Unique Benefits of
Turn and Go Writing
Step Guides
Step Guides are the cornerstone of the Turn and Go Writing program. The Constructed Response and Narrative Response Step Guides break the writing process into a series of concrete, incremental Steps and order them in a logical progression from kindergarten to 8th grade. This Step progression takes the guesswork out of writing instruction by eliminating any uncertainty about when to teach particular writing elements, how to prioritize writing skills, and what students have learned in prior grades.
Ease of Integration
As a structural writing program, Turn and Go Writing can be integrated into any existing writing curriculum. While the program provides mentor texts, prompts, and exemplars, ultimately, teachers can use any curriculum and any mentor text along with the Turn and Go Writing program. The program guides students on how to write and teachers on how to approach their writing instruction, but it does not dictate what students write about or what mentor texts teachers must use.
Common Vocabulary
Turn and Go Writing uses consistent content vocabulary to describe writing elements from Kindergarten through 8th grade. This creates instructional consistency and vertical alignment when discussing writing as a content area across an entire school or district. With common vocabulary in place, teachers don’t have to worry about whether their students’ prior teachers taught them to write “topic sentences” instead of “claims” or “hooks” instead of “openers”, and students can avoid the confusion of being taught different terms by different teachers to describe the same writing concept.
Clear Communication with Students, Parents, and Guardians
In addition to creating a common language to discuss content terms, the Turn and Go Writing program creates common terminology to discuss a student’s current writing ability. Instead of providing somewhat vague feedback to families, such as, “Your student got an 80% on their most recent essay. I’d like to see them working on writing clearer claims and using stronger evidence”, teachers can provide feedback with a concrete skill level (the student’s current Step), a single targeted skill the student is developing, and a point of reference for what Step students should be on given their grade level. For example, “Your student is currently writing at Step 11, which means they are working on adding reasoning to their body paragraphs. Normally we aim to have students writing at Step 10 at this point in the year, so your student is progressing ahead of schedule”. The program creates a clear roadmap for teachers, students, and parents/guardians to understand where a student currently stands and where they are going next.
Inherent Differentiation
While the Turn and Go Writing program offers suggested grade levels for each writing Step, students should progress through the Steps as they are ready. The Steps are laid out in an intentional, sequential order, and the program assumes that students will master each Step before moving to the next. This means that students will always be writing at a level that feels appropriate given their prior knowledge, regardless of their grade level. As long as teachers follow the program to fidelity and allow students to progress only as they master each Step, writing assignments will be inherently differentiated by student skill levels because each student will be writing at their appropriate Step. However, this does not require teachers to create different assignments for each student. Students can be given the same texts and prompts, with the differentiation occurring in their expected output. This inherent differentiation meets students where they are and is ideal for use in general education, special education, intervention, and small group settings.
Common Core Alignment
Both the narrative response Step progression and constructed response Step progression were carefully crafted with Common Core standards in mind. As each Step was created and the order of Steps was determined, Turn and Go Writing’s founders ensured that the recommended grade levels for each Step matched (or surpassed) the writing development pacing expected in the Common Core writing standards. Additionally, whereas use of the standards alone does not inform teachers of underdeveloped or unmastered standards from prior grades, the use of Turn and Go Writing’s Step progression ensures that standards and skills will not fall through the cracks for any student because students are expected to master one skill at a time and do not move on until that skill has been mastered.
Turn and Go Writing Narrative Writing Program
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Includes:
Narrative Response Step Guide
Narrative Response Helpful Details for Specific Steps
Narrative Response Structural Guide
Narrative Response Glossary of Terms
Narrative Response Step Checks -
Includes:
Step Checks for Steps 1-18
Extension Steps A-C, and Quality Checks 1-5
Narrative Response Exemplars for Steps 1-18
Color-coded Narrative Response Exemplars for Steps 1-18
Rubrics for Quality Checks 1-5
Turn and Go Writing Constructed Response Writing Program
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Includes:
Constructed Step Response Step Guide
Constructed Response Helpful Details for Specific Steps
Constructed Response Structural Guide
Constructed Response Glossary of Terms
Constructed Response Step Checks -
Includes:
Step Checks for Steps 1-18
Extension Steps A-B
Constructed Response Exemplars for Steps 1-18
Color-coded Constructed Response Exemplars for Steps 1-18
Constructed Response Checklist for Steps 1-18
Extension Steps A-B
Pricing is dependent on school/district size.
Download a sample of our
Constructed Response Step Guide
and a Step 9 Step Check,
Checklist, and Exemplar Response
Download a Sample
Download a sample of our
Narrative Response Step Guide
and a Step 13 Step Check,
Checklist, and Exemplar Response