assessing writing
DESCRIPTION
Writing AssessmentTRANSCRIPT
Assessing WritingImelda Hermilinda Abas
(807649)
Genre of Writing• Academic writing
Papers, essays, dissertations, theses, etc. • Job-related writing
messages, formal letters, e-mails, advertisements, manuals, etc.
• Personal writinginformal letters, e-mails, greeting cards, shopping lists, etc.
2 Categories of Writing Skills (Brown, 2004)
Micro Skills Macro Skills
Produce grapheme and orthographic patterns of English;
Produce writing at an efficient rate of speed to suit the purpose;
Produce an acceptable core of words and use appropriate word order patterns;
Use acceptable grammatical systems Express a particular meaning in
different grammatical forms; Use cohesive devices in written
discourse
Use the rhetorical forms and conventions of written discourse;
Carry out communicative function of written texts;
Convey links and connection between events, and communicate;
Distinguish between literal and implied meanings;
Carry out culturally specific references in the context of the written text;
Develop and use of writing strategies;
Types of Writing Performance
Imitative and Intensive (controlled) Responsive and Extensive
Imitative and Intensive (controlled) writing
Imitative Writing Intensive (Controlled) Writing
The ability to spell correctly and to perceive phoneme - grapheme correspondences in the English spelling system
Students are supposed to copy sentences and words, rewrite texts and passages, order sentences
Designing Assessment Task
Imitative Writing
Task in (hand) writing letters, words and punctuation
Spelling tasks and detecting phoneme-grapheme
correspondence
Copying Listening cloze selection task Picture-cued tasks
Spelling test Multiple choice techniques Matching phonetic symbols
Designing Assessment Task
Intensive (Controlled) Writing
Dictation and Dicto-Comp :Dictation is basically copying what the
teacher reads ( imitative )Rewrite a paragraph with their
recollection from what was understood
Grammatical transformation tasks:Combination of sentencesActive to passiveDirect to IndirectReduced formsEndless possibilities
Picture-Cued tasks (nonverbal means to stimulate written responses):
Picture description Picture sequence description Picture-Cued Short sentences
Vocabulary Assessment Tasks (to see if the test-taker knows the word): Defining and using a word in a sentence
(collocation and morphological variants)
Ordering Tasks:Order or reorder scrambled set of
words into the correct order to make a sentence
Short-answer and Sentence Completion Tasks:
Limited response writing tasks (vary from simple to more elaborated responses)
Responsive Writing Extensive Writing
Requires learners to perform at a limited discourse level, connecting sentences into a paragraph and creating a logically connected sequence of two or three paragraphs.Ex: Brief narratives and descriptions, a lab report, summaries and etc.
Focusing on the achievement of a purpose. Organizing ideas logically, using details to support or illustrate it and demonstrating syntactic and lexical variety.Ex: an essay, a term paper, a major research project report, a thesis and etc.
Common Issues: Authenticity: Teacher needs to check the validity of the writing production teacher
becomes less of an instructor and more of a coach or facilitator. Scoring: Teacher must assess not only the form (the way the writer put words
together), but also the function of the text (what the writer is trying to say). Time: The writer is free to write as many drafts as he wants before it becomes a final
product.
Responsive and Extensive Writing
Designing Assessment TaskResponsive and Extensive Writing
Paraphrasing Ensuring that the students know the
importance of paraphrasing: to say something in their own words.
Avoiding plagiarism. Offering variety in expression.
Paragraph Construction Task Topic Sentence writing Topic Development within a paragraph Development of main and supporting
ideas across paragraphs
Guided Question and Answer May be consist of 2 – 3 paragraph Scored on either analytic or holistic
scale
Strategic Options Attending to task Attending to genre
Scoring methods: Responsive & Extensive writing
• Holistic Scoring: A single score is assigned to an essay, which represents a reader's general overall assessment.
• Primary Trait Scoring: This type of scoring emphasizes the effectiveness of the text's achieving. If the purpose or function of an essay is to persuade the reader to do something, the score for the writing would rise or fall according to the accomplishment of that function.
• Analytic Scoring: Classroom evaluation of learning is best served through analytic scoring in which as many as five major elements of writing are scored.