Student SelfEvaluation of Writing

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Student Self-Evaluation of Writing

• By Linnea Sherrard

2
Setting

• I teach language arts to 150 seventh grade
  students in a heterogeneous teamed setting at
  Kapolei Middle School.
• Kapolei Middle School is a multi-track school
  with approximately 1700 students.

3
My Quest

• To assess is to questionconstantlyhonestlywhere
  you are going and why you are going there. -
  Jim Burke
• My quest is to help empower students to become
  better writers who know
• what to do,
• how to do it,
• when to apply it.

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Literature Review

• When students begin to think of themselves as
  writers they can behave like writers, including
  self-assessing and revising.
• Spandel, Vicki.(2001) Creating writers through 6-
  
• trait writing assessment and instruction
  
• (3rd ed.). New York Priscilla McGeehan

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Literature Review

• Give back the ownership of assessment to the
  student, where it belongs. Let them practice.
• Chappuis, Jan. (2004). Student-involved
  assessment strategies in writing. Portland,
  OR Assesment Training Institute.

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Literature Review

• Nothing frustrates a young writer or an older
  writermore than looking at a finished piece and
  knowing it isnt very good, but not knowing what
  to do about it.
• Thomason, Tommy York, Carol. (2000). Write on
  target preparing young writers to succeed on
  state writing achievement tests Norwood
  Christopher-Gordon Publishers

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Reality Check vs. Possible
Outcomes

• Well, it looks FINE to me. I am done.
• How long does it need to be?
• Maybe Ill fix something.

• What I need to work on is
• I want to add more here, but take that part out.
• How does it sound when I read it aloud?

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Power Shift

• Empowering students must be related to shifting
  the power dynamic.
• Teacher Student
• ? ?
• Student Teacher
• safety danger
• controlled outcomes open outcomes

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Plan of Action

• Pre-Writing Assessment
• Establishing a Baseline
• Measuring Levels of Quality
• 3 Independent Adult Readers
• Rubric Scored

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CURRENT STRATEGIES
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1. Building the Background
DESIRED STRATEGIES 5 STEPS

• What do good writers do?
• Process Writing
• pre-write
• write
• revise
• edit
• publish

• What terms do they use?
• Traits
• ideas
• organization
• voice
• word choice
• sentence fluency
• conventions

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2. Deepening the Understanding

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Rubric
• Assess what we know
• Reviewing Writing Rubrics
• Apply what we know

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3. Using Self-Assessment Tools

• Evaluating strong weak writing with rubrics
• whole class, small groups, partners
• Improving weak pieces
• small groups, partners, individuals
• Stars Stairs

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4. Questioning Our Journey

• Where am I going? Review target
• ? closing the gap ?
• Evaluate models
• Problem Solve for Stars Stairs
• Where am I now? Focused Revision

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5. Reflecting on Growth

• Heres what Ive learned
• Heres what I still want to learn
• Heres what Ill work on next

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Post Writing Assessment

• Comparing the Outcomes
• Measuring Quality
• 3 Independent Adult Readers
• Rubric Scored

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Analyzing the Results

• Did anyone improve?
• How much?
• Can we say why?

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Timeline

• Pre-writing assessment July 04
• Implement Plan of Action August - Sept.
• Rubric Exploration
• Samples Application
• Self-Assessment Oct. Nov.
• Post Writing Assessment Dec.
• Analyze Results Feb. 05
• Write Plan B April May
• Breathe July - June

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Conclusion

• What you can assess you can improve.
  - Vicki Spandel