Inquiry Two Part A

1. My target area is writing instruction. I will specifically be focusing on writing a persuasive letter, based on the writing unit for county.

2. There are approximately 60 minutes of time allowed for writing instruction per day.

3. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.4.1c Pose and respond to specific questions to clarify or follow up on information, and make comments that contribute to the discussion and link to the remarks of others.

  CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.1a Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are grouped to support the writer’s purpose.

There are many more that the unit says will be covered.

4. Writing a persuasive letter is a more formal type of persuasion that they use without knowing it. Students use persuasion to try and get things they want from their parents and teachers. Persuasion is an important skill to have in schooling and in the work force. Using evidence to support a statement is something that happens all the time both formally and informally.  The students will be learning how to write persuasive letters, which is an aspect of literacy. They will learn that they use this type of literacy when they try to convince someone that they deserve something but they will be doing it formally in this unit. They will be learning through literacy because we will be showing examples of persuasive letters to the students. They will have to pick out an audience, issue and evidence from the persuasive text. Once they learn more about persuasive texts they will be able to use to write in the future for a project and they will be able to evaluate a persuasive letter they might learn from.

5. The classroom talk that will take place in the classroom is teacher lead for 15% of the time on average, giving instruction. The students will have 20% of the time on average to share out ideas and the rest of the time the students will be working independently without discussion. In the beginning of the year the class set of rules for discussion. We have been following these rules all year and I will use these because they are what the students are used to and I like them as well.

6. I plan on creating authentic, meaningful writing tasks for real audiences. I want to practice thinking about how to find writing tasks for the students because I’ve read many text book passages and articles on how an authentic task will motivate students. I want to create enthusiasm in my students to work.

7. My teacher uses the writing and reading units created by the Oakland Schools for Oakland county schools, so she has given me that as a resource that I plan to use. The library at the school has texts available that I can use as well as a public library.

8. I need to obtain examples of persuasive texts for the students to read and analyze.

9. The students will be give an on the spot assessment. They will be asked to write a persuasive letter on a statement that I will create. 

10. I would like to know more about what the students struggle with in general, like punctuation and sentence structure so I can possibly fit in a tip/reminder of a general part of writing into each lesson.

11. I will need to learn about anything in the community or school that the students could write about. I need to find an interesting topic that would be authentic for the students.