Writing

Poudre School District does not have a curriculum that it has adopted for writing.  Instead it has approved resources for teachers to use.  

At Rice, teachers have created a writing continuum using these resources for teachers to follow.  This ensures that students across the grades are receiving writing instruction that develop skills from one grade to the next without holes in a student’s knowledge.  It also develops a common language across the grade levels that help students quickly learn and understand terminology associated with writing.  

While teacher may supplement instruction using other resources, the two district approved resources Rice teachers use are Step Up to Writing and Empowering Writers.

Step Up to Writing was created by a Colorado educator, Maureen Auman.  Step Up to Writing is an ongoing process of frequent demonstrations, guided lessons and practice opportunities.  It breaks complex tasks into small, easy steps.  Students learn these steps individually and then practice putting them together.  Step Up to Writing is broken down into nine sections.

v      Writing to Improve Reading and Listening Comprehension

v     Vocabulary

v     Sentence Mastery

v     Accordion Essays and Reports

v     Story Writing

v     Personal Narratives

v     Speeches

v     Specific Writing Assignments (persuasive, compare and contrast, etc)

Empowering Writers: The Comprehensive Narrative Writing Guide was designed to introduce students to the elements and skills necessary for creating an entertaining narrative.  These skills including the following:

v     Recognizing and understanding genre (narrative vs. expository writing) and the characteristics of each genre.

v     How to craft entertaining story beginnings.

v     How to generate vivid, powerful elaborative detail.

v     How to create suspense.

v     How to write a fully elaborated main event.

v     How to create satisfying, extended story endings.