Tips For Good TOP Writing Collections

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Tips For Good TOP Writing Collections

• Presented at Texas Assessment Conference

Heather Roeters Texas Education Agency
Andrew Thompson Pearson Educational Measurement
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Overview

• 2006 TOP Audit Results
• Review of collection requirements
• Eligible types of writing
• Verifying collection components
• Tips
• Building collections
• Assigning writing
• Brief writing
• Topic selection

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Information on Writing Collection Assembly from
Spring 2006 TOP Audit
4
Information on Writing Collection Assembly from
Spring 2006 TOP Audit
Note Out of the collections with assembly errors
(47), a little under half (22) had multiple
errors.
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Review of Collection Requirements

• Raters of students in enrolled grades 2-12
  (regardless of instructional level) must assemble
  a writing collection for each student who will be
  assessed in writing.

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Review of Collection Requirements

• Each writing collection must contain
• At least five samples
• At least one narrative writing sample about a
  past event
  
• At least 2 academic samples from math, science,
  or social studies
  
• Writing that is assigned between February 1st and
  the day the student is rated in writing
  
• Writing that accurately reflects a students
  current proficiency level
  
• The students name and date on every sample

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Review of Collection Requirements

• Writing collections must NOT contain
• Samples containing copied language
• Papers where the student relies heavily on
  resources (dictionary, thesaurus, etc.)
  
• Papers showing teacher comments and corrections
• Worksheets, question-answer assignments, TAKS
  written compositions
  
• Papers that have been polished with help from
  peers or teachers
  
• Papers written primarily in the students native
  language
  
• Papers that are brief, incomplete, or rushed

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Eligible Types of Writing

• Examples of 6 types of writing are provided in
  the TOP Rater Manual
  
• Basic descriptive writing on a personal
  topic/familiar topic
  
• Writing about a familiar process
• Narrative writing about a past event
• Reflective writing
• Extended writing on a language arts topic
• Academic writing from science, math, and social
  studies
  
• Neither the types nor the examples provided of
  each type are exhaustive.

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Verifying the Writing Collection Components

• The campus testing coordinator, in conjunction
  with the district coordinator and principal, will
  designate one or more persons to verify the
  contents of the collections.

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Verifying the Writing Collection Components

• The verifier will ensure that each collection
• Has at least 5 samples
• Includes 1 narrative about a past event and 2
  academic writing samples from math, science, or
  social studies
  
• Contains no papers with teacher comments or
  corrections
  
• Includes no worksheets, question-answer
  assignments, or TAKS compositions
  
• Has the students name and date on each sample
• Contains samples written primarily in English
• Includes no samples written before February 1,
  2007

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Verifying the Writing Collection Components

• If the collection meets these requirements, the
  verifier will sign the writing collection
  verification checklist.
  
• If the collection does not, the verifier will
  return the collection according to campus
  procedures. It will need to be reverified once
  the collection is complete. The verifier should
  not sign the checklist until the collection meets
  the criteria.

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Building Collections

• Strive to gather more than 5 writing samples for
  each student. Then choose 5 samples that meet
  the criteria and are most reflective of the
  students current proficiency level.

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Building Collections

• Raters may continue to collect writing samples
  until the time the collection is rated (according
  to local schedules).

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Building Collections

• If a student is near the border between two
  proficiency levels, it is a good idea to gather
  samples from as late in the window as possible to
  give the student a chance to demonstrate the full
  extent of the proficiency level attained.

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Building Collections

• Avoid overloading a collection with math,
  science, and social studies samples. Remember
  that its also important to include samples that
  show students writing about topics that are
  familiar and within their comfort zone.
• Too much familiar comfort zone writing is also
  not helpful. Students need to show the extent of
  their abilities, so assign tasks that will push
  them beyond their comfort level.

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Beginning-Level Writers

• It is expected that even beginning-level
  students will have writing collections containing
  samples in English. It is not acceptable to
  include samples written primarily in the native
  language, regardless of proficiency level.

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Assigning Writing

• Students will be more likely to take their time
  and do a good job if the writing theyre doing is
  seen as a part of normal classroom writing. TOP
  writing should not be a separate activity or an
  assignment given only to ELLs. It is intended to
  be authentic classroom writing.

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Assigning Writing

• Writing with titles like Quick Writing, 5
  Minute Writing, and Writing Warm-Up should be
  avoided in a TOP writing collection. Such
  assignments tend to generate writing that it
  rushed, brief, or incomplete.

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Beginning-Level Writers

• Students who are at the early stages of the
  beginning level should be assigned writing tasks
  in English. Their writing will likely be very
  formulaic, memorized, and use vocabulary they
  have just learned.

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Brief Writing

• The length of writing samples within a
  collection will depend partly on the students
  proficiency level.

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Brief Writing

• What is acceptable at one proficiency level may
  not be acceptable at another.
  
• Students who are capable of writing in a detailed
  extended way should not have papers in their
  collections that dont reflect that.
  

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Brief Writing

• Raters will have to consider students abilities
  in determining whether papers are too brief to be
  included.
  

23
Topic Selection

• A topic that works well for students at one
  proficiency level may not work well for students
  at another.

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Topic Selection

• To ensure that raters get enough writing for
  students at all proficiency levels, they may
  
• Gather enough writing on topics of varying
  difficulty for every student to be able to select
  those samples that are appropriate
  
• Modify the tasks assigned for students at lower
  proficiency levels
  
• Assign different tasks to students depending on
  their proficiency level

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TOP Online Course

• An online training course is available (today!)
  for raters and verifiers. This course will focus
  on assembling appropriate writing collections and
  the verification of writing collections. It is
  an optional tool districts may use as part of the
  training on TOP administrative procedures.

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TOP Online Course

• The TOP online course(s) can be found at the TOP
  TrainingCenter at http//pearson.learn.com/TOP/.
  The website will be active as of December 11,
  2006.
• The users guide for course participants is
  available on the TOP TrainingCenter under the
  Resources tab.
  

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Contact Information

• Email address ELL.tests_at_tea.state.tx.us
• Student Assessment Division phone number
  512-463-9536
  
• This powerpoint will be posted soon in the ELL
  Assessment Information section of the Student
  Assessment Division website.