the continuum toward achievement of the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards to which
the CCSS correspond. They also prepare students for achievement of the Standards for Career Ready
Practice, presented in the Career Technical Education Model Curriculum (http://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/ct/
sf/documents/ctestdfrontpages.pdf, CDE 2013a). In terms of effective expression, Standard 2 of the
Standards for Career Ready Practice states that high school graduates communicate clearly, effectively,
and with reason. Specifically, the standard reads:
Career-ready individuals communicate thoughts, ideas, and action plans with clarity,
using written, verbal, electronic, and/or visual methods. They are skilled at interacting
with others: they are active listeners who speak clearly and with purpose, and they are
comfortable with terminology that is common to workplace environments. Career-ready
individuals consider the audience for their communication and prepare accordingly to
ensure the desired outcome.Effective expression in writing, discussing, and presenting, and the use of language conventions
are discussed in the subsections that follow. Additional guidance is offered in the grade level sections
of this chapter.
Writing
Significant time and attention are devoted to writing in the grade span. As noted in previous
chapters, a panel of experts on effective writing instruction recommends that one hour a day be
devoted to writing throughout the elementary school, beginning in grade one. About half of the time
should be devoted to instruction in the strategies, skills, and techniques of writing and the other
half should be devoted to writing in a variety of contexts, including during content-area instruction
(Graham, and others 2012). And because, as noted in Informing Writing: The Benefits of Formative
Assessment (http://carnegie.org/fileadmin/Media/Publications/InformingWriting.pdf), a Report from
the Carnegie Corporation of New York, “writing is not a generic skill but requires mastering the use of
writing for multiple purposes” (Graham, Harris, and Hebert 2011, 9), students are taught to write a
variety of text types, in every content area, for a variety of audiences, including audiences outside the
school context.
In transitional kindergarten through grade three,
children learned to write a variety of text types, including
opinion, informative/explanatory, and narrative texts
(W.K–3. Standards 1–3). With guidance and support from
adults, they produced writing in which the development
and organization were appropriate to the task and purpose
(W.2–3.4); engaged in planning, revising, and editing
(W.K–3.5); and used technology to produce and publish
writing (W.K–3.6). They conducted short research projects
that built knowledge about a topic (W.3.7), recalling
information from experiences and gathering information
from print and digital resources, taking brief notes, and
sorting evidence into provided categories (W.3.8). They
wrote routinely over extended time frames (time for
research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames
(a single sitting or a day or two) for a range of discipline-
specific tasks, purposes, and audiences (W.2–3.10).
Writing instruction in the fourth- and fifth-grade span builds on instruction in the prior years by
further developing previously learned skills and teaching new ones. Among the writing skills that are
new to the grade span are the following:... a panel of experts on effective
writing instruction recommends
that one hour a day be devoted
to writing throughout the
elementary school, beginning
in grade one. About half of
the time should be devoted to
instruction in the strategies, skills,
and techniques of writing and
the other half should be devoted
to writing in a variety of contexts,
including during content-area
instruction.
406 | Chapter 5 Grades 4 and 5