The tool you need for assessing writing - includes related article

How to evaluate children's creative work more thoughtfully

I sat in a Chinese restaurant sipping tea, wishing I'd never agreed to lead a workshop on assessing children's creative writing. The words of the teacher-center director who arranged the workshop echoed in my head. "Our teachers work hard to bring writing into their classrooms, through journals, portfolios, and daily blocks of writing time," she'd said. "They are reluctant to 'grade' the resulting work but parents and administrators, as well as the teachers themselves, need some way to accurately assess the children's progress."

I shook my head. What kind of assessment tool could I develop for teachers that would be useful, consistent, and clear? I thought about children's writing. Some pieces are models of surface perfection--beautiful handwriting, perfect punctuation--but they lack heart. Others are full of scrawled, misspelled words; smudges; and random punctuation, yet they glow with an honest voice. With traditional grading, which determines the success or failure of a particular text by focusing on its errors, the technically polished work would be given a higher grade than the messy work. I sighed and sipped more tea. Teachers need a method of assessment that sees mistakes in a more positive light. Error, after all, can mark the furthest frontier of abstraction or deep thought the author can manage.

Puzzling over the nature of assessment, I broke open my fortune cookie:

To know that you know what you know, and that you do not know what you do not know, that is true knowledge.--Confucius.

Confucius sure was a smart guy. Assessing children's writing shows what they know and do not know. With that, we can determine how far toward writing fluency each has come, and what we can do to help make the journey easier.

With this in mind, I began to sketch out an assessment checklist, or rubric, that would allow teachers a consistent means of assessing children's work over time. The rubric I created focuses on three features of writing, within which are 18 specific competencies. The rubric's notation system is not number-based or letter-based, to help you remember that assessment is not grading. I recommend using the rubric to review students' work at least once a month. More detailed instructions are listed on the rubric page.

As you apply the rubric, consider what you know about the student-author's abilities and approaches. Study "What to Expect" for further insight. Remember, the process of learning to write is fluid; writers might cross category boundaries at various stages of development. Leave blank any fields that do not apply to the piece of writing. In no time, using the rubric will become second nature.

WHAT TO EXPECT

A developmental writing scale for the elementary grades

EMERGING WRITERS

1. Scribble-writing: writing perceived as a magical act.

2. Initial sounds scripted: letters recognized as symbols (D=dog).

3. Final sounds scripted: comprehends the existence of words (DG=dog).

4. Missing auditory information: consonants appear first, then long vowels.

5. No distinctions made between certain sets of sounds: b-p, f-v, th-d-t. One or two vowels serve all purposes.

6. Overcompensation: scripting every nuance of sound, distinct or not.

7. Gradual replacement of scribble writing with attempts at spelling; extreme nervousness about spelling.

8. Frequent use of illustration.

DEVELOPING WRITERS

1. Nervousness about spelling persists.

2. Frequent use of empty words such as very, much, and a lot to inflate text.

3. Growing attachment to writing and physical result; tendency to count number of words used.

4. Growing attachment to act of writing as expression of inner vision. Pride of ownership: "Listen to what I wrote!"

5. Developing understanding of poetry; initially, rhyme is seen as the only distinction. Later, delight in shaping poems. 6. Use of illustration to support text.

7. Delight in expanding vocabulary.

8. Primitive attempts at revision.

EXPERIENCED WRITERS

1. Increasing fluency of ideas and words.

2. Greater facility with surface features.

3. Increasing sense of writing as means of expressing individuality.

4. Much detail, to the point of slowing down action. Later, more conscientious selection of details.

5. Delight in unusual verbs.

6. Integration of personal knowledge into texts.

7. Interest in opinions of others; text's unrealized potential is of greater concern.

8. Rereading and simultaneous self-editing becomes more integrated into the writing process.

DR. CYNDE GREGORY, Instructor writing columnist, works with thousands of children and teachers annually in workshops and residency programs. She will be giving two workshops at the NCTE convention in Orlando, Florida. Stop by the Instructor booth (#412) for details.

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