Analytical Writing Pre-Assessment Pack (4 Texts | Grades 8–10)

Kick off your writing unit with ready-to-use analytical paragraph pre-assessments! This pack includes four brief engaging texts and scaffolded assignments designed to help you quickly gauge your students’ skills in claims, evidence, reasoning, and analysis.

Each pre-assessment provides students with a short, high-interest text and a structured writing task that doubles as practice in close reading and analytical writing. With built-in prompts, requirements, and graphic organizers, you’ll save hours of prep while collecting authentic writing samples that reveal exactly what your students can do.

What’s Inside:

1. The Graveyard Book excerpt — characterization, tone, and textual evidence
2. The House on Mango Street vignette — symbolism, theme, and style analysis
3. The Catcher in the Rye (opening passage) — narrator’s personality, tone, voice
4. Just Lather, That’s All — characterization & suspense, with step-by-step organizer

Features:

• Explicit writing requirements (length, thesis, evidence use, conclusion)
• Prewriting/graphic organizers to support student thinking
• Flexible for grades 8–12 ELA (middle & high school)
• Works as a diagnostic tool or as a stand-alone writing practice pack
• Detailed rubric included to help students self-assess

Why Teachers Love It:

• ⏰ Saves time on planning & grading with structured tasks
• 🧘🏽‍♀️ Provides an instant “baseline” to guide instruction
• 💡 Engages students with accessible, meaningful texts

Length: 1–2 class periods per pre-assessment