My life is over run by writing exemplars. I'm dreaming about them, searching for them, analyzing them.
Yesterday was spent with Kindergarten and Grade One teachers looking at writing samples and collaboratively scoring. Grade One teachers used a common rubric to clarify criteria, where as Kindergarten teachers identified developmental stages of writing and collaboratively fit the writing samples into the stages. It was a good process and teachers brought lots of knowledge and experience to it.
Today Grade 6-9 teachers will attempt the same process. I am curious to see if their approach is different, or more difficult because of the higher levels of writing. As the writing becomes more complex, so does the analysis. We will also see how much the use (or non-use)of conventions acts as a barrier to looking at the other aspects of writing.
I'm anxious to hear the thoughts on writing in the middle years. Maybe as I come to understand exemplars and their use, I can stop my current exemplar obsession.
