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Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

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Page 12 of this document is a great rubric to use to grade students papers and provide feedback.

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Page 12 of this document is a great rubric to use to grade students papers and provide feedback.

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Breaks down giving the students a bench mark assessment and then a formal assessment after the writing lesson has been taught.

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In the writing workshop model, assessing or grading students' writing can be a challenge.

Students are typically choosing different topics, selecting which strategies they want to apply, finishing their writing at different times...it can feel a little "all over the place." So how do you assess their work in a consistent, easy-to-manage way?

My personal preference is to use a 2-part assessment system:

1. Benchmark assessments throughout the year

2. Writing assessments during each unit

In this post, I'll explain both of these systems AND share how you can convert rubric scores to grades!
Photo Credits: wavebreakmedia, Shutterstock
Benchmark Assessments Throughout the Year

First, let's think about the year as a whole. During the year, I will teach informational, opinion, and narrative writing. I teach 2 units in each genre (they spiral).

I want to find out what my students can do in each genre at the beginning of the year, after I've taught one unit in the genre, and again at the end of the year.

To track their progress in each genre, I use a 6-step approach:

Step 1: I find or create a genre rubric for informational, opinion, and narrative writing.

You may have a school/district rubric for each genre, you might use my writing units, or you might have other rubrics that you use. Here's an example of what a genre rubric might look like (this is a 1st grade informational writing rubric):

Your genre rubric should be detailed enough so that it can inform your instruction and guide you in choosing specific skills to teach. It should also include enough of a range so that you can accurately evaluate students who are on the high or low end of the skill spectrum.

Print a copy of each genre rubric for each student in your class. SAVE these rubrics and use them throughout the year to track students' progress.

Step 2: A couple of weeks into the school year (or before I teach each genre), I give students a prompt for each type of writing.

After I've taught some writing workshop procedures and routines and the kids have done a little bit of writing, I give the first prompt. You can choose any genre, but I like to start with narrative.

I make sure that I give this prompt BEFORE I have taught students skills in the genre. I really need to see where they are starting from so that I can adapt my instruction accordingly AND get a true sense of their progress during the year.

I give a very general prompt, like"Draw and write to tell me a story of something that happened to you. It might be something that made you happy, sad, excited, or scared...it's up to you!"

While students are writing, I don't provide support. If a student isn't producing any writing, I might say, "What are you going to draw/write about?" Other than that, it's up to them!

So that it's a low-anxiety activity for them, I just explain that I want to be the best teacher I can be, so I need to learn about them as writers at the beginning of the school year.

You can give all 3 prompts toward the beginning of the school year to get them out of the way.

OR you can just give the prompt for the genre you're going to teach first. Then, before you teach the other 2 genres, give the corresponding prompts that you didn't give at the beginning of the year.

(By the way, I don't usually do this in kindergarten at the beginning of the year-but you can definitely give it a try if you're so inclined!)

Step 3: I score those "baseline" writing samples with the genre rubric.

Once students have produced a writing sample for a prompt, I use the genre rubric (from Step 2) to evaluate the writing.

I mark all students' rubrics with the same colored colored pen or pencil. Then, I can come back to the same copy of the rubric later on in the year and score it again (with a different color).

This first time, I don't use students' scores as grades-again, this is formative assessment, done prior to instruction.

Step 4: After teaching at least one unit in a genre, I score students' writing samples with the same genre rubric.

Later on in the year, once I've finished teaching at least one unit in a genre, I again come back to those genre rubrics. I take a piece of writing that students have produced during the unit, and I score it, using a different colored pen or pencil to mark on the original rubrics.

The writing samples that I choose have been revised and edited by the students, but I don't provide students with adult help before I score the samples.

Step 5: At the end of the year, I give prompts similar to those I gave at the beginning of the year.

Rinse and repeat! Toward the end of the school year, after teaching one more additional unit in each genre, I repeat Step 2, using the same or very similar prompts.

Step 6: I score the end-of-year writing samples with the same genre rubric and (hopefully!) celebrate all the progress we made!

Once again, I score the writing samples using the same genre rubrics. Because I now have circled parts of the rubric in three different colors, I can easily see how students have progressed throughout the year.

Assessments During Each Unit

The process I described above provides me with a "big picture" look at students' writing in each genre, 3 times per year.

