Moving in the “Write” Direction
Learning to WriteWriting to Learn
Writing Assessment Scoring Training
Allison Mackley and Renee Owens
2009 - 2010
Essential Questions
• What does instruction need to look like in order to support students in their writing?
• How can teaching writing strategies actually enhance and support content standards?
• If teachers and students invest time and effort in developing writing strategies, how will this impact student success in our district?
Agenda• Understanding the PSSA Writing Assessment
• Describing the work of the Writing Framework Committee
• Understanding the modes of writing
• Defining components within the domains of writing
• Writing in the content areas: writing process
• Recognizing the PSSA performance levels
• Scoring by domain – focus: inter-rater reliability
• Identifying implications for teaching and learning (Writing-to-Learn)
Expected Outcomes
• Teacher will have a common understanding of benchmark writing
• Teachers will be able to explain and apply the mode specific PA Writing Rubric to actual student papers in their own content areas.
• Teachers will be able to defend a score that they assign.
• Teachers will develop Writing-to-Learn prompts to encourage development of focus, content, organization and style in student writing.
Background of PSSA
• In 1999 Pennsylvania adopted academic standards for Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening and Mathematics.
• Standards identify what a student should know and be able to do at varying grade levels.
• Annual PSSA is a standard based, criterion-referenced assessment used to measure a student's attainment of the academic standards while also determining the degree to which school programs enable students to attain proficiency of the standards.
• Every student in the 5th, 8th, and 11th grade is assessed in writing.
• Students in 5th grade are assessed in two modes of writing (narrative, informational or persuasive).
• Students in 8th and 11th grade are assessed in two modes of writing (informational and persuasive writing).
Writing Framework Committee• In 2004 the DTSD Writing Framework
Committee was established.
• Each core subject area, the learning support team, and the encore team are represented on this committee.
• Task 1 - Research
• Task 2 - Make recommended changes.
• Task 3 - Evaluate proposed changes and create a plan of implementation.
• The Writing Scope and Sequence that was developed by this committee will guide our instruction.
• During 2009-2010 school year Committee will revisit their work to incorporate Collins Writing
Narrative Mode
• Purpose: – Tell a story– Recall an experience or event– Create, manipulate, interpret
reality– Require writers to closely observe,
explore, and reflect upon a wide range of experiences
• Organization/Structures:
– Chronological– Beginning, Middle, End
Informational Mode• Purpose:
– Share knowledge by reporting on events or experiences
– Convey messages, instructions or ideas by explaining, summarizing, instructing, categorizing, or defining
– Make connections between the familiar and the unfamiliar
– Analyze or evaluate information through judging, ranking, hypothesizing, or generalizing
• Organization/Structures:– compare/contrast– cause/effect– problem/solution– definition– process analysis– Illustration– spatial
Persuasive Mode• Purpose:
– Convince or persuade the reader to take action or to formulate an opinion
– Refute arguments that are contrary to the writer’s point of view or position
• Organization/Structures:
– compare/contrast– cause/effect– problem/solution– illustration– definition– process analysis
Focus
• The single controlling point made with an awareness of task about a specific topic.
– Single controlling point (purpose or intended emphasis)
– Awareness of task (format and mode: narrative, informational or persuasive)
– Specific topic (narrow subject)
Content/Ideas• The presence and development
of facts, examples, anecdotes, details, opinions, statistics, reasons, explanations and/or ideas.
– Presence (information is clear, focused and compelling)
– Development (in-depth understanding of topic, significant details, layering of details)
Why do students struggle with focus and content?• Writing is complex.
– Creating new visions and texts is hard—very hard.
– Writing is a way for students to discover what they think and what they have to say.
– Even though students have amazing ideas in their minds, it is hard for them to recognize these ideas, select those that are worthy topics for writing, and then get them down so readers clearly understand the content of the piece.
– Often student writers take the easy way out and list or summarize their ideas. 6+1 Traits of Writing – Ruth Culham
Why do students struggle with focus and content?
• Students think faster than they can write.
– Students have to understand that they can’t write about everything—they have to narrow their ideas down to those that are manageable.
– Through elaboration and details, students bring their ideas to life.
6+1 Traits of Writing – Ruth Culham
Why do students struggle with focus and content?
• Students don’t write for themselves.
– Many students play the “writing game” in order to please the teacher.
• How long does it have to be?• Is this what you want?• Is this right?• Does my paper say what you want to
hear?
