1. Session 5, Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide, Part 1
Section 3, Assessment 8 sessions
Session 5, Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide, Part 1
45 minutes
Considerations for This Session
Note: This session is intended only for teachers of grades 3–6.
This is the fifth session in the eight-part Section 3, “Assessment,” and the first of two sessions focusing on the Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide. Ideally, this session would be completed early in the school year to allow teachers time to plan for incorporating these units into their instruction. Then offer the second session after teachers have had the opportunity to teach at least one unit from the Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide. During this session, participants will understand the purpose of the Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide and will make determinations about when to teach the units within the instructional year.
Facilitator Materials
“Session 5, Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide, Part 1” slide presentation
Being a Writer classroom set for your reference (grade 3, 4, 5, or 6)
Participant Materials
Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide
Notebook or journal
Do Ahead
Download the “Session 5, Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide, Part 1” presentation from the CCC Learning Hub (ccclearninghub.org) and preview the content, including the commentary in the “Notes” field of each slide.
Set up the necessary equipment (computer/projector, screen, speakers, etc.).

2. Welcome to Session 5 Session 1, Whole-class Assessments
Session 5, Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide, Part 1
Session 2, Individual Writing Assessment, Part 1
Session 6, Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide, Part 2
Session 3, Individual Writing Assessment, Part 2
Session 7, Conferring
Welcome to Session 5
(1 minute)
Welcome the participants to this Being a Writer professional learning session.
Explain that Section 3, “Assessment,” has eight sessions. Read the slide aloud and indicate that this is Session 5 of the section.
If you are planning to facilitate multiple sessions on the same day, tell the participants that there will be a short break after each session.
Session 4, Grading Practices
Session 8, Skill Practice and Assessment

3. Learning Goals
Understand the purpose of the Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide units.
Make determinations about when to teach these units within the instructional year.
Learning Goals
(2–3 minutes)
Read the slide aloud.
Explain that during this session, participants will be working to understand the goals and purposes of the Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide units, and they will have discussions with their grade-level groups about when to teach them.

4. Consider This…
“If students are to make knowledge their own, they must struggle with the details, wrestle with the facts, and rework raw information and dimly understood concepts into language they can communicate to someone else. In short, if students are to learn, they must write.”
— Report of the National Commission on Writing (2006)
Consider This…
(2–3 minutes)
Have the participants read the quote and then discuss what it makes them consider and the implications for their work.

5. Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide
The Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide units are designed to support students in transferring their knowledge of various genres of writing to a performance task assessment.
Read the Introduction and “Teaching the Units” sections of the Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide.
Talk with a partner and discuss:
What have you learned about how to use this guide?
Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide
(15–20 minutes)
Read the first sentence aloud.
Ask participants to locate and read the sections indicated on the slide.
Say: Talk with a partner and discuss: What have you learned about how to use this guide?
Scan the room; when most partners have finished talking, signal for the group to come back together.
Have two or three volunteers share what they learned.

6. Plan Forward
With your grade-level group, consider and plan for the following:
How will we incorporate these units into our instruction?
Where in the year will we use them?
What other supports might we need to consider?
Plan Forward
(13–15 minutes)
Have the participants move so that they are sitting in grade-level groups. Give the participants time to discuss and plan, using the questions on the slide as a guide. If appropriate, have group members share their discussions.

7. Before Our Next Session…
Plan and teach one of the Writing Performance Task Preparation Guide units.
Save a few samples of student work from the task (handouts, planning sheets or notes, drafts, and final writing).
Before Our Next Session…
(1–2 minutes)
Read the slide aloud. Explain that in the next session, participants will spend time reviewing student work samples against the state writing rubrics.
Confirm that participants understand what to do before the next session. Encourage participants to save more than one student’s work from the task.

8. What are your questions? What are your next steps?
End of Session
(2–3 minutes)
Allow time for questions.
This is the end of Session 5. Allow the participants to take a short (5–7 minute) break before continuing to Session 6. If you are facilitating these sessions over multiple meetings, announce the date and time of the next scheduled session and let the participants know what they will need to bring with them to the next session.