Writing assessment
A start-to-finish overview

Writing assessment isn’t paper grading, though it involves grading. It begins with setting goals and objectives; it ends only when you are sure they have been met.

If you are going to evaluate how well students write, you need to have a standard to use as your measure of achievement. You must set that standard before you attempt to teach.

Best practice is to teach writing and use writing to teach other topics within your curriculum. Besides being effective, integrating writing into an entire course is also easier on you.

Savvy teachers figure out what they want to accomplish in their entire curriculum in the year. Then they are in a good position to make instruction in one area dovetail and overlap instruction in others.

Set course goals and objectives

• Focus on the key course concepts and ideas.

• Learning outcomes are easy as A, B, C, D.

• Make your objectives be skills and knowledge all students must have.

• Use terminology from Bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives to sharpen your objectives.

Set standards for competent writing

• Imagine your students are employees. Set work performance standards for their writing.

• Provide aids to help students monitor and improve their work.

Set standards for writing mechanics

Bubble tests don't show whether students can write acceptable English. Only writing can do that. This is one area where "teaching to the test" is a requirement.

• Focus on the most common errors in student writing.

• A good writing mechanics standard meets passes two simple tests.

• Concentrate on eliminating a few common errors from all students’ writing by year’s end.

• Determine your tolerance level. Set grade penalties accordingly.

Prepare formal writing prompts

Formal writing prompts are the "tests" of writing skill. If you are to have valid writing assessments, you need to have good prompts that allow students to display their knowledge and skills.

• Formal prompts require context and clear directions.

• Take some tips on writing prompts from The Nation’s Report Card.

• Get real. Prepare writing prompts on topics across your curriculum.

Prepare informal writing prompts

• Informal prompts do double duty: learning activity and formative writing assessment.

• Award informal writing A’s for effort.

Provide feedback

• Grading rubrics help you assess student performance.

• Create your own rubrics to fit your course objectives.

• Rubrics with five key components simplify evaluating student writing.

• You can make rubrics by creating and merging sections of tables.

• Comment encouragingly.

• Don’t edit or correct student papers.

• Respond to all students in writing on a regular basis.

• Sample student work.

• Use technology for efficiency.

• Use outsiders and students’ peers to provide an audience for students' writing.

Reassess and reteach

• Track individual and class performance on writing and mechanics in formal writing.

• Use multiple approaches, repeated exposure, and consistent practice to make sure students learn.