I want to defend and say we are not teaching to the test, meerly making them comfortable with formatting issues. For example, each prompt in the I-step, has three or four questions. So with prompt attack, we read the prompt together, find those three or four questions and put them into a graphic organizer. That way when they are ready to synthesize the essay from the graphic organizer, it is already in some sort of logical order.
The other point I wanted to add was that through this prompt, the students are still reading and writing. This is one genre of writing that they need to know. They are still going through the writing process, it is simply guided, they are answering the prompt. Really you can make whatever you are covering in class a specific writing prompt, so as this continues through the year, they are not just writing for istep, but they are writing on whatever is beig taught in class on any given week.
PJD