Time Frame
1 class periods of 45 minutes each
Materials
Teacher Materials:
- Mirrors
- Chart paper
- Water-based markers
Student Materials:
- Writing paper
- Pencil
- Drawing paper
- Crayons
Instructional Procedures
Session 1
- Hold a mirror up to your face and describe yourself to the students. As you
describe yourself, draw a picture of what you see on a piece of chart paper.
- Distribute mirrors to students and have them look at themselves and
describe what they see.
- Have the students draw pictures of themselves, reminding them to include
the details they saw and described.
Session 2
- Review the previous session. Using the picture you drew of yourself, model how to
write a description of yourself (for example: "I have red hair. My eyes are
green. I have a nice smile").
- Read the prompt. Distribute the self-portraits and writing paper to the
students. Allow students sufficient time to complete the writing task.
Writing Prompt: Write to tell me what you look like.
EXEMPLARY
Exemplary Example (pdf)
IDEAS AND CONTENT:
- The writer attends to details such as, "Freckles are on my nose and cheeks."
- The writer notices little things that others might not notice: "I have a scar on
my nose."
- The writer includes seven physical features on his face.
ORGANIZATION:
- The paper shows excellent correlation between the text and student drawing.
VOICE:
- The student writes some unusual sentences: "I am an American." "I have a
scar on my nose."
WORD CHOICE:
- The writer "stretches" to use new and precise words: American, freckles,
scar, cheeks.
SENTENCE FLUENCY:
- The writer demonstrates the use of more complex sentences: A="I have brown
hair and I have freckles on my nose and cheeks."
- The student uses long and short sentences.
CONVENTIONS:
- All high frequency words are spelled correctly.
- Some words are spelled phonetically but are readable: Amaracn, checs,
frecls.
AVARAGE
Avarage Example (pdf)
IDEAS AND CONTENT:
- The writer pays attention to some details: "curly long hair"; eyelashes and
earrings in the student drawing.
- The writing includes two physical features from the picture of her face.
ORGANIZATION:
- The student text and picture match.
- There is balance on the page between the drawing and the writing.
VOICE:
- One unusual detail and bit of sparkle: "I have curly long hair."
- The drawing shows emotion and personality: curly hair, eyelashes, earring,
smile, nose, and there is a border around the drawing and text.
WORD CHOICE:
- The student "stretches" to use new/precise words, such as "curly long hair."
SENTENCE FLUENCY:
- Both sentences contain a subject and verb.
- One sentence is long, the other short.
CONVENTIONS:
- Some high frequency words are spelled correctly.
- The writer spaces between words.
- There is left-to-right orientation.
- The student writes on the lines.
- The student capitalizes "I."
- The spelling is readable.
WHAT TO DO NEXT WITH THIS CHILD:
- Provide the child with more lines for writing to encourage the child to extend
more.
- Through interactive writing, model more complex sentence structures.
- Encourage the use of resources such as the "word wall" and shared
readings.
Created: 08/12/2005
Updated: 02/05/2018
43825