 WRITING
101 (cont...) (BACK
TO NEWSLETTER) “Doing grammar gives the students an opportunity
to really become engrossed in the mechanics
of the language,” said Mr. Stevens, “And
here’s
a little secret about grammar – a lot
of kids love it.”
Because students
enter Rambam from over a dozen elementary
school,
they arrive with varying levels of grammar
and writing skills. The goal
in freshman English is to quickly assess the
students' capabilities and take each student
to a higher
level.
The
students in ninth grade are responsible for writing
three major essays on literature each
semester. The format of these essays is clear
and well-structured.
The students submit these essays in digital
form and the comments they receive on their work
are also in digital form, so that they can be read
easily.
“The other advantage of having the essays
submitted in digital form is that I can keep a
copy of
each written work for reference over the course of the
year,” said Mr. Stevens.“Now,
I can do an actual comparison with past work
and make an assessment based on that comparison. I
can keep an accurate record of their progress
as writers.”
In addition to the digital comments, students
receive a grading rubric which assesses the
essay on 20
different criteria which includes the quality
of the thesis statement and how well the
thesis is
supported by citations from the text. “I watched an interview on CSPAN with Supreme Court
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg at Georgetown
University,” said
Mr. Stevens, “Her office is besieged
by applicants from the best law students
in the country who want
to be law clerks in her office.
“The CSPAN
interviewer asked Justice Ginsberg what criteria
she uses when
reading through a
candidate’s
application. To come right out of law school
and be a law clerk with a Supreme Court Justice
is
very good place to start your law career.
So, as you can imagine, she has no shortage
of qualified
applicants for the position.
“Justice Ginsberg
told the interviewer that she looks first at the
writing sample of an applicant.
If the writing sample is excellent, she keeps
reading the application.
“I shared
this story with my students and the room could
have been lit by all the light bulbs going
on in their heads.”
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