Improving Student Writing Skills - cse crafts

Improving Student Writing Skills
Practice Scoring
While using the seven traits to assess student writing
sounds daunting at first, with practice the technique can
actually prove less cumbersome than traditional grading.
Like any skill, you will need to get a couple of attempts
under your belt before it becomes comfortable. Included
are a few example papers with discussion of why they
earned the accompanying scores.
After exploring the examples, you may still want to
attempt the assessment process outside of classroom
pressure. The most useful practice technique is to recruit
an assessment partner, possibly a colleague also interested
in improving his/her use of the Traits of Good
Writing. Pick student writing to study, and assess it independently.
Once you have scored the writing without
collaboration, compare your scores and discuss.
Don’t worry if your scores do not match at first. This is a
learning process in which you will both be exploring the
nuances of the traits. Discussion of your disparities in
scores is as important, if not more important, than coming
to a consensus on what number each trait deserves.
Neither of you will be “wrong,” but by justifying your
score, you will gain experience with the language of the
traits and the issues that deserve certain scores.
As you read the following student work, jot down your
scores and comments. After you have done your own
assessment, flip to the suggested scores and comments.
Presentation is not assessed, because layout and handwriting/font
have been changed. Also, feel free to photocopy
the examples for distribution among a team of
seven-trait learners.
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