WRITING-ENHANCEMENT TUTORIAL PROGRAM

Giles County Public Schools, through their Student Achievement Committee activities, are striving to improve awareness of and performance on state-mandated achievement tests. The writing component of the Virginia Literacy Passport Test (LPT) has been identified as an area of need. In this multi-grade, multi-disciplinary project, seventh-grade students who have passed the LPT writing component will serve as tutors to help third-grade students to begin preparing for the LPT. During the project, seventh-grade students will use computers to enhance their word-processing skills. They will also enhance their writing skills and serve as positive role models for younger students.

B. Courses and Units:

Language	mechanics, creative writing, public speaking
Computer Science	basic computer operations, word processing
Art	illustrating

C. Goals, behaviors, and assessment

Goals (know, understand)	Behaviors (action verb list)	Assessment Instruments
LANGUAGE: know how to teach the creative writing processes needed to be successful on the Virginia LPT understand the development of language mechanics know how to incorporate language mechanics in creative writing know elements of oral presentations	LANGUAGE: identify and present the five domains of writing for the LPT to third graders list the rules of language mechanics write a creative story using language mechanics present story to other classmates	LANGUAGE: peer review of oral presentations of writing (using rubric) traditional testing rubric for incorporating language mechanics in creative writing presentation contest
COMPUTER SCIENCE: understand the skills needed for basic computer operation and for word processing	COMPUTER SCIENCE: create story book with word processor	COMPUTER SCIENCE: final product graded for spelling and appearance
ART: know how to illustrate creative writing	ART: enhance writing by creating accompanying illustrations	ART: rubric for illustration

D. Activities

List student activities step-by-step in chronological order.

Classroom Activities (including reflection activities)	Out-of-classroom Activities (including surveys, requests for resources, etc.)
prepare students to interact with third graders: list expectations for behavior, end product, etc. review language mechanics needed for the LPT use word-processing software to produce a typed hard copy of a creative story illustrate creative stories present stories for classmates peer critique of the stories reflect on the value of the activity	(to be done following step 6 in left column) teach 3rd graders language mechanics needed for LPT (to be done following above step) help third-graders write, re-write, and illustrate creative stories

E. Project Extension

Selected Objective(s):

• develop mentoring/tutoring program in school

Related Community Problem(s):

• relationships between different age groups ("older" and "younger" students)

Additional Project Idea(s):

• create similar projects for reading and math components of the LPT