WRITING ASSESSMENTS
WEBINAR
Robert W. Frantum-Allen
Objectives


Overview of Writing
Assessments
Handwriting
 HWT


and Checklist
Spelling
Writing CBM
Handwriting Assessments
Handwriting with out Tears Memory
1. Omitting the letter/number is
a memory error.
2. Writing an unrecognizable
letter/number (like a squiggle)
is a memory error.
3. Writing the wrong
letter/number (lowercase f for
capital F or vice versa) is a
memory error.
4. Lowercase i, j without the
dot is a memory error.
Memory
5. A letter or number that is
reversed/backward
6. A letter that uses wrong size
- Oo, Ww, Ss
7. A letter in the wrong place Pp, y
Orientation
8. Reversals, or backward
letters are orientation errors.
No orientation error for:
9. Symmetrical
letters/numbers. They cannot
be reversed and are not
scored.
Placement
10. A letter/number (or part) that should be
on the baseline but is outside the gray area
(more than 1/16” above or below the line) is
a placement error.
a. Letter/number parts that should
be on the line but are above the
gray area
b. Letter/number parts that should
be on the line but are below the
gray area
Note: Measure questionable placement.
Line up the 2nd Grade Placement Tool with
the writing line (not the letter).
Sentence
11. Not using a capital to begin is a
sentence error.
12. Mixing capital and lowercase letters is a
sentence error.
13. Putting too much space between letters
in a word (w r o n g) is a sentence error.
14. Putting words too close is a sentence
error.
15. Forgetting ending punctuation is a
sentence error.
Name
You will not mark errors for this category.
Instead, note the stage of development.
Does the student use:
- All capitals (CHRIS)
- Transitioning mix (ChRis)
- Title case (Chris)
Other Concerns
Formation- starting at the bottom and moving up
Size- too large for grade level
Neatness
Speed- too slow and too fast
Posture- slumped, feed unsupported,
Pencil Grip- awkward grip
Helper hand- doesn’t use this hand to hold the
paper
Other- Cognitive concerns
On-line Scoring System
http://www.hwtears.com/hwt/online-tools/screener
Report
Handwriting Screening Checklist
•Free writing or short constructed writing on single lined paper
•Have the student write the capital alphabet, lower case alphabet and
the numbers on single lined paper
•Dictate to the students the phrase “The quick brown fox jumps over the
lazy dog.” If the student is too young for dictation, then have them copy
the phrase. The phrase contains all the letters of the English alphabet.
Handwriting Screening Checklist
Spelling Inventory
Analysis of Spelling Errors
Spelling errors are a rich source of information about language processing (Masterson and
Apel, 2000)
Substitution, omitting or changing
the order of sounds in a word
Weak phonological skills
Strong phonological awareness
and having trouble remembering
letter and letter patterns.
Weak orthographic skills
Lacks stable spelling in multiple
syllable or multiple morpheme
words
Weak morphological and/or
syllable skills
Masterson, J., and Apel, K. (2000) Spelling assessment: charting a path to optimal intervention. Topics in
Language Disorders, 20(3), 50-66
Grading a Spelling Inventory
1. What is their stage of spelling development?
-Emergent (Grade pre-k to middle of 1)
-Letter Name (Grade K to middle of 2)
-Within Word Pattern (Grade 1 to middle of 4)
-Syllables and Affixes (Grade 3-8)
-Derivational Relations (Grade 5-12)
2. Error Analysis to determine the number of
phonological (disphonetic) and/or orthographic
errors.
-1-3rd grade phonological and orthographic errors
are expected based on the instruction and
experience of this age group
-After 3rd grade phonological errors should be
greatly reduced
Clues about their psychological
processing ability and/or
instruction received
-Emergent to Letter name- possible
phonological/orthographic processing
errors
-Syllable and Affixes and Derivational
Relations might hint at lack of
morphological and syllable knowledge and
might indicate a masked
phonological/orthographical processing
errors
Clues about their psychological
processing ability and/or
instruction received
-After 3rd grade, if more than 50% of the
errors are phonological in nature then there
might be a possible phonological
processing concerns
-After 3rd grade, if more than 50% of the
errors are orthogprahic with few
phonological errors then possible
orthographic processing or lack of
instruction in spelling
-If morpheme spelling are inconsistent then
possible lack of instruction in morphology
Directions




