Scribd
Upload
37 views

Writing Assessment

This writing assessment examines a writing sample from a 6-year-old first grade student named Alex. The assessment found that Alex understands basic writing conventions like left-to-right orientation and capitalization. However, Alex struggles with verb tense agreement and often misses silent letters in words. Based on these findings, the teacher plans to provide mini lessons on verb tenses and reinforcing word study patterns to help improve Alex's writing.

Uploaded by

Christine OBrien
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
37 views

Writing Assessment

This writing assessment examines a writing sample from a 6-year-old first grade student named Alex. The assessment found that Alex understands basic writing conventions like left-to-right orientation and capitalization. However, Alex struggles with verb tense agreement and often misses silent letters in words. Based on these findings, the teacher plans to provide mini lessons on verb tenses and reinforcing word study patterns to help improve Alex's writing.

Uploaded by

Christine OBrien
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Christine OBrien

Writing Assessment

Introduction of the child and setting

Alex* is a six-year-old boy in Ms. Anyteacher’s first grade class. He is a hardworking student

who is always eager to ask and answer questions. His creativity flourishes in everything he does.

He likes to write, sometimes elaborate, sometimes witty, and sometimes nonsensical writing

pieces that are always enjoyable to read.

The purpose of the assessment

The purpose of this assessment was to take a deep look into Alex’s writing abilities. Writing

assessments can be windows into comprehension, spelling abilities, reading abilities, et cetera.

By assessing writing, I can also assess the progress of the student in comparison to his personal

growth as well as in comparison to himself over a period of time. Interpreting a writing sample is

a great opportunity to become a better teacher.

Methodology for using the assessment tool

For this assessment, I asked the entire class to perform a free writing activity. Together, we made

a list of things we could write during free writing (poems, lists, stories, letters/cards, etc.). The

children understood that they could write anything and it would not be graded, I would just like

to read it. They understood that the piece would later be returned to them (or the recipient of a

letter/card). The students had unlimited paper and about 15 minutes to perform the task. I did not

have a student in mind before they performed the task; I waited to see who had a writing sample

that would best suit the assignment.


Description of your findings

Alex wrote a short, two and a half sentence story about a pirate and a fisherman. The story

remains unfinished because Alex ran out of time, but it still gave insight into Alex’s writing

abilities. As most first graders do, he understands left to right orientation. He writes correctly

and phonetically spelled words, and always capitalizes the first letters of his sentences. One of

his biggest errors Alex makes is verb-tense agreement throughout his story. Although this is a

more eloquent technique, he would most likely benefit from a mini lesson concerning tense

agreement. Alex also often misses silent letters within words, not thinking of the word study

pattern but rather the phonetic spelling in words such as catch (cach), bucket (buket) and there

(ther).

Discussion of how you would use these findings to inform instruction

Based upon my findings, I might perform a mini lesson involving verb-tense agreement. I would

explain how some stories take place in the future, some take place in the present, and some take

place in the past. I will explain that the stories need to stick to the past, present, or future and

rarely do they take place in both or all three. The lesson will elaborate on using one tense in a

story. Although the lesson may be too far advanced for the class, it may benefit students like

Alex who enjoy writing. I may also reinforce many of the word study patterns Alex and his

classmates have learned, especially ones with silent letters such as catch, bucket and there. Alex

would benefit from a practice lesson on using certain word patterns rather than phonetic

spellings.

You might also like