Dynamic assessment is described as a framework for the educational diagnosis of writing disabilities that is consistent with process models of writing instruction. Procedures use interview and response-to-instruction paradigms to study children's abilities and their knowledge of procedures for writing. Diagnostic protocols are outlined and…

Discusses the four-week summer Memphis (Tennessee) Urban Writing Institute, during which a furor erupted over the dilemma of grading. Provide a number of approaches to grading students' writing, including minimalist grading, cassette grading, collaborative grading, and portfolio grading. Suggests that teachers consider the grading dilemma and…

Discusses ways teachers in Indiana can use performance assessment at every grade level to provide students feedback for effective learning in writing. Reviews teaching strategies to help young learners get a good start in developing writing skills. Discusses ways that teachers can continuously assess student progress and focus instruction to help…

In a study of criteria for and reliability of grading of college essays in introductory psychology, 16 essays were marked by 12 faculty and 20 graduate students. Analysis found that two content attributes (facts, examples) accounted for 82% of variance in grading by faculty, while five stylistic measures accounted for the remainder. Both faculty…

Discusses the use of computer-generated text analysis to provide diagnostic information regarding students' writing. Describes a study of 12 stories written by grade 6 students in the United Kingdom that used computer-generated text analysis to determine whether the writing met the criteria for National Curriculum levels of attainment for the…

This study compared alternative measures of early writing performance with 15 second-grade students in a summer program for students at risk. Two- to three-minute samples were obtained of word copying, sentence copying, word dictation, and sentence dictation. Writing from word and sentence dictation correlated best with global judgments of…

Compares evaluation criteria for writing held in two contexts; explores the criteria used to evaluate English-language student writing by German and United States secondary school teachers; and compares the rank ordering of three essays given by teachers from these three groups. Presents results that have important implications for writing…

Considers the development of an inter-rater reliability correlation comparing the judgments, or scores, or each judge to see if their observations are similar. Presents a case study of the Northville Public Schools' data for the 2000 MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program) Writing Test. Concludes that in this case study the state fails both…

Discusses specific problems (arising in the context of a writing center visit) that writing assignments have caused students. Considers problems in teachers communicating objectives with students, unspecific teacher comments on students' papers, lack of examples for the writing assignment, overemphasis on grammatical correctness, unspecified…

Describes a composition course in which students questioned their placement in remedial instruction based upon holistic evaluation of a single essay. Notes that, when students were assigned to judge the same essays, results correlated closely with the earlier evaluations. Suggests that the exercise made students more open to peer response and…

Investigates experienced university English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) composition instructors' text comprehension when engaged in holistic evaluation of non-native-speakers' (NNS) texts. Concludes that time constraints or use of preestablished rating parameters, do not affect comprehension, and that holistic raters attend to meaning when…

An Iowa school district's inservice program introduced nearly 150 teachers to the writing process to help the teachers be more effective as writers and as teachers of writing. Direct measures evaluate both the writing curriculum and students' improvement in writing: writing samples, each student's cumulative writing folder, and a formal…

Describes a set of strategies for integrating journal writing into the English classroom, and suggests ways to evaluate students' journals. Asserts that these strategies have helped lead many students to lifelong writing. Provides a sample journal evaluation form for students. (MM)

Analysis of how students of English for Science and Engineering use certain categories of nouns in their technical writing projects revealed a significant use of "sub-technical" and "text-structuring" words serving both referential and discourse-oriented functions. The use of matching or cloze-type and open-ended writing exercises to improve…

Although the combination of communicative language teaching and the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) examinations make foreign language learning interesting and practical, the teaching and examining of writing skills in the GCSE do not entirely correspond to the stated aims of the syllabi, a consequence of the potentially harmful…