give the screeners just like you give a spelling test,
however students do not study the words.
say the words two times clearly, without emphasis on a
particular sounds or syllable
you do not need to use them in a sentence (we are not
looking at their word context skills, just their
phonological/orthographic, syllable and morphological
skills)
if it looks like a student is stuck at a level, consider
stopping but make sure you have enough words to
analyze for phonological or orthographic erros.
Determine the Stage of Spelling
Development
This puts him at the
letter name-early
stage
for
each
correct
feature
-Circle
the
incorrect
feature
-total
only the
words
asked to
spell
Final
consonant is
mostly right
Began to
make
mistakes
with short
vowels
What was the latest skill
they got mostly right? When
did they start to miss the
critical feature?
What stage is this
child at?
Grading a Spelling Inventory
Practice
Determining the type of errors
Spelling
Word
Sal
Les
Forck
Sip
smop
Cond
Flot
Driv
Spoon
Sell
Less
Fork
Slip
Shop
Coin
Float
Drive
Spon
Phonoloigcal
Orthographic
Examples Alan
rd
3
Grade
What does Alan’s spelling inventory
tell us…



Most of his errors are orthographic- he doesn’t have
a phonological processing problems
The type of orthographic errors are expected for
his grade level based on what is expected for 3rd
grade according to the state standards
He needs instruction on long vowel spellings, variant
vowels, inflectional morphemes and unaccented final
syllables
Jean
th
5
Grade
What does Jean’s spelling inventory
tell us




For a 5th grader Jean has a profound phonological
processing disorder, which is why she is not able to
connect phonemes and graphemes
She cannot distinguish long and short vowel sounds
and spelling
She might be lacking some instruction beyond the
26 letters of the alphabet, needs instruction in
digraphs and vowel teams
Relative strength with consonant blends
Grammar Inventory
TMG
Check the grade level
expectations to
determine is this is a
problem
Parts of Speech:
Knowledge
Subject/Predicate
Identification: Knowledge
Sentence types :
Knowledge
Sentence Identification:
Knowledge
Helps to determine what to teach
TMG
If there are NO grade
level expectations then
TEACH IT!
CLOZE- hints at a
processing disorder
Higher-level
reasoning: finding
evidence, judging
perspective,
synthesizing or
elaboration, having
a new idea
Self-regulation: revising,
Automatic
Pilot
employing strategies,
setting goals, managing
attention, taking
perspective of the
reader
Writing CBM
Written Expression CBM

Writing CBM
 Total
Words Written
 Words Spelled Correctly
 Correct Writing Sequence

Spelling CBM
 Correct
Letter Sequence
Writing CBM


The student is given a writing prompt, one minute to
plan and then three minutes to write for the CBM
and a chance to finish writing to be graded by a
rubric
The student’s writing is scored as total words written,
total words spelled correctly and correct writing
sequence
Rubric looks at typical writing composition skills and
handwriting
Writing CBM
Writing
Total Words Written, Spelling, Syntax, Semantics and
Handwriting
Administration
Time
1 minute to plan and 3 minutes to write, additional writing
time to complete a story
Administration
Schedule
First grade – Twelfth grade
Score
1 point for each words written, one point for each correct
writing sequence, one point for each word spelled correctly,
and rubric scoring
Wait Rule
No wait rule
Discontinue Rule
No discontinue rule
Writing CBM: Standard Directions
Handout: “How to Conduct a Writing CBM”
1. Provide students with a pencil and piece of lined paper or writing notebook.
2. Select an appropriate story starter.
3. Say: “Today I want you to write a story. I am going to read a sentence to you first and then
I want you to compose a short story about what happens. You will have 1 minute to think
about what you will write and 3 minutes to write your story. Remember to do you best
work. If you do not know how to spell a word, you should guess. Are there any
questions? Put your pencils down and listen. For the next minute, think about …. (insert
your story starter)”
4. After reading the story starter, begin your stopwatch and allow 1 minute for the student(s) to
think. (Monitor student so that they do not begin writing.) After 30 seconds say; “You should
be thinking about…(insert your story starter).” At the end of 1 minute restart your stopwatch
for 3 minutes and say, “Now begin writing.”
5. Monitor students’ attention to the task. Encourage student to work if they are not writing.
6. After 90 seconds say; “You should be writing about … (insert your story starter).
7. At the end of 3 minutes indicate on the student paper with a ] but allow the student to finish
writing. The write CBM will be graded up to the ]. The remainder of the paper will be needed
when grading on the writing rubric.
Scoring Writing CBM
How to score writing CBM
1.
Count the total number of words written to obtain
the total words written (TWW)
2.
Count the total number of words spelled correctly
to obtain the words spelled correctly (WSC) score
3.
Count the total number of correct writing
sequences (CWS) score
Determining the Total Words Written

