Ideas for School-Wide Writing Assessment Practice

Our high school is experimenting with bringing back the idea of having school-wide assessment practice for writing in order to encourage the significance of writing to our students and to show gains in our standardized scores. This kind of practice also assists students in college writing and ACT and SAT testing.

So far, we want to propse a "Grading Day" where the Writing and English teachers are given a substitute so that they can grade the essays.

Does anyone have anything that is working or has worked for their students in this specific area?

Thanks!

Tags: English, assessment, grading, practice, school, school-wide, schoolwide, standardized, state, test, More…wide, writing

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Denise Stewart on November 8, 2010 at 2:16pm

My site is doing much of the same. The vast majority of teachers do not want to be pulled out of their classes (and I understand why) so it is always a problem finding enough scorers.

Good luck.

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com
www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Denise Stewart on November 8, 2010 at 2:18pm

One suggestion--try NEA's site for more feedback. It is free. You will need to join to have access to the blogs there though (no fees).

http://public-groups.nea.org/discussion/forum/show/154294

Denise

www.ellteacherpros.com
www.teachingsuccesseswithells.blogspot.com

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Ben Stafford on November 8, 2010 at 4:43pm

We do schoolwide writing prompts. Using the SAT
Rubric the entire high school staff uses a workshop
day to score the prompts. The English dept. selects
exemplars for each score level (1-6). The staff divides up
to score each prompt. Each prompt is scored twice
and need to be no more than 2 points apart or
the scorers conference.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Joel Ballantyne on November 11, 2010 at 8:04pm

As an English teacher, I think this is a great idea. In the past, teaching writing was left up to the English department. However, we've enlisted the help of other departments who now see the value in teaching writing and incorporating writing into their weekly lessons. Even the math department wants to use writing and reading because of the word problems on SAT, AP, and ACT tests! What I've found is that having a school-wide assessment might be difficult to handle. However, having a school-wide policy on incorporating writing practice in each field could be manageable. This is an opportunity to use the teachers you have and promote their skills! By using someone in-house who could do a professional workshop for the other teachers on how they might incorporate writing in their own classrooms, you're promoting the value of a teacher who already works there which can lead to positive influences in the realm of "teacher leadership." Teachers who feel they are more valued, often are willing to do more! I think then this would also feel like an in-house achievement goal since you're not hiring an outsider to come and show the teachers how to do this. All teachers need to know how to write and read. Why not teach the teachers first, so they can apply it in their classrooms?