High School Writing Paragraphs, Reports, and Essays Goals

For the informative writing goals– which are the best ones for working on paragraph structure and essay writing– there are several good standards to choose from. 

The overarching standard is:

• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2

Then there are sub-standards that you can use to focus on specific components of the essay or paragraph like:

• Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2.F
• Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2.B

We include options with all of these below.

• Least time for assessment (but an assessment): If you are just looking at how well a student can write a paragraph, you can give them a persuasive topic like whether schools should ban cell phones (this site has more ideas). Then use a rubric to evaluate how they did. 
• Slightly more assessment time: A stronger alignment to the goal would be to have the student write an informative text. If you are assessing the student on reading comprehension using an informative/non-fiction text, you can have them write a summary or a paragraph on a key concept from the passage (like the extinction of dinosaurs or fire safety).
• Skip the assessment: If you are thinking about this as a goal, it is probably because you saw an essay, summary, or paragraph that the student wrote in class and thought ouch. Ask the student to share their in class writing. The key is to get their independent writing– like what it looked like before the teacher edited it. You can flip back in version history on the student’s copy of the document or ask the teacher to share some of the student’s independent writing. Ask for their insights too– students are writing informative texts in English, social studies, and often science so there has to be at least one teacher who will chime in and give you good baseline material for the student.

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

Dion’s teachers report that he needs support in class on longer assignments, often turn in brief, loosely organized paragraphs with no conclusion when asked to write an essay. On assessments, he was able to read a text and turn that into notes on the text, but needed support to come up with introductory sentences and conclusions.

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

This standard is really long, which makes the goal rather intense. Here is a long version:

• Given a graphic organizer and notes on a research topic, Name will write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content, as demonstrated by writing at least two complete paragraphs on an assigned topic with a lead that introduces the topic, at least four pieces of evidence about the topic, and a conclusion that follows from the information presented on three of four opportunities as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2

If you are comfortable shortening the goal, here is what it would look like:

• Given a graphic organizer and notes on a research topic, Name will write informative/explanatory texts of at least two complete paragraphs on an assigned topic with a lead that introduces the topic, two or more pieces of evidence about the topic, and a conclusion that follows from the information presented on three of four opportunities as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2

• Focus on sub-standards 
  • Given a graphic organizer and notes on a research topic, Name will write informative/explanatory texts of at least two paragraphs where s/he introduces the topic and develops the topic with at least four well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic on three of four opportunities as measured by teacher records and observations. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2.B
  • Given a graphic organizer and notes on a research topic, Name will write informative/explanatory texts in which s/he provides a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented on three of four opportunities as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2.F
• Change the measurement
  • as measured by a passing score on a Common Core aligned writing rubric.
  • If you need good rubrics, this one is really good. This one is pretty good too! 
• Change the length
  • You can focus this on one paragraph, two paragraphs, a three paragraph essay or report, or a five paragraph essay or report. 
• Change the supports:
  • Given a brief, informative passage at her/his reading level; Given a pre-created research outline; Given a choice of topics; Given time to revise, a graph organizer, and a familiar topic

For the informative writing goals– which are the best ones for working on paragraph structure and essay writing– there are several good standards to choose from. 

The overarching standard is:

• Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2

Then there are sub-standards that you can use to focus on specific components of the essay or paragraph like:

• Provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2.F
• Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2.B

We include options with all of these below.

• Least time for assessment (but an assessment): If you are just looking at how well a student can write a paragraph, you can give them a persuasive topic like whether schools should ban cell phones (this site has more ideas). Then use a rubric to evaluate how they did. 
• Slightly more assessment time: A stronger alignment to the goal would be to have the student write an informative text. If you are assessing the student on reading comprehension using an informative/non-fiction text, you can have them write a summary or a paragraph on a key concept from the passage (like the extinction of dinosaurs or fire safety).
• Skip the assessment: If you are thinking about this as a goal, it is probably because you saw an essay, summary, or paragraph that the student wrote in class and thought ouch. Ask the student to share their in class writing. The key is to get their independent writing– like what it looked like before the teacher edited it. You can flip back in version history on the student’s copy of the document or ask the teacher to share some of the student’s independent writing. Ask for their insights too– students are writing informative texts in English, social studies, and often science so there has to be at least one teacher who will chime in and give you good baseline material for the student.

Looking for easy-to-use assessment resources or support with turning assessments into goals and present levels? Check out the IEP Success Kit in the store!

When asked to work on a longer writing piece like an essay in class, Chase needs support to break down the task and organize his thoughts. On his own, even if given prompts and a graphic organizer, he will often search for the prompt and copy/paste what he finds or use AI to generate the writing. With one on one support, he can create an organizer with a topic, key facts, and a conclusion.

For more baseline ideas, check out the IEP Success Kit!

• Given a graphic organizer and notes on a research topic, Name will write informative/explanatory texts of at least four paragraphs on an assigned topic with a lead that introduces the topic, two or more pieces of evidence about the topic per paragraph, and a conclusion that follows from the information presented on three of four opportunities as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2

• Focus on sub-standards 
  • Given a graphic organizer and notes on a research topic, Name will write informative/explanatory texts of at least three paragraphs where s/he introduces the topic and develops the topic with at least two well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic per paragraph on three of four opportunities as measured by teacher records and observations. CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2.B
  • Given a graphic organizer and notes on a research topic, Name will write informative/explanatory texts in which s/he provides a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the information or explanation presented on three of four opportunities as measured by teacher records and observations CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2.F
• Change the measurement
  • as measured by a passing score on a Common Core aligned writing rubric.
  • If you need good rubrics, this one is really good. This one is pretty good too! 
• Change the length
  • You can focus this on one paragraph, two paragraphs, a three paragraph essay or report, or a five paragraph essay or report. 
• Change the supports:
  • Given a brief, informative passage at her/his reading level; Given a pre-created research outline; Given a choice of topics; Given time to revise, a graph organizer, and a familiar topic