In addition to the benchmarking process, I also do some informal and formal assessment during each of the 7-8 writing units that I teach. Here's what I do:

Step 1: I list out the most important goals for the unit.

When I teach a unit, there are a number of different skills that I teach. BUT I don't necessarily expect all students to completely master them.

However, I make sure I'm clear on the "essentials" of the unit-what I absolutely want all students to be able to do after I teach the unit. I list out these goals before I start the unit.

Step 2: I get my class checklist ready.

I take that list of goals and turn it into a class checklist, like this:

This checklist provides me with a place to make notes throughout the unit.

Step 3: I make notes on the class checklist throughout the unit.

As I meet with students individually or in small groups, or when I pull students' writing folders, I can use the class checklist to write notes about how students are doing with each essential goal.

Because I have notes about all of my kids on 1-2 sheets, I can easily see where multiple students are struggling. Then, I can then make adjustments to my whole group instruction or plan small group activities for specific students.

This checklist is for my own use. I don't share it with students or parents. Again, this is formative assessment.

Step 4: Using a unit-specific rubric, I evaluate a writing sample that students have revised and edited on their own.

At the end of the unit, right before I help students revise and edit, I evaluate a piece of writing that they've produced during the unit. I choose one that I know they've revised and edited on their own (not a first draft).

The rubric has the same criteria that the class checklist does.

You CAN sometimes skip this step if you're using the genre rubric approach, because technically you can end up evaluating one piece of writing with two different rubrics. But I'm fine with doing it twice, because I like to get a picture of how each student did on the unit-specific goals AND the overall genre goals for the year.

Sometimes, I use this unit-specific rubric twice during a longer unit: once in the middle, and once at the end.

Converting Rubric Scores to Grades

The assessments I've discussed in this post are designed to provide information for you-about how students are doing and what you need to teach.

But we also have to share information with other people-like parents and administrators.

If you use my writing units, the unit-specific rubrics are great to share with parents.

Sometimes, however, you might also need to produce letter or number grades. If this is the case, here's what I recommend doing:

1. Meet with your team. Bring the scored rubric(s) you want to use to generate grades for students.

2. With your team, decide what constitutes an A, B, C, etc. You can do this with number grades too. For instance, you might say that scoring 31-33 points on the unit-specific rubric above is an A, 28-30 points is a B, etc. Is it a little bit subjective? Yes, but grading writing always is, to some degree!

As long as you and your team (or just you, if you're on your own) have created specific number ranges for each grade, you will be able to easily justify your grades to parents or administrators. Make sure to keep the rubric(s) that you used to generate the grades so that you can provide in-depth explanations if necessary. Honestly, rubrics provide so much more useful information to parents than grades do!

Want these rubrics (and writing lessons) done for you? Check out my kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade writing bundles. All of the rubrics in this post come from these resources!

If you don't need lessons but are interested in JUST the genre rubrics, you can grab those here (note - these are already included in the above bundles, so no need to purchase if you already have a bundle!):

Happy teaching!!

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How to Assess K-2 Students' Writing in a Writing Workshop Model - Learning at the Primary Pond

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In this post, I'll explain how I use writing assessments throughout the year AND share how you can convert rubric scores to grades!

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Modify to teacher bringing in newspapers and magazines for students to create their creature. Great prompts to get students to think about what to write about their creature.

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Let students pick out their initial prompt. Guides them through to write events for every stage of the story.

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For the guided story activity, have students draw the stages of their story out and write what they can to support their drawings.

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We ESL teachers are the experts in English language acquisition.

Our superhuman powers even allow us to impart knowledge to students through an osmosis-like processes.

Okay, not really. Excuse my wishful thinking.

Instead, we stay up late researching strategies to motivate our students.

We constantly seek new ways to liven up our ESL lessons, and we explore tools to meet the needs of various learning styles.

While all these things are great - and necessary - we need to make sure that we're supporting our students 100%.

This only occurs by implementing the necessary and appropriate modifications and accommodations in the classroom.

But many of us don't have firsthand experience learning a second language and, for those of us who do, most have had the benefit of receiving most or all of our education in our native language. Our students don't necessarily have that luxury.

In fact, the majority of them are learning to navigate a new language and culture while simultaneously learning their native language. With content area teachers, students are learning various concepts and ideas for the first time in a language that they have yet to master.

That's not an easy feat, to say the least.

So, how do we figure out which modifications and accommodations our students need to succeed?

