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Short Answer: Assessment in Writing (Principles of Effective Assessment - …
Short Answer: Assessment in Writing
Def
Involves data collection, analysis and the recording of information about a student’s progress.
Any activities used to judge a student’s performance.
The process of describing and judging achievement on set tasks, against clear criteria.
Methods for collecting info
Observations
- checklists, anecdotal notes - watching kids and what they are doing
Conversations about writing
- writing conferences, give sts opp to justify choices in writing and receive FB. Good insight for T's. Peer feedback and self assessmments.
Analysing children's writing
- rubrics - judging stds (developmental frameworks) - range of samples to give in-depth 'picture'
Formal assessments
- norm referenced tests, criterion referenced
Formative
Assessment that occurs during the progress of a program in order to give feedback for improvement.
Monitoring a student's progress
Photocopy piece of work, highlight errors, analyse the piece of writing – Why? Targeted intervention, guide planning – where to next, looking for patterns
Writing Journals are a framework for students to record and reflect. Provides information and insight to teachers about the development of student's aspects of writing.
Checklist for writing to recount - list of skills or behaviours to be checked off as observed. Example saved.
Instant, verbal, over the shoulder marking and writing conferences – more effective than them completing work at home and marking next day, breaks poor habits, stops errors faster, differentiated, goals focused, intervention, IEPs
Summative
Usually carried out at the end of a unit of work
Gauging how learning objectives have been met
Determines the extent of overall achievement according to identified learning outcomes.
Purpose to writing - report to stakeholders
Creating a rubric - recording frameworks with short descriptive statements along a continuum of excellence.
Diagnostic
Examining specific areas of student need
Often carried out at the beginning of a unit of work -
examining areas of need
Planning for success in writing requires teachers to first find out what individual students know and can do. Before classroom planning and teaching and learning occurs T must:
Compare st samples against exemplars in School Curriculum and Standards Authority (SCSA) judging standards. Comp kids within class & against nat ave.
Use First Steps Writing Map of Development to organise students into phases of development:
emergent/early writers (trying, writing resembles oral)
developing writer (sentences have meaning)
proficient writer(knows and uses diff text forms and
understands purpose and meaning)
Give students conditions to do their best writing
Be careful what topics you ask your students to write about - prior experiences really count.
Example: Writing about experiences in the classroom - recount
Evaluation
Appraisal process by teacher
Designed to make judgments about effectiveness and appropriateness of teaching practices and programs
Identify any improvements needed.
Implements ongoing practices and programming in order to help students realise potential.
Embedding formative assessment in writing tasks involves specific feedback and insights which can lead to revision and improvement (William 2011).
Reporting
Provides accountability - communicating information about achievement and progress to students, teachers and parents.
Support of a student’s learning and the improvement of teaching will be the main determinants in what is reported, and to whom.
In the classroom a T wants to assess:
how a student participates in different kinds of writing tasks
familiarity and understanding of the content and structure of different text-types
a sense of the intended audience for writing
the ability to convey content and meaning through writing .
uses language convents - punctuation, spelling and grammar
the breadth of vocabulary used
attitudes to writing and perception as a writer
a student’s self-perception as a writer
Principles of Effective Assessment -
Assessment & Rep needs to be...
Clear intended purpose
Fair, free of bias - not favour, give chances for multiple types of assessment
Balanced, comprehensive and varied
Engages learner - sts are into the topic, writing outcome will be better
Valid and reliable
Time efficient and manageable - not always in assessment mode, pick specific times
Communicated to parents
Meaningful
Example that engages the learner
One-on-one writing conference to provide T with opp to collect data while giving individ instruction.
builds relationships
for success, sts need to know expectations e.g. their role, structure and records kept
Asking questions
What are you writing? Where are you up to? How can I help you? How do you feel about your text so far?
ID the focus for the conference
What are your writing goals? Are you achieving them? Is there anything you are having particular difficulties with I can help you with?
Offering praise - emphasising strengths
Making suggestions to improve the writing
Setting directions for the future
Set a new writing goal and discuss the poss of a lesson targeting a particular aspect
Closure
Ideal way of
supporting a child’s writing development
. T shows
interest in the sts’ ideas
and the way they express them by
commenting or giving guidance
or by answering requests for help.
In a conference, each step of the writing process can be discussed and explained. The key to effective conferencing lies in the
kinds of questions
asked by the teacher. But conferences work best when students have learnt to ask their own questions.
There is no specific structure for conferencing as there needs to be
openness and spontaneity
in the sharing session, but teachers should try to get the child to take the lead and avoid imposing comments or a rigid structure. Questions may be
process questions
that focus on the line of development of the writing,
development questions
that focus on the quality of ideas in the writing, or
structure questions
that deal with key ideas and the overall shape of the writing.
The best response often comes when a
child writes for a real purpose that ‘works’
: doing a poster advertising an event to which people actually come, writing a narrative that is published in a book format and put in the school or class library
Aspiri Primary School
ACARA Progression -
https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/resources/national-literacy-and-numeracy-learning-progressions/
Collate progression chart – assess – plot each student on table – moves throughout the year.Visual comparisons – Term 1 to Term 4 – teaching in accordance with the progressions, not limited by year level curriculum.
Teachers changing and accommodating practice so each student can learn
Writing moderation – bring st samples of work (multiple), judging against the standards/curriculum, not comparing against other students.
Collectively discuss strengths, gaps, patterns and trends. Set goals and share teaching strategies. Lay out samples under grades – discuss with other teachers.
Bump It Up Walls – Hattie’s visible learning – students self assess – helping students improve and allows them to become more involved in learning.
A visual display which provides explicit and leveled benchmarks for students and teachers to refer to and track learning. Fosters student self-assessment and allow students to track and move learning forward.
A good writing classroom will encourage children to assess their own writing.
Self Editing – differentiated to suit abilities – self-standing boards with flipping paper
Peer Editing – Editing Checklist – students checks it – then peer checks it – two stars and a wish e.g. editing checklist: cap letters, full stops etc.