LEVEL Writing LOG Teacher’s Guide Topics 4–6 LEVEL Writing LOG Teacher’s Guide Topics 4–6 Heather Gaddis 58 St Aldates Oxford OX1 1ST United Kingdom First Edition: 2018 ISBN: 978-607-06-1519-1 Compass Writing Log Teacherʼs Guide Level Topics 4–6 © Richmond Publishing, S.A de C.V 2018 Av Río Mixcoac No 274, Col Acacias, Del Benito Juárez, C.P 03240, Ciudad de México Publisher: Justine Piekarowicz Project Manager: Amanda Guppy Editor: Kimberly MacCurdy Design: Orlando Llanas, Erika Martínez Layout: Claudia Rocha Cover Illustration: Fernando Rubio Monroy Illustrations: María Guadalupe Calvo Leyva pp T88-T91; María Lydia Lavezzi p x Images used under license from © Shutterstock.com All rights reserved No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written permission from the Publisher Richmond Publications may contain links to third party websites or apps We have no control over the content of these websites or apps, which may change frequently, and we are not responsible for the content or the way it may be used with our materials Teachers and students are advised to exercise discretion when accessing the links The Publisher has made every effort to trace the owner of copyright material; however, the Publisher will correct any involuntary omission at the earliest opportunity Printed in Mexico by Introduction iv Strategies vii Editing x Scope and Sequence xi Topic Walkthrough xii Teacher’s Guide for Writing Log xiv Teaching Notes Topic Why we dream? T55 Topic How we explain prehistoric times? T71 Topic What challenges humans face? T87 iii Introduction Compass is a six-level English program for bilingual primary schools The Compass program includes five interrelated modules for students Through its integrated English as a Foreign Language and English Language Arts programs, Compass offers a robust curriculum incorporating the rich authentic content and scaffolded learning outcomes available to English language learners in an immersive English-speaking environment Compass topics are developed from big questions—life’s essential questions—about students themselves, about society and humankind, and about the natural world In each log, learners examine the same big questions from different perspectives These questions arouse curiosity in the topics and encourage exploration, personalization, explanation and elaboration Compass English Language Arts Modules: Reading Log, Writing Log, Phonics and Spelling Log • All modules align to US Common Core Standards • Early literacy support with the Reading Log and Phonics and Spelling Log • Comprehensive reading strategy development in the Reading Log • A scaffolded writing program in the Writing Log Compass English as a Foreign Language Modules: Language Log, Vocabulary and Grammar Log • Focus on communication • Explicit vocabulary and grammar development • Development of all four skills (reading, listening, speaking, writing) • Grammar, skills and assessments aligned to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) iv The objective of writing instruction is to help learners become effective, thoughtful writers The Compass Writing Log gives students a practical, immediate application for the language they are learning It reinforces their knowledge of vocabulary and grammar and enhances skills development while fostering students’ creativity and self-expression The Compass Writing Log develops literacy skills through a hybrid approach that combines English Language Arts instruction with EFL support Students will acquire a sequential, scaffolded set of writing strategies based on the US Common Core Standards for Writing The Compass Writing Log combines these standards—geared toward native speakers of English—with extensive support in process writing for English language learners This hybrid approach enables students to develop key writing skills while learning to think critically, plan, write, edit and reflect on their writing Students are guided to understand and apply these writing strategies through dynamic, intuitive, age- and level-appropriate activities Compass Writing Log aligns to the Common Core Standards in the following way: Level Compass Grade Grade Grade Grade Grade Grade Grade Writing Log Each level of the Compass Writing Log is divided into nine topics The titles of the topics are in the form of Big Questions, which are shared across all components in the series Each topic contains eight lessons of class material that is based on six pages of content in the Student Book: Opener, Getting Started, Planning, Organizing, My First Draft, My Second Draft and My Story or Text pages Teacher’s Guide for Writing Log The Compass Writing Log Teacher’s Guide contains a variety of approaches and techniques to provide additional support for students’ writing skills development Process Writing In Compass Writing Log, students follow a modified six-stage process First, they analyze a model text Students then enter the planning stage, using the RAFT writing technique, along with brainstorming, concept mapping and, at times, researching in order to focus and inform their writing After planning and organizing, students commence the drafting/revising/editing stages Then, they present their final pieces of writing to their classmates This process instills a habit of planning, writing and revising, and ensures more thoughtful, organized work Model Texts Each topic of Compass Writing Log begins with a model text that helps English language learners identify and understand the featured genre, format and writing strategy while engaging them in the topic Model texts facilitate critical thinking and provide a useful reference for students during the writing process The model texts are located on either the Opener or the Getting Started page in a topic RAFT Writing Technique The RAFT writing technique helps students plan their writing The acronym RAFT stands for Role of the Writer, Audience, Format, Topic Role of the Writer has students consider who they are as a writer It encourages them to decide if they will write from their own perspective or from the perspective of another person, allowing them to adopt different personas and points of view Audience has students consider who their audience will be, which guides them to determine