Volume 2 Issue 10 February 2014
Microsoft
TIS and THAT Patricia Carey Hancock County
Teresa Murray Monongalia County
Valentine’s Day Students use WV Writes to practice writing for the Westest Other resourses to help students improve their composition skills.
Happy Valentines Day The history of Valentines Day began in the 3rd Century A.D.. The emperor, Claudius, had banned marriages to keep young men primed for war. A young priest, Valentine, married young couples secretly. He was sent to prison and while there he was given thank you notes from couples that he had married. He fell in love with the jailer’s daughter but was executed on February 14. He left a note to his loved one and signed it, “ From your Valentine.” Valentine’s Day was born. To this day, we send letters and cards to the people we love. This is a good example of why it is important to develop the skill of expressing our thoughts and feelings through writing. Often the initial and possibly the only impression you make is based on what you have written. Nobody knows what Father Valentine looked like, but through his writings we know that he was a
a kind and compassionate man. What you write is you, it takes your place when you are not there. That applies to resumes, mail, e-mail, reports, cards and yes even love letters possibly 17 centuries into the future. See the following site for some cute Valentine’s day activities. http://www.apples4theteacher.com/ holidays/valentines-day/
Digital Storytelling Valentine Apps
WV Writes As in years past, we are getting down to the crunch time for the Westest writing assessment. We are currently using the WV Writes program to edit, proof read, and score student practice compositions. Teachers have the choice of assigning descriptive, narrative, informative and persuasive prompts that are already available or using teacher written prompts. There are also prompts that have been used in the past and sample responses. These and many more resources can all be found at.: http://wvde.state.wv.us/search.html? q=writing+assessment&x=0&y=0 This program helps improve students’ writing skills by scoring their essays on organization, development, sentence structure, word choice/grammar usage and mechanics. An Iterative writing mode
can be turned on so that students can have their essays scored, while giving them narrative feedback. In this mode students can edit, revise and have it scored again, all the while improving their scores. Using WV Writes incorporates 21st Century learning skills and each essay could easily be used as a project based unit. Using the iterative mode, students can self assess and/or peer assess for formative assessment. After the first score, teachers could have a conference with the student to check their understanding of what they need to improve. A checklist is available for students to use before and after writing. Students could also share their essays with their classmates allowing them to see other samples of writing on the same topic. The writing rubric could be revised and used as a summative assessment.