Assessments That Inform and Shape Instruction within a Reading Workshop

This article examines the benefits of writing list articles with students. Within a unit of study approach to teaching this kind of writing, students naturally meet many of the writing Common Core State Standards. Drawing from the writing experiences of 260 7th-grade students, the authors highlight what students gain from their opportunities to write list articles. Key points from this article are: 1) Teachers should consider writing list articles with their students as it is a well-known type of writing in the real world and an experience that students enjoy; 2) Utilizing a unit of study approach to teaching writing can help teachers naturally meet many of the Common Core State Standards; 3) Specifically, writing list articles honors students' interests and choice of topic as students engage in a recursive writing process; and 4) Students must make many deliberate decisions when writing their list articles, and they must engage in short research projects to obtain necessary information for their articles.