– If students are truly ever to see themselves as writers and not just “finishers,” they have to be honored for the struggle not just the outcome.
6+1 Traits of Writing – Ruth Culham
Organization• The order developed and sustained
within and across paragraphs using transitional devices and including introduction and conclusion
– Developed (thoughtful structure)
– Sustained (guides reader)
– Across paragraphs (smoothly embedded—never too obvious)
– Transitional devices (well-crafted transitions)
– Introduction (unforgettable opening)
– Conclusion (leaves reader with strong impact)
Why do students struggle with organizing their writing?• Rigid organization is often
overvalued.– Teach students to be the best
writers they can be, knowing there will be lumps and bumps along the way.
– Understand that the five paragraph format is not the only way to organize, but it is a good place to begin.
– Provide strategies that encourage long-term growth not just improvement on a standardized test.
6+1 Traits of Writing – Ruth Culham
Why do students struggle with organizing their writing?
• Organization is really hard.– There is no right way to organize,
but there is a right way to think about it: The overall effect of good organization should be to showcase the ideas.
– There are techniques that students can learn, ranging from simple tricks to sophisticated strategies.
6+1 Traits of Writing – Ruth Culham
Why do students struggle with organizing their writing?
• We look for a one-size-fits-all program.
– No one way to organize a paragraph or a whole paper can be right for every writing situation.
– Student writers need an array of organizational strategies from which to choose in order to make their ideas shine.
– Organization and ideas work hand in hand. To organize a text well, one must have meaty ideas that can be grouped logically to form a beginning, middle and end.
6+1 Traits of Writing – Ruth Culham
Style
Developmentally, students should have a solid foundation of strategies to narrow their focus, elaborate on ideas and organize their writing before style is fully developed.
Style• The choice, use and arrangement
of words and sentence structures that create tone and voice
– Choice, use and arrangement of words (exact language, striking language, natural language)
– Sentence structures (fluency – the rhythm and flow of sentences; variety of sentence length and structure)
– Tone (attitude of the author toward the audience and/or characters)
– Voice (individuality, perspective, expressiveness, sensitivity to audience, enthusiasm for a topic, confidence)
The Writing Process – A Universal Method
• Prewriting– Choosing a subject– Gathering details
• Drafting– Developing ideas
• Revising– Improving content and organization to clarify
or strengthen the idea (focus, content, organization, style)
• Editing– Making the text more readable and
understandable through correct use of conventions (grammar, mechanics, usage, sentence formation, spelling)
• Publishing– Sharing with your teacher, peers, friends,
family members and/or community
Cyclical and Recursive
http://www.ou.edu/special/owp/PageMill_Resources/process.gif
Possible Formats – Meet the needs of your content area.• Essay• Wiki• Blog post/response• Memo• Email (reminder, information exchange, recommendation, announcement)• Lab report• Letter (application, complaint, request, informative, promoting something)• Proposal• Trial (statement of defense, opening statement, closing statement)• Editorial• News release• Advertisement• Manual• Newsletter• Public service announcement• Evaluation• Journal• Analysis of data• Critique• Review• Postcard• Graph with written illustration• Debate statement
See http://www.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/pubtypes2003.html200541 for a variety of format types from the National Library of Medicine.
Gradual Release of ResponsibilityModel Share Guide Independent
Practice
Classroom Instruction in Action• Model the domain and mode.
– Provide expert models—expands access to writing beyond the student’s abilities.
– Provide student models.
• Share the responsibility.
– Write with your students to model writing strategies.
– Write in the chosen format to anticipate challenges.
– Create short pieces of writing that focus on the mode and domain; teacher scribes.
Classroom Instruction in Action continued
• Guide students toward success.
– Reinforce skills.
– Monitor student writing frequently and provide one-on-one conferencing opportunities.
– Engage student in questioning and discussion.
– Develop a piece of writing using the writing process.
– Provide time for students to revise the work of others.
– Provide time for students to revise their own work based on feedback or instruction.
– Encourage students to assess their own work based on the requirements.
Providing Feedback
What About Assessment?
• Assessment is not the end of the writing process. It is the bridge to revision.
– Provide specific feedback based on the domain.
– Build your own rubric based on the PSSA Writing Assessment Rubric or Focus Correction Areas
– Provide students with clear criteria for high performance.
Good assessment starts with a vision of success. – Rick Stiggins
Expected Outcomes: Building Level Benchmark Writing Assessment
• Teachers will be able to explain and apply mode specific PA Writing rubric to actual student papers.
