Ready-to-Use Writing Proficiency Lessons & Activities: 8th Grade Level

by Carol H. Behrman

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780787965860
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	05/01/2003
Series:	J-B Ed: Test Prep , #66
Edition description:	1ST
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	8.52(w) x 11.10(h) x 1.08(d)
Age Range:	9 Years

About the Author

Carol H. Behrman taught writing to students in grades 5-8 for fifteen years. She has written twenty-four books— fiction and nonfiction— for children and young adults and has conducted numerous workshops on the writing process for students, teachers, and aspiring writers. Ms. Behrman has served as writer-in-residence at Chautauqua Institution and has been an adjunct lecturer at Seton Hall University and at New York University's Writing Center.

Table of Contents

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