Assessing Children′s Writing

A best practice guide for primary teaching

Kate Allott

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781526481450
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Bildung
• Subtopic: Grundschulbildung

This book supports teachers and trainee teachers with the assessment of writing, and particularly assessment as part of the cycle of planning and teaching – assessment used formatively. - Explores the issues and challenges in the assessment of writing
- Highlights the importance of specific feedback
- Features examples of children?s work and detailed guidance on how to assess each piece
- Includes a chapter on supporting children to write more outside of school

1 Becoming a writer

In this chapter

This chapter focuses on children’s developing understanding of writing, its purposes and processes, and their attitudes to it and sense of themselves as writers. These can be hugely important in their progress as writers.

Becoming a writer is about far more than simply developing competence in writing. It involves, importantly, attitude to writing and understandings about writing. To a certain extent these are interdependent – for example, an older child who has not yet developed competence in writing is unlikely to have a positive attitude to writing. However, the opposite is not always true; some children write well but do not particularly enjoy writing, do not choose to write and are not interested in the writing process. They do not want to reflect on their own writing or rework it, and they do not find writing rewarding. Becoming a writer involves not only technical skills, but also a sense of oneself as a writer, sharing the struggles and satisfactions of writing with other writers. It involves awareness of writing as a process rather than simply being about a product; that although not every piece of writing will require this, some writing needs to be carefully planned and even researched. The writer also recognises that a first draft may require considerable reworking, and that the comments of others can be helpful. When the writing has been completed, writers consider it critically and know that this evaluation may be helpful in terms of their future development as writers. Bearne and Reedy (2018) also suggest that writers need to be able to balance composition and transcription, and creativity and structure, and this suggests a sophisticated awareness of the writing process.

Audience and purpose

Bearne (2002) suggests that there tends to be a focus in assessment on technical aspects of writing rather than the writer’s purpose and awareness of the intended audience, and she attributes this to teachers’ anxieties about how to assess these less obvious features. If this means that children are not given feedback on these aspects, it is possible that they will not be able to discuss and develop them, and yet they are central to effective writing. As children develop confidence as writers, they are increasingly sure that they have something to write about, and have an increasingly accurate sense of their audience and audience needs. Perkins (2017) suggests that children know their writing is effective by the response they get to it, which tells them that it has met its purpose and understood its audience. This suggests that they need a ‘real’ audience for at least some of their writing. As they develop this awareness, they become more ready to tackle a range of writing activities and need less support in tackling new forms of writing; they are able to move from reading a few examples to producing their own quickly and successfully. They make their own decisions about their writing, and they are able to discuss their own and others’ writing dispassionately and knowledgeably. They begin to use literary devices quite consciously, and are constantly aware of the effect of their writing, redrafting as they work – for example, to avoid repetition or to make their meaning clearer.

Whether children do see themselves as writers, and behave as writers, cannot be judged simply by the product of their writing. Observations of them engaged in writing and in discussions about writing provide valuable evidence. It is important to note whether children ever choose to write, and this will be returned to in Chapter 12, which considers children’s writing at home. Assessment of children’s attitudes to, and understanding of, writing matter because children who do not view themselves as writers, and do not engage with enthusiasm in writing activities, are less likely to make progress.

However, writing itself can give evidence of the writer’s confidence and enjoyment. Consider a piece by Alekos, a pupil learning English as an additional language. Alekos was writing a reflection on his year at school, as all pupils did in his school. From a long piece, two extracts have been selected.

Children’s writing

Alekos, year 5: Highlights of year 5

Where has time past I rember the first day I steped in to year 5 …

Drama week was fun we had a dama seshon where Jamila (my friend) was wearing a mask wich made her look sad and all the class had to chear her up. Let me tell you a little secret she was happy in the end.

Commentary

Alekos’s introduction, with its rhetorical question, focuses on concepts of time – how quickly it seems to pass, how fresh memories can be and yet, as the long account shows, how much can happen in a year. These are thoughts that many adults have, and his elegiac note in this opening is often struck in adult writing. He is expressing genuine feelings. The second extract shows Alekos speaking directly to his audience, as if he is concerned that we are worried about Jamila – and yet we know, and he knows we know, that she is not really sad. The use of ‘little’ contributes to his reassuring tone, and ‘happy in the end’ has an echo of traditional stories. The ‘sharing a secret’ technique is a way of drawing readers in and making them feel they have a special relationship with the writer. It is probable that Alekos did not consciously select any of the techniques he uses here; he simply knows how to talk to people and we hear his voice very clearly. Authorial voice may be a somewhat difficult concept, but it should mean that the audience has a sense of the writer as a person, and we certainly have that here.