• Teachers will be able to defend a score that they assign and assure inter-rater reliability.
• Teachers will understand how anchor papers can be used to assist in their decision–making.
• Teachers will score the student assessment and confer with their partners to judge inter-rater reliability.
Performance LevelsAdvanced• Reflects superior academic performance
Proficient• Reflects satisfactory academic
performance• Proficient is NOT prepared.
Basic• Reflects marginal academic performance
Below Basic• Reflects inadequate academic
performance
Watch Out for Rater Bias• Our purpose for administering the common writing
assessments is to achieve consistency in scoring practices from teacher to teacher and from grade level to grade level.
• Good scoring should be based on the rubric not on the rater’s attitude about scoring (Some raters hate to give poor scores. Others are extremely tough).
• Writing is thinking on paper and should not be scored according to cosmetics (handwriting).
• Longer is not necessarily better.
• Do not let personal preferences or preconceptions get in the way.
• Don’t assume at the beginning of a piece what the score might be. Read it through thoroughly, as some writing picks up along the way.
Consistency – PDE and DTSD
• PDE is utilizing a holistic scoring on the PSSA Writing Assessment administered to grades 5, 8, 11.
– Holistic scoring is based upon the belief that the whole is more than the sum of its parts, and the most valid assessment of writing will consider how all components work in harmony to achieve an overall effect (Spandell 2005).
– Students written work is assessed using the rubric and is rated holistically as a…4 3 2 1.
• Our local (district) assessments, utilize the domain-based scoring rubric or focus correction area scoring practices to help inform our teaching and student learning.
Models: Anchor Papers
• How can the Pennsylvania State released anchor papers be used as an assessment tool?
• Let’s take a look…
Shared Practice
• Domain Scoring Focus ContentOrganizationStyle
• What do you think?
Guided Practice
• Look at the sample paper, and score it based on the domains.
• Translate the domain scores into an holistic score.
History of DTSD Benchmark Assessment Practices• Students responded to grade specific
prompts.
• Teachers met in scoring sessions to read and score each essay (originally holistically then slow movement to domain based).
• The essays were scored by a second reader.
• Teachers discussed and resolved any differences in scoring.
• The paper was read by a third party scorer if consensus was not met (adjudication).
• Essays and scores were used to direct instructional needs in writing.
Relevant Writing Practice
What implications for
teaching and learning do
you recognize in this
process?
Writing-to-Learn
• Writing to help students get their ideas on paper and discover what they know about a topic.
• Informal writing to provide correct information in response to a particular question—promotes thought and is completed quickly
Writing-to-Learn Strategies
• Entry Slip/Bell Ringer
• Exit Slip/Ticket Out the Door
• Summarizing/The Short Summary
• Double-Entry Journal/Notebook
• Write-Around
• Freewriting/Focused Freewriting/ Non-stop Write
• Sentence/Passage Springboard
• Answer the Question!
Exit Slip/Ticket Out the Door
Every organization—every person—suffers to some degree form a gap between intention and action.
In paragraph form, explain how you will use one of the writing-to-learn activities in your classroom. How do you see this strategy impacting student achievement in your content area?
Thank you for your support in taking the first step in establishing common scoring practices at DTSD!
Resources• ASCD—Using Writing to Learn Across the Content Areas
• Jim Burke—Writing Reminders: Tools, Tips, and Techniques
• Barbara Fine Clouse—The Student Writer: Editor and Critic
• Ruth Culham—6+1 Traits of Writing
• Georgia Heard—The Revision Toolbox: Teaching Techniques that Work
• Barry Lane—The Reviser’s Toolbox
• Pennsylvania Literacy Framework http://www.pde.state.pa.us/reading_writing/lib/reading_writing/PaLiteracyFramework2000OpeningPages.pdf
• JoAnn Portalupi and Ralph Fletcher—Teaching the Qualities of Writing
• JoAnn Portalupi and Ralph Fletcher—Nonfiction Craft Lessons: Teaching Information Writing K – 8
• Prentice Hall’s Writing and Grammar: Communication in Action
• Laura Robb—Nonfiction Writing From the Inside Out: Writing Lessons Inspired by Conversations with Leading Authors
• Vicki Spandel—Books, Lessons, Ideas for Teaching the Six Traits: Writing at Middle and High School
• Write Source: A Guide to Writing, Thinking, and Learning
