Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

C

Cognitive-strategy sentence starters are tools to help students write by modeling what writers 

might say to themselves inside their heads when composing, what readers think when annotating 

texts they are reading, and how writers generate ideas for texts they are writing.

D

A discipline is an area of study or a subject, such as literature, math, science, or social studies.

E

Effective writing achieves the writer’s goals, is appropriate for the intended audience and context, 

presents ideas in a way that clearly communicate the writer’s intended meanings and content, and 

elicits the intended response from the reader. 

Error analysis involves looking for specific aspects of writing (e.g., a lack of transitions between 

paragraphs that lead the reader logically between ideas) and tracking which students have included 

those aspects in their writing.

Evidence-based practices, policies, or recommendations are those that are supported by studies that 

meet WWC design standards with or without reservations.

Exemplar texts are examples that clearly illustrate specific features of effective writing for students. 

Exit slips are individual assessments with a few multiple-choice or short response questions that are 

administered at the end of a period.