Chapter 7 Written Language Assessment

1. Chapter 7Written Language Assessment Katie Chisholm & Erin Fitzpatrick

2. Written language is… • Ability to communicate effectively through writing • Created through 3 components • Spelling • Handwriting • Expression • Closely related to oral language development • Referred to as “Six Traits + 1” • Ideas & content • Organization • Voice • Word choice • Sentence fluency • Conventions • Presentation

3. Assessment Procedures • Interest Inventory • Teachers ask students their habits & attitudes • Provides info about interests, talents, pets, holidays, family, etc. • Analyzing classroom writing environment • Affects student interest, motivation, & perseverance • Should be challenging, yet supportive & accommodating

4. Assessment Procedures (cont’d) • Work Sample Analysis • Permanent product • Classwork, homework, informal tests • Can compare across subjects and time periods • Student Writing Journals • Personal reflection: feelings about events & experiences • Subject content: notes in given subject areas • Observation of basic writing skills

5. Written Expression Assessment • Writing Process • Teachers must follow steps: preplanning, revising, editing, and sharing/publishing • Develop instructional plan (lists p. 260-1) • Error Analysis • Various writing samples • Teacher counts words spelled correctly, words used appropriately, number of sentences and their structure and length • Used to identify error types and patterns, pinpoint causes of error, provide appropriate instruction to amend errors

6. Portfolio Assessment • Asset to parents, teachers, & students • Assess growth over time and determine needs for remediation & strengths • Teachers tend to guide pieces to be included • Prewriting activities • Scrapbook of writing samples • Illustrations & diagrams that go with pieces • Log or journal of ideas, vocabulary, semantic maps, and compositions • Conference and observation notes • Student’s self-selected “bests” • Self-evaluation checklists & teacher checklists

7. Curriculum-Based Measurement(CBM) • Writing can be assessed through repeated 3-minute writing samples using story starters (sample p. 264) • Writing probe: timed writing sample • Useful in identifying serious writing problems • May be followed by more in-depth evaluation • Ideally based on student interest

8. CBM … continued • To administer • Establish baseline (present level of performance) • 1 minute of brainstorming • Students write for 3 minutes • After 3 minutes, papers collected immediately • To score for Words Per Minute (wpm) • Count words or letters written • Divide the total number of correct words by 3 to get correct (wpm) • Grade level appropriate wpm:1 = 15; 2 = 28; 3= 37; 4 = 41; 5 = 49; 6 = 52 • To score for Correct Word Sequences (cws) • Correct words sequence: two adjacent, correctly spelled words that are grammatically acceptable within the context of the phrase • Words in the story starter are not counted • Number of cws is divided by the number of possible sequences to get a percentage • Across 3 days, 3 starters are given and median score is found • A goal is computed by multiplying the number of remaining school weeks by 2 then adding the median baseline score. • Create a graph plotting scores to show progress towards the goal through the year (example on p. 267)

9. Performance Based Assessment • Measures specific skill components • Allows for integration of evaluation & instruction • Individualized activities for instructional level and strengths and weaknesses • Teacher must • Clarify what skill is being measured • Prepare appropriate activity • Develop criteria • Create scoring system

10. Spelling Error Analysis • Various writing samples • Focus on patterns of errors and focus instruction • Types of errors • Letter omissions, additions, substitutions, reversals, and transpositions • Phonetic misspellings: when student uses a rule incorrectly or word doesn’t follow rule • “Spelling demons,” most commonly misspelled words http://home.vicnet.au/~ozideas/spdemons.htm

11. Dictated Spelling Tests • Words selected from grade-level appropriate list • Determine instructional level based on 75%-90% accuracy • Each time learner sees a word in print, it triggers memory about a word’s spelling, pronunciation, and meaning

12. Informal Spelling Inventory (ISI) • Teachers make list based on curriculum and taught spelling skills • Approx. 20 words for grades 2-8 • Students write words after teacher recites the word, places in a sentence, and repeats the word • Example: Fundations Dictation

