My first year as an 8th grade teacher, we split reading and
writing, and I was the writing teacher. The standards I was
responsible to teach included both writing and conventions.
Thus, you can do a variety of conventions mini-lessons and
assess students on those skills. In addition, grammar is
included within conventions, so there is also a plethora of
skills that need focus there as well.

I now teach the entire L.A. block (we're no longer split into
reading and writing), and rather than always require my
students to write essays, we may write parts of essays that
focus on differen things, and they can be assessed on
that 'part.' Some examples are writing leads as part of an
introduction, utilizing transitions, word choice, etc.
Anything that deals with the 6-traits is fair game for me!

On 10/08/09, Jonathan wrote:
> I am a new teacher, and I'm teaching a writing class for
> 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. I was just wondering what kind of
> graded assessments should I be giving, besides essays and
> etc? Our school requires at least one grade a week, so I was
> just wanting some feedback as to how many grades you give a
> week, and what types of assessments do you give?
>
> I'm really confused about this.

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