MTSS for Writing Across Genres

DOWNLOAD: Personalized Growth Planning and Revision Strategies Toolkit

1. Sources of Data for Grouping Students

All ThinkCERCA lessons generate student data (automated scoring plus student writing), which can be layered with several other data sources:

Growth Focus on Writing Benchmarks – available in ThinkCERCA
SAT Quarterly Practice Assessments – available in ThinkCERCA
ACT Quarterly Practice Assessments – available in ThinkCERCA
NWEA MAP Data – available from your district or school (use the NWEA Alignment Tool to find matching lessons)
Reading Leveling Assessments and Additional Reading Practice Data – available in ThinkCERCA

Tip: Use these data sources together to build a "School Data Story" that tracks BES writing performance, growth trends, benchmark alignment, and instructional impact, each paired with a supporting data source and a concrete action step.

2. Teaching with a Growth Focus: Three Levels of Instruction

Whole Class Growth Focus — Class-Level Reteaching

Use Direct Instruction lessons to introduce or review a key concept for the entire class:

Choose the lowest area of performance at the whole-group level.
Review your curriculum to confirm the skill has already been taught.
Set aside dedicated whole-class time to teach or reteach that skill.
Build in additional practice and feedback opportunities in upcoming assignments.

Small Groups with a Growth Focus — Small-Group-Level Reteaching

Students work independently through Direct Instruction lessons so teachers can focus their time on high-need groups:

Group students by a shared growth opportunity to enable targeted instruction.
Make sure grouped time means more instructional support, not just more independent work — struggling students need more attention, not less.
Have students complete Direct Instruction lessons and comprehension checks independently, then join small-group tutorials built around authentic student work tied to that skill.
Let stronger students play to their strengths with independent enrichment — advancing into higher-level Direct Instruction and Skills lessons.

Personalized Growth Focus — 1:1 Conferences

Personalized feedback centers on the relationship between teacher and student:

Build the relationship first — students should know you care about them, not just about collecting their work. (See 1:1 Conferences resource.)
Set goals with the student, not for the student.
Focus on the learner's next best step, which may differ from the curriculum's next step. (See Goal Setting Resources.)
Emphasize what's working roughly twice as much as what isn't (a "2 hearts per opportunity for growth" ratio).
Celebrate success. (See Resources for Celebrating Success.)

3. Planning Tools

See How It Works: Short videos modeling literacy routines in action, including Integrating Tier 1 and Scaffolds, Student Voice and Choice, and Using Rotational Models.
Personalized Growth Planning Tools: Grade-specific planning tools (Grades 3–12) that use benchmark data to assign personalized learning paths, plus guidance on how to assign benchmarks.
Revision Strategy Toolkits: Grade-banded toolkits (3–5, 6–8, 9–12) for teaching students how to "level up" their revisions using benchmark data.
Normed Scored Samples: Professionally scored samples for calibration and modeling for students.

4. Accessing and Reading Reports

From the ThinkCERCA platform navigation (Classes, Library, Assessments, Reports, Help Center), open Reports to reach benchmark data, including unit-level resources like Teacher and Student Guides.

New Reports

Under the Reports dashboard, two growth-focused reports are available alongside standard performance and instructional reports:

Personalized Growth Plan by Student
Benchmark Data by Student (Downloadable)

Note: Reports take about 24 hours to update after any teacher or student response.

Personalized Growth Report

Shows, per student or class:

Current Writing Score
Current Multiple Choice Score
Current Growth Focus (e.g., "Evidence")
Average scores across rubric categories: Claim/Counterclaim, Evidence, Reasoning, Coherence, Audience Appeal
A Growth Focus Distribution chart showing what percentage of students share each growth focus area

Personalized Action Plan for Each Student

A table-based action plan that connects each student to:

Lesson grade level and benchmark administration period
Lesson name and current Growth Focus
A description of the student's specific Opportunity for Growth
A concrete, individualized Action Step for improvement
Current Writing and Multiple Choice scores

Student-Level Benchmark Data (Downloadable)

Downloadable performance and growth data covering graded benchmark writing, multiple-choice, and rubric-category scores, as well as BOY/MOY/EOY score comparisons. Reports can be filtered (by school year, class, benchmark enrollment, grade level, administration period, and scoring status) and downloaded in Excel, CSV, or PDF format.

5. Getting Started with CERCA Now

To start students on a path to growth, the CERCA Now unit sequence (available for Grades 6–12) introduces argumentative writing in six steps:

Introducing Argumentative Writing
Developing an Introduction and Claim
Supporting Your Argument
Strengthening Your Argument
Creating Coherence in Arguments
Appealing to Your Audience

6. Weekly and Daily Routine Samples

ThinkCERCA routines can be adapted to fit different block schedules. All samples combine an online platform component with an offline student guide component (e.g., Goal Setting, Cornell Notes, Think-Pair-Share, optional SEL pause-and-reflect, peer editing, and discussion routines).

