Assessing Written Expression

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Chapter 17

• Assessing Written Expression

Carrie Graham Alina James Kellie Martin Raquel
Wimberly
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What is Written Language?

• The expression of ideas and feelings in
• written form.
• most complex of all forms of
  communication
• A lot of subjectivity due to measuring the
  intricacies of writing

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Why do we assess the Written Language of Students
with Special Needs?

• Identify current levels of performance in writing
  and spelling
• Determine strengths and weaknesses in writing and
  spelling
• Identify what the student knows and does not know
• Identify priorities for writing skill development
• Plan students intervention program
• Determine instructional approaches
• Monitor the instructional program
• Determine progress in meeting IEP goals

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Improving Writing Skills By Assessing Learning
Strategies

• Brainstorming
• Interviews
• Journals
• Think-Aloud and Think-Afters

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Linking Assessment with Instruction

• Examples
• Teacher-Made Tests
• Developing Analysis
• Conducting Interviews
• Evaluating Writing Portfolios
• Using Rubrics

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Curriculum-Based Strategies for Assessing Written
Language Include

• Observations, Informal inventories, and teacher
  made tests
• Examples of Informal procedures grading class
  writing assignments, weekly spelling tests, and
  informal checklists of written language skills.
• For a more detailed assessments error analysis
  procedures are used. This includes using
  representative samples of the students work,
  measuring fluency, calculating average thought
  units, evaluating vocabulary diversity, rating
  organization, and identifying structural errors.

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Assessing written expression skills requires
measurement of several elements as follows

• Fluency- the quantity of written output as
  measured by the number of words written in a
  specific period
• Average thought unit- a measure of writing
  maturity, and variety of words used in writing
• Vocabulary diversity- the originality, maturity,
  and variety of words used in writing
• Structure- the mechanical aspects of writing,
  including capitalization, punctuation, and
  language usage
• Organization- the coherence of a composition as
  evidenced by the quality of the narrative, the
  essay, and the story

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Written Language Profile

• The Written Language Profile developed by Raiser
  provides a way to carefully analyze written
  language abilities.
• Good informal evaluation that teachers can use in
  a flexible manner. It can be used as a complete
  profile or use only parts of the profile to
  obtain information about a specific written
  expression skill.

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Collecting Samples

• Collect three samples over a period of 2-3 weeks
  to get an accurate measure. They should be 75-100
  words long, three 5-10 minute timed samples work
  well. Young writers and less experienced writers
  need longer time.

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Profile Analysis Procedures

• Measure Fluency- If you use periodic timed
  writings, you can measure fluency.

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Procedure

• Count the total number of words(TW)
• Ignore misspelled words
• Count names and numbers as one word
• Teach your students to routinely count the number
  of words they write and to put the number at the
  top of the front page of their papers.
• Calculate average thought units.
• Total Words /T-Units Average Thought Unit

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Measure Vocabulary Diversity

• Vocabulary Diversity is the variety of words used
  in written expression to measure by the
  percentage of diverse or uncommon words in a
  composition.

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Procedure

• Count all uncommon words
• Count the total words in the writing sample
• Divide the number of uncommon words by the total
  words to obtain the vocabulary diversity

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Rate the Organization Narrative

• A narrative is a type of composition that tells
  an event or a story.
• Rate the narrative by answering the following
  questions
• Is the piece clearly focused?
• Is it logically sequenced?
• Does it have a definite beginning, middle, and
  end?
• Does it make sense?

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Rate the Organization Essay

• An essay is a composition on a specific subject

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Rate the quality of the essay by answering the
following questions

• Do the paragraphs contain lead/topic sentences/
• Does the essay provide supporting details?
• Does the essay include a conclusion?

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Measuring the structure Capitalization

• Identify capitalization errors including sentence
  beginnings, proper names, important words in
  titles, and abbreviations.

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Measure the Structure Punctuation

• Identify the punctuation errors, including
  periods, question marks, exclamation points,
  commas, semi-colons, and quotations.

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Measure the Language Usage

• Identify language usage errors including subject
  and verb agreement, object agreement, verb tense
  consistently throughout the piece, appropriate
  pronoun usage, and other errors.

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Rate the organization Story

• A story is an account of happenings or group of
  happenings.

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Rate the quality of a story by answering theses
questions

• Are the characters well developed?
• Is the setting well developed?
• Does the story include a problem to solve?
• Does the story present a problem resolution?

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Formal Written Language Assessment

• There are several formal, norm-referenced tests
  to choose from.

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Test of Written Language- 3 (TOWL-3)

• Norm referenced and individually administered.
• Purpose To diagnose written expression.
• Content Areas Spontaneous and contrived
  expression.
• Administration Time 30-45 minutes.
• Ages 7-17yrs

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Spontaneous Formats

• Contextual conventions Measures capitalization,
  punctuation, and spelling.
• Contextual language Measures vocabulary, syntax,
  and grammar.
• Story construction Measures plot, character
  development, and general composition.

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Contrived Formats

• Vocabulary Measures word usage
• Spelling Measures ability to form letters into
  words
• Style Measures punctuation and capitalization
• Logical sentences Measures ability to write
  conceptually sound sentences.
• Sentence combining Measures syntax.

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TOWL-3 Materials

• Examiners manual, 25 student response booklets
  (Form A), 25 student booklets (Form B), and 50
  profile/story scoring forms.
• Optional computer scoring system.

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TOWL-3 Technical Characteristics

• Adequate reliability and validity for use as a
  diagnostic tool.
• Designed to detect and eliminate as many sources
  of cultural, gender, and racial bias as possible.
• Includes targeted demographic groups (i.e.,
  gender, race, social class and disabled groups).

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Written Expression Scale (WES)

• Norm referenced, administered individually or in
  small groups.
• Purpose To diagnose written language skills.
• Age 5-21yrs
• Administration Time 40 minutes
• Content Areas
• Use of conventions (letter formation, spelling,
  capitalization and punctuation).
• Use of linguistic forms (modifiers, phrases, and
  sentence structure).
• Ability to communicate meaningfully (appropriate
  content, coherence, unity, word choice, and
  details).

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Scales that make up the Oral and Written Language
Scales (OWLS)

• Written Expression Scale (WES)
• Listening Comprehension Scale (LCS) Ch 10
• Oral Expression Scale (OES) Ch 10

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WES Materials

• Manual, a package of 25 record forms, a package
  of 25 student response booklets, and an
  administration card.
• Software scoring program available separately.

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WES Technical Characteristics

• WES was co-normed with the Listening
  Comprehension and Oral Expression Scales.
• The manual reports high internal consistency and
  test-retest reliability coefficients for the
  scales.
• Several validity investigations were conducted
  using the WES, including 9 concurrent validity
  studies and 8 clinical studies with 850 subjects.

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Other Test of Written Language

• Test of Written Spelling Grades 1st-12th.
• 25 minutes to administer.
• Test of Written Expression Ages 6-14yrs
• 76 items that measure written expression.
• Test of Early Written Language, 2nd Edition. Ages
  3-11yrs
• 45minutes to administer.
• Writing Process Test Grades 8th-12th.
• 1hr. administration.