Beth's Classroom

I am posting this as a word document, but it worked well as a Google Doc. You should be able to copy and paste if you prefer to use it that way. I shared the checklist to my class, and they used it to peer edit a personal narrative. This can be setup many ways, but I found the easiest was to have the writer of the paper be the owner of the document, renamed to reflect the writer's name (Such as Joe's PN Peer Review), then they could share it with the editor. Once feedback was given, they cou

This is a great way to see how well your students understood The Outsider! There can be more than one correct way to fill in some of the blanks, which can make it a little tricky to grade, but I'm usually pretty liberal and count anything that is accurate as a correct answer. Students tend to like this this assessment, as well, since they have a lot of leeway and can show what they know by how well they answer. I usually use something like this in conjunction with a project, which is also pos

This includes a detailed essay topic/assignment, a rubric on a 5-point sale, and an example/model essay. Students are required to write a 4-paragraph essay, as this was designed for mid-year sixth graders, and was appropriate for the amount of time available to compose their answer. They were given a 1-hour class period to prepare, another for a rough draft, and a final for completion and/or editing, but they were allowed to overlap the time, and use the 3 hours as they needed. Upon reflectio

I used this to help 2nd and 3rd graders organize a short personal narrative. I included topics, but you can edit and change the topic for your assignment. I felt that having a step-by-step guide really helped them to slow down, and to understand that there is a process to producing good writing. In the word document, you should be able to adjust the margins to fit this all on one page

When students work in a group, it can be difficult to determine if each member was working to their best potential. I created this quick rating scale for team members to give feedback on the participation of the members of their group. When a student rated another in the "not really" category, I did require them to comment. I got a lot of insight for reading these, and it helped to me create better groupings going forward.

This worksheet breaks down the 5 steps of the writing process to help students write a short fictional story. I found that having the writing process as a checklist seemed to help students organize the task, and kept them from rushing through (like they did the first time I tried to have them write a short story). This is definitely the product of trial and error! There are 2 choices for topics, but you can edit and use different topics. I used this with an advanced 2nd grade class, but felt

This assignment guides students through writing a Book Review. I used this after students read a book with their literature circle, but you can edit the first line to create a book review for anything, such as a summer reading or independent reading assignment. I listed 2 hours as the duration, but it may take longer depending on the grade level and experience with writing. Also, on my computer this comes up as 2 pages, but came up as 3 when I uploaded it. You should be able to adjust it bac

This assignment was given at the end of a unit about Survival. Partnerships read a novel, and worked together on this project. The Essential Questions can be modified to adapt to the current unit of study, and the project can also work if the whole class reads the same novel--they would just work in small groups to produce their script and video. Grading was done taking both the written script and the final product into consideration. Depending on class size, it's fun to show the videos in c