Writing Assessment

Analysis of Writing Samples This student is 8 years of age, and in the second grade. She is a very kind and patient student who is always willing to assist the teacher and her classmates. She helps keep our classroom running smoothly and is generally excited about school. She is reading on grade level, but occasionally struggles with math. This student loves to write. In spare time, she will choose to write an entry in her writing journal. This students passion for writing has helped her improve exponentially. I feel this student has exceeded my expectations at the second-grade level with her ability to write. Although she is very talented, there is always room for improvement. This student is demonstrating at Capable Level (4) in her sentence fluency on the Six-Trait Writing rubric. She uses both simple and compound sentences, which add to the easy rhythm and flow of her thoughts. At times her writing can get choppy or repetitive, but there is evidence of attempting complex sentences and variations at the beginning of her sentences. I am also very pleased with her organization of many of her entries. In her opinion piece about her favorite outdoor activity, she begins with a statement of her opinion, that she enjoys eating outside. She then gives 3 strong examples of why this is her favorite outdoor hobby, and uses transition words (after, then, last) to flow into the next idea. By organizing her paper in this way, it conveys a clear message to her reader with logical sequencing, and it is very easy to point out the key ideas and visualize her favorite outside activity. I believe she is in the capable range (4), on the Six- Trait Writing rubric, for her organization. If her opening and closing statements were a bit stronger, I would definitely say that in this piece she would have demonstrated an experienced writer (5) level. Although she has some great traits in her writing, there is one area that needs a bit more attention- conventions. She is spelling high-frequency words correctly and has proper grammar at the beginning and ending of sentences, but there is no experimentation with other grammatical marking or paragraphs. She is still developing these abilities, so this is not detrimental to her writing, but I do see it as an area of improvement that could greatly strengthen her skills as a writer. Even though conventions may be an area for improvement with this student, I am very pleased with her ability to spell. In both samples of her writing, there were some minor spelling errors that indicate to me that she is at or around the Transitional Stage for spelling development. As an 8-year old I would still expect her to be closer to the Phonetic stage of spelling. In each of the samples, I see that she is attempting to apply her knowledge of the phonics rules to the misspelled words. She has a vowel in each syllable, and she uses common letter sequences such as consonant digraphs and silent E to make the words say the correct sounds. There are several occasions in her writing where the vowel digraph ie is used instead of the correct usage Y. For example, in her spelling of twentie and activitie all of the correct sounds are included but not all rules were applied. There are also examples of adding a silent E to account for a long vowel sound- He was a grate leader. At times she also misses some of the intermediate sounds like in catch cach, dinner diner, or grilling giling. Overall, as a second grader her writing ability is above and beyond what I would expect. Her abilities exceed those of her classmates, and with her passion for the subject she will only continue to grow.

Handwriting Assessment This student is 8 years of age, and in the second grade. She is a very kind and patient student who is always willing to assist the teacher and her classmates. She helps keep our classroom running smoothly and is generally excited about school. She is reading on grade level and occasionally struggles with math, but most of all, this student loves to write. She is always very careful to write responses in complete sentences, and is excited about recording her own thoughts and feelings into different pieces of writing. Not only are her responses and pieces fun to read, but they are also very easy to read because of her neat handwriting. As this student is writing, she is very careful, but she is still improving in many areas. The sizes of her letters are typically very good and legible, but they are not always consistent. Each of her letters is consistent along the bottom; however, they do not extend to the top line as they should, particularly with stem bubble letters b and d. When she only has the bottom line to guide her, the variation in size broadens. The shapes of her letters are also in the improvement stage. They are regular and follow the traditional style; however, some her letters tend to get squished, particularly her vowels A, E and U. Also, her lower-case Rs do not hook enough at the top. There are times that an r can look like a very closed v. I believe that some of the misshapen letters are caused by a tight pencil grip. She seems to have good posture when writing, but she grips her pencil tighter than necessary. Possibly adding a rubber gripper to the pencil would help her make the shape of her letters more consistent. I also notice that her letters tend to get squished when she runs out of room at the end of a line; this is more of a spacing issue than anything. We need to work with this student on when to begin a new line and on starting to anticipate how long a word will be compared to the space available. Some of these skills will come with experience and even out her handwriting, but we can begin some exercises to help her plan the proper spacing. Overall, her spacing is acceptable. It is obvious that she pays less attention as the piece gets longer; at the beginning the spacing is consistent, and in the middle it is obvious that there is not as much attention given to the consistency of her writing. I find the slant of her writing interesting. Most is steady and consistent with that of the traditional style, but occasionally there is a letter or two that slant more towards the 10 or 11-oclock position. I have noticed that, when working on her desk, she has a slight tilt to her paper, which could contribute to odd angles; however, when she is using a clipboard, her writing is slated more at the 12-oclock position. There is an appropriate amount of effort that goes into her writing, and I am beginning to teach her to critique her own work and to take notice of some of these areas would help tremendously to fix many of the inconsistencies. By analyzing a few samples of her writing, I can see that she does pay close attention to most of her letters and obviously tries to write legibly. At this time, there are no red flags that need to be immediately addressed, but continued and consistent work will help polish up her handwriting. As she writes more and gains more experience and strength in her hand, I expect to see steady improvement.