Points out the disadvantages and limitations of grading all student writing. Offers alternative methods of giving students meaningful feedback about their writing. (RL)

Shows how a teacher developed a pattern of responding to student writing. Lists 15 of her standard comments. (RL)

This book presents a method for the qualitative assessment of text difficulty, a method that relies on a total impression rather than on an analysis of text features. The method is based on matching samples of text to exemplars that have been scaled for comprehension difficulty. These exemplars range in difficulty from those suitable for the…

Offering information to help parents understand how writing is taught in classrooms that use the 6-Trait Model for writing assessment and writing instruction, this handbook describes the model and how parents can provide the kind of support at home that would make classroom instruction even more effective. Sections of the handbook are: "A…

This book presents specific grading strategies and explicit instructions for using them while offering options which allow teachers to place the grading of writing into a communication context. The book introduces and explains a wide range of evaluation strategies used by classroom teachers to arrive at grades. Samples of student writing accompany…

Designed to identify and tabulate the various cohesive ties in writing, this instrument is a tabulation sheet for recording all instances of cohesive ties. The sheet includes columns for recording the cohesive word, the number of the sentence in which it appears, the referent of the cohesive word, and the number of the sentence in which it…

In response to growing concern about the lack of basic writing skills, this paper presents an overview of the issues involved in selecting a method for the assessment of students' writing skills. After general criteria for determining the appropriateness of a writing evaluation procedure are outlined, the merits and limitations of objective tests…

Describes a "focused holistic" method of writing evaluation, which considers a total piece of writing, but in terms of predefined criteria. Provides sample evaluations. (HTH)

Having writers ask questions about their own papers promotes commitment to the revising and proofreading process. Students can ask teachers or peers the following: (1) What do you like about my paper? (2) What questions do you have about my paper? (3) What kinds of polishing does my paper need? (RL)

This handbook offers a guide to identifying curriculum activities which will enable the observation of significant literacy behaviors, recording these observations, and assessing and reporting student development in literacy. The handbook presents carefully considered descriptions of literacy learning behaviors noted by teachers in a wide variety…

Eight direct scoring indices of written expression were intercorrelated, factor analyzed, and used to predict holistic judgments of writing samples of 172 middle-school students in compensatory/specialized education programs. Strongest predictors of holistic ratings were percentage of words correctly sequenced and percentage of correctly spelled…

A discussion of holistic scoring, developed for use on essays in composition courses, argues that it can be used effectively in other disciplines. Procedures for establishing criteria of quality, ideas for identifying writing features relevant to the discipline in question, and methods of providing feedback to students are suggested. (MSE)

It is possible to use writing assignments in college psychology courses as a means of teaching subject matter and writing without substantially increasing instructor workload. There are two sets of strategies for dealing with the problem of limited time and energy, one pertaining to the writing assignment itself, the other to evaluating such…

Suggests that teachers use a tape recorder, with students resubmitting an erased cassette tape with each composition, for recording responses to written work as an alternative to the less instructive comments written in the margin of a paper. (HTH)

Principles of writing assessment with at-risk students are explained, including the importance of identifying the purposes of assessment, assessment in the classroom context, and inclusion of children's and parents' perspectives in assessment of the child's writing progress. (DB)