Improving Student Writing Skills - cse crafts

Improving Student Writing Skills
mentioned only in a few places and refers to the numbers
you will put on a report card. Of course, assessment is
frequently a step on the path to grading. If, for example,
a student demonstrates a significant deficiency in one
aspect of writing, you may not need to assign this deficiency
a specific number. Rather, you will be content in
assessing this student’s area of instructional need, which
you will then target with directed lessons. In most classrooms,
grading remains a tried-and-true method for communicating
overall performance, but you will need to be
more specific for the purposes of instruction.
Trait-Based Assessment
Many states have now adopted trait-based assessment.
In fact, Suzie Boss (2002), writing for the Northwest
Regional Labs notes that, “the trait framework has
spread . . . to every state and to many countries around
the world” (para. 5). Dahl and Farnan (1998) write that,
“As an assessment system, [trait-based assessment] offers
information that can best assist instruction because each
element in a writing is evaluated separately, with each
characteristic marked on a scale that indicates how well
it has been presented” (p. 113).
The Traits of Good Writing is basically a rubric for
assessing writing, although you may also use the traits
for instruction and discussion. In this method, teachers
separate writing into its components of Voice,
Organization, Sentence Fluency, Ideas, Word Choice,
Conventions, and sometimes Presentation, scoring each
trait from 1 to 5 (or 1–4 or 1–6, depending on your district).
Trait-based assessment allows an objective measure
of writing, while helping you to pinpoint the areas
where each student could improve (Steineger, 1996).
In addition, by scoring each trait independently of the
others, you may also give students positive feedback on
their areas of strength (Isernhagen & Kozisek, 2000).
68
http://www.books-foru.blogspot.com