Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests:
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© 2013 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, on behalf of the WIDA Consortium
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
2
Analyzing Inventive Spelling
Term
Definition
Partial Word
Single sounds from a word or
two sounds from the reported
word are represented by letters
“bookbag”
At least the initial, middle, and
final sounds of the reported
word are represented by letters
“talk”
Phrase
A word (as defined above) and
at least one modifying word,
with evidence of word
boundaries
“bunny pretty”
Sentence
A phrase (as defined above)
including a subject and verb. A
sentence may or may not have
punctuation, capitalization, or
accurate inflection
“One day David lost his
backpack.”
Word
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Examples and Transcribed
words (in quotes)
“butterfly”
“office”
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Analyzing Inventive Spelling
Consider monosyllabic words as consisting of initial,
middle, and final sounds. Multisyllabic words may also
be represented with initial, middle, and final sounds for
each syllable.
Initial sound
Middle sound(s)
Final sound
dog
"d"
"aw" or "a"
"g"
bike
"b"
"ai"
"k"
tree
"tr" or "ch"
"ee"
—
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Analyzing Inventive Spelling
Sounds are represented by letters as in the rules of
regular English spelling.
English spelling system, however is highly irregular in
terms of letter-sound correspondences. So students
may:
Approximate the sounds: e.g., k for c, ai for i
Invert letters, e.g., d for b or vice versa, q for d or vice
versa
Omit letters; e.g., tak for talk
“talk”
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“office”
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Analyzing Inventive Spelling
Determine whether the student shows evidence
that he or she understands the regularity of
relationships between sounds and letters.
 Student should not simply be using arbitrary letters or
made-up written marks to indicate meaning.
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Part B Writing
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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LOW Score in Part B
Starting Point: E1
Sample
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Transcription
Explanation
Teacher,
backpack,
doctor
This student has written a
string of letters that does not
correspond to what he or she
wrote. This student does not
appear to be able to write
sounds he/she hears.
bookbag
The student only recognizes
the first sound of one word.
This student may be able to
start at Level 3, but to check
and to build the student’s
confidence, start at level 1.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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MID Score in Part B
Starting Point: E3
Sample
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Transcription
Explanation
Alex says to
the teacher
where you see
my backpack?
This student appears to
have some soundsymbol correspondence,
but no word boundaries.
In some cases, the
student uses one letter to
represent a word
(example: “seen” = “s”).
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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HIGH Score in Part B
Starting Point: E4/5
Sample
Transcription
Explanation
This student can clearly
Backpack,
teacher, nurse identify beginning, middle and
end sounds.
One day,
David lost
his backpack.
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This student is making
attempts at beginning, middle
and end sounds. He writes a Z
for an S in “lost” and “his”. The
second letter in the first word
may be an inverted “n”. This
student appears to be learning
word boundaries as well.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Quiz yourself!
Where will this student start in Part E? MID Start: E3
Sample
Transcription
Flower, Boy
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Explanation
The student does a good job of
identifying beginning, middle, and
end sounds in the word flower, but
the word “boy” is not as clear. It
appears that this student has
inverted the “b” so that it looks like
a “p” (which is fine for our
purposes of beginning /b/ sound),
but the student writes “ll” for the
/oy/ sound. This may be evidence
of the interlanguage effect, but
since this is a test of English
writing, it is not accepted at this
level.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Quiz yourself!
Where will this student start in Part E?
Sample
Transcription
Boy, girl, talk,
clock, doctor
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HIGH Start: E4/5
Explanation
At this age, it is normal for a
student to confuse the “B”
and the “D”. This student
also used “Oi” to represent
the “oy” sound in boy.
In other examples, this
student understands
beginning, middle and end
sounds.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Quiz yourself!
Where will this student start in Part E?
Sample
Transcription
teacher
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MID Start: E3
Explanation
This student successfully
produced the beginning and
middle sounds of the word
“teacher,” but it is unclear if the
student wrote a “u” or a “n” as
the final sound. In either case,
those sounds are not correct,
and this student has not
produced enough language to
comfortably start him at E4/5.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Part E Writing
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Leveled Task: Format &
Scoring Guidance
Consists of three sets of leveled tasks (E1, E2, E3)
E1: Tracing tasks
E2: Copying tasks
E3: Initial and final sounds tasks
Score rules for Leveled Tasks: Correct or Incorrect.
If the student completes a level successfully, move on to
the next level.
