Writing for Assessment
A writing assessment gives you a short time to write in response to a prompt.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." —Albert Einstein
How can this quotation be true? As a child, you spent much time immersed in imagination, but now as a high school student, you've spent 13+ years pursuing knowledge. What's the relationship between imagination and knowledge? Write an essay that defines each term and tells how they relate. Explain Einstein's position but then state your own position, supporting it with logic and evidence.
To do so, you should use a shortened form of the writing process:
Prewriting (5 Minutes)
Answer the PAST questions.
Purpose? Define imagination and knowledge, tell how they relate, explain Einstein's position and state and support your own.
Audience? The reader of the test
Subject? Imagination and knowledge
Type? Position/argument essay
Write a focus statement.
Imagination and knowledge are like energy and matter: the knowledge is the solid stuff, and the imagination sets it into motion.
List supporting details.
—"Knowledge" relates to what is or was. "Imagination" relates to what would, could, should, may, might, must or will be.
—Knowledge is settled past, known through critical thinking, history, science, philosophy, and all areas of study about what we've done or learned.
—Imagination is about possibilities and the future, known through creative thinking, writing, engineering, and the arts.
—Einstein favored imagination to knowledge, but I think we need both, like matter (solid stuff) and energy (the power that puts solid stuff in motion).
Writing (Most Time)
Write a beginning that leads to the focus statement.
Albert Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important that knowledge." That statement may come as a shock to those of us who have just spent more than thirteen years cramming knowledge into our heads—and driving imagination out in the process. Is Einstein right? What are imagination and knowledge, anyway? I like to think that imagination and knowledge are like energy and matter: the knowledge is the solid stuff, and the imagination is the energy that sets it into motion.
Write a middle paragraph to develop each supporting point.
Knowledge, of course, refers to what we know, but how do we know things? We know through critical thinking, through written histories, through scientific experimentation, through logic, and a host of other focused studies. Interestingly, the only things we can truly know are in the present and the past. So knowledge deals with what is and what was. . . .
Write an ending paragraph to wrap up the essay.
Knowledge gives us solid grounding in the present and past, but imagination gives us power to shape the future. So we definitely need both. Einstein favored imagination, which should come as no surprise since his imagination led to a revolution in science. He was future-oriented. But for any of us afterward to understand Einstein's Theory of Relativity, we need knowledge. So I think they are equally important. . . .
Revising and Editing (5 Minutes)
Add, cut, rewrite, and rearrange to fix errors.
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Sentence Before Edits
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Punctuation and word choice are improved.
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Sentence After Edits
Respond to a writing prompt.
Read the writing prompt that follows and create an essay response.
Read the writing prompt.
"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves." —Abraham Lincoln
Do you agree with Lincoln's statement? Why or why not? Write an essay that examines what Lincoln meant and states your position about it. Argue for your position using logic and evidence from history and current events. Try to convince fellow citizens of your position.
Purpose?
Audience?
Subject?
Type?
Write a focus statement.
List supporting details.
Draft your essay.
Teaching Tip
This prompt asks students to activate prior knowledge to write an essay. Prompts in the unit "Practice Test for Reading and Writing" ask students to draw ideas and evidence from texts in a simulated research environment. Both types of prompts appear on high-stakes assessments.
Revise and edit your essay.
Read your essay and ask yourself the following questions. Correct any problems you find.
- Is my essay on target with the prompt and the PAST questions?
- Do I have a clear thesis statement and topic sentences?
- Do I support them clearly with a variety of details?
- Are my beginning, middle, and ending paragraphs effective?
- Have I checked my spelling?
- Are all of my sentences complete (no fragments or run-ons)?