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

The Importance of Implementing Modifications for ELLs

Many English Language Learners are identified as having Limited English Proficiency (LEP) and, in turn, struggle to access the material or concepts being taught in class. In this common situation, it's imperative for teachers to choose appropriate modifications and accommodations in order to make the content more accessible to them.

Although these modifications are insufficient to place our students on a level playing field with their English speaking counterparts, they do make a huge difference in our students' academic success.

The terms modifications and accommodations are often used interchangeably, but it's imperative that teachers understand the differences between the two.

Modifications are essentially changes made to the core content so that the learning objectives are different and more accessible for the student.

Accommodations, on the other hand, don't change the actual content being delivered. They're add-ons, tools that ensure that students can demonstrate what they know without lessening their expectations. Since modifications do usually lessen the expectations for the students, they're usually only used in extreme circumstances.

Both modifications and accommodations should be used carefully and with thoughtful consideration.

Let's discuss some ideas on how we can use accommodations and modifications to make learning easier for students with LEP.

1. Alternate Responses

When assessing your ESL students, be sure that you're clear on exactly what it is that you want them to demonstrate. Then, think of creative ways that they can demonstrate that knowledge. For instance, a teacher assessing students' understanding of causes of the Revolutionary War may traditionally have required that students write responses to a number of questions or prompts. For ELLs, this may be restrictive and prevent them from communicating what they actually know.

If you're not actually assessing their writing ability, then you can find alternate ways for the students to respond.

They can be allowed to draw a series of pictures with short captions or even speak their responses into a recorder in lieu of providing a written response. This way, you're giving them the chance to communicate their knowledge in a way that circumvents the language and/or writing barrier.

2. Advance Notes

Just thinking about the advanced French class that I took in college makes my head spin to this very day.

The instructor spoke in French the entire time. Although I had a decent grasp on speaking and understanding French, it was still difficult for me to keep up with everything that was covered.

Our students face a similar problem in many of our classes.

One way that we can make things easier is by preparing and distributing advance notes. This gives ELLs the opportunity to preview what will be taught and, in turn, aids in comprehension of the material.

If your students are required to take notes, your ELLs can use your advance notes and make small additions as necessary. This decreases the amount of writing required, allows the student to slow down and helps them make sense of what is being said. It's also a huge confidence booster that's been proven to increase student performance.

3. Extended Time

It's obvious that response time for ELLs is significantly greater than it is for students proficient in English. Given this, we know that ELLs may require more time to process and communicate information on assessments. To support your students in this area, give them additional time on tests to help. Extra time will also help to decrease anxiety, which often has a significant impact on test performance.

4. Teacher Modeling

As ESL teachers, we're always thinking about reducing Teacher Talking Time (TTT). One great way to do this is to focus on ways to communicate non-verbally.

Modeling and using gestures to aid in understanding can be a very effective accommodation for ELLs. Make sure that you're thoughtful about what you'll model and how you'll do it ahead of time. Also make sure that you're not only modeling during instruction, but that you also model directions as well.

So, let's say you're going to tell your students that they need to get folders from their backpacks. Place your own backpack on your desk, find a place to sit and support your ELLs by modeling each step as you say it. You can point to a desk when you ask them to place their folders on their desks. You can also pick up a folder and point to your backpack when you ask them to do the first step.

The key is to keep your actions clear and simple. Too much moving around can distract students from listening to what you're saying.

5. Simplified written and verbal instructions

Whether you're giving instructions for a test or assignment verbally or textually, you should simplify them as much as possible for students with LEP. Many times, this can be easily done by taking out extra words or turning complex sentences into simple ones. Consider these directions:
Carefully read each sentence below and determine its subject and predicate. Then, underline the subject once and the predicate twice.
These directions can be easily changed to this simpler version:
Read each sentence. Put one line under the subject. Put two lines under the predicate.
These simple changes require minimal effort and time, but actually do make a huge difference for our students!

6. Frequent breaks

Learning is fun, but it can also be hard work!

This is especially true for students learning a new language. All that hard work may mean that your ELLs need more frequent breaks than others. Give your students frequent breaks during class time or tests so that they can perform at their best. Simply stepping out in the hall, walking around the room or taking a trip to the water fountain can make a huge difference, leave them feeling refreshed and get them in the zone to be ready for more.

