Reading a stack of 3rd grade narratives can certainly be entertaining. Getting a glimpse into a child's imagination through his writing is a privilege. At the same time, the lack of capitalization, ending punctuation, or adequate sentence structure can make reading student writing challenging and a bit overwhelming. As a teacher assessing these creative works, I often wondered where to begin.
You probably remember learning writing conventions, at least partly, by completing workbook exercises such as correcting misspelled words or improperly written sentences. My gradebook, largely based on these exercises, would suggest my students were exemplary writers. However, their actual writing suggested otherwise. Why was there such a disconnect? After some research, I found that my students' writing woes were no exception. In fact, nearly three-fourths of 8th and 12th graders performed at the basic or below basic level in writing according to the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (2011).
Shifting from Formulaic to Freckle Juice
To get a better understanding of my students' writing abilities, I needed both authentic instructional tools and assessments. In collaboration with my campus writing specialist, we reviewed student writing samples and my instructional practices. We noticed students were continually exposed to words and sentences written incorrectly through worksheets, textbook exercises, or homework practice.
I soon found myself wondering, what if learners were exposed to words and sentences written correctly? Furthermore, how could I incorporate well-written sentences into learning experiences? After much thought and discussion, I landed on read-alouds as my authentic instructional tool. During classroom read-aloud time, I purposefully chose a passage from a story (at the time, Judy Blume's Freckle Juice) to highlight a particular writing convention.
After reading a portion of the story, I displayed my pre-selected sentences on chart paper. The focus of these minilessons varied based on the needs of my students' in reference to our state English, language arts, and reading (ELAR) standards for 3rd grade. Typically, minilessons addressed punctuation, capitalization, and grammar. I found that students were always eager to point out conventions the author had written correctly. As students identified these components and explained the author's intent, I highlighted the appropriate convention for added emphasis.
The read-aloud and minilesson soon extended to writing opportunities. I asked students to write about the story we were reading while being conscious of our minilessons on writing conventions. After students completed their assignments, I asked them to share their work and display their use of conventions using a document camera. For sharing, I selected students I observed or conferenced with as they wrote to ensure they understood their use of conventions and could accurately explain them to others. To aid the evaluation of these assignments, I again reviewed our state standards and selected a writing rubric that was traditionally used in 4th grade. Then, I aligned the part of the rubric that emphasized conventions to reflect 3rd grade ELAR standards. I assigned each child a score of 1 (low) to 4 (high) based on their use of age-appropriate spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar, and usage conventions.
Seeing with Editorial Eyes
After nearly six weeks of minilessons, I compared a new piece of student writing to a previously written example, evaluating both with the modified state writing rubric. It was clear—students were now not just good storytellers, but were also mastering the conventions that gave their writing form and fluency. I cannot say that I was completely surprised by the results. Countless times during those six weeks, students approached me eager to identify various conventions used in the books they read for pleasure. Students would ask, "See the quotation marks?" Now that they knew the conventions to look for, they saw them everywhere. This familiarity made them better peer reviewers of each other's writing, too. They developed an eye for conventions and became quite good editors.
I had found a more authentic way to teach and assess writing. The standards-aligned rubric helped me evaluate learners and informed my instruction; based on students' rubric scores, I could go back to minilessons and identify where additional instruction was necessary, or target individuals or small groups of students for specific feedback. Student writing samples more accurately represented student learning, which more clearly informed my teaching and communication with parents about their child's writing. Best of all, teaching writing through textbooks and worksheets took a backseat to children's literature, which everyone appreciated.