The Writing Performance Task: The Informational Essay

Why is the Grand Canyon important? That will be the subject of your informational essay. 

Part Two of the Writing Performance Task: Overview  Today we continue our work on the District Writing Assessment, which comes in the form of a two-part Writing Performance Task. Our task today is to begin working on part two, which is a 3-5 paragraph informational essay about the Grand Canyon. First, let's review together the District provided directions for the assignment and explanation of the scoring categories below.

Planning Your Essay  Before you begin writing your essay, it's important to review the three source articles and your notes and begin planning. I would recommend rereading the articles with a set of fresh eyes, as your purpose now is to identify examples and details that help you demonstrate why the Grand Canyon is an important and special place. As you read, see if you can categorize the information and details into three "big ideas" about the Grand Canyon. This will help when its comes time to organize your essay. You will use the document Writing Performance Task: Part Two (The Informational Essay), which can be found in your Language Arts folders, to take notes, plan, and ultimately write your essay. Tomorrow we will begin work on writing of the introduction and body paragraph(s) of our informative essays. 

Homework  (1.) Read your A.R. book at home for at least 30 minutes and make a Digital Reading Log entry. (2.) Continue working on your 100 Word Challenge: Photograph (Week #14) story, which we will publish on Friday, December 5.