In this article you will learn…

• It is critical that students have a clear roadmap for what they will be learning, how they will learn it, and how they will demonstrate their new learning. In an integrated literacy unit that roadmap is a standards-based writing prompt and scoring guide.
• Students will be more confident when they understand what they are expected to produce—the prompt—and what high quality looks like—the scoring guide.
• What makes an effective writing prompt, what makes an effective scoring guide, and the sequence of an integrated literacy unit.

In this article you will learn…

• That to be college and career ready, students need to be able to gather, comprehend, evaluate, synthesize, and report on information and ideas, to conduct original research in order to answer questions or solve problems, and to analyze and create a high volume and extensive range of print and nonprint texts in media forms old and new.
• It is incumbent on teachers to provide instruction that builds students’ receptive skills through reading and listening, their thinking skills through analyzing the information they are receiving, and their productive skills through writing and speaking about their thinking.
• The standards design supports teachers to integrate the standards into literacy units so students can:
  • Access information by reading and researching a variety of sources.
  • Analyze information by critiquing, clarifying, examining, and discussing it.
  • Apply their new learning by communicating it to others through written and spoken language.