Designing Writing Assessments and Assignments for the Primary Grades by Janet Simon

Designing Writing Assessments and Assignments for the Primary Grades



This unit focuses on approaches and strategies directed towards assessing Caribbean students writing at the various stages of writing.


As a teacher in the Primary classroom, I am aware that it is integral for teachers to keep track of students' writing through the use of journals, portfolios  and writing done for pleasure. As a result of the student's products from writing, these results could be utilized to ascertain the extent to which students face difficulties or areas of weakness. Based on the result of students writing, their difficulties could be categorized  or diagnosed and used as a guide by teachers to concoct a plan of action for them to prepare instruction to accommodate and improve students difficulties. Assessment could be done through the use of rubrics are important tools which assist teachers to understand their student's development through the evaluation of  their student's finished pieces of writing. Examples of rubrics are the Primary Trait scoring Rubrics, the Holistic Scoring Rubric and the Analytical Scoring Rubric.

In creating a plan of action, the teacher will take into consideration the students weaknesses and identify appropriate strategies to assist the students. Teachers can encourage group and pair sharing for students. Teachers could utilize the writer's need strategy which assists the teacher in finding the most appropriate questions which will guide the students to finding their goal for writing. Also, teachers could, utilize the 'Teach the Writer' strategy which speaks towards the teacher assisting students once they have identified what the student's writing needs are. Writing time is another strategy where the teacher will observe students as they partake in various aspects of the writing process, conferencing with students as they write. Students can also free-write which involves the teacher allotting a set time for students to write all they know about a topic, whether fact or fiction without focusing on the mechanics of writing. One of the most important aspects of writing is sharing and as a result, the teacher can promote sharing through the use of technology such as Digital Storytelling,Wikis and Blogs.