ASSESSING WRITING FLUENCY

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ASSESSING WRITING FLUENCY
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STUDENTS WITH LEARNING PROBLEMS OFTEN STRUGGLE
WITH WRITING

• DIFFICULTY PROCESSING AND/OR ORGANIZING
  INFORMATION
• HAVE INEFFICIENT WORD RETRIEVAL SYSTEM
• STRUGGLE TO DEVELOP OWN IDEAS
• STRUGGLE TO USE STRATGIES EFFECTIVELY
• WRITING PERFORMANCE LOWER THAN READING
  PERFORMANCE
• HAVE POOR LONG/SHORT TERM MEMORY
• EXPECT TO FAIL
• ALL HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL
• 
  (Isaacson 2006)

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WHY ASSESS WRITING?

• NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND
• ADEQUATE YEARLY PROGRESS
• PROVIDES DATA FOR GOAL SETTING AND MONITORING
  STUDENT PROGRESS
• INFORMED INSTRUCTION BASED ON COLLECTION
  EVALUATION OF DATA

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MONITORING STUDENT PROGRESS

• SIMPLE, ACCURATE, INEXPENSIVE
• ABILITY TO COLLECT DATA ON ON-GOING AND FREQUENT
  BASIS
• USE OF DATA TO MAKE INSTRUCTIONAL DECISIONS

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SCORING OF WRITING PROBES

• OBJECTIVE SCORING- based on outcomes approach,
  actual counts of specific characteristics
• Total words written
• Correct word sequence
• Words spelled correctly
• Conventions
• SUBJECTIVE SCORING- based on specific skills
  approach

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HOW TO GET STARTED WITH A WRITING ASSESSMENT
PROBE?

• Provide a writing prompt
• Need to be consistent in level of difficulty and
  genre
• Consider use of story starters, visual stimuli,
  and/or topic sentences at elementary level
• Use consistent testing administration
  procedures

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PROCEDURES

• Read prompt to child and then reread
• Provide 2 minute planning time
• Then say Begin writing
• After 3 minutes say Underline the word you just
  wrote and finish your piece.
• Score total number of words written in 3 minutes

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TOTAL WORDS WRITTENOBJECTIVE SCORING

• A word counts if it is separated from other words
  in the written material.
• Words are counted regardless of whether they are
  spelled correctly or are phonetically
  recognizable.
• Numbers that are not written out do not count as
  words. ie. 4321

• Count the title if one is written.
• Count proper nouns as words.
• If the story starter is written as part of the
  story, include those words in the count.

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ADVANTAGES TO USING THIS OBJECTIVE SCORING METHOD

• Objective
• High Reliability
• High correlation with performance of norm
  referenced achievement tests and teacher
  judgments of quality at the elementary levels
• Sensitive to student growth in written expression
  across 10 and 16 week periods
• (Tindal
  Marson 1990)

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EXAMPLE A PRACTICE OPPORTUNITY

• PROMPT Many boys and girls enjoy playing the
  same sports. Do you think that boys and girls
  should be on the same teams?
• Boys and Girls on the Same Team?
• In sirtin situations boys and girls shoud be
  able to play on the same sports team. Things that
  factor in to the decishun are age, size, and
  skill of the child. If a boy or girl was to big
  it may not be save.
• Total Words
  Written 46

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• YOUR TURN.

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QUESTIONS WHICH MAY EMERGE

• Does it matter if it is cursive or print?
• May students cross out while writing instead of
  erasing?
• Do hyphenated or compound words with a space in
  between the words, count as one or two words?
• ie. by-pass
• Do non-open compound words written with a space
  between the syllable count as two words?
• ie. drive way
• Does an abbreviation count as one word?

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SETTING FLUENCY GOALS

• Total written words less than 20, aim for
  doubling by the end of the year
• Between 25-30, aim for 50 increase
• Between 35-45, aim for 25 increase
• Greater than 50 total written words, select
  another goal
• (Deno, Mirkin, Wessen/Parker Tindal)

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WHAT TO EXPECT

• Anticipate a 1 to 1.5 gain per month for total
  words written per 3 minutes
• Refer to local school district norms for written
  expression if available
• (Santoro Edwards, Campbell, Spadafore 2005)

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Writing Fluency NormsWords Written Per 3 Minutes.
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Writing Fluency NormsWords Written Per 3 Minutes.
Shapiro, 2001