What it is. The standard for an academic paper is written down, and it is the same for everyone.
Why our test works. Children experience marking as opinion, which makes it impossible to act on. A written, public list of expectations converts a grade into a diagnosis: not *this is weak* but *this fails expectation four*. Asking them to name the failing expectation themselves — before it is marked — is what turns the list from a rule sheet into a tool, and it is the habit that makes Grade 9 survivable.
Leans on. The editing checklist since Grade 3 worked this way.
Watch for. Never mark against an expectation not on the list. If one is missing, add it to the list before marking it, not after.
Read and use Basic Expectations of the Writing Assignments from Advanced Academic Writing, pp.3–3. The worked example is the one you build on the board: Teacher reads the key passage of Basic Expectations of the Writing Assignments aloud with The class reads Writing Book 8, p.50 — our own page, so a child who was absent can still get the lesson.
You open by saying where this sits — what it follows and what it is part of — in one sentence, and then you give them the reason it matters, in your own words, for about ten seconds. Before anything new, sixty seconds of retrieval on U6 set 1: ask, take the answers from boards rather than hands so you see all thirty, and do not re-teach — note who has lost it and carry on.
Then you do one yourself, building it on the board and leaving it up: Teacher reads the key passage of Basic Expectations of the Writing Assignments aloud with the book open and models the move it teaches on one sentence. The board copy is what they look back at when they stall, so it stays there for the whole lesson.
The We-do is the main whiteboard moment of the lesson — short answers, boards up on your signal, every child visible at once. Class applies the move from Basic Expectations of the Writing Assignments to two sentences together, checking against the book's own example. If the answer is a whole sentence rather than a word, take it on their notebooks instead, because a sentence written on a whiteboard is written once and destroyed.
They open Writing Book 8 to page 50 and read it with you. Stop at the worked example and let them look at it.
Exit directions in full, standing still, before anyone moves. Then they work alone: In your notebook: apply Basic Expectations of the Writing Assignments to three sentences of your own, double-spaced.
You close on the exit direction — Read out one sentence that uses Basic Expectations of the Writing Assignments. — taken from every child before anyone stands, and then the line you want them to still have tomorrow: These are the expectations. They are not negotiable and not secret.
Never mark against an expectation not on the list. If one is missing, add it to the list before marking it, not after.