Johnson County Schools

The Johnson County School System is now hosting "Fall Academies 2007-08" for Teachers and Assistants. If you're interested in attending, you can find out more informatoin by clicking the link below!

JC Fall Academies

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Writing Benchmarks Initiative

Beginning with the 2001-2002 school year, Johnson County Schools will begin implementation of a writing benchmarks assessment program with the long-range goals of increasing students' writing proficiency and providing more and varied opportunities for students to write.

After an initial period of development and planning of scoring rubrics, teachers will begin assessing students in writing near the end of each nine-weeks term in grades K-8 and every 4.5 weeks in grades 9-12 (due to block scheduling). A planning committee of teachers from grades K-12 will guide the program's evolvement with the ultimate goal of preparing students for the state's writing assessment in grades 5, 8, and 11.

Other writing initiatives include a "writing across the curriculum" workshop for grades 7-12 and an increased emphasis on student writing system-wide.

NEW!

Link to Grade 5 Sample Prompts and Anchor Papers

Link to Grade 8 Sample Prompts and Anchor Papers

Link to Grade 11 Sample Prompts and Anchor Papers

Implementation for Writing Benchmarks

	Teachers are given copies of writing benchmarks. These benchmarks have been adopted from the Learning Focused program for grades K-6 and from Gateway/Writing assessment objectives for grades 7-12. (August 2001)
	Teacher committee comes together to discuss benchmarks and develop a standard rubric to be used for the 9-week assessments. (August 27, 3:30-5:30 @ JCHS-Room 121)
	Assessment One will be given at the end of the first nine weeks for grades K-8 and at the end of the first 4 ½ weeks for grades 9-12. Scores will be given to principals and forwarded to Central Office where a database will be created.
	Teacher writing committee will meet again on October 18 (3:30-5:30 to discuss progress and changes to be made) with a follow-up meeting in the spring.
	Year one will provide baseline data to compare to writing assessment scores and plan for improvement. Writing Committee Updates The K-12 writing committee met on Monday, August 27th. Changes to the writing benchmarks were made to reflect testing dates and sequencing in textbooks. The first benchmark assessment for grades K-12 in Johnson County will be Tuesday, October 16th. Prompts will be distributed that day and teachers will administer the prompts in a testing atmosphere. Holistic scores (determined by the state rubric) will be submitted to the principal one week later. No student names will be used in tabulation. An information session at each school site will take place before the end of September to answer any questions. The committee is excited about the possibilities these benchmarks present for improving student writing and increasing K-12 discussion about the writing process. Update to Writing Benchmarks September 2001 The writing committee met on Monday, September 24th, to discuss concerns from K-2 teachers and to further discuss the benchmarking process. The committee made changes to the placement of benchmarks for grades K-2 which are reflected on the Writing Benchmarks page. All other benchmarks remain the same. The group reiterated again that the purpose was to get more students writing earlier and more often. This process seems to be having that effect. December 2001 Two administrations of the writing benchmarks have occurred. Grades 1 and 2 were added with the December administration. Writing continues to be an area of emphasis in classrooms throughout Johnson County with the goals of increasing overall TCAP scores and helping students become more proficient writers. October 2002 After a very successful first year, the Writing Benchmarks committee has modified the benchmarks, aligning them more closely with our reading series. The first administration will occur on October 18. August 2004 Teachers have started implementation of the K-12 Writing Program from Great Source Learning. Students in Kindergarten are using "My Buddy Books" to begin practicing the early stages of the writing process. Students at the high school level are using the "Writer's Inc." books along with "Writing for College". All grade levels now benchmark every nine weeks while all students in grades 9-12 benchmark every 4 1/2 weeks as they are on a block schedule. December 2004 All writing benchmark prompts are accessible on the web using the link provided to teachers by principals before each writing assessment occurs. Click here to view the Writing Benchmarks for Johnson County Schools. Updated on September 19, 2005! Click here for a printable copy of the score reporting form. Click here to visit the Tennessee's Writing Assessment Website.