These teachers receive an extra planning period, so that they can have time to work in small groups or individually with teachers in other content areas. They help prepare open-ended questions and develop rubrics to enhance writing across the curriculum. Each content area is required to submit two portfolio-ready pieces of writing per year. Building in-house capacity has benefited the faculty as well as the students. Tentative Indicators Reflecting Instructional Strategies Frequently observed Students write frequently in all subjects, and the writing is integrated into instruction.
Teachers spend substantial time on prewriting activities.
Teachers focus on developing writers rather than developing portfolios, so that when it is time to put a portfolio together, students have a number of pieces from which to choose, most of them written as a natural outcome of their studies. The school tradition at a western Kentucky elementary school is that fourth graders do projects that include a variety of writing that can be used in their portfolios. One project is a blood drive for the local health department. Students arrange a blood drive at the school. Organizing and carrying out the drive requires that students write plans and instructions.