{"id":12724,"date":"2021-02-28T20:16:45","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T20:16:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theteacherstudio.com\/?p=12724"},"modified":"2021-02-28T20:30:44","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T20:30:44","slug":"quick-writing-assessments-to-guide-instruction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theteacherstudio.com\/quick-writing-assessments-to-guide-instruction\/","title":{"rendered":"Quick Writing Assessments to Guide Instruction"},"content":{"rendered":"

More often than not, writing assessment is something we dread\u00a0 Whether it’s self-imposed restrictions or in-depth rubrics and checklists that take forever to interpret and use–writing assessment is often something we push to the back of our “to do” list.\u00a0 It simply isn’t very glamorous.\u00a0 It isn’t very fun. Quick writing assessments seem like a dream, right?<\/p>\n

\"Easy<\/a><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the importance of assessing writing cannot be downplayed!\u00a0 Without knowing where our students are, it’s hard to know where to go next with our planning.\u00a0 That being said…<\/p>\n

\"Stress-free<\/a><\/p>\n

Increase the frequency of assessment<\/h3>\n

When we create these huge and lofty writing tasks and create assessment tools to match, it makes it impossible to assess often.\u00a0 When we do a huge six week unit and grade only a culminating project, students go far too long without specific feedback.\u00a0 By sprinkling in several shorter (like seriously–I give them EIGHT minutes to write) assessments throughout the unit, I can quickly keep my finger on the pulse of how my students are doing. Eight minutes of class time and maybe 45 total minutes of grading?\u00a0 Totally doable.\u00a0 You can even pick just one or two things you want to look for at a time–maybe you are going to give students ONLY a score for punctuation.\u00a0 Or capitals.\u00a0 Or writing in complete sentences.\u00a0 When you keep things short, it takes less class time AND less scoring time.<\/p>\n

Give faster writing feedback<\/h3>\n

When we give a writing assessment and it takes us forever to grade, there is nothing useful for students.\u00a0 We may get a grade for report cards–but it certainly doesn’t help students.\u00a0 When we can give students quick access to an easy-to-understand checklist, they can take that information and use it.\u00a0 If I see my students aren’t capitalizing well, I want them to work on it TODAY, not when the unit is over.\u00a0 By then, they are checked out and ready for the next thing!<\/p>\n

I wanted a down and dirty checklist–not complicated rubrics–to help me assess faster.\u00a0 I am a big fan of grids\/lists for assessing.\u00a0 They are visual and fast.\u00a0 Look how easy this is to interpret!\u00a0 I’ve also done something as fast as a post it with a score–when I pass back writing, I tell students that their score (for me–4, 3, 2, 1 but it could be anything) is ONLY based on their capital letters.\u00a0 We can then look back at their writing and try to find places to improve.\u00a0 These scores can SO quickly go into my binder to help me pull small groups.<\/p>\n