Special Children: Special Education
Writing
Writing Assessment
There are many types of writing assessments. Informally, many teachers design their own writing tests to determine how their students are performing in areas related to the classroom curriculum. A teacher may design test each week to measure her students' increasing writing fluency (the number words they write in a given amount of time) or their growing ability to write expressively. She may design a test to measure her students' ability to write more about each part of a story using a specific story grammar strategy they were taught in class.
There are also many criterion-referenced tests designed to measure students' attainment of various writing components. For example, a fifth teacher may use a criterion-referenced to test to measure her students' knowledge of the various steps in the writing process. She likely administers this test many times over the course of the school year to measure her students' progress learning all the letter names and sounds.
More formal instruments called norm-referenced tests are used to measure a student's progress compared to other students across the nation in their grade and at their age level on various written expression and writing tasks. For example, a third grader may be asked to spell a list of words that are deemed appropriate for students in third grade. If the child is able to spell all the words, she is performing at her grade level on this spelling test. Or a high school student may be asked to write a story given a picture prompt. After a specified amount of time, the story is scored for various elements including spelling, number of unique large words, title, introduction, dialog, conclusion, etc. The number of elements contained in the student's story, determine the raw score. The final written expression score (obtained through statistical manipulation) enables an understanding of how the student's written performance compares with others of his same age and grade.
There are many types of writing assessments. Informally, many teachers design their own writing tests to determine how their students are performing in areas related to the classroom curriculum. A teacher may design test each week to measure her students' increasing writing fluency (the number words they write in a given amount of time) or their growing ability to write expressively. She may design a test to measure her students' ability to write more about each part of a story using a specific story grammar strategy they were taught in class.
There are also many criterion-referenced tests designed to measure students' attainment of various writing components. For example, a fifth teacher may use a criterion-referenced to test to measure her students' knowledge of the various steps in the writing process. She likely administers this test many times over the course of the school year to measure her students' progress learning all the letter names and sounds.
More formal instruments called norm-referenced tests are used to measure a student's progress compared to other students across the nation in their grade and at their age level on various written expression and writing tasks. For example, a third grader may be asked to spell a list of words that are deemed appropriate for students in third grade. If the child is able to spell all the words, she is performing at her grade level on this spelling test. Or a high school student may be asked to write a story given a picture prompt. After a specified amount of time, the story is scored for various elements including spelling, number of unique large words, title, introduction, dialog, conclusion, etc. The number of elements contained in the student's story, determine the raw score. The final written expression score (obtained through statistical manipulation) enables an understanding of how the student's written performance compares with others of his same age and grade.
Examples of the various kinds of writing tests are listed below.
Informal Tests in writing skills and/or written expression:
Curriculum-based measures by Aimsweb and Dibels
Criterion-referenced tests in writing:
Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills-Revised (CIBS-R) by Curriculum Associates
Norm-referenced tests in writing:
Test of Written Language-4 (TOWL-4) from Western Psychological Services (WPS)
Test of Written Spelling-4 (TWS-4) from PRO-ED
Test of Early Written Language-2 (TEWS-2) from Western Psychological Services (WPS)
Individual Achievement Test Batteries which include writing assessments:
Woodcock-Johnson-III (WJ-III) Battery by Riverside Publishing
Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT-III) by Pearson
Informal Tests in writing skills and/or written expression:
Curriculum-based measures by Aimsweb and Dibels
Criterion-referenced tests in writing:
Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills-Revised (CIBS-R) by Curriculum Associates
Norm-referenced tests in writing:
Test of Written Language-4 (TOWL-4) from Western Psychological Services (WPS)
Test of Written Spelling-4 (TWS-4) from PRO-ED
Test of Early Written Language-2 (TEWS-2) from Western Psychological Services (WPS)
Individual Achievement Test Batteries which include writing assessments:
Woodcock-Johnson-III (WJ-III) Battery by Riverside Publishing
Wechsler Individual Achievement Test (WIAT-III) by Pearson
