FAQ for POW (Paragraph of the Week)
What?
The Paragraph of the Week plays a vital role in building strong writing skills. This weekly homework assignment gives students frequent practice writing to a variety of prompts, using different genres, writing for many purposes, and writing to different audiences.
Tip: We'll send home a sign-and-return letter to introduce the program when we start it in late August or early September. There is also a brief explanation in your teacher's beginning of the year newsletter that was distributed at Open House. At any time, if you'd like to meet with your teacher to get the facts face to face, we'd love to discuss this program with you.
How?
A special Writing Folder is provided containing plenty of useful information about each step in the writing process, as well as specific traits that characterize a strong piece of writing. As POWs are first explored in the classroom, our students become comfortable with each step in the writing process. Next, students are taught how to use these folders as a "writer's toolkit" in class. Once we are confident that students have the preliminary skills down, they will bring home their Writing Folders to share with you. Parents play the role of "writing coach," and guide students through the process as needed, offering support with the process rather than the product. Later in the semester, we ask parents to withdraw support incrementally to allow our students to write independently and finally fly "solo!"
Tip: It's a good idea to have your child leave the folder in his/her backpack so the resources can be utilized both at school and at home.
When?
After that, POWs are assigned as weekly homework, generally two to three times a month. POWs are assigned on Fridays, and the brainstorming/prewriting step is typically done at school. The assignment is due the following Friday.
Many students have found the "20/20/20" process works well: 20 minutes on either Fri./Sat./Sun. for drafting (prewriting is generally finished at school), 20 minutes on either Mon./Tues. for revising, and 20 minutes on either Wed./Thurs. to write the final copy on the "fancy" paper provided. Consider setting a timer and sticking to a 20 minute-time limit for each phase of this. You might find that your child won't need all 20 minutes. If a child needs additional time, please remind him/her that our quarterly writing tests usually allow only 55 minutes. {{Also, we do NOT assign these "weekly," in spite of the title; generally students do a POW twice a month from September until April, and we only do one in December and May.}}
Tip: Check below for a link to "POW 101" for an introduction to the POW process.
And the Biggie: Why?
Communication is an integral part of life, and writing plays a vital role in communicating effectively with others. In the coming years student learning and mastery will be determined often using written assessments. As a result, student writing becomes increasingly important, and the POW program helps to build a strong foundation for our student writers, setting the stage for success.
Speaking of success, the results are quite impressive: our students’ writing scores are among the highest in the state of Indiana!! When our 3rd graders sit down to take the writing portion of the ILEARN test, they are comfortable writing to a prompt. Students from past years have commented, “That’s all this is?” “This is going to be EASY!” “I can do this!!” There is no better payoff than seeing students grow into confident writers!
Tip: When assessing weekly student writing on POW, your child's teacher is looking for improvement and growth on an individual basis over time, rather than expecting all students to perform at the same level. All of our hard work pays off when our students are confident writers with the stamina to see a prompt through all the stages of writing—making state testing much less stressful! And, ultimately the hard work pays off by empowering our students to communicate effectively in writing!
Parent feedback: {actual parents, not paid or compensated in any way, not actors :-) }
"My child came home after ILEARN and said it was no big deal—'It was just like a POW, Mom!' Everyone was relieved!"
"Our college freshman daughter called in tears when she got a poor grade on a writing assignment. She had to redo it for her professor and was a mess trying to figure out how to make it work. We put her on speakerphone and led her through the POW writing process. She used the steps her brother, our 3rd grader, uses, and rewrote her paper. The next week she called to say she got an A!"
"Our son just won an award with a cash prize of $100 for an essay he wrote. We used the same steps we used four years ago in 3rd grade when we did POWs. You told us it would "pay off" one day, and we just wanted to let you know—IT DID!!"
"Our older children never had the opportunity to learn writing steps like this—we sure wish they had! Our 3rd grader has developed the stamina to stick with it, and she revises all on her own now. POW has given her the tools to believe she CAN so she does."
"We knock most of this out over the weekend and finish up on Mondays or Tuesdays. Our child comes home on Friday and is excited to finish his draft–on a Friday night! The one time we waited until Thursday night, it was meltdown-mode for three hours. We'll NEVER make that mistake again. We'll take excited on a Friday night anytime!"
p.o.w._101_guidelines.pdf | |
File Size: | 43 kb |
File Type: |