Kelly Collova Professor Rich ELD 307 April 9, 2013 Writing Assessment Purpose of Assessment The purpose of this

assessment is to understand how students see themselves as writers and is also aware of their strengths and weaknesses of writing. A writing assessment shows a students writing progress throughout a period of time. Introduction of Child and Setting I analyzed the writing of a third grade student named Sabrina at Wicoff Elementary School in Plainsboro, New Jersey. Sabrina is eight years old and is a student of Mrs. Reil. Mrs. Reil informed me that Sabrina is an average writer. I read through Sabrinas writing in her notebook while I was in the classroom and interviewed Sabrina in the hallway outside Mrs. Reils classroom. Methodology I analyzed Sabrinas writing in her writing notebook by using the Profile of Writing Knowledge checklist and Note-Taking Form for Observing Writing, which are both found in the textbook Kidwatching by Gretchen Owocki on pages 120 and 121. As I read through Sabrinas writing samples in her writing notebook, I marked off the knowledge that she demonstrated in her writing on the check sheets. After analyzing Sabrinas writing in her notebook, I interviewed Sabrina. The interview consisted of questions that asked about herself as a writer. Description of findings

Throughout Sabrinas writing, she demonstrated various types of writing knowledge. In one of her first writing entries, Sabrina wrote about her first day of third grade at Wicoff. In other writing samples, Sabrina reflected on a class field trip to the Princeton Art Museum and the Star Lab. In both of these writing samples she demonstrated knowledge about ideas and content that are expressed in writing, such as connections to personal life and classroom inquiries. The only thing that lacked from the first day of school writing sample was Sabrinas feelings on the first day of school. Mrs. Reil made a comment about this on the writing sample on a post-it note. Sabrina demonstrated processes of getting ideas on paper and knowledge about the functions of writing in her story about Hurricane Sandy. Before writing her story about Hurricane Sandy, Sabrina created a story mountain. The story mountain organized the order of the story into the beginning, middle, climax, and end result. After creating the story mountain, she wrote the first draft of the story. After Mrs. Reil commented on the story, Sabrina revised it. Sabrina revised the story for a total of three times, which demonstrates that she is rereading, editing, and revising her own writing. Each draft of the story contained more detail and she used more adjectives to describe the storm. Sabrina also demonstrated the processes of getting ideas on paper by creating somebody-wanted-but-so charts. The chart guided Sabrina in creating a story with a problem and resolution. Sabrina also demonstrated knowledge about written language formats and genres and knowledge about punctuation. Sabrina wrote many different kinds of poems in her writing notebook, which indicates her knowledge of the poem genre. In her poem titled Solar System, she wrote a poem about the solar system since the class was learning about the planets at the time in science class. In this poem, Sabrina uses line breaks and commas to format the poem.

However, I noticed that Sabrina does not use poetic phrases in this poem, she used complete sentences and put commas at the end of each sentence to form line breaks. After collecting writing samples from Sabrinas writing notebook, I interviewed Sabrina. After interviewing Sabrina, I could gather that Sabrina considers herself to be a writer. She explained to me that she knows how to write different kinds of stories and writes in her diary when she is home. She informed me that she learned how to write from her first and second grade teachers at her old school and from Mrs. Reil. Sabrina explained that she does like to write and that she enjoys writing poems more than stories. She enjoys writing poems because she feels like they are easier to write because poems do not have to be long and because she can use her imagination to write poems. She said writing non-fiction stories are more difficult because it is hard to write about someone you do not know. In the interview Sabrina stated that she never saw her parents write on their own, but she knows that her parents are both able to write in Chinese and English. She also mentioned how her parents help make her writing better. I think that by her practicing writing in her diary at home and by her parents proof reading her writing indicates that there is room for growth and improvement in Sabrinaa writing. Implication for Instruction Since Sabrina has trouble expressing her feelings in her writing, I would have her drawing a feelings web in her notebook as I conference with her during writers workshop. As I conference with her I will have her think back to event she is writing about and think about what emotions and or thoughts she was feeling at the time. I would have her begin to draw this web by drawing a circle in the center of her paper. In the middle of the circle will be the name of the

event she is writing about. Then I will have her draw lines branching off the circle. At the end of each line she will write the emotions she was feeling during that specific event. I also noticed that in two writing samples in Sabrinas notebook she used the word there instead of their. Since this mistake is very common in the English language I would have a lesson on homophones. I think that not only Sabrina, but each student will benefit from this lesson because homophones are very tricky. In this lesson I would explain what homophones are and cover the correct uses of common homophones. I would have the students practice using homophones correctly by using the words correctly in sentences and then incorporate the homophones into their writing.