7. eDictionaries

When used correctly, technology never fails to transform a classroom. Allow your students to use eDictionaries in your classroom to look up unknown words. Any regular dictionary will do, but eDictionaries allow students to hear the pronunciations of words. As you might imagine, this is extremely helpful for anyone learning a second language. If students encounter an unknown word, they can type it into an eDictionary, hear the word pronounced and either read or listen to the definition. Also, if they aren't sure how to to spell a word, many eDictionaries will allow them to speak the word to have the correct spelling displayed.

Using Content Modifications When Necessary

There are definitely situations where accommodations are simply not enough. In these moments, you'll need to actually change or modify content and learning objectives.

In these instances, you'll actually change the overall expectations of the individual student and/or make the content less complex. The goal is that this will help the student to learn as much as possible while still working towards their overall learning goals.

So, if one learning objective for your students is to be able to identify the causes of the Revolutionary War, a modification could entail that one particular student only has to identify all parties involved in the war, dates, and other specific bits of information.

Evaluating Effectiveness of Instructional Accommodations

There are many, many options for accommodating your students.

All of these accommodations aren't equal.

What works for one student may not work for another, and what worked at one point in time may no longer be effective for your current classroom.

When implementing accommodations and modifications, be sure to continuously evaluate their effectiveness.

During this evaluation, it's important to solicit and consider student feedback. If something is working well, then great. If not, then you'll need to find other accommodations that are more effective. Talking to other teachers can be especially useful in this process. Many of your colleagues will have ideas and examples of accommodations that they've used successfully.

Keep in mind that the goal of the accommodation is to make the process of teaching and learning easier for the student. Put forth time and effort into carefully selecting accommodations and watch how these small changes make a world of difference!

Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere.Click here to get a copy. (Download)

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7 ESL Modifications for Lesson Plans That'll Make Learning Easier

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We ESL teachers are the experts in English language acquisition. Our superhuman powers even allow us to impart knowledge to students through an osmosis-like processes. Okay, not really. Excuse my wishful thinking. Instead, we stay up late researching strategies to motivate our students.

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Give students with IEP's extra time when necessary and not grade harshly for spelling errors.

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Resources >> Browse Articles >> Special Education & Learning Disabilities

"Making the steps feel small and manageable is the key to success."

Kit Richert, Ph.D.

Most general education teachers will encounter students with IEPs. The majority of learning disabled students identified have processing problems that affect their reading or comprehension ability. Students with poor reading ability often have poor writing ability as well, since the two skills go hand in hand.

Although less frequent, there are learning disabilities specific to writing ability. One, called dysgraphia, is defined as difficulty expressing thoughts in writing. Where reading disabilities are typically related to impaired auditory and attention processing, Dysgraphia can be related to either motor, visual, or spatial processing problems.

* Your students with dysgraphia may exhibit the following academic symptoms:

* Slow writing speed

* Delays in writing achievement

* Difficulty with writing out math problems.

* Difficulty taking notes

* Poor spelling and handwriting

* Sometimes writing takes all the students focus and they cannot attend to lecture.

* Sometimes have difficulty with hand-eye coordination, or fine motor skills.

How to Help Your Students With Writing Disabilities

* Like all students with disabilities, make sure to read your student's IEP and list of required acommodations. Consult with the special education teacher or school psychologist for tips about your student's unique learning style.

* If lecture is important to attend to, make sure your student can get a copy of the notes (from either you or a buddy) so they do not miss important information by trying to take their own notes laboriously.

* Allow the student to type instead of writing out assignments. Encourage the use of a spell checker.

* Extend their time limit allowed on tests or writing intensive assignments.

* Decide on a learning goal for each writing assignment. If the focus is on the organization of the content of the writing, than do not grade harshly on spelling and handwriting. If spelling and handwriting are the focus, than go easy on the organization and content. It may help the child to make the goal clear and to alternate the focus so all skills are worked on, but in general, students will enjoy writing more when the focus is on expression of original ideas.

* On tests of knowledge, it may be appropriate to allow for the child to give answers orally, so they can convey what they have learned more easily.

* Provide graph paper for math assignments so it is easier for the student to write equations in columns or rows.

* Make sure the student has an appropriate grip on their pencil.

* Have the student talk aloud during writing assignments.

* Have the student orally construct their paragraphs over a tape recording, and then copy down their language from the recording.

