Assignment #6 Chapter 4 Assessing Children's Writing

Not always assessment is an easy task. Sometimes teachers reflect their subjective and personal sentiment in assessment and evaluating is laborious and time-consuming responsibility. Hence, there are needs for an adequate systematic approach to assess writing products of children and informing children of the criteria on which their compositions will be scored so that children can understand better about the purpose of each project and the proper process as well. We should not forget that we have to lead children to become more trained and self-motivated enough to discover the weak and strong points of their writings, right direction to be more capable writer and consequently fulfill their roles in assignments. With an appropriate checklist, you can help children do reflection on their writing products and procedures they use in composition.

The most important consideration is that you need to monitor and keep track of children’s progress and the process they use in writing stages including from prewriting to publishing, as well as assess their products of compositions. The former is called ‘process assessment’ and the latter ‘product assessment’. In doing product assessment, it is more easier when you use rubrics and have children follow the instructions of the rubrics, actualizing the well-planned class fit to achieve the writing project. And there are several useful ways to do process assessment, like observing children’s growth as writers taking anecdotal notes, having children document their own portfolios with their best pieces of writings, and giving consultation to children and listening to their individual needs. Portfolio is also considered to contain a collection of writings that provide evidence of both the products children create and the process they use (De Fina, 1992; Farr & Tone, 1998). It’s needless to say that children develop their capability for writing and self-assessment while carrying out portfolio works.

Reference:Tompkins, G. E. (2008). Teaching Writing: Balancing Process and Product. NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.

Here are some interesting articles about this chapter.
http://www.li.suu.edu/Library/Circulation/Angell/eled3250vaAssessingChildren

Response to Soo-Hyun Kim:
She said if students want to better writing skills, teacher need to use the writing process and writing assessment such as observing, conferencing, collecting, and scoring. That is right opinion and I also agree with her. And she wrote some citation like
“Assessment provides information about what writers know and what they can do. It’s something that teachers do every day, in one form or another. (Anderson,2005)
“Because proficiency in written expression requires the intergration of multiple skills, the assessment of writing is a complex endeavor.”(Tindal& Marston,1990)

But unfortunately, I could not find reference.