How to Assess the Writing Skills of Students

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How to Assess the Writing Skills of Students

Almost teachers use assessment for identifying strengths and weaknesses, planning instruction to fit diagnosed needs, evaluating instructional activities, giving feedback, monitoring performance, and reporting progress. In teaching writing skill, the teachers have two responsibilities toward the students. First responsibility is to provide opportunities for writing and encouragement for students who attempt to write. And second responsibility is to promote students' success in writing. The writing process and product can be assessed by using Curriculum-based assessments. The writing process can be assessed through observational and self-observational checklists. While the writing product can be evaluated on five product factors: fluency, content, conventions, syntax, and vocabulary.

There are some ways to assess the process of writing :

Writing experts have proposed as few as two (Elbow, 1981) and as many as nine (Frank, 1979). Englert, Raphael, Anderson, Anthony, and Stevens (1991) provided a model of a five-step writing process using the acronym POWER: Plan, Organize, Write, Edit, and Revise. Each step has its own substeps and strategies that become more sophisticated as the students become more mature as writers, accommodating their style to specific text structures and purposes of writing. Assessment of the writing process can be done through observation of students as they go through the steps of writing. Having students assess their own writing process is also important for two reasons. First, self-assessment allows students an opportunity to observe and reflect on their own approach, drawing attention to important steps that may be overlooked. Second, self-assessment following a conceptual model like POWER is a means of internalizing an explicit strategy, allowing opportunities for the student to mentally rehearse the strategy steps. Figure 1 is a format for both self-observation and teacher observation of the writing process following the POWER strategy. Similar self-assessments or observation checklists could be constructed for other conceptual models of the writing process.

There are also some ways to assess the product of writing:

An effective writing process should result a good writing product. When various conceptual models of writing are compared side by side (Isaacson, 1984) five product variables seem to emerge: fluency, content, conventions, syntax, and vocabulary.

1. Fluency

The first thing that might be assess toward the beginning writer is fluency. They should be able to translate one’s ideas into their own words. As concepts of print and fine motor skills develop, the student should become more proficient at writing down words and sentences into compositions of gradually increasing length. Then children try to relate their experiences in writing using invented spelling. As they begin to construct little stories they explore spelling patterns and develop new language patterns. A simple curriculum-based measure of fluency is total number of words written during a short writing assignment. When fluency is the focus, misspellings, poor word choice, and faulty punctuation are not considered.

2. Content

Content is the second factor to consider in the writing product. Content features include the composition's organization, cohesion, accuracy (in expository writing), and originality (in creative writing). General questions the classroom teacher can ask regarding a composition's organization include:

Is there a good beginning sentence?
Is there a clear ending?
Is there a logical sequence of subtopics or events?
Cohesion questions include:

Does the writer stick to the topic?
Is it clear what words like it, that, and they refer to?
Does the writer use key words that cue the reader to the direction of the discourse (First… , Then… , Therefore… , On the other hand… )?

Originality is assessed through questions like:
Did the writer attempt humor?
Did the writer present a unique point of view?

Analytical scales are the best way to lend some objectivity to evaluation of content. One can choose from a general rating scale, appropriate to almost any writing assignment, or one tailored to a specific genre or text structure. Spandel and Culham (1993) developed an analytical trait scoring guide for six aspects of writing, three of which address content: Ideas and content, organization, and voice. (Voice refers to the author's own unique personality, style, and honesty reflected in the writing.) Each of these traits is scored on a five-point scale. For example, organization is scored using the following guidelines:

5 The organization enhances and showcases the central idea or storyline. The order, structure or presentation of information is compelling and moves the reader through the text.
3 The organizational structure is strong enough to move the reader through the text without undue confusion
1 The writing lacks a clear sense of direction. Ideas, details or events seem strung together in a loose or random fashion-or else there is no identifiable internal structure. (Spandel & Culham, 1993)

3. Conventions

There are some standard conventions of written English. They are correct spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar and legible handwriting. Counting correct word sequences is one quantitative method of measuring and monitoring students' use of conventions. Correct word sequences (CWS) are two adjacent, correctly spelled words that are grammatically acceptable within the context of the phrase (Videen, Deno, & Marston, 1982). Capitalization and punctuation also can be considered within the sequence. To calculate the proportion of CWS:

Place a caret (^) over every correct sequence between the two words that form the sequence.
Place a large dot between every incorrect sequence. Place dots before and after misspelled words.
Example: o my ^ dog o chasd o the ^ ball^.
The first sequence is not comprised of two words but marks how the sentence was begun. (Sentence beginning to first word my is marked as an incorrect sequence because the M is not capitalized.) The last sequence is the last word to period, question mark, or other appropriate ending punctuation.
To control for length of composition either (a) time the writing sample for 3 minutes (the student may continue writing after a mark is made indicating the last word written in the 3-minute period) and/or (b) divide the number of CWS by the total number of sequences (correct and incorrect), which gives the proportion of CWS.

4. Syntax

Powers and Wilgus (1983) examined three parameters of syntactic maturity: (a) variations in the use of sentence patterns, (b) first expansions (six basic sentence patterns formed by the addition of adverbial phrases, infinitives, and object complements, and the formation of simple compound sentences), and (c) transformations that result in relative and subordinate clauses. Adapting Power and Wilgus's analysis of patterns suggests a simple schema for evaluating the syntactic maturity of a student's writing:

Fragment : A group of words that does not make a complete sentence
Examples: His old shirt. Nina and Fred too.
Level 1 Repetitious use of a single pattern (simple sentences)
Example: I like my horse. I like my dog. I like my kitty. I like to feed my kitty.
Level 2 Use of a variety of simple sentence patterns.
Examples: I have a new toy. (S-V-O) It is big. (S-Vbe -Adj) It came in the mail. (S-V-PP)
Level 3 First expansions: (a) addition of an adverbial or gerund phrase, or (b) the making of a compound sentence by combining two simple sentences with the word and.
Examples: Our baby sitter sleeps all the time. To go faster, we push it. I ate the cookie and my brother ate the candy bar.
Level 4 Complex sentences (transformations in which one sentence is embedded within another as a subordinate clause)
Examples: The man wants to live where there is no pollution. Since John was late, we had to start without him.

5. Vocabulary

The words used in a student's composition can be evaluated according to the uniqueness or maturity of the words used in the composition. Both quantitative and qualitative methods can be used to evaluate vocabulary. Quantitative methods include calculating the use of unrepeated words in relation to the total number of words, such as Morris and Crump's (1982) corrected type-token ratio. A simpler classroom-based method of looking at vocabulary is to simply make note of words used repetitiously (over-used words) as well as new and mature words the student uses.
Example: Over-Used Words: New Mature Words