Ready-To-Use Writing Proficiency Lessons and Activities

An experienced teacher and author, Carol Behrman helps students develop the sound foundation they need to become proficient writers throughout their lives. Included are a variety of easy-to-use reproducible activity sheets to provide review and application of basic language skills as well as extensive practice in producing the types of writing called for in standardized tests. The steps of the writing process are emphasized throughout. Each set of activities is accompanied by detailed lesson plans and suggestions to the teacher for presenting and implementing the skills and concepts being addressed. Each section is followed by a practice test focusing on the concepts and skills covered in the section, plus answer keys and scoring guides with writing samples. These practical tests will help students prepare for the types of questions they will be asked on actual tests.

About This Writing TestPrep Teaching Resource iv

Section 1: Choosing the Right Word 1

Teacher Perparation and Lessons 1

Answer Key 4

Review Test: Choosing the Right Word 32

Section 2: Making Mechanics and Usage Work for You 35

Teacher Perparation and Lessons 35

Answer Key 39

Review Test: Mechanics and Usage 73

Section 3: Writing Sentences 77

Teacher Perparation and Lessons 77

Answer Key 81

Review Test: Writing Sentences 105

Section 4: Writing Paragraphs 109

Teacher Perparation and Lessons 109

Answer Key 113

Practice Test: Writing Paragraphs 145

Section 5: Essay-Writing Techniques 151

Standardized Testing Information 151

Teacher Preparation and Lessons 151

Practice Test: Essay-Writing Techniques 183

Section 6: Writing Informative/Expository Essays 189

Standardized Testing Information 189

Teacher Preparation and Lessons 190

Practice Test: Writing Informative Essays 213

Section 7: Writing Persuasive Essays 219

Standardized Testing Information 219

Teacher Preparation and Lessons 220

Practice Test: Writing Persuasive Essays 243

Section 9: Writing Letters 273

Standardized Testing Information 279

Teacher Preparation and Lessons 280

Sample Letter Forms 282

Practice Test: Writing Letters 301

Proofreading Symbols 307

Appendix: Preparing Your Students for Standardized Proficiency Tests 309

Carol H. Behrman taught writing to students in the Glen Ridge New Jersey school system for fifteen years. She has written thirty books—fiction and nonfiction—for children and young adults and conducts numerous writing process workshops for students, teachers, and aspiring writers. Ms Behrman has served as writer-in-residence at Chautauqua Institution and has been an adjunct lecturer at Seton Hall University and at New York University’s Writing Center. Writing Proficiency Lessons and Activities grades four and eight by Behrman are also available from Jossey-Bass. This volume of Ready-to-Use Writing Proficiency Lessons and Activities gives classroom teachers and language arts specialists a powerful and effective tool for addressing curriculum standards and competencies at the tenth-grade level and preparing their students for comprehensive assessment testing.

An experienced teacher and author, Carol Behrman helps students develop the sound foundation they need to become proficient writers throughout their lives. Included are a variety of easy-to-use reproducible activity sheets to provide review and application of basic language skills as well as extensive practice in producing the types of writing called for in standardized tests. The steps of the writing process are emphasized throughout. Each set of activities is accompanied by detailed lesson plans and suggestions to the teacher for presenting and implementing the skills and concepts being addressed. Each section is followed by a practice test focusing on the concepts and skills covered in the section, plus answer keys and scoring guides with writing samples. These practical tests will help students prepare for the types of questions they will be asked on actual tests.

Sections 1-5 offer review and practice in basic writing skills.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT WORD: Covers words often confused, prefixes, suffixes, synonyms, antonyms, and homonyms, similes and metaphors, sensory words, and more.

MAKING MECHANICS AND USAGE WORK FOR YOU: Reviews grammar and usage including punctuation marks, titles, misplaced modifiers, and prepositions.

WRITING SENTENCES: Includes lessons on subjects and predicates, subject/verb agreement, simple and compound sentences, complex sentences, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and sentence types.

WRITING PARAGRAPHS: Guides student writers through writing a topic sentence, writing a concluding sentence, developing a topic, using tense consistently, using transitional words, and staying on topic.

ESSAY-WRITING TECHNIQUES: Includes activities in brainstorming, clustering, outlining, developing the topic, avoiding irrelevant details, writing a concluding paragraph, revising, proofreading, and writing a five-paragraph essay.

The activities in Sections 6-9 take the students through the steps in the writing process to develop from six to eight writing samples on various age-appropriate topics in each of the following genres required on state tests:

WRITING INFORMATIVE ESSAYS

WRITING PERSUASIVE ESSAYS

WRITING NARRATIVE ESSAYS AND STORIES

WRITING LETTERS

"Gives English teachers and language arts specialists the tools they need to prepare their students for standardized writing tests. The author?s background as a professional writer as well as a writing teacher is apparent in her insight into the writing process and the steps students need to go through in order to develop into effective writers."
—Dr. David Maltman, Department of Education, Ramapo College of New Jersey

"A superior and inspiring resource for teaching writing. Provides a thorough step-by-step guide to the writing process and helps students develop the foundation they need to become proficient writers throughout their lives. Another creative, unique, and motivating book by author Carol Behrman. It covers the art as well as the craft and makes writing a satisfying adventure for students."
—Joan Hiatt Harlow, author, lecturer, and instructor for The Institute of Children?s Literature