Underline any words that are produced in the writing
sample (even if the word is misspelled or is a nonsense
word). Find the sum the sum of the total words written.
Hyphenated words where each morpheme can stand alone
should be counted as a word (mother-in-law = 3 words)
 Hyphenated words where each morpheme can’t stand
alone should be counted as 1 word (re-evaluation)
 Abbreviation: Commonly used abbreviations should be
counted as words (Mr., Mrs., T.V.)
 Story Titles and Endings that are written in the title or the
ending should be counted in the TWW
 Numbers and symbols that are not spelled out should NOT
be counted as words (5, 31, %, &)

Total Words Written
TWW
30
Total Words Written
DPS CBM Benchmark Guidelines for SLD
Eligibility Determination
The score for fall 4th grade was 30
According to the score where did the student fall
for TWW for fall 4th grade?
At or Above Benchmark?
 Below Benchmark?
 Well Below Benchmark?

Determining the Words Spelled
Correctly (WSC)

WSC refers to the number of correctly spelled
words in the writing sample, REGARDLESS of the
context in which they are used. Incorrectly spelled
words should be circled. WSC is calculated by
subtracting the total number of errors (circled
words) from the Total Words Written (TWW)
Determining the Words Spelled
Correctly (WSC)






Abbreviations must be spelled correctly
Each Morpheme counted individually in a hyphenated word must be
spelled correctly. If the morpheme cannot stand alone and part of
that word is spelled incorrectly, the entire word is counted as incorrect.
Titles and endings should be counted in the WSC
Capitalization rules: Proper nouns must be capitalized unless that
word is also a common noun. Capitalization of the first word in the
sentence is not required for the word to be spelled correctly. Others
words are counted as correct even if they are capitalized incorrectly
within the writing sample
Letters that have been written reversed are not counted as errors
unless the reversal causes the word to be spelled incorrectly (p, q, d,
b, n, u)
Contractions are counted as WSC as long as the apostrophe is in the
correct place
Words Spelled Correctly
30-7=23
WSC
Words Spelled Correctly
DPS CBM Benchmark Guidelines for SLD
Eligibility Determination
The score for fall 4th grade was 23
According to the score where did the student fall
for WSC for fall 4th grade?
At or Above Benchmark?
 Below Benchmark?
 Well Below Benchmark?

Determining the Correct Writing
Sequence (CWS)
A correct Writing Sequence (CWS) is a pair of adjacent,
correctly spelled words that are acceptable within the context
of the written phrase. CWS takes into account punctuation,
syntax, semantics, spelling, and capitalization. When scoring
CWS, a caret (^) is used to mark each correct word sequence.
A space is implied at the beginning of the sentence.
 Place a caret (^) between words that are (1)mechanically
(spelled correctly, appropriate capitalization, (2) semantically,
and (3) syntactically correct; calculate the sum of the number
of carets = CWS
 There are many rules for CWS! Please refer to page 3 and 4
in the How to Conduct a Writing CBM (yellow) handout

Determining the Correct Writing
Sequence (CWS)
^The ^dog ^is ^big. ^
^The ^dog ^is ^big
the ^dog ^is ^big. ^
CWS=5 Perfect
CWS=4 Punctuation is missing
CWS=4 Missing capitalization
Rules for Scoring
See Handout for Details

Spelling: Words must be spelled correctly
CWS
8
CWS
3
Rules for Scoring
See Handout for Details

Capitalization: Beginning of sentences, proper nouns
counted, incorrectly capitalized are incorrect
CWS
5
CWS
3
CWS
Rules for Scoring
See Handout for Details

Capitalization: Beginning of sentences, proper nouns
counted, incorrectly capitalized are incorrect
CWS
3
CWS
4
Rules for Scoring
See Handout for Details

Punctuation: At the end of sentences, commas not
counted unless in a series, where they must be used
correctly, other punctuation not counted
CWS
12
CWS
8
Rules for Scoring
See Handout for Details

Punctuation: At the end of sentences, commas not
counted unless in a series, where they must be used
correctly, other punctuation not counted
CWS
8
CWS
7
Rules for Scoring
See Handout for Details

Syntax: Must be syntactically correct to be counted.
Words that begin with a conjunction are correct
CWS
8
CWS
5
Rules for Scoring
See Handout for Details

Semantics: Semantically correct
CWS
5
CWS
4
Correct Writing Sequence
15 CWS
DPS CBM Benchmark Guidelines for SLD
Eligibility Determination
The score for fall 4th grade was 15
According to the score where did the student fall
for WSC for fall 4th grade?
At or Above Benchmark?
 Below Benchmark?
 Well Below Benchmark?

Writing Rubric
Primary
Intermediate/secondary
Extension of the Writing CBM