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This section is devoted to writing tasks on the NJ ASK (for grades 3-8): explanatory/expository, speculative, open-ended response, and persuasive.  For reading strategies, see READING.

For a detailed explanation of how to approach this task, go to the Download Zone. 

IN THE DOWNLOAD ZONE for NJ ASK Explanatory Writing:

• How to Approach NJ ASK Explanatory Writing
• NJDOE LAL Grade 8 Explanatory Writing Exemplars
• NJ ASK Explanatory Task Pre-Writing Organizer (NEW!)
• NJ ASK Explanatory Task Grade 4 Exemplar (4 pages)
• NJ ASK Explanatory Task Grade 8 Exemplar (2 pages)
  
• NJ ASK Explanatory Task Pre-Writing Practice (NEW!)

SPECULATIVE WRITING: 

For a detailed explanation of how to approach this task, go to the Download Zone. For EXTRA PRACTICE speculative writing task prompts, click HERE.  Many thanks to Dody Barbalaco at Robert Treat Academy for sharing this lead!

IN THE DOWNLOAD ZONE for NJ ASK Speculative Writing:

• How to Approach NJ ASK Speculative Writing
• Criterion-Based Holistic Scoring - A Writing Handbook Grade 5
  
• Criterion-Based Holistic Scoring - A Writing Handbook Grade 6
• NJ ASK Speculative Task Pre-Writing Organizer (NEW!)
• NJ ASK Speculative Task Pre-Writing Practice (NEW!)

ALSO, check out these links:

• Criterion-Based Holistic Scoring - A Writing Handbook Grades 7 & 8
• NJ ASK Speculative Writing Prompts for Grades 5-8

 
OPEN-ENDED RESPONSE WRITING: 

Here are some strategies for success on open-ended responses:

1. Restate the question in your response.
2. Answer ALL PARTS of the question, writing 4-6 sentences per question.
3. Provide EVIDENCE from the text.  EXPLAIN the evidence.
4. End with a PUNCHY, INSIGHTFUL STATEMENT.  See Punchy Insights Poster below.

I also created a 4-point rubric for the open-ended responses that is more detailed than the NJDOE’s original rubric.  See below. 

IN THE DOWNLOAD ZONE for NJ ASK Open-ended Responses:

• Open-ended Response Writing Rubric
• Punchy Insights Poster
• Open-ended Response Question for Grade 3 OPEN COURT "Cloak for a Dreamer"
• Open-ended Response Question for Grade 3 OPEN COURT "Through Grandpa's Eyes"
• Open-ended Response Question for Grade 4 OPEN COURT "The New Doctor"
• Open-ended Response Question for Grade 4 OPEN COURT "Susan La Flesche Picotte"
• Open-ended Response Question for Grade 3 OPEN COURT "Picasso"
• Open-ended Response Question for Grade 4 OPEN COURT "Shadow of a Bull"

***Sometimes students struggle to see the differences among the different types of writing.  For assistance with how to explain this, check out Comparing Types of NJ ASK Writing for Grades 3-5 in the Download Zone (NEW!). 

PERSUASIVE WRITING: 

You will want to tackle the Persuasive Writing Task from several different angles. 

1. Make sure students understand the concept of “persuasion” and how it is not simply making a list of reasons why you’re right but also explaining why the other side is not.  Lawyers and debaters have to understand both sides of an argument in order to win.
2. Give students examples of effective persuasive writing to read, analyze, and discuss.  They can practice their oral argument skills in Socratic Seminars (described below).
3. As with every writing task, give students models to critique.  The NJDOE provides scored exemplars of the NJ ASK Persuasive Writing Task for grades 5, 7, and 8 (see “In the Download Zone” below).
4. Point out “compositional risks,” and keep a running list on a poster as the class encounters them.  For more information, see Persuasive Writing Techniques below (from p. 202, Writing to Persuade by Karen Caine (Heineman: Portsmouth, NH, 2008).
5. Last, but definitely not least, require students to PRACTICE PRE-WRITING many times.  Pre-writing should include three steps: 1) Annotate the task to clarify what you need to know and do: think "PAT" (Policy/Problem, Audience, Task); 2) Create a T chart of arguments for both sides and then pick one, and pick one argument from the opposite side, a straw man to knock down; and 3) Use the NJ ASK Persuasive Writing Task Organizer (see below) to outline your letter/essay.  Students should spend 8-10 minutes on pre-writing for a 45-minute essay.

 
Socratic Seminars train students in how to conduct intelligent conversations—how to use effective habits of discussion and how to explain their ideas, supporting them with evidence.  Different educators have different ways of conducting Socratic Seminars.  In this approach, four students sit in the middle of the room, circled by the rest of the class.  Everyone in the class has read the same text or undergone the same experience (e.g., field trip or science lab); these four are responsible for discussing a given set of questions about it.  At the same time, four others in the outside circle are selected to observe the discussants and give feedback on their performance.  Everyone else in the class takes guided notes on the discussion. The teacher uses a detailed rubric to score each of the discussants.  All of the needed materials (except, of course, for the texts of your choosing) are provided in the Download Zone. 

IN THE DOWNLOAD ZONE for NJ ASK Persuasive Writing:

• Criterion-Based Holistic Scoring - A Writing Handbook Grade 5
• Criterion-Based Holistic Scoring - A Writing Handbook Grades 7 & 8
• NJ ASK Persuasive Writing Task Organizer
• Persuasive Writing Techniques
• Socratic Seminar Observation Checklist
• Socratic Seminar Questions on Persuasive Texts
  
• Socratic Seminar Rubric
  
  

SUMMARY OF DOCUMENTS IN THE DOWNLOAD ZONE for NJ ASK Prep:

• How to Approach NJ ASK Explanatory Writing
• NJDOE LAL Grade 8 Explanatory Writing Exemplars
• How to Approach NJ ASK Speculative Writing 
• Criterion-Based Holistic Scoring - A Writing Handbook Grade 5
• Criterion-Based Holistic Scoring - A Writing Handbook Grade 6
• Criterion-Based Holistic Scoring - A Writing Handbook Grade 5
• Criterion-Based Holistic Scoring - A Writing Handbook Grades 7 & 8
• NJ ASK Persuasive Writing Task Organizer
• Persuasive Writing Techniques
• Socratic Seminar Observation Checklist
• Socratic Seminar Questions on Persuasive Texts
• Socratic Seminar Rubric
• Open-ended Response Writing Rubric
• Punchy Insights Poster
• Open-ended Response Question for Grade 3 OPEN COURT "Cloak for a Dreamer"
• Open-ended Response Question for Grade 3 OPEN COURT "Through Grandpa's Eyes"
• Open-ended Response Question for Grade 4 OPEN COURT "The New Doctor"
• Open-ended Response Question for Grade 4 OPEN COURT "Susan La Flesche Picotte"
• NJ ASK Speculative Task Pre-Writing Organizer (NEW!)
• NJ ASK Speculative Task Pre-Writing Practice (NEW!)
• Open-ended Response Question for Grade 3 OPEN COURT "Picasso"
• Open-ended Response Question for Grade 4 OPEN COURT "Shadow of a Bull"
• NJ ASK Explanatory Task Pre-Writing Organizer (NEW!)
• NJ ASK Explanatory Task Grade 4 Exemplar (4 pages)
• NJ ASK Explanatory Task Grade 8 Exemplar (2 pages)
• NJ ASK Explanatory Task Pre-Writing Practice (NEW!)
• Comparing Types of NJ ASK Writing for Grades 3-5 (NEW!)