Table Talk for Teachers
The Clock is Ticking: Preparing for Timed Essay - How to approach the new SAT essay.

Trudy Flesisher
The Lab School of Washington

Also available: Great workbooks and guidelines for meeting the new SAT essay requirement.

Preparing students with the skills to write a timed essay. This was tremendously useful. The authors actually task analyzed all the skills to write a 5 paragraph essay. They then developed worksheets and practice sheets to to help teach each skill necessary for the new SAT 5 paragraph essay requirement. They also have been in contact with the SAT board and have developed:

• different types of questions that will be asked
• essays with errors to be edited
• rubrics to check for the components.
  

Impact: This workshop information will be especially useful to all middle and high school teachers and parents of these students. The guides focus on what the college board is looking for and how to practice the skills necessary to produce a quality essay. I have never seen such a complete task analysis of the skills necessary for writing an essay.