Vertical Writing Minutes September 30, 2013 The group met to discuss the following agenda items: A.

District Prompt (led by Sara Kelley)- Where are we? Who gave it? The high school/middle school teachers reported that they gave the school uniform prompt as discussed last spring. The rubric they used was the modified ACT rubric from the high school. Middle school reported that during a PLC meeting this fall they worked together to calibrate their scoring practices. From there they have identified pretest anchor papers. Discussion was had that post test might yield a different definition of an anchor paper that we would use moving forward. This is the first year using that prompt/rubric. Once we have a better measurement of what we expect an end of year 7th grade paper to look like (and so on), those will become our official anchor papers. All 4th grade teachers gave the narrative prompt as a pre-assessment test for MEAP. Other grade levels gave a prompt for their own baseline data or for their school improvement team. Elementary teams decided to discuss opinion prompts at their PLC meetings in October. It was also discussed that PLCs should discuss growth goals at their October meeting as well.

We reviewed the purpose of the K-12 Vertical Prompt For accountability, to demonstrate student growth, to show K-12 progressions against the Common Core and for PLC data What are our next steps? Goals for the district writing prompt based on this conversation-(see minutes from Oct 18th with Sarah and Gina) Establish prompt and protocol for opinion paper. Pilots will be done throughout the year to help develop a final product for the fall of 2014. Develop writing progressions bullet point list Collect anchor papers for what is expected by the end of each grade level B. Writing Across the Curriculum (led by Gina Watson)- -(see minutes from Oct 18th with Sarah and Gina) Reminder that the suggestion is that students should have 12 exposures to the 3 types of writing per year. All teachers are expected to complete their writing matrix. Many grade levels started last year and will be complete by the end of the 1st trimester. Results and discussion will be held at the May PLC meeting. How will we do this? A comments/description section was requested to be added to the document and perhaps list "type", "subject", "activity". Last year we filled in April -June, this year we will fill in Sept-Feb. Some grade levels plan to create a Google doc for team members to add to the document monthly. C. Curriculum Mapping- Did not get this far D. Linda Jordan- All members need to register online for these four sessions. Melissa sent the registration link to elementary members. E. Write-Steps Survey- Our eWriteSteps subscription has expired. Melissa sent an email to elementary teachers to see who is interested in a new subscription.