Papers Devolved by Northside ISD Teachers

Grade 4
My mom always tells me how cold it is in Iowa, but she never mentions the
kind of cold that just about tears your skin. My family and I were at my
Grandmother’s house bundeling up to go sledding with our cousins. They
sure got the bundeling up part right. I had 3-4 layers of clothes on! Plus,
some big loose snowboots. I could not wait to go outside and cool off. Pretty
soon, we jumped into the van, and headed off with our cousins to the slopes.
<<more>>

Grade 7
Someone once told me a man without a family is like the earth with no sun. I
understood what this quote meant, but I never connected to it like I do now.
At this moment, I realize what a person feels when nobody is there to befriend
or encourage them in life. One person I knew who felt like that was my cousin,
Chris Jones. <<more>>

Grade 11
The loud sound of sirens emerged. The ambulance had to have been at
least one block away for the sirens got louder and louder. Staring at his
puddle of blood, he then wondered what he had done. He could no longer
handle the unbearable amount of pain he had inflicted upon himself. As he
was on the floor, he looked helplessly around the room, searching for just
one thing to make him happy. Without success, he sadly turned his head
back to look at his puddle. He then lifted his life-taking companion again ...
<<more>>

Grade 11
The expression on my face showed the shock of what I just heard. My sister
just told me she was a lesbian. Not knowing how to react to the news, I just
stood there, silent and shocked. Then I thought she must be joking. I had
seen her kiss boys before and I knew she had boyfriends. <<more>>  

Grade 11
“Fatso.”
“Four-eyes.”
“Metal mouth.”
“Giant.”
Over and over with an intense sound like thunder growing louder were the
voices of a class of third graders at recess chanting around me. The whistle
blew and recess had finally come to an end. I fell to my knees in tears while
the rest of the class lined up for class. <<more>>  


Grade 11
Mothers love their children, no matter their condition or situation, right? If you
love someone you should accept them the way they are.
I remember vividly waking up at 5 a.m. with a sharp pain in my lower
abdomen. “Maybe I just need to use the restroom,” I whispered to myself. At
the age of seventeen, I was used to waking up in the middle of the night to
use the restroom or conjure up a crazy snack with watermelons. At
seventeen, I was used to taking strolls down the street, coming home with
sore and swollen feet, getting backaches and getting funny, curious ...
<<more>>






Copyright 2005     
Q:  What is a devolved essay?

A:  We take a high-scoring piece of writing and strip it down into lower score
points.  That way, students can compare how one piece of writing would look
all up and down the rubric.  

Devolved essays reinforce this idea:
There are not kinds of kids.  There are kinds of papers.


For more information,
see chapter 4 of Reviving the Essay:  How to Teach Structure without Formula