In every classroom, there is always one student who finishes before everyone else, aptly named Mr. or Miss “I’m Done”.

Yet, they are not done, especially in a writing classroom.

These students are from three camps – the perfectionists, those lacking in spirit and those that don’t know what to fix.

When I say lacking in spirit, I mean that they are not motivated to look over their writing to make changes.

The perfectionist, also does not want to make changes because they are perfect.

Those who don’t know what to fix cannot make changes cause they have no idea what they would change.

These types of students cannot be changed over night.

Yet, the fix is the same for all three.

There needs to be an expectation stated in your room where students look over a criteria list and assess what their writing has and what it needs.

This needs to be modeled by teachers and rewarded.

Rewarding changes means that student work is shared often in the process of writing.

A student might share a revised beginning, a revised sentence, a reordering of ideas, revised dialogue or a revised ending.

All revision, edits, changes need to be celebrated in order to defeat the “one and done” approach.

Perhaps keep a record of individual changes in a document. This might provide the encouragement that they need.

Other ideas include a one column rubric, goal setting, breaking tasks down and comparing their current writing to past work.

As I mentioned in a previous post, it is also important to show students what you mean by adding details.

The reality is, in the writing classroom you are not done, you’ve only just begun.

Until Next Time,

Coach Clark

How do I assess this piece of writing?

Assessment is not just about the final piece.

Assessment is at the beginning, the middle and the end of a writing piece.

Before students begin a writing piece, students are pre-assessed as to what they already know about that type of writing.

For example, if students are beginning a story writing unit, have them write a story without assistance.  This unassisted writing piece is a pre-assessment.

• What do the students already know how to do?
• What do the students still need to learn based on grade level outcomes?
• Which students will need scaffolds to produce grade level writing?
• Which students will need accommodations to produce grade level writing?

The answers to these questions form the basis of your instruction.

The answers to these questions will determine the focus of your whole group mini lessons and guided writing.

The answers to these questions also help you to co-create a criteria list for their writing assignment. This criteria list is a target for their writing piece.

The answers to these questions also inform how you are going to differentiate for your class of diverse learners.

As students are planning, drafting, revising and editing, the assessment is formative, ongoing.  Formative assessment is assessment throughout the writing process. This assessment informs your teaching and their learning. Confer with students to understand how they are matching the standards or expectations.

• Are the students demonstrating knowledge of those grade level skills and processes, if not, how can you assist them?

The summative assessment on the final product or writing piece should not be a surprise to your students. The students should be given the criteria at the beginning of the writing process on how they will be assessed summatively. Ideally this criteria list is co-created.

When teachers ask me, “how can I assess this?”

I know that teachers are thinking about assessment as an event at the end of writing, not as part of a bigger process.

When teachers ask the question “how can I assess this?”

I know that teachers have not chosen their targets for assessment and have likely not communicated the assessment targets to their students.

So know you know the answer, any more questions? 🙂

As usual, let me know your questions and I will try answer them in later posts.

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