appropriate register, language and information Format refers to the text type; for example, blog, newspaper article or comic strip An awareness of the format helps students plan appropriate text features and consider appropriate language Topic refers to the subject, or main idea, of the text Planning the topic helps students maintain focus and direction in their texts v Students apply the RAFT writing technique twice in each set of lessons They analyze the model text with RAFT in Getting Started (Lesson 2) and plan their own writing with RAFT in Planning My Text (Lesson 3) Peer Review My First Draft and My Second Draft lessons include a peer review checklist The process of peer review supports collaboration and enhances student learning Students employ critical thinking skills to analyze and comment on their classmates’ drafts In turn, students expand this analysis to their own texts, which leads to more organized and accurate pieces of writing Illustrations The My Story or My Text pages in each topic includes a page for students to illustrate their work Illustrations foster visual literacy by helping students understand and make connections between language and images It can be rewarding for students to explore a variety of types of illustration, such as painting, collage, photos and icons Presenting In Lesson 8, My Presentation, students share their work with their classmates This has several important benefits First, knowing their classmates will read and comment on their writing motivates students and gives them a sense of audience This task also provides an opportunity for students to develop a broader range of writing strategies, such as note-taking, writing responses and writing introductions for their presentations Finally, students develop presentation skills and reading strategies, such as pacing, pausing, making eye-contact and reading from notes Rubrics The last page of each topic provides an optional rubric specific to the learning objectives of the topic Rubrics facilitate consistent, objective assessment and make the task of evaluating texts more structured for the teacher Compass Writing Log rubrics provide teachers with the option of formative or summative assessment by topic or by level Scores can be calculated by assigning two points for each performance indicator (PI) “above level,” one point for each of those “at level” and zero for each PI “below level.” Use of the rubrics is entirely at the teacher’s discretion vi Publishing and Digital Publishing As with presenting, publishing motivates students and gives them a sense of purpose for their writing, as well as a clear idea of audience There are different places in which students can publish their work They may be interested, for example, in creating books of their work or a class anthology of works on one topic Digital publishing makes content accessible via computer technology It also further motivates students and increases the audience for their work It gives them the opportunity to practice word processing and digital publishing, and to interact by commenting on each other’s work The Compass Digital Platform www.logcompass.com includes a user-friendly classroom blogging tool for digital publishing It allows students to publish their writing The teacher can check all content before it is published on the blog Students can then comment on the work, and the teacher can moderate the comments to ensure they are appropriate and constructive This gives students a full digital publishing experience Vocabulary Notebook Learning new words is a crucial part of language learning Reading, writing, researching and brainstorming are excellent ways for students to encounter and use new words in context Maintaining a vocabulary notebook helps students collect and organize new words so they may continue to expand their lexical range Consider discussing or demonstrating ways of recording vocabulary, such as alphabetically or thematically, with definitions, sample language and phrases, illustrations or translations Encourage students to regularly record new vocabulary and to refer back to their vocabulary notebooks when writing and editing their work Homework There are homework options in some of the lessons in Compass Writing Log Teacher’s Guide Levels to Homework is not mandatory in the Compass Writing Log; however, homework options are included for teachers who are expected or required to assign homework as a part of this course Where possible, homework options aim to help students explore writing and topics in interesting, practical and communicative ways Writing Strategies Creating a Brochure Creating a brochure requires writers to organize informative and persuasive content about a product or a service that readers will want to purchase Creating Topic Sentences Topic sentences present the topic and main idea of a paragraph They are an important signposting technique Developing this strategy helps students produce well-organized, coherent texts Citing Sources When quoting explicitly from a text, it is essential that writers reference and cite their sources Sources are often found in footnotes and the quotations have a superscripted number after them in the text Developing a Topic The ability to develop a topic in an opinion essay requires writers to introduce a topic, express an opinion about it and support their opinions with definitions and examples Developing a Narrative Features of a narrative include a setting, characters, a problem, events and a solution Learning to develop a narrative is fundamental to fiction writing Editing Editing is a critical thinking strategy that is essential to the draft-writing process When editing, students identify and correct capitalization and punctuation, spelling and content in their texts Elements in a Comic This strategy requires students to develop a coherent story that combines and balances the elements in a comic: illustrations, dialogue and narration Imagining Your Audience This strategy enables students to adopt the correct register and tone for their writing It also helps them in including the necessary background information and level of detail in their texts Planning Point of View The point of view is the perspective from which an author recounts a