Grading Upper Elementary Writing!

by Diane Krause
(Sioux City, IA, USA)

For me, writing assessment is very challenging especially if you've no idea how to do it! I am not too experienced by any means but am FASCINATED with the art of writing (and assessing it!), being an adult who never was taught to write, let alone assess.

As I was doing re-certification work, securing another endorsement plus getting a post-graduate certification, I noticed how people who basically enjoyed writing and could whip out papers with relative ease!

I was then in a long term sub position with 4th graders just getting into the writing curriculum for Great Habits/Great Readers. I, please understand, do not have my elementary endorsement, but they desperately needed someone and I needed to work.

We worked on a narrative writing for like five days for sure if not more. I remember marking the papers up with lots of red and feeling appalled, and thinking these kids are never going to like writing! The final product was for parents to see at the fall parent teacher conferences with the assessed draft attached.

I remember reading somewhere after I labored on all that that it would have been much more productive to focus and assess specifically on just a couple of writing aspects and let the rest of the grading be more lenient. I certainly could have consulted the teacher but didn't!

I would love to learn more about the rubrics teachers of writing use for all ages up through college even!

Linda responds

I think everyone who tries teaching writing has goes through an experience similar to yours, Diane. You are to be commended on realizing that all that red ink may be bad for students; it also makes life tough for their writing teachers in later years.