Informal writing as formative assessment
Chapter for English teachers of teens and adults

Informal writing can show English/communications teachers and their students how well they have mastered course content. If they find the answer is "not well" or "huh?" there's still time before a summative assessment for teachers to present material differently and students to study material more thoroughly.

All the examples in Shape Learning, Reshape Teaching: An English Teacher's Guide to Using Informal Writing with Teens and Adults are on writing mechanics topics, which are notoriously hard to teach with standard classroom techniques. Using informal writing forces students to think more deeply than traditional exercises that have a single right answer.

You can buy the book here

Or you can learn more about Shape Learning, Reshape Teaching here.

Or you can find out more about the multiple uses of informal writing on these pages:

• A daily writing prompt is as close as your curriculum.

• A daily writing prompt belongs in your writing skills exercise program.

• Formative assessment via informal writing is quick, easy, authentic

• Formative assessments for the English grammar teacher

• Formative evaluation makes short work of improving writing.

• Informal writing is best assessed formatively, graded rigidly.

• Informal writing: a multifunction tool with many aliases.

• Informal writing prompts multi-task for busy writing teachers.

• Informal writing prompts about homework beat homework.

• Reading comprehension activities: a reading journal

• Informal writing aids in classroom management