Writing+to+Assess

=Writing to Assess= Using writing to assess student knowledge and/or skills gives a more detailed picture of a student's mastery of class material.

Remember that writing to assess tasks assess the class specific knowledge/skills and the ability to think/write. By using writing to assess you will discover which students can think through the class material in an effective and productive way and which students may have some gaps in their thought process.

Writing to assess activities can range from short and simple tasks to longer process writing assignments.

Sentence Frames
Have students write their own sentences using appropriate sentence frames from the document below. This will demonstrate understanding of connections/relationships in your course specific material.



Short/Constructed Response Questions
Short answer questions are a great way to force students to really demonstrate in depth what they know. A simple reminder that works for most short answer questions is...RACER. You can teach students this technique and use it to assess and provide feedback as well.


 * R**estate the question
 * A**nswer the question directly
 * C**ite specific examples/evidence
 * E**xtend your answer by explaining how your examples/evidence prove your answer
 * R**eread your answer for errors and revise as necessary

You can use the following rubric to assess and provide feedback for student responses to short answer questions.

RAFT Writing Assignments
Role- What role does the student writer assume? Audience- What is the target audience for the piece of writing? Format- In what format should the writing be constructed? Task- What is the task that should be accomplished by the piece of writing?

RAFT writing assignments can be used in any classroom at any grade level. They provide clear guidance for students about exactly what their writing should accomplish and how it should accomplish it.

Links to RAFT writing assignment resources:

WritingFix: Teachers Sharing Writing Lessons: techniques strategically designed to "fix" reluctant writers and... writing teachers (Includes a RAFT assignment generator and help for creating RAFT assignments for all content areas []