The purpose of the 2011 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) Writing Framework is to describe how the new NAEP Writing Assessment is designed to measure students' writing at grades 4, 8, and 12. As the ongoing national indicator of the academic achievement of students in the United States, NAEP regularly collects information on…

A study was conducted to obtain descriptive data on whether a student is aware of an audience when writing, what students perceive as the purpose of a persuasive writing assignment, and what steps comprise their writing process. Approximately 500 tenth grade student essays, prompted by an assignment based on the theme of the literature the class…

Claims that increasing numbers of reading educators are looking to recent advances in holistic writing assessment to explore new potentials for assessing reading comprehension. Reports on a research project exploring use of freewriting to assess reading comprehension; describes use of written retellings as a tool to support reading; and presents a…

Describes a system to evaluate writing in which students use extensive marginal notes to comment on their own writing processes. Provides sample notes from a variety of student papers to illustrate the effectiveness of this system in increasing student knowledge and involvement. (KEH)

Fifteen member countries of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) collaborated on a project that had four aims: (1) to contribute to the conceptualization of the domain of writing, (2) to develop an internationally appropriate set of writing tasks and a system for assessing compositions, (3) to describe…

Developed to provide teachers with a framework for writing instruction, this handbook presents the objectives for writing in the elementary schools from kindergarten through grade 8. After a brief overview of the handbook, information covered includes: (1) a description of writing types (creative expression, narration, exposition, persuasion, and…

To link writing assessment more closely to writing pedagogy, a project added a process instrument--a self-evaluation or "postwrite"--to a formal holistic writing assessment. Subjects were 348 freshman composition students at Goucher College. The postwrite asked students, after they had finished writing an essay, to answer four questions…

Examined the relationship between global writing quality and lower level analytic measures of writing, with a focus on cohesive indices, among 50 English-speaking Canadian fourth-graders. Results showed that both cohesive indices and lower level writing measures each accounted for a significant amount of the variance in holistic scores. (Contains…

A practicum sought to improve student writing and student attitude towards writing through a performance-based assessment which featured peer and teacher conferencing, holistic grading, and publication of material written by students. The practicum involved seventh and eighth graders and five teachers who instituted all aspects of the writing…

To determine what effect the perceived audience and purpose of a written piece has on its quality, 30 high ability and 30 low ability writers were selected on the basis of a college placement examination and instructed to write two essays. Half of the students were given specific rhetorical contexts (audience and purpose) as well as topics.…

Describes the Colorado Writing Assessment Program, a testing program that provides two kinds of feedback to teachers and students: (1) a holistic score that measures the general quality of writing and (2) a set of scores on analytic scales that reflect students' achievement in four areas. Concludes that the program works. (FL)

A study explored (1) whether children demonstrated growth in writing ability through the experience of writing two or three times a week without direct teacher instruction; (2) what changes could be observed over time in the writing samples of second and fourth graders; (3) whether written language growth was a continuous progression of upward…

Describes assessment techniques for accommodating various facets of the process approach to teaching writing. Includes rating scales, self-evaluations, peer evaluations, holistic scoring, and team grading. (EL)

Composition theory and research indicate that, whether they use a holistic or an analytic rubric, teachers should share their scoring guide with their students. Both students and teachers benefit in substantial ways when students draft and revise their written work in the context of the rubric their teachers will use to assess student writing.…

This manual is intended to assist elementary school teachers in developing classroom writing experiences. The sections in the first part of the manual address the individual stages of the writing process (prewriting, writing, and postwriting/editing) by reviewing research, presenting case studies of children's writing, and outlining activities,…