Sample Week — Tier 1, 45-Minute Block (5 sessions)

Progression: Goal setting & direct instruction → close reading & vocabulary → shared reading & multiple choice → highlighting, annotating, and summarizing → planning, drafting, conferencing, skills lessons, and goal reflection.

Sample Week — Tier 1, 90-Minute Block (5 sessions)

Similar progression with expanded time for peer collaboration, additional reading practice, silent sustained reading, and dedicated catch-up/reading-skills-practice time.

Sample Two-Week, 20-Minute Block Routine

Week 1 (Sessions 1–5): Goal setting, direct instruction and comprehension check, vocabulary/foundational literacy, overview and connect, close reading.
Week 2 (Sessions 6–10): Multiple choice, highlighting/annotating/summarizing, planning and conferencing, drafting and conferencing, final drafting/editing with skills lessons, conferencing, and goal reflection.

7. Building Relationships Through 1:1 Conferencing

Sample conferencing questions to preview with students:

How are you? How is everything going? How are you feeling?
How are you doing on your goals for this cycle?
What were your glows this past two weeks (accomplishments, big or small)?
What were your grows, or areas with more work to do?
Did you hit any obstacles? Use the "5 Whys" technique (asking "Why?" five times) to find the root cause.
How does this cycle inform planning for the next one?
How are you feeling about your progress overall?
What additional help might you need from the adults in your life?

Two-Week Goal-Setting Cycle (SMART framework)

Goals are built around being Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Timely. Two annotated examples are included in the toolkit:

A writing-benchmark goal ("I want to improve two areas of writing benchmarks")
A reading-engagement goal ("I want to like reading more," with a target of 25 pages/week)

An editable blank template is provided for teachers/students to build their own goal, plus a matching reflection template to evaluate whether the goal was specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and timely — including a 1–10 self-rating of how well goal-setting worked as a strategy.

Celebrating Success

An end-of-cycle or end-of-year reflection prompt set, covering: proudest accomplishments, growth as a learner, best learning conditions, obstacles and effective strategies, and what adults should understand about the student as a person and learner.

8. Maximizing Learning Through Strategic Use of Time

Maximizing the Instructional Core means being intentional about what takes up instructional time ("putting the right things on our plates and taking off the rest"), organized around five core areas:

Speaking & Listening
Language & Vocabulary
Reading & Research
Writing
SEL / Executive Function

ThinkCERCA Across Contexts

ThinkCERCA is designed to work across:

Core subject areas: English, Social Studies, Science, Math
RTI/Intervention time (Tier 2) and Extended Learning (Tier 3)
AP/SAT/ACT/Regents prep and elective courses
Diverse learner settings and English Learner supports

The toolkit includes sample "path to 10 (or 20) Close Reading and Writing" (CRW) charts showing how ELA, Social Studies, Science, and Math contributions build toward a full-year literacy framework, from beginning-of-year (BOY) through middle-of-year (MOY) to end-of-year (EOY) benchmarks.

Integrated Writing: Two-Week Mini Units Across Content Areas

Recommended annual unit counts per subject:

ELA: 3–4 units annually
Science: 1–2 units annually
Social Studies: 1–2 units annually
Math: 1–2 units annually

Research finding: Students who complete 7–10 Close Reading and Writing units with teacher feedback achieve more than two years of reading growth in a year, and 20% growth in writing within 8 weeks.

Sample integration models include:

A cross-subject monthly/yearly routine alternating core units with Close Reading and Writing (CERCA Slides) units across ELA, Social Studies, and Science.
An ELA-only version of the same routine.
Tier 1 Supplemental Monthly Units: Alternating ThinkCERCA units with an external core curriculum across the year (e.g., Unit 1 external → Unit 2 ThinkCERCA → Unit 3 external).
Tier 1 Ongoing Daily Routine: Daily or twice-weekly blocks splitting time between core ELA instruction and ThinkCERCA (e.g., 45 min core / 45 min ThinkCERCA, or 60 min core / 30 min ThinkCERCA), including a version for 90-minute AP course blocks.

Implementation Considerations

ThinkCERCA can be implemented in any subject area.
Adding ThinkCERCA to daily routines is an effective way to front-load content knowledge, build skills, and provide additional practice.
Product components support both synchronous and asynchronous use, making them adaptable across grade levels.
W.I.N. (What I Need) time can provide focused, individualized support and help build the background knowledge and skills needed for Tier 1 instruction.

Quick Reference: Key Resources Mentioned

NWEA Alignment Tool (for matching NWEA MAP data to lessons)
1:1 Conferences resource
Goal Setting Resources
Resources for Celebrating Success
Personalized Growth Planning Tools (by grade, 3rd–12th)
Revision Strategy Toolkits (Grades 3–5, 6–8, 9–12)
CERCA Now unit sequence (Grades 6–12)
Reports: Personalized Growth Plan by Student; Benchmark Data by Student (Downloadable)