Using Assessment to Inform Your Teaching

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Using Assessment to Inform Your Teaching

• Effective teachers use evaluation constructively
  and efficiently.
  
• Zemelman and Daniels

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• Ralph Fletcher Excerpt from
• Writing Workshop, pp.101-3

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Exemplary Writing Programs

• Growth in writing develops from instruction,
  which is shaped by student writing, not from
  assignments.
  
• Teachers measure growth by evaluating pieces of
  student writing collected over a period of
  time.
  

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SC ELA Curriculum Standards Writing Goal (W)

• The student will write for different audiences
  and
  
• purposes.
• The Writing Process
• The student will apply a process approach to
  writing.
  
• Writing Purposes
• The student will write for a variety of
  purposes.
  
• Responding to Text
• The student will respond to texts written by
  others.
  
• Legibility
• The student will create legible texts.

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Keeping Portfolios

• Students complete a body of writing over a
  prolonged period of time.
  
• Several types of writing are included and
  teachers consider a student's entire
  portfolio--not just single assignments.
  
• This provides a more naturalistic approach to
  teaching and evaluation.
  
• Reliability is improved by applying consistent
  criteria across students and time.

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61 Traithttp//www.nwrel.org/assessment/

• The 61 Trait Writing framework is a powerful way
  to learn and use a common language to refer to
  characteristics of writing as well as create a
  common vision of what 'good' writing looks like.
  
• Teachers and students can use the 61 Trait model
  to pinpoint areas of strength and weakness as
  they continue to focus on continued writing
  improvement.
• The 61 Trait Writing is an analytical model for
  assessing and teaching writing.

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61 Traithttp//www.nwrel.org

• The 61 TraitTM Writing framework is a powerful
  way to learn and use a common language to refer
  to characteristics of writing as well as create a
  common vision of what 'good' writing looks like.
  Teachers and students can use the 61 TraitTM
  model to pinpoint areas of strength and weakness
  as they continue to focus on continued writing
  improvement.

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61 TraitTrait Definitions

• The 61 TraitTM Writing analytical model for
  assessing and teaching writing is made up of 61
  key qualities that define strong writing. These
  are Ideas, the heart of the message
  Organization, the internal structure of the
  piece Voice, the personal tone and flavor of the
  author's message Word Choice, the vocabulary a
  writer chooses to convey meaning Sentence
  Fluency, the rhythm and flow of the language
  Conventions, the mechanical correctness and
  Presentation, how the writing actually looks on
  the page.

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Paper Title Grandma's DogGrade Early
Elementary (1-3)

• Grandma's DogI like my grandmas dog. She is
  funny and crazey. I like my dog. She is cool. Her
  fur is wearm as a fireplace. I love her. I like
  her. And She like me too. I like my grandmas dog
  more than my Dad. And she likes me more than my
  grandma. She is fun and weird I love her. And she
  loves me too. She is nice and friendly. And she
  is prite. Sometimes my grandma gets mad at my
  dog.

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Paper Title Grandma's DogGrade Early
Elementary (1-3) Scores
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• Paper Title Yellow MamaGrade Late Elementary
  (4-5)

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When I was one year old we moved to a ranch about
seven miles from the highway. After we arrived
and were fairly well settled we found out there
were some cats living on the ranch too. Yellow
Mama was one of them. She was a yellow cat with
a white bib. Yellow Mama was a gentle cat, in
the years that followed she had at least five
batches of kittens. She cared for them all, they
usually looked like her, but not always.
Sometimes she had six kittens in one batch!
When I was seven years old Yellow Mama was
still with us. During the summer, Kirk, my
brother who was nine, and I decided we wanted to
climb a big rock on the hillside near our house.
We were almost to the rock when I saw poor Yellow
Mama lying near a brush, dead. I told Kirk to
come see what had happened. We were both very
sad, we had loved her very much. We decided not
to climb the rock, I was crying. When we were
running back to the house, mom heard me crying
and came out to see if I was hurt. We told her
what had happened and then went into the house.
When dad came home we told him. The next day he
buried Yellow Mama. Said it looked like a snake
or something had bitten her neck. I will
never forget Yellow Mama. I am eleven years old
and still think about how nice and kind she
was, she had been a good cat. The End
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Scores
Comment 1 This writer takes the reader down
Memory Lane with enough facts to hold ones inte
rest from beginning to end and to
experience the sadness caused by Yellow Mamas
death.
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SC PACT RUBRIC

• Compare to 61 traits