HS ELA Guide

dogma, preaching, or editorializing.

Be personal: Make your essay about you; speak in the first person. Avoid speaking in the editorial,“we.” Tell a story from your own life; this is not an opinion piece about social ideals. Write in words and phrases that are comfortable for you to speak. We recommend you read your essay aloud to yourself several times, and each time edit it and simplify it until you find the words, tone, and story that truly echo your belief and the way you speak. ●​ Published This I Believe Essays ●​ Giving Voice to Students Through "This I Believe" Podcasts ●​ Cult of Pedagogy This I Believe Lesson Resources Sample Multi-Genre Prompt: Students read and analyze passages from an autobiography looking for specific examples of multigenre writing within the text. Students then choose to narrate a life event that has connections to or is informed by a larger event in their lives or in the world around them. They compose a multigenre paper that includes the autobiographical narrative essay as well as an informational nonfiction piece that provides context for and connections to the story from their life. ●​ Full Prompt and Unit Plan ●​ Rubric Scaffolding in Action Skill Building ●​ Prewriting Strategies (video) (slides) ●​ 5 Paragraph Outline ●​ MLA Format (Nearpod) ●​ Evaluate This I Believe Essays ●​ List of genres for Multigenre Projects ●​ Multigenre Mapper Tool ●​ Planning Sheet ●​ Context Planning Sheet ●​ Peer Review Guide Extension (Make it Real) ●​ Write the World (competitions and writing groups for teens) ●​ Submit to school’s newspaper or literary journal ●​ New York Times Student Review Contest

●​ Turn the narrative into a stop-motion animation, video, or song ●​ Have students create an art or media piece to accompany their narrative Multilingual learners will construct language arts narratives that ●​ Orient audience to context and one or multiple point(s) of view ○​ Title, heading, opening statements to capture reader’s interest (March. Two people, a man and a woman are walking along the corridor.) Multilingual learners will construct informational texts in language arts that ●​ Add precision, details, and clarity about complex attributes, qualities, characteristics, activities, and conceptual relationships through ○​ Technical word choices to define and classify entities (Jazz, characterized by polyrhythms and improvisations was …)

Language Expectations for Multilingual Learners

Source: WIDA English Language Development Standards Framework, 2020 Edition

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Last Updated

High School ELA, Page 108

Jun 4, 2026