Embedded Files
Formative Assessment
Introduction
Introduction
Written responses are one easy and frequent form of assessments I use on a weekly basis to assess student progress towards end of year goals. Below is a rubric detailing writing stages in kindergarten. My students usually begin the year between Stage 1 and Stage 2. By November, our goal is for all students to be approaching Stage 2, using their knowledge of letter sounds to sound out at least the beginning or ending sounds of words. By the end of the year, they should between Stages 3 and 4, using spaces, some punctuation, phonics skills to sound out unknown words, and knowledge of sight words to use sight words from memory or from the word wall. Our goal is for all kindergarten students to be able to write at least one, and preferably two to three, sentences about a subject independently.
Each week I pull every student aside at some point during instruction to remind them of their particular writing goal, for example adding spaces to their writing, and we review their progress towards this goal. By looking at student writing samples with my students, I keep them engaged in their own growth while also taking the opportunity to make sure that I am setting them clear and actionable goals to reach the next writing stage.
Rubric Source:
Empowering Writers. (2019). The Developmental Stages of Writing: K-1. Retrieved from https://www.empoweringwriters.com/toolbox/the-developmental-stages-of-writing-k-1/
Evidence of Writing Stages
Evidence of Writing Stages
While Stage 3 writing is our end of year goal for all students, some are able to advance towards Stages 4 and 5, writing longer, more connected stories. Below are a few examples of my students' writing stages, and how I would help them develop their writing to reach the next stage in order to achieve our end of year goals.
Stage 1
Stage 1
This is an example of a solid Stage 1 writing. The student has an idea of what he is trying to write and was able to verbally say he wants to "go at the park", which matches his picture. His writing is recognizable letters that are on the line, but they a mix of letters he is familiar with and unrelated to the sounds of the words he is trying to sound out.
Stage 2
Stage 2
This is Stage 2 writing. It uses recognizable letters on the line, incorporating known sight words and using the beginning sounds of words for unknown words in the sentence. Next steps for this student include working on spaces between letters and sounding out more parts of each word.
This student is in a later part of Stage 2, close to Stage 3. She uses sight words mostly correctly, and is trying to sound out the rest of the unknown word. Writing "frma" for "farm" shows that she is able to distinguish other sounds in a word beyond the beginning sound and is sounding out words phonetically. Next steps would include practicing ordering sounds while stretching out a word and adding more defined spaces and punctuation. Next steps will also include a review of sight words, as she wrote "the of" instead of "to the".
Stage 3
Stage 3
This student is at a Stage 3, close to a Stage 4 . While the letters are all capitals, this is still developmentally appropriate since the letters are being used correctly for sound. This student is able to spell the sight words "the" and "like" correctly, and have sounded out other words such as "nos" for "nice" considering the beginning, middle, and ending sounds. She has made a sentence which contains a complete idea which she can expand on. Her next steps would be to working on lowercase letters and to try to write multiple sentences about one topic.
Stage 4
Stage 4
This student is solidly Stage 4. She uses sight words and invented spelling to write multiple sentences about a single non-fiction topic, expressing facts instead of opinions. This is our end of year writing goal for kindergarten. Her next steps would be to learn spelling for more complex sight words such as "use" and to practice trickier phonemic ideas such as r-controlled vowels for the sounds in "arm". She could also practice use of capital letters in a sentence.
Conclusion
Conclusion
No matter what writing stage a student is at, there are always next steps they can take to continue to improve. Reviewing writing samples periodically both by myself and with my students allows me to track student progress towards individual writing goals, and to differentiate in small group instruction with a group of students on a similar level. In this way I provide remediation for struggling writers, extra practice for students on level, and extension for students who are advanced. I can monitor their progress, while at the same time helping my learners make specific decisions that will improve their writing.
Page updated
Report abuse