Grade 5 Writing Common Assessment

 

Power Standard W-5.6

Question:  

Use the fact sheet and what you know to write a report comparing a one-room schoolhouse from the 1850s to your school today.

 

 

One-Room Schools in New England in the 1850s

A student wrote this fact sheet about one-room schoolhouses in the

1850s. Read the fact sheet and think about your own school. Then write a

response to the prompt that follows:

 

• teachers poorly trained

• school within walking distance for students

• one teacher taught students of many different ages and grade levels

• students’ grade level based on their reading ability

• most writing done on slates (little blackboards) with chalk

• quill pens and ink also used

• schoolhouses heated with wood

• used oil lamps for light

• no running water

• outhouses for bathrooms

• students had to buy their own books and provide their own materials

• much of school day spent memorizing lessons and then saying them out loud

• teachers very strict—even used physical punishment

• students had to be very respectful

• students often sat together on benches, boys on one side of the room

  and girls on the other, with younger children in front

• subjects included reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and history

 

 

 

Use the questions in the box below to organize your writing. You can answer the questions before you write to plan your response or after you write to check your response.

ID:213664 Comm Common

1.  What is the focus/controlling idea of your report?__________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

ID:21366

2.  What are the supporting details in your report?____________________________

_____________________________________________________________________

3.  What is the conclusion to your report?___________________________________

____________________________________________________________________