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| EVIDENTIAL TOOLKIT: Assessment for Demonstrating Growth |
| Self Assessment � Ask students to reflect in writing on their learning and during conferencing, lead them to give an opinion of what is working and what is not working in their writing. Students can keep a record of written reflections about their learning in a Reflection Log. The depth and detail of students� response are an indication of how they are growing as writers. Self regulation of learning is the ultimate goal of education and transference of the responsibility for quality from teacher to student should be progressive as each child matures. |
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| Negotiated Contracts are a form of self assessment that leads the student to take full responsibility for his/her learning. The Negotiated Contract is a powerful learning tool because it is generated from the interests and motivations of the student. It potentially engages the passive student in ownership for his/her learning and drives self-motivated students to extend themselves even further.
When applied to determining long term learning goals, discussion between teacher and student(s) should include identifying some questions that the student would like to address as well as what kind of writing, how much writing, and the quality standards for the writing that the student will do during the set time period. Proposed opportunities for publishing can also be discussed at this stage of planning. After the contract has been negotiated, the teacher/tutor consults with the student(s) regularly to determine if s/he needs help identifying intermediate steps to accomplish the long term goals. Students might negotiate for grades, privileges, or personal satisfaction of being a writer as reward for accomplishing various levels of goal attainment. |
| -- 1 folder for writing the child is currently working on,
-- 1 folder for each unit of study or theme to contain quick writes and other daily writing that does not go through multiple drafts -- 1 folder for work that has gone through multiple drafts, is no longer being revised, but has not reached the publishing stage -- 1 folder for �Published� writing -- optional: 1 folder or notebook for collecting new writing ideas |
| Inventories � Keeping a running list of any of the following contributes to a record of writing progress. the processes and progress of student writing. When the student maintains the inventory as part of their learning reflectiong each day, it encourages them to be independent writers and stretches them to consider ways in which they would like to develop further. Again, dates are an important part of the record to maintain. |
| Minimum: To create a portfolio, students
-- choose what they consider to be their best writing from the writing collection folder of published work. To highlight growth through the year, at least one writing sample should be included from each grading period. -- Then the student writes a reflection about what s/he learned through writing each piece, as well as what s/he consider the strengths and weaknesses are for each piece of writing. -- A reflection on how the student�s observations about his application of the writing process should be included. -- A cover sheet for the portfolio should include a rationale statement that gives the purpose for forming the portfolio, and the goals for the portfolio project. Additional items to consider: -- An introduction to the writer, written by the student. Who the student is: age, where the student attends school or where they live, aspirations, lifestyle, interests, and thoughts about writing. -- table of contents, outline -- If the student has kept any writing inventories through the year, they would make an excellent addition to the writing portfolio when combined with a student written summary of learning reflected in the inventories. -- Reflection on growth in regard to state or national curriculum standards for writing. -- List of goals identified by student, parent, and/or parent -- Summaries of observations or anecdotal records -- Learning goals for the future -- A rubric for evaluating the portfolio -- Other reflection writing prompts: -- What does your portfolio show that you can do? -- What is your favorite piece in your portfolio? Why? -- Which pieces show that you have made improvement? -- What changes would you like to see in your portfolio? |
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| Tompkins (1982), Routman (2000) |
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| Negotiated Contracts can also be used for establishing short term goals for high quality work. The key in this case is �negotiating� or discussing the criteria that will mark quality. When students are involved in this way the teacher gains valuable information about the student(s) developing concepts about what makes for good writing and good writers. Students can create their own checklists by identifying the criteria they consider important. The checklist can be extended as a tool for evaluating quality (rubric or scoring guide) by describing levels of competency for each criterion.
See sample rubrics and checklists in the MEASUREMENT TOOLKIT for an idea of what these tools might look like. |
| Winfield & Brown (1992) |
| Stix (1997) |
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| Carroll & Wilson (1997) |
| -- chronicle of what the student wrote, identifying purpose, audience, genre, start & finish dates, level of drafting
-- a list of �what I did well in my writing� -- a record of �what I want to improve in my writing� -- a list of new writing ideas -- publishing ideas -- quotes from my reading that intrigue, appeal to me � and why -- personalized spelling list � words I want to master -- books I�ve read |
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| Routman (1991), Tompkins (1993) |
| Writing Sample Collections � Students should keep a folder of their writing throughout the year. This folder becomes an ongoing record of their writing development. It is also a source of material for the student�s writing portfolio (discussed below). There are many different ways to organize and maintain this collection, but simpler the method, the more likely it will be maintained.
A simple system includes: |
| It is important for the child to record the date on each piece of writing s/he does. A date stamp can be both a convenient and motivating tool to ensure this detail is attended to. Also, the various drafts of a piece of writing should be kept together so that there is a record of the development of each individual piece of writing. Staple the drafts together in order of production with the most recent draft on top and the 1st draft on the bottom. |
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| Paulson, Paulson, & Meyer, (1991), Winfield & Brown (1992)
Winograd & Arrington (1999) |
| Portfolios� The more a student is involved in compiling and reflecting on their writing portfolio, the more powerful it is as a tool to both demonstrate and promote learning. The difference between a portfolio and a collection of writing is inclusion of student reflection on learning. In this form of assessment, the student is an active participant rather than a passive object of study. |
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| Sample Log Sheets for tracking Writing Process |
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| download for tracking use of writing process over time download for tracking experimentation with genre |