Reviewing Student Writing

1. Reviewing Student Writing A Brief Introduction to Accurate and Consistent Evaluation of Student Writing Bill Amorosi, Consultant to the Project, Former Teacher and Curriculum Coordinator, Saugus Public Schools billamorosi@gmail.com

2. Teacher-Student Collaboration • Analysis of high-quality writing is an essential tool for students and teachers to use as they collaborate to improve student writing performance. • Improvement of student writing depends upon teachers and students understanding and using a common set of evaluative tools.

3. Holistic Evaluation • Assigns a single score by judging a piece of work as a wholeacross multiple criteria. • Describes an overall sense or impression of the quality of a piece of work looked at as a whole. • Often provides summative evaluation after a process of formative feedback regarding various skills.

4. Evaluation Tools Scoring Guides/Rubrics Anchor Papers Are sample essays for each score point on a scoring guide. Embody essential performance characteristics of student writing. Are where the standard for scoring RESIDES. Serve as the primary means of consistent scoring. • Provide a scale for sets of scoring criteria. • Serve as abstract, skeletal descriptions of scoring standards. • Serve as an entry point for consistent scoring.

5. Categories of Criteria for Evaluation of Student Writing Organization and Development of Ideas Knowledge of Language and Conventions Correct sentence structure Correct grammar Correct word usage Correct mechanics • Organization/focus • Degree/depth of development • Details/examples • Language/style

6. Some Specific Criteria for Evaluation of Student Writing Development and Organization Style, Usage, Sentence Structure, and Voice The student work: Employs mostly effective, precise usage (vocabulary, word choice, and word combination). Employs a mostly skillful, purposeful, and effective variety of sentence structures. Establishes and maintains some sense of style. Shows some evidence of writer’s voice. The student work: • Is very well developed with a single focus, although sometimes with minor flaws. • Progresses logically from beginning to end. • Is developed with strong, clear, and convincing details, examples, reasoning, text-based evidence, and/or description. • Is unified by strongly and purposefully connected clusters of ideas that create a sense of completeness and focus. • Is developed in a manner consistently appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

7. Student Writing SampleGrade 6, Argument • “This argument was written as homework after a class in which grade 6 students viewed a movie titled Benchwarmers and discussed how movie writers and producers promote smoking. The letter is addressed to the producer of a film in which smoking appears.”* • This student work appears on page 36 of Appendix C of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. • “Each of the samples [in Appendix C] exhibits at least the level of quality required to meet the Writing standards for that grade.”* • READ THE PASSAGE AND COMPLETE THE ACTIVITY THAT FOLLOWS. • *Appendix C Dear Mr. Sandler, Did you know that every cigarette a person smokes takes seven minutes off their life? I mentioned this because I just watched the movie, Benchwarmers, and I noticed that Carlos smoked. Why did you feel the need to have one of the characters smoke? Did you think that would make him look cool? Did you think that would make him look older? It did neither of those things. As a matter of fact, I think it made him look stupid and not very cool. Especially when he put out a cigarette on his tongue.

8. Student Writing SampleGrade 6, Argument If I were producing a movie, I would want my characters to be strong, healthy and smart. I would not have any smokers in my movies for many reasons. The first reason is it sets a bad example for children. An estimated 450,000 Americans die each year from tobacco related disease. In fact, tobacco use causes many different types of cancers such as lung, throat, mouth, and tongue. Another reason not to promote smoking is it ages and wrinkles your skin. Who wants to look 75 if you are only 60? It turns your teeth yellow and may lead to gum disease and tooth decay. Lastly, smoking is a very expensive habit. A heavy smoker spends thousands of dollars a year on cigarettes. I can think of better things to spend money on. So Mr. Sandler, I urge you to take smoking out of all future movies you produce. Instead of having your characters smoke have them do healthy things. That will set a positive influence for children instead of poisoning their minds. Thanks for reading my letter. I hope you agree with my opinion. Sincerely, __________ P.S. I love your Chanukah song.

9. Activity On the sheet provided, note evidence from the passage that demonstrates that it exhibits at least the level of quality required to meet the writing standards for grade 6. Use the broad features below as a guide. • Organization/focus • Degree/depth of development • Details/examples • Language/style Example The writer uses effective rhetorical questions: “Did you think that would make him look cool?”