GreatSchools staff have provided samples of fourth grade nonfiction writing samples that meet Common Core Standards. According to these standards, students should be learning to write in these three writing styles:
Informative/explanatory writing, which conveys information accurately with facts, details, and supportive information.
Narratives, which describe an experience in a personal voice.
Opinion pieces, which encourage readers to accept the writer’s beliefs or opinions.
Kudos to the writers of these samples and to their teachers! They help to make a point for argument on the academic turmoil wreaked by unprepared high school students attending high schools.
This sample does not address the question for teachers above the 4th grade, “So what do I do when students assigned to classes I teach do not perform at these levels? Why are they in my class? Must I remediate them instead of teaching to standards set for my classes?”
If nothing else, these samples provide an informal benchmark teachers in higher grades can use to design their lessons, say in high school environmental sciences.
Perhaps these and more samples of prerequisite skills should be distributed broadly to students and teachers in higher grades as an expectation of what students should do to get into a specific class?