Part A of the Alberta ELA 9 Achievement test is itself in 2 parts:
- Narrative/Essay
- Business Letter
Suggestions for Preparing to Write the Narrative/Essay:
Assessment of the Narrative / Essay Writing
Assignment on the achievement test will be in the context of Louise Rosenblatt’s suggestion that “the evaluation of the answers would be in terms of the amount of evidence that the youngster has actually read something and thought about it, not a question of whether, necessarily, he has thought about it the way an adult would, or given an adult’s ‘correct’ answer.”
Rosenblatt, Louise. “The Reader’s Contribution in the Literary Experience: Interview with Louise Rosenblatt.” By Lionel Wilson. English Quarterly 14, no. 1 (Spring, 1981): 3–12.
Consider also Grant P. Wiggins’ suggestion to assess students’ writing “with the tact of Socrates: tact to respect the student’s ideas enough to enter them fully—even more fully than the thinker sometimes—and thus the tact to accept apt but unanticipatable or unique responses.”
Wiggins, Grant. P. Assessing Student Performance:
Exploring the Purpose and Limits of Testing. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1993, p. 40.
Example Assignment for Writing a Narrative or Essay
Example Student Response for Writing a Narrative or Essay
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Suggestions for Preparing for Writing the Business Letter:
Wikipedia on business letter
Body
For block and modified block formats, single space and left justify each paragraph within the body of the letter. Leave a blank line between each paragraph. When writing a business letter, be careful to remember that conciseness is very important. In the first paragraph, consider a friendly opening and then a statement of the main point. The next paragraph should begin justifying the importance of the main point. In the next few paragraphs, continue justification with background information and supporting details. The closing paragraph should restate the purpose of the letter and, in some cases, request some type of action.
Your letters will be more successful if you focus on positive wording rather than negative, simply because most people respond more favorably to positive ideas than negative ones. Words that affect your reader positively are likely to produce the response you desire in letter-writing situations. A positive emphasis will persuade the reader and create goodwill. In contrast, negative words may generate resistance and other unfavorable reactions. You should therefore be careful to avoid words with negative connotations. These words either deny—for example, no, do not, refuse, and stop—or convey unhappy or unpleasant associations—for example, unfortunately, unable to, cannot, mistake, problem, error, damage, loss, and failure.
Sample business letters from OWL
Format of a Business Letter
Example Assignment of a Business Letter
Example Student Response to Business Letter Assignment
Alberta Education links to Samples of Student Writing
Example Business Letter Assignment: Green School
Example Business Letter Assignment: Healthy Food
Exemplars
Example Business Letter Assignment: Homework Policy
Exemplars
Example Business Letter Assignment: Animal Shelter
Exemplars
Example Business Letter Assignment: Student Rewards Program
Example Business Letter Assignment: Work Experience
Example Business Letter Assignment: Anti-Idling
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Rubrics
Business Letter Rubric: business_letter_rubric
Rubric