Ready-to-Use Writing Proficiency Lessons & Activities

This volume of Ready-to-Use Writing Proficiency Lessons & Activities gives classroom teachers and language arts specialists a powerful and effective tool for addressing curriculum standards and competencies at the eighth-grade level and preparing their students for comprehensive assessment testing. Writing Proficiency Lessons & Activities books are also available from Jossey-Bass at the fourth-grade level and the tenth-grade level. Included are a variety of easy-to-use, reproducible activity sheets that provide application and review the basic language skills as well as extensive practice in producing the types of writing called for in standardized tests. For easy use, the 240-plus student activity sheets are printed in a big 8-1/2" x 11" format that lays flat for photocopying. The activities are organized into nine sections. Here is just a sample of the topics covered in Sections 1-5: CHOOSING THE RIGHT WORD: words often confused, prefixes, suffixes, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, adverbs vs. adjectives, sensory words, similes, metaphors, and double negatives MAKING MECHANICS AND USAGE WORK FOR YOU: apostrophes, hyphens, end marks, commas, semicolons, colons, quotation marks, titles, and misplaced modifiers. WRITING SENTENCES: subjects and predicates, subject-verb agreement, simple and compound sentences, complex sentences, sentence fragments, run-on sentences, and sentence types WRITING PARAGRAPHS: writing a topic sentence, writing a concluding sentence, developing the topic, using tense consistently, using transitional words, and staying on the topic ESSAY-WRITING TECHNIQUES: brainstorming, clustering, outlining, writing an introductory paragraph with a question or a surprising statement, developing the topic using examples, avoiding irrelevant details, writing a concluding paragraph, proofreading, and writing a five-paragraph essay.

About This Writing TestPrep Teaching Resource iv Section 1: Choosing the Right Word 1 Teacher Preparation and Lessons 1 Answer Key 6 Review Test: Choosing the Right Word 26 Section 2: Making Mechanics and Usage Work for You 61 Teacher Preparation and Lessons 61 Answer Key 65 Review Test: Mechanics and Usage 104 Section 3: Writing Sentences 109 Teacher Preparation and Lessons 109 Answer Key 113 Review Test: Writing Sentences 141 Section 4: Writing Paragraphs 147 Teacher Preparation and Lessons 147 Answer Key 152 Practice test: Writing Paragraphs 182 Section 5: Essay-Writing Techniques 189 Standardized Testing Information 189 Teacher Preparation and Lessons 190 Answer Key 195 Practice Test: Essay-Writing Techniques 225 Section 6: Writing Informative Essays 231 Standardized Testing Information 231 Teacher Preparation and Lessons 233 Practice Test: Writing Informative Essays 260 Section 7: Writing Persuasive Essays 265 Standardized Testing Information 265 Teacher Preparation and Lessons 267 Practice Test: Writing Persuasive Essays 293 Section 8: Narrative Writing 299 Standardized Testing Information 299 Teacher Preparation and Lessons 301 Practice Test: Narrative Writing 329 Section 9: Writing Letters 333 Standardized Testing Information 333 Teacher Preparation and Lessons 334 Practice Test: Writing Letters 355 Proofreading Symbols 360 Appendix: Preparing Your Students for Standardized Proficiency Tests 361