High-Quality Formative Writing Assessment for Middle School Students in Tier 2 Literacy Interventions

Y

39

Institute of Education Sciences (ED)

R324A220269

Formative Evaluation; Writing Evaluation; Middle School Students; Prompting; Scoring Rubrics; Literacy; Intervention; Writing Skills; Progress Monitoring; At Risk Students; Writing Difficulties; Student Motivation; Essays; Evaluation Criteria

10.1111/ldrp.12300

Increased expectations for writing performance have created a need for formative writing assessments that will help middle school teachers better understand adolescents' grade appropriate writing skills and monitor the progress of students with or at risk for writing disabilities. In this practice piece, we first explain research-based recommendations for high-quality writing prompts that are interesting to students, provide clear directions, and ensure accessibility and fairness. Then, we use lessons learned from working with adolescents in Tier 2 literacy intervention classes to demonstrate how teachers can apply the recommendations to identify or develop prompts that will encourage students to write responses. In addition, we explain how analytic rubrics may be used to evaluate responses as a means of informing instruction and further refining the prompts. [This paper was published in "Learning Disabilities Research & Practice" v38 n1 p70-79 Feb 2023.]

As Provided

Yes

2023

ED626658