The reverse is also important – that the writer has a sense of the audience. Too often, writing in school does not give children that sense of who they are writing for and what the purpose of the writing is, and yet many of the important decisions that writers make about their writing depends on this understanding. The following example demonstrates this very clearly.

Children’s writing

Sarah, year 4: Persuasive letter

Dear Mr Bell,

As you might be aware our school will soon be having its annual summer fair to raise money for school computors. As part of the fair we are having a Tombola

Last year you very kindly provided some prizes.

We would be very grateful if you could provide prizes again this year.

We would be very pleased if you are able to attend the fair.

Hoping to see you on Saturday 25th June

Yours gratefully

Sarah Brown

Commentary

Begging letters are always a challenge to writers, who are aware that they may be received with a sigh and some resentment rather than enthusiasm. Sarah does not know Mr Bell, but she can imagine his possible response to her letter. The right tone needs to be struck, and this is done successfully here through the use of modal verbs (would, might), the repeated use of the intensifier very, and vocabulary choice (kindly, grateful, gratefully, pleased, hoping). All of this suggests an appropriate level of uncertainty about the possible response – no one likes to be taken for granted – along with a reference to the donor’s previous generosity – it is difficult not to live up to one’s previous record – and the warm reception any donation would be given.

Becoming a successful writer is also dependent on knowledge of the world and being able to draw on this, process it and re-present it. This is true not only of non-fiction writing, where it can be difficult when assessing to separate out, for example, the child’s knowledge of the subject from their writing skills, but also of fiction. Historical fiction, for example, depends on being able to present a convincing picture of life in a different age. Children may draw on knowledge gleaned from history lessons or from experiences outside school for this, but may also draw on fiction set in the past. The following example shows this: Molly is a keen reader of historical fiction and these extracts from her uncompleted story contain details drawn from her reading.

Children’s writing

Molly, year 5: The horn

It was early in the morning and Gertie rang the bell for breakfast. On the stairs was Grace, the breakfast maid, running as fast as she could, for Gertie wanted her breakfast and she had to be quick about everything, even the baby’s breakfast … She had to come up seven flights of stairs to reach Gertie’s bedroom and the mistress’s bedroom was two flights of stairs up from Gertie’s bedroom because she wanted some peace and quiet from the five children. The cook, Mrs Broom, was ordering about everybody in the servant hall …

Gertie had a beautiful horse called Daisy it was a rocking horse …

‘Now be off with you! In five minutes we are going to leave. I will get the housemaid to ask Edward to drive us there.’

Commentary

It is unlikely that the mistress would have a bedroom on a higher floor than her children’s, but generally Molly has developed a strong sense of life in a wealthy family in the past and has used this to good effect in her own story. This can be seen in details of the story, such as the bells to summon servants and the vocabulary she uses, such as ‘mistress’, but she has also used language such as the conjunction ‘for’ and the phrase ‘be off with you’, which give a sense of the past.

The assessment of writing has to consider the overall impact of the work – whether it meets its purpose and the needs of its audience. This, after all, is how writing generally is judged. In adult life, when non-fiction texts are read, they are judged by how useful or interesting the information they contain is and how clearly it is communicated. It is stating the obvious to say that writing is about communication, but it is apparent that some writers are much more effective communicators than others, and this is so for adults as well as children. Lesser considerations may be how well the text reads or possibly also whether it entertains as well as informs. When adults read fiction, they judge it by how engrossed in it they become, what emotions and thoughts it provokes, and also possibly by the beauty of the language or by striking imagery, which makes the reading a more satisfying experience. There is also a sense of truth in writing – that a character in fiction or an argument in persuasive writing convinces us. Writing is both an art and a craft: writers use a range of skills, as any craftsman does, but good writing has qualities that can be hard to pin down and assess – originality, freshness, humour, honesty. Becoming a writer involves not only developing those skills, but ...