Then and Now
HHSD Writing Committee
Last year the HHSD Writing Committee developed a plan to achieve greater articulation for writing across grade levels. Decisions and pilot efforts from that committee resulted in the adoption of specific practices for writing workshop at KVMS and instructional practices for “writing to learn” across the curriculum. Writing initiatives were shared with secondary ELA, Social Studies, Health and Physical Education, and Science teachers this September and will be supported all year. Instructional practices for writing have been drawn from the partnership with Penn Literacy Network and other research- based best practices. The HHSD Writing Committee met in October to monitor progress in implementing writing goals and plan follow-up initiatives.
Collins Type One and Type Two Writing
Recaps and Quick Tips
Tip!
My favorite follow-up to a Type One writing assignment is the below-the-line activity. In this activity, the students draw a line across the paper where the Type One writing has ended. They then partner up with another student and share each other’s writing, adding a specified number of additional written lines “below the line,” thus adding to their original list. I find that asking students to “add three additional lines of information or questions that you did not have on your original list” focuses the discussions and makes the students more accountable than just asking students to share (Collins, 5).
Type Two writing has a correct answer to a specific question or prompt. The audience is the teacher who is concerned about the quality of the content and should be able to skim the response for correctness easily. It’s helpful to have a number quantity as part of the question or prompt to aid in quick evaluation.
Tip!
Ask students to write down two questions that can be asked at the beginning of tomorrow’s class (Type One) and record any great questions in your plan book to create a quiz for tomorrow’s opener (Type Two). Keep your grading simplified by rotating which row of papers you collect and grade—keep it random! You can usually grade these quizzes while your next class is taking their quiz or checking homework. This technique of creating questions at the end of class and asking one at the beginning of the next encourages note taking, daily review of notes, ongoing formative assessment, and a check to see if the class was clear—a terrific payoff! (Collins, 12) 
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