Assessing students' writing

Simple ways to assess students' writing

An effective writing process should lead to a successful product. A writing product fulfills its communicative intent if it is of appropriate length, is logical and coherent, and has a readable format. It is a pleasure to read if it is composed of well-constructed sentences and a rich variety of words that clearly convey the author's meaning. When various conceptual models of writing are compared side by side (Isaacson, 1984) five product variables seem to emerge: fluency, content, conventions, syntax, and vocabulary. Too often teachers focus their attention primarily on surface features of a student's composition related to the mechanical aspects of writing, or conventions. A balanced assessment should look at all five aspects of a student's writing. The following are simple methods for assessing each product variable. In some instances quantifiable measures are used; in others, qualitative assessments seem more appropriate.

Fluency

The first writing skill a teacher might assess with a beginning writer is fluency: being able to translate one's thoughts into written words. As concepts of print and fine motor skills develop, the student should become more proficient at writing down words and sentences into compositions of gradually increasing length. The developmental route of very young writers involves trying to understand what written language is about as they look at books, become aware of environmental print, and put pencil to paper (Clay, 1982). Then children try to relate their experiences in writing using invented spelling. As they begin to construct little stories they explore spelling patterns and develop new language patterns. Clay (1979, 1993) recommends a simple rating scale for emerging writing skills that focuses on language level (from only letters to sentences and paragraphs), message quality, and directional principles.

Language Level

Record the highest level of linguistic organization usedby the child: 1. Alphabetical 2. Word (any recognizable word) 3. Word group (any two-word phrase) 4. Sentence (any simple sentence) 5. Punctuated story (of two or more sentences) 6. Paragraphed story (two themes)

Message Quality

Record the number for the best description on the child's sample: 1. He has a concept of signs (uses letters, invents letters, used punctuation 2. He has a concept that a message is conveyed 3. A message is copied 4. Repetitive use of sentence patterns such as "Here is a…" 5. Attempts to record own ideas 6. Successful composition

Directional Principles

Record the number of the highest rating for which there is no error in the sample of the child's writing: 1. No evidence of directional knowledge 2. Part of the directional pattern is known: start top left, move left to right, or return down left 3. Reversal of the directional pattern (right to left and return down right) 4. Correct directional pattern 5. Correct directional pattern and spaces between words 6. Extensive text without any difficulties of arrangement and spacing of text

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The importance of assessing reading

 

The Importance of Assessing Students Reading Ability Individually

Over the years, most elementary schools have made it a priority to assess students' reading skills and, if students are below grade level expectations, to administer more detailed assessments that helps them figure out exactly what's going on, so that they can provide those students with appropriate interventions.

A vast majority of elementary schools have administered computer-based screening tools to their students. Many even have a team of Reading Specialists that assess students in beginning, middle and end of the year benchmarks. Some elementary teachers are thankful that assistants and volunteers offer to administer both formal and informal assessments. This assistance results in teachers breathing a sigh of relief because it seems as though part of their heavy work load has become lighter. However, there is a possibility that teachers are in turn doing themselves a disservice and in turn struggle to understand why their students are indeed below grade level.

After students are assessed, teachers receive data sheets that place their students into specific categories. The students are identified as below, at or above grade level. They are almost always given a number or score and sometimes even a color. Teachers often do not know how to successfully recognize the meanings of these scores and placements of their students. They are left with data and graphs and many questions. The teacher often wonders did the student read quickly and skip over words. If they are at grade level, did they comprehend the text they read? Were they able to read all grade level sight words? Which phonics skills did they use to help them figure out unfamiliar words? Is the child aware of the silent –e or possibly even the adjacent vowel phonics rule? Teachers are left unequipped with essential information and have to begin their guided reading groups based off of these scores.

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Standardized Test

Examining the Pros and Cons of Standardized Testing

Standardized testing is a highly controversial and well-debated topic. Many people believe that standardized testing provides an accurate measurement of student performance and teacher effectiveness. Other people think that a single test on a single day cannot consistently gauge these things and that the practice is extremely overused. No matter which side of the debate you stand on, the practice of standardized testing will continue to be discussed and debated. Both sides of the standardized testing debate have passionate arguments. Here we examine several pros and cons of standardized testing.

Designing Classroom Language Test

Contents of the English Placement Test

Placement test

The UW English Placement Test (EPT) consists of three subtests. These subtests are English Usage, Sentence Correction, and Reading Comprehension. The entire English Placement Test is designed to be completed in 90 minutes, which requires an average of approximately 30 seconds per test item. This is sufficient time for most students to complete the test.

The Principles of Language Assessment and The Use for Daily Classroom

The Principles of Language Assessment and The Use for Daily Classroom

Brown (2004) in his book, “Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices “mentioned five major principles of language assessment which consist of practicality, reliability, validity, authenticity, and washback.

• Practicality refers to tests that should be true. A practical test considers not only the limitation of budget and time, but also has clear administration, scoring, and interpretation.

• Reliability refers to tests that are consistent and dependable. Students or groups of target students are given the same test in two different periods of time, the test result would be similar. For test-takers, they are not ambiguous to a given field of study. Also, a reliable test not only gives learners clear directions but also offers administrated rubrics for grading or evaluation.

• Validity is talks about a test which “is valid if it is measured what it is supposed to measure” and when it is used for the purpose of assessment. Brown pointed out that a valid test should measure according to its purpose, but not “irrelevant or contaminating variables”. Thus, a test’s meaningful information for criterion, and evidence of performance should be considered in order to measure a student’s learning ability. Furthermore, there are many ways to measure the validity of a test, including content validity, construct validity, criterion-related validity (concurrent & predictive) and face validity.

• Authenticity emphasizes that language is natural, contextualized and meaningful. Besides, authenticity offers language theme-based organization, story-line, or episode to reproduce real-world tasks. 

• The last principle is washback which refers to “criterion for a test is the influence of the form and the content of the test” in the classrooms. This is also what Hughes (2003) said,” the effect of testing on teaching and learning”.