13. Cloze Procedure • Teacher gives instructions • Student reads sentence silently or outloud • Student fills in missing spelling word • Teacher models • No time limit • Some letters may be filled in

14. Spelling Curriculum-Based Measurement Assessment • Students complete a probe for one minute • Teacher records correct and incorrect responses noting patterns • Randomly select 15 to 20 words • Graph results over time (p. 274)

15. Performance Spelling Assessment • Individualized approach to spelling • Student chooses 5 target words, and teacher chooses 5 target words weekly. • Asssessment: • Students write each word in a sentence • Scored on accuracy, usage, punctuation, and legibility • Student is familiar with grading criteria and monitors their own progress

16. Phonemic Awareness Spelling Assessment • Students must rely on invented spelling since they will not know many of the words. • Invented spelling- relies on ability to make connections between letter and sound • Students are scored based on the amount of phonemes they can correctly match to a letter. • Example: Bite (3 phonemes) bit= 3pts, bt=2pts, b=1pt

17. Stages of Spelling Development • Precommunicative Stage • Semiphonetic Stage • Phonetic Stage • Transitional Stage • Correct Stage (See attachment)

18. Inventory of Word Knowledge • Spelling words are broken into levels based on specific spelling patterns. • Student is assigned an instructional level • Must receive 50% accuracy or better at that level • Error patterns can help to determine instructional needs.

19. Spelling Word Test: Flow List • Assign fewer words and monitor progress carefully. • Words are assessed daily • Once words are correct for three days in a row, new words are added. • Old words are assessed a week later to determine long-term mastery.

20. Handwriting Assessment

21. Prerequisite Skills • Muscular control- cutting, pasting, folding, tracing, coloring, and finger painting • Eye-hand coordination- draw simple shapes and copy geometric forms • Visual discrimination- Student can determine differeneces in shapes, sizes, and details of objects (important for letter and number formation)

22. Handwriting Sample Assessment • Student copies the following sentence: The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy brown dog • Obtain 3 writing samples: usual, best, and fastest • Used to assess legibility, fluency, and determine error patterns. **Some students may have difficulty copying due to poor visual memory.

23. Handwriting Assessments (Cont.) • Handwriting Probes • Student writes a letter or word repeatedly • Teacher times student for one minute to track accuracy and fluency • Zaner-Bloser Evaluation Scale • Holistic method of assessing handwriting • Student is determined low-average, average, or above-average based on grade level norms

24. Types of Errors • Slow writing pace • Misdirection of letters and numbers • Excessive or insufficient slant • Poor spacing • Messiness • Misalignment • Illegible letters • Excessive or insufficient amount of pencil pressure

25. Dysgraphia • Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects writing, which requires a complex set of motor and information processing skills • Visual-spatial difficulties: trouble processing what the eye sees • Language processing difficulty: trouble processing and making sense of what the ear hears • Deficieint fine motor skills • Common Symptoms: • A mixture of upper/lower case letters • irregular letter sizes and shapes • unfinished letters • struggle to use writing as a communications tool • odd writing grip • many spelling mistakes • pain when writing • decreased or increased speed of writing and copying • talks to self while writing

26. Written Language Scoring-Rating Methods • Holistic vs. Analytic Scoring • Analytic rubrics identify and assess components of a finished product. • Holistic rubrics assess student work as a whole.

27. Holistic Scoring • One score is assigned after examining the work as a whole • Scores are based on comparing students’ writing with the work of their peers. • Anchor papers are those in a set of compositions that are used as an example for a particular score. • Anchor papers can be shown to students as models of exceptional, average, and poor papers • New Jersey Holistic Scoring Rubric

28. Analytic Scoring • A detailed analysis in which separate ratings are assigned for each aspect of performance • A rubric is used in which points are assigned to various components of the writing then combined to obtain a grade or score.

29. Analytic Scoring Rubric