Assessing Writing:
Two Approaches
As important as planning activities to help students
develop their writing skills is assessing their written
work. It is invaluable to both students, who can
learn from their errors, and teachers, who can check
the students' progress.
Plan
1- What to assess?
2- Why to assess?
3- How to assess?
1- What to assess?
5mns
Study the following statements and say what categories from
the following items they belong to: vocabulary- spelling –
grammar- genre – content – cohesion and coherence.
1- The subject matter of a book, speech or programme……….
2- A particular type or style of writing i.e., speech- letter……..
3- The rules in a language for changing the form of words and
joining them into sentences………..
4- The act of forming words correctly from individual
letters………
5- The words that people use when they are speaking or writing
about a particular subject…………
6- A link and logical sequencing of different ideas…….
15mns
2- Why to assess?
Whithin your group, fill in the GIVE ONE column with some
ideas about the purpose of writing assessment.
Walk around the room. Give one of your ideas to a partner from a
different group and get an idea from him/ her. Write it in the
GET ONE column and move to another partner from a different
group.
Give One
Get One
15mns
Purpose:
Provide feedback to improve student writing.
Teach students how to assess their own writing.
Monitor students progress on ongoing basis.
Demonstrate the effectiveness of instruction.
Make autonomous and self-regulated learners and writers.
3- How to assess?
What I Know
What I Want To
Learn
What I have Learnt
Watch the following video and identify the different
scoring methods of writing assessment.
Reorder the following words to get the write definition of each
method.
1- A specific/ subcategories/ breaks/ It/ a test-taker’s/ down into/
written text/ (grammar…)/ a number of/ gives/ and / each/ for/
rating.
Analytic Rubric
” It breaks a test-taker’s written text down into a number of
subcategories (grammar…) and gives a specific rating for
each“ H. Douglas Brown, 2001:241
5mns
2- overall/ which/ It/ to/ assigned/ an essay/ represents/ general/
assessment/ reader’s/ a/ is.
Holistic Rubric
” It is assigned to an essay which represents a reader’s general
overall assessment “ H. Douglas Brown, 2001:241
5mns
Correcting Written Work
What do you observe?
- Every mistake is corrected .
- Corrections written between the lines
- The work is covered in red
What’s your reaction as a learner?
- It can be very discouraging .
What do students learn from this kind of correction?
If everything is corrected, learners will probably look over
their work without thinking about any individual mistake.
This method does not involve them in any kind of learning
process.
Which of the following items are not a correction
technique?
Design a specific and reliable correction system.
 Reteaching the target point.
 Mark selectively (selective correction).
 Mark positively.
 Additional practice.
 Use a c1ear correction code.
10 mns
Correction Code
Symbol
Meaning
Punct.
Missing or wrong punctuation.
Cap.
Capitalization needed.
spel
Wrong spelling.
Prep.
Preposition missing.
→
V.
T.
SV.
Indentation. (The beginning of each paragraph should be indented.
Verb missing
Wrong verb tense
Subject verb agreement
Alternative Ways of Writing Assessment
Turn around the “Four Corners” and name each technique.
1- Self-assessment
………………………Students attempt to discover the problems, make
their own corrections and return their work to the teacher. The students feel
self-confident to reflect on their mistakes and make improvements to their
writing.
Peer-assessment
2- ………………………….Students
work in pairs, they exchange their
papers and attempt to correct each other's work. The teacher has to build in
an extra checking stage, as students will often not be able to provide
appropriate corrections.
Whole-class assessment
3- …………………………………..The
teacher select the common errors and
highlights them on the white board for the whole class . They continue to
correct their work either individually, in pairs or in small groups
10 mns
Teacher-assessment Once the students have corrected as much
4- ………………………..
they can, the teacher concentrate on the remaining problems rather than
just correction. Students need to understand how to make it right.