Phone Monday through Friday 8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
1-800-933-ASCD (2723)
Address 1703 North Beauregard St. Alexandria, VA 22311-1714
Complete Customer Service Details
April 2018 | Volume 75 | Number 7 Learning to Write, Writing to Learn Pages 66-71
Sherry Seale Swain and Linda Friedrich
An analytic writing rubric helps teachers and students see what's present and possible in a piece of student writing.
Asked to conjure up an image of writing assessment, many of us picture a teacher sitting alone at her desk with a pile of papers, systematically judging content and mechanics and assigning grades. While this image represents a conventional vision of assessment, we've experienced the development of a scoring system that approaches evaluation of writing as a conversation with the text—one that starts with looking at the writing's strengths—followed by a literal conversation among teachers or between a teacher and student that illuminates student writing. The National Writing Project's Analytic Writing Continuum (AWC) is a valuable catalyst to this kind of collaborative assessment.
The Analytic Writing Continuum is a scoring system envisioned and developed by a team of writing assessment experts and National Writing Project-affiliated teachers who were familiar with writing assessments in multiple states. Because U.S. teachers were somewhat familiar with the 6+1 Traits system developed by Ruth Culham,1 the National Writing Project received permission to adapt that system in creating the AWC.
Join the education organization for all educators.
Get full access, plus expert resources and solutions to support whole child education.
Subscribe to Educational Leadership magazine and save up to 51% OFF the cover price.
Explore timely content from ASCD.