* Break writing assignments into small steps, such as:

1. Making an outline. With topic for each paragraph.

2. Work on one paragraph at a time, on separate pages.

3. Focus first on getting ideas down on paper, saving the grammar, punctuation, and spelling for later drafts.

4. Combine the paragraphs, and re-polish the document.

For students with writing disabilities, motivation may be low for practicing writing. Making the steps feel small and manageable is the key to their success, in addition, hold on to old work over the year, and periodically show the student how much they have improved by comparing their old work with new work. Your student may be comparing their own writing ability to their peers, which may also cause them to get discouraged. Focus on comparing their old work with new work, and on achieving their personal best rather than how other students are writing.

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: accommodate students writing disabilities special education & learning disabilities benefits articles

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How To: Accommodate Students With Writing Disabilities

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Most general education teachers will encounter students with IEPs. The majority of learning disabled students identified have processing problems that affect their reading or comprehension ability. Students with poor reading ability often have poor writing ability as well, since the two skills go hand in hand.

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Have students draw out their stories as much as they can or want. Also have them write outlines instead of full on stories.

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Have students watch this video about describing a special person and then have students write about a special person.

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How To Write In Grades 2 - 5 & Now Middle School

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3. How To Write In Second Grade - Narrative - Special Person

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See if students can possibly write their story in their native language and then work on translating it into English.

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This article is the second in a two-part series on supporting ELL literacy, sponsored by Middlebury Interactive Languages. Click here to read the first post in the series.
In recent years, many schools have raised the bar on writing instruction. We now expect middle and high school students to do the kind of written analysis and critique that was once limited to the college classroom.

When you teach English-language learners (ELLs), the concern is that this kind of increased expectation can lead to an even wider achievement gap. That's why we recently asked educators in our WeAreTeachers Helpline group to share their best tips for scaffolding writing instruction for ELLs at the secondary level. Here's what they had to say:

1. Consider writing in their native languages: If your students are at "entering" or "beginning" WIDA levels, you might consider allowing them to write in their native languages and then to use a translator app or tool to interpret their work. Be sure to spend some time comparing the two versions side by side so that students can begin to see what their ideas and thought processes look like in English.

2. Use dictation: "I have students use Dragon Dictation to dictate their responses out loud," says teacher Erin M. "Then I work with the students to teach them to group topics together into paragraphs and to use a dictionary and thesaurus to add detail words."

3. Review writing prompts: "I give ELL students the same writing assignments as the rest of the kids, but I make sure to define any unfamiliar words in the prompt itself," says Emily B. Do a verbal check for understanding before students start writing to avoid confusion and frustration down the road.

4. Give students sentence stems: It's a good idea to give students sentence stems and phrases for the different types of writing you will be doing all year long. So provide a narrative-writing word bank, an argumentative word bank and an informational word bank, for example.

5. Encourage outlining: If writing full sentences is a challenge, encourage outlining as a first step. "I had a student who couldn't write a paragraph in 11th grade," says Lauren P. "So I gave him the same assignments but had him bullet-point his ideas. We then worked one-on-one to form sentences. We started with just one well-developed paragraph, but as the year progressed, he'd write a little more."

6. Provide models from literature: "For example," says Erin. M., "if we were writing a reflective piece, I would show them paragraphs or selections from favorite books or articles that were reflective to use as examples for structure and even word use."

7. Try the four-square writing method: In this model, students simply divide a piece of paper into four sections to use as a graphic organizer for persuasive or informational writing. They write their topic/argument at the center and then one reason or claim with supporting details in each of the four boxes. As students progress, you can encourage them to add more details and evidence to their graphic organizers.

8. Grade selectively: Choose one or two skills that you want to target for each writing assignment, and focus the majority of your grading and commentary on those skills. For English-language learners, sometimes those skills might be about language acquisition (e.g., vocabulary, syntax), and other times, you might want to focus on a deeper understanding of writing (e.g., argument building).

Want more support for your English-language learners? Learn more about Middlebury Interactive Languages' exciting new curriculum focused on closing the ELL achievement gap.

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This article is the second in a two-part series on supporting ELL literacy, sponsored by Middlebury Interactive Languages. Click here to read the first post in the series. In recent years, many schools have raised the bar on writing instruction.

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Write around is a great activity for all students to all create one sentence to a story that can be read aloud at the end.

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Steps - For groups of 3-4 students. - A sentence or topic is given to the groups. 10-15 seconds of think time is given for the students to think on the sentence or topic. - The first member in the...