A Practical Guide to Assessing English Language Learners

Chapter 4

Assessing Writing

By Licda. Latoya Murray H.

Is it important to assess writing in our class rooms? Of course it is. It’s of great importance that our students be capable of expressing themselves in a written way. Therefore we should come up with our own creations or modifications of writing assessment.

Consider the two major approaches in writing assessment which are Direct and Indirect.  Indirect assess correct usage of grammar and it focuses on accuracy while Direct assess students ability to communicate and it requires the students to produce.

Consider also the basic elements which are:

-The Rubric: Instructions                                                                              

-Prompt :The task

-Expected Response: Teachers aspirations for students

-Post: Effectiveness of the writing task

Two techniques you can use to assess writing are: Free writing and Guided writing. Free writing requires student to read a prompt that poses a situation and write a planned response based on a combination of background knowledge and knowledge learned from the course while guided writing requires students to manipulate content that is provided in the prompt.