Composition 1

Bill Rudolph

AIW Pre-Task Reflection

1. Have you written & used this task before?

Yes, but not for a couple years.
b. Did you get the results you wanted?
No. The students offered only cursory answers to the
questions.
2. This task IS under development.
3. I would like to use this task again (and other tasks like it).
4. Yes, I am open to having the task critiqued.
5. Yes, I am interested in changing the task.
6. IA Core standards that are addressed include:
CORE READING STANDARD #3
Analyze a complex set of ideas or sequence of events and explain how specific individuals, ideas, or events interact
and develop over the course of the text. (RI.11-12.3.)
CORE WRITING STANDARD #1
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and
sufficient evidence.
a. Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s)
from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences claim(s),
counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
b. Develop claim(s) and counterclaims fairly and thoroughly, supplying the most relevant evidence for each
while pointing out the strengths and limitations of both in a manner that anticipates the audiences knowledge
level, concerns, values, and possible biases.
c. Use words, phrases, and clauses as well as varied syntax to link the major sections of the text, create
cohesion, and clarify the relationships between claim(s) and reasons, between reasons and evidence, and
between claim(s) and counterclaims.
d. Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the
discipline in which they are writing.
e. Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument
presented. (W.11-12.1.)

7. Engaging with and internalizing problem-solving elements that

argumentative/persuasive writers consider both during the prewriting
and during the composition process.
8. I am most interested in having this task succeed in meeting

AIW standards 1 & 2 at a high level.

(over)

Rudolph2

9. The task primarily focuses on construction of knowledge,

secondarily
on elaborated communication.
10.
I would like the whole task scored because it is somewhat
representative
of other pre-writing tasks I ask students to complete in
preparation
for attempting the particular essay form themselves.
11.
Prior to completing this task, students have studied several
of the concerns
of argumentative/persuasive essaysincluding bias, audience,
purpose, logical/emotional appeal, refutation, and rhetorical
strategy. The task asks students to apply these concerns to an
essay with which they are previously unfamiliarby proposing
strategies, modifications, and evaluations.
12.
I would like help in determining whether these sorts of
taskswhich ask
students to apply understandings prior to more independent,
higher stakes application of those understandings within their
original essaysare
an effective approach for solidifying the understandings
necessary
to succeed at those writing tasks.

Thanks for your thoughtful feedback!