the presentation you are able to see our progress and all the notes, in class questions, and assignments from the month.



Click here for a week's worth of lessons for the Writing Month.

Spalding Academy Standardized Writing Rubric

Here it is, the SA Writing Rubric!

This was attached to each writing assignment completed by the sophomores. Each time they wrote something they were aware of what they needed to watch and where they needed to focus. Ideally if a student was having trouble with comma use they would see this pattern because I would mark that on the rubric each time they handed in a writing piece.

The Pre-Test

The students were given this prompt for an in-class writing assignment at the start of the writing month in order for me to gauge where they stood with their writing.

I was pleased with many of the students' essays. Below are examples from two students.  Click on the pictures to see a larger image.

Essay I

Essay II

As a teacher reading these essays made me excited for the writing month to come.  The students responded to the prompt fully and wrote well, which was a positive start.  The pre-test asked students to  write an outline and then their essay.  This helped to keep the thoughts of the students organized.  I am certain my students' writing was the most clear and concise with this writing assignment due to the outline.

Some students wrote very detailed outlines as the second example displays, while other students write more basic outlines.  I would have liked to see more outlines like the latter outline, but I am also aware that many of the students do not have too much practice with outlines.  A basic outline is a great start to the outline-writing process.

Welcome to the SA Writing Month!

This is the SA Writing Month!  Welcome.  The sophomores in Ms. Otter's Scripture Theology class spent the month of February, and part of the month of March, fine-tuning their writing skills.  Much to my students' chagrin, the six weeks or so were full of writing, in class, and outside of class.

The purpose of the Writing Month was to give students more opportunity for writing in order to improve their writing skills.  The students at Spalding Academy do not have much experience with writing and complain when a writing assignment is given.  My hope was that my students would at least learn not to dislike the idea of writing so much.  For many of my students, I think I achieved this goal: some grew in appreciate of writing as well as the great need for having solid writing skills.

We began the month with a "pre-test" in which the students had to write a recap of the story of Joshua, the story we had just covered from the Bible.   This served to give me a good sense of where each student stood with their writing.  I could note what each student needed to focus or work on during the month.

The goal was to move students in the direction of writing their own exegesis. What's an exegesis, you ask?!
An exegesis is the practice of pulling apart a text in order to interpret and understand it.

How were we going to reach that goal?  I assigned several in-class writing assignments-this ranged from pushing the sophomores to write a five sentence response to a question, instead of their typical one sentence answer, or asking students to respond to questions based on a passage read in class-and assignments for home.  When students worked on a writing piece at home we spent the next class period peer editing.  Many of the sophomores had never experienced peer editing before, so this was a great skill to expose to them.

Did we reach our goal?  The students definitely got a lot of writing practice!  I was not as pleased with their final writing product, which was an exegesis.  I think we should have spent more time on perfecting these writing pieces.

All but one of the sophomores after
presenting Old Testament skits to the class.

Half of the sophomore class at the prayer area
in Ms. Otter's classroom.