This Trick Will Change the Way You Teach Constructed Response

I find that modeling constructed responses really helps my students understand how to write these tricky answers. I noticed that Scope’s very thorough answer key includes many terrific models. So, I began to share the answers with my students and found that their writing improved immensely.

What you’ll need:

• any Scope writing prompt (included at the end of feature articles and stories), such as this one
• a Scope answer key (included with every issue of the magazine), such as this one
• a projector

Key skills:
writing a topic sentence, supporting a claim, text evidence, organization

Time:
30-40 minutes

Step 1

Students write an answer to a Scope writing prompt, such as this one from "The Choice"—the play from the April 2019 issue.

Step 2
Copy the answer from the answer key and project it for students to read.

Step 3
Have students compare the Scope response to their own.

Step 4
Analyze the Scope answer as a class. I have students analyze the topic sentence to see if it restates the prompt and/or can stand alone without the question and highlight text evidence in different colors depending on whether it’s a direct quote or a paraphrase.

Step 5
Ask students to write an exit ticket which states something they saw in the Scope example that they’d like to try to do in their next constructed response.