OER Writing One-Pager
OER Project’s World History courses are writing intensive. Students are asked to respond in writing to a variety of essay prompts, including those related to causation, historical comparison, and continuity and change over time (CCOT). History teachers aren’t necessarily trained as writing instructors, yet they must help students develop their writing skills, so we’ve created a series of activities that focus specifically on developing these core writing skills. Through these activities, students learn how to construct their own historical narratives in response to varied historical prompts.In the Writing Activity Progression, activities start with an introduction to the WH Writing Rubric, which is the same rubric by which students will be assessed throughout the course. Students learn about how to craft a thesis statement and maintain focus throughout an essay, how the use of evidence must be coupled with analysis, how to organize their arguments, and work on perfecting their essay-writing language and style. By the end of this progression, we ask students to do a deeper analysis of sample essays. They will shift from simply identifying elements such as the major claim and evidence, to making suggestions for improvement in the sample essays. World History Writing Practice Progression:Click here to find the writing activities in the course you teach.Informal Writing: In OER Project’s WH courses, students engage frequently in informal writing. The emphasis here is for students to get comfortable with writing as they think about concepts and what they’ve learned, rather than focus on formal writing techniques. While there are many options for informal writing throughout the course, we have built in structured opportunities in our Unit Notebooks and AP Themes Notebooks. In these activities, students visit and revisit the driving questions of each unit, which will help both you and your students assess how their thinking is progressing, where they’re gaining mastery, and where they might need additional instruction. Check out even more informal writing routines here. Formal Writing: In each unit, we offer formal writing activities, often in the form of document-based questions (DBQs). Students are asked to analyze and read documents related to the essay prompt.These activities are opportunities for students to show their understanding and growth in both content knowledge and historical thinking skills throughout the course of the school year. Note that while these are offered in every unit, they are optional—you should make the decision when and how often to incorporate them. Check out all the formal writing prompts in the WH courses here.Tips and Tricks from Teachers• Students will need scaffolds and supports to master formal writing skills.• Show students exemplary writing and ask them to critique it.• Give targeted and timely feedback.• If the rubric seems like a lot, try chunking it while building up to full evaluation.Learn more in theOER Project Writing Guide.WRITING OER Writing Rubric