California Writing Project Materials for K-12 Teachers
The following educational projects were developed for K-12 teachers by teacher consultants at the California Writing Project as part of the Council’s April 2005 California Stories Uncovered campaign. Now available for download, the projects offer students a powerful opportunity to read, write and publish about the following four provocative themes:
- Growing up and finding our identity in a changing California
- Understanding how our community, history and heritage have shaped who we are as Californians
- Grappling with the realities and challenges of life in California
- Dreaming of a better life in California, as newcomers or long-time residents
- span grades 2-12 and are designed for teachers of all students—elementary, middle, and high school, including English learners, struggling readers and writers, special education, and college-bound students
- give students real reasons, audiences, and purposes for their writing
- target the genres of standards-based writing that can communicate students’ California stories— reflective essays, narratives and vignettes, biographies and memoirs, oral history projects, problem-solution essays, multi-genre projects, and analytic essays
- provide students the opportunity to study how these genres function in and beyond school
- prepare your students for state and university assessments
- improve your students’ academic writing and critical reading
- identify connections to and make effective use of adopted texts
- include recommendations for supplemental texts, especially non-fiction, expository texts.
To obtain an overview of project materials, click here to download.
The following 10 project materials are available. Click on the title of the one you wish to download:
- Family and Community History Projects - Grades 2-5. Students explore their own lives and those of their families and communities.
- If You're Not From Gold Mountain - Grades 4-8. Students interview a California resident and write reflective essays about the impact of place in people's lives.
- Living in California: Examining languages Acquired and Languages Lost - Grades 4-6. English Learners. Students explore the meaning of the languages in their lives.
- Biographical Narrative Writing: A Springboard for the Oral History Project - Grades 4-12. Students research and write biographical narratives about significant people in their lives.
- Americanization and Success: Where Do You Stand? Writing a Controversial Issue Essay - Grades 7-12 intermediate, advanced and transitional English learners. Students explore, research and respond to the statement: The More Americanized you are, the more successful you'll be.
- Who and What Defines You? Making Choices in California - Grades 7-12. Students examine how living in California has shaped and defined them.
- Solving Problems to Make Our Dreams a Reality - Grades 7-12. Students explore problems in their schools and communities and use the essay form to propose solutions.
- Where Does My Family Fit in California?–Grades 9-12, advanced and transitional English learners. English learners use Francisco Jimenez' autobiography, "The Circuit," and other writings as a springboard for a UC Subject A-type essay on how their families fit in California.
- Uncovering Misperceptions Associated with Living in a Small Town - Grades 9-12. Students from a rural community write UC Subject A-type essays analyzing the myths and realities of small town life.
- Uncovering Misconceptions Associated with Living in an Urban Community - Grades 9-12. Students write essays analyzing the myths and realities of living in South Los Angeles.