narrative or presents information In the first-person point of view, the author writes about a personal experience using pronouns such as I and we In the third-person point of view, a narrator recounts another person’s experience and uses pronouns such as he, she and they Writers often choose first-person point of view because it helps them convey emotions effectively It also generates more empathy from readers Planning the Purpose of a Text A text with an easily identifiable purpose indicates focus and organization Developing planning skills will lead to more coherent and cohesive texts Quoting Explicitly from a Text A quotation is a word, phrase, sentence or paragraph taken directly from a text A direct quotation from a credible source can support an explanation or summary of a text Writers use quotations to support their ideas Skimming and Taking Notes Skimming is the ability to quickly read a text for the main ideas It is also an essential step that precedes taking notes When doing research, students must be able to skim texts for the main ideas and to determine if the text is an appropriate source Once students have chosen suitable reference texts, they take notes Taking notes is the ability to concisely write the main ideas or most useful information that will help them write their own texts Using Commas Commas are important for making ideas clear and making texts more readable They can be used to combine ideas in compound sentences before the words and or but The use of commas can change the meaning of a sentence, so correct usage is an essential writing skill vii Using End Punctuation End punctuation, such as periods, is essential to writing A text must have end punctuation so readers know when one idea ends and another begins An exclamation point at the end of a sentence indicates strong feelings, and multiple exclamation points or question marks indicate even stronger feelings They can be used to evoke the same feelings in readers Using Headings Brochures have information organized into sections Each section has a title called a heading Writers use headings in brochures to interest and engage readers and to indicate the main idea of the section Using headings helps students write well-organized texts, and it helps readers scan for information quickly Using Persuasive Language Writers use persuasive language to evoke an emotional response in readers The ability to select and use specific language that corresponds to their intended message is essential to effective, purpose-driven communication Using Quotation Marks When quoting explicitly from a text, it is essential to have quotation marks before and after the quotes They signal to readers that someone said those exact words Writing a Conclusion A conclusion is the last paragraph in a text It brings the reader’s attention back to the topic of the text and leaves the reader with a sense of closure Writing an Introduction A well-written introduction presents the main idea of a text and interests the reader It is a basic writing strategy that students must develop Reading Strategies Five-Finger Retell Five-finger retell is a memory aid to help students organize and retell key information in a text Each finger represents a question: Who are the characters? What is the setting? What is the problem? What are the events? and What is the solution? Fluency: Expression One aspect of fluency is expression—the appropriate use of phrasing and intonation in reading Effective storytellers and presenters are able to raise or lower their voice intonation to match the meaning of the story or text Using expression when reading makes the text more engaging for the audience It also enables the audience to better understand and relate to it Identifying the Elements in a Comic A comic is composed of four elements: captions (narration), illustrations, speech balloons and thought bubbles Readers must be able to identify the text format of a comic and understand how the elements or features support or enhance the story Identifying the Author’s Purpose An author writes for different purposes: to persuade, to inform or to entertain Effective readers are able to identify an author’s purpose by analyzing the text and its features such as word choice and text content This skill gives readers an added layer of understanding Identifying Opinions Writers often use phrases, such as I like or I think, to express opinions The ability to identify phrases that express opinions is a critical thinking skill and a feature of text analysis Identifying Persuasive Language The ability to identify persuasive words and phrases is an important feature of determining an author’s purpose It is a critical thinking skill that effective readers use to distinguish fact from opinion and allow for deeper understanding not only of text content but also of author bias viii Identifying the Purpose of the Narrator The narrator (found in captions) in a comic can support the story line in a number of ways The narrator may set the scene, describe illustrations or provide time cue words that connect one event and frame to another Identifying the Topic The topic is the most important idea of a text It is usually in the first paragraph Making Eye Contact Making eye contact while giving a presentation is one of the most critical presentation skills students must develop It signals self-confidence and credibility When presenters make eye contact, the audience is also more likely to pay attention and connect with the presenters Pausing for Meaning Proficient readers pause while reading a text to enhance comprehension This strategy also applies to reading aloud However, in this context, the reader pauses to improve the listeners’ understanding of a text or to maintain their interest Scanning Scanning is the ability to quickly look for and find specific information in a text Effective readers can scan a text for specific information or text features that help them accomplish a task Summarizing The strategy of summarizing enables students to identify the topic and the most important ideas in a text Before, during and after reading, effective readers ask themselves questions such as What’s the topic? What are the main ideas? Are they relevant to the author’s position or topic? ix