Note: Inventive spelling guidelines apply
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Writing Experience: Format
Challenges student to produce a sample of writing
associated with a “retelling” of the expository text.
Test administrator scaffolds the student’s Writing
Experience as appropriate to the student’s level by
continually narrowing down the demand of the writing
tasks –
“Can you write that [the story retell] here?”…
“Can you write that word here?”…
“Can you write any sounds from that word here?”…
“Can you write any letters from that word here?”
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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E1 – Tracing Task
Correct
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The student
has traced on
the lines.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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E1 – Tracing Task
Correct
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Though this student
has not traced on
the lines, still mark
this as correct. This
student is beyond
the tracing stage,
and can successfully
copy a word.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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E1 – Tracing Task
Incorrect
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This student
was unable to
stay on the
lines.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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E2- Copying Task
Correct
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Student clearly
copied the word
“rock.”
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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E2- Copying Task
Correct
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Student inverted
the “v” and the
“e,” which is
normal for
children at the
PreK-K levels.
Still mark as
correct.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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E2- Copying Task
Incorrect
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This student
has written a
random strand
of letters that do
not spell “rock.”
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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E3- Initial and Final Sounds Task
Correct
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This student
has correctly
demonstrated
both knowledge
of the
appropriate
initial sound as
well as correct
letter formation.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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E3- Initial and Final Sounds Task
Correct
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This student
has inverted a
“g” which is the
correct initial
sound in
“goose.”
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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E3- Initial and Final Sounds Task
Incorrect
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The student is
asked to produce
the /g/ sound for
“goose” and the
/m/ sound for
“mouse.” The
student writes a “c”
and an “r” or what
may be interpreted
as an “h.” None of
these answers are
acceptable.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Part E4/5
Writing Samples
Scored with the
Kindergarten Writing
Rubric
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Rubric score: 0
Sample
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Transcription
Explanation
girl
This student has
drawn a picture.
bookbag
The student only
produced one
letter.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Rubric score: 1
Sample
Transcription
Teacher,
backpack,
doctor
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Explanation
This student has
written a string of
letters that does
not correspond to
what he or she
wrote.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Rubric score: 2
Sample
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Transcription
Explanation
Boy
Teacher
This child
produced two clear
examples of letters
that are beginning
sounds.
nurse
This child was able
to produce two
sounds in one
word.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Rubric score: 3
Sample
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Transcription
Explanation
Backpack,
teacher,
nurse
This student was able
to write beginning,
middle, and ending
sounds in three words.
Teacher,
doctor
This student has very
good sound-symbol
correspondence, and
recognizes beginning,
middle and ending
sounds.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
30
Rubric score: 4
Sample
Transcription
When he lost
his backpack
Explanation
This is a clear phrase with
each word having all
sounds represented.
This student is making
One day,
David lost his attempts at beginning, middle
and end sounds in each word
backpack.
of the sentence. He writes a Z
for an S in “lost” and “his”. The
second letter in the first word
may be an inverted “n”. This
student appears to be learning
word boundaries as well.
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
31
Rubric score: 5
Sample
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Transcription
Explanation
David can’t
find his
backpack. He
tells his
teacher and
his teacher is
busy. His
teacher tells
David to go to
the nurse.
This sample has 3
complete
sentences, but
there is some
evidence of
interlanguage
effect: “vaquepaq”
for “backpack” and
“gees” for “his”
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Rubric score: 6
Sample
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Transcription
Explanation
David told the
playground
teacher have he
seen David’s
Backpack and
he told David
that he haven’t
seen David’s
backpack so
David went
back to the
classroom.
Though this is a run
on sentence, it
could be broken
down into 3
complete
sentences. This
resembles the
writing of a
Kindergarten aged
native English
speaker.
Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Practice!
With a partner, rate the writing samples in the packet
Make sure you are able to defend your decision!
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Sample 1
“Backpack, teacher”
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Sample 2
“David losing his backpack.”
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Sample 3
“David lost his backpack so he told the
teacher but she didn’t saw it so she told to
look in the nurse but she didn’t saw it.”
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Sample 4
“A rabbit likes to eat carrots and he jumps.
He goes in the tunnel. He shy of persons
and he runs fast.”
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Sample 5
“Amy saw a bus. Amy saw a spider”
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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Sample 6
“I like the wolf because it almost looks like a cat. I
like to catch a rabbit so he can be my pet.”
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Scoring the Kindergarten Writing Tests
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© 2013 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System, on behalf of the WIDA Consortium
www.wida.us