The Writing Samples Test

I thoroughly enjoy writing so I feel confident in my writing ability. One of my high school teachers had told me that I am a gifted writer and my writing has a lot of voice in it. The only things I have found that I struggle with when it comes to writing is grammar and transitions between paragraphs. My reading ability is just as strong as my writing ability, although I do not enjoy reading nearly as much as I enjoy writing.

When I was reading Writing is Easy by Steve Martin, I was thinking if writing was actually that easy. Then I finished the article and realized that writing will never be easy. Mr. Martin examples on how to make writing easier make no sense. His tip to getting over writers block gets the writer nowhere. He says “got to an already published novel and find a sentence that you absolutely adore. Copy it down into your manuscript” (Martin). What he is saying is plagiarism. If I was to use this method to overcome writer block I would be thrown out of college. I still believe that writer block is real because even the greatest authors struggle with writers block.

To help increase Joe’s ability to read his writing aloud, the teacher can provide content instruction and timely feedback. In my strategies for Joe’s second goal I emphasized that “Students need to be able to connect the tasks of an assignment to their own

Teachers, who are aware of children becoming emergent writers, can better understand the amount of effort and concentration required. Teachers can appreciate the value of observing children’s early writing for evidence of children’s developing phonological knowledge of written language.

In order to assess Lucy’s progress in writing, I analyzed a sample piece of her opinion writing worksheets. Each student in Mrs. McDonald’s kindergarten listened to Mrs. McDonald read them the book, “ The Mixed Up Alphabet” by Steve Metzger. The students were guided through a worksheet that outlined who to write to, what their opinion was, a reason why, and whom it was from. This writing piece was given during a single writing period, which consists of 30 minutes of individual work time. I was able to conference with Lucy during her writing process. She was able to tell me what her opinion was on the book they read and why. She was able to initially decide what she was writing without a prompt from me. To assess her writing, I collected the outlined sheet of her writing.

When immobilized, he could not access writing tools and strategies, and I often communicated with his mother often to document my progress (item #2). By collaborating with his parents, the school Occupational Therapist, Speech and Language Pathologist, his private psychologist and my own extensive research, I created a step-by-step checklist for Weston to employ when writing to decrease anxiety. This included all stages of writing (item #3); pre-brainstorming gross-motoric stretching to relax the limbic system. I learned from brain research has shown the limbic system involves the function of motivation, emotion, learning, and memory, and I needed to help Weston relax. After each step in the writing process, Weston learned to pick a type of break and that helped him relax/reset and continue writing. From my teaching and building on each successful outcome, Weston learned to use tools and strategies to de-escalate his anxiety with writing. This helped him to organize and support his ideas and not become overwhelmed. The goal for Weston was to produce a final written response within 2 resource sessions that met grade level expectations for elaboration independently. The instruction built on prior successes using his checklist. Weston’s product exceeded my goal (item #4), and he scored a 3.5/4 on elaboration (3 meets) and 4/4 for sentence fluency and voice. This piece informs me that he needs

This past semester I have been taking English 219 which is formally known as essay composition and critical reading. In this class we have focussed mainly on analytical reading, writing summaries, and writing essays. Not only did we discuss how to successfully write an essay we also learned about different tools and techniques that can be used to help discover our position in regards to a topic and many different ways to overcome writers block. There have been many things that I feel I have learned in our English 219 class this semester. Even though I am very happy with the amount of learning I have completed I do still however have some areas that I need to focus on. I will be taking more English classes throughout my college and university education. In English 219 is has been confirmed that we will all have our own individual strengths, weaknesses, and ambitions for the future.

Mary Lou has difficulty with spelling (Standard Score = 89) and editing (Standard Score = 86) but demonstrates proficiency in the ability to formulate sentences quickly, and the ability to write short writing samples when given a verbal or picture prompt. Mary Lou self-reported difficulty with writing skills and feels that she performs below the level of her peers. Mary Lou’s poor basic writing skills hinder her academic performance in the general education classroom as she frequently produces work with spelling and grammar errors, is unable to revise, edit, or rewrite work when asked, and has difficulty paraphrasing information learned in class to demonstrate knowledge in subject areas. Difficulty with spelling and editing may impact her academic performance and her success in extracurricular

Under the observation notes for November, 8th Nick read a book about Minecraft, which inspired him to write about it. Though the “Clash of the Creepers” was a difficult read Nick tried to sound out the words to his best ability. In Appendix C4 has a sample of Nick’s free writing he did about Minecraft. Looking at Nick’s work it is evident that he puts capital letters in inappropriate places, but he also forgets to add punctuation. Looking at the Practical Aspects of Authentic Assessment rubric Nick does write many letters legibly, however he does not write in the lines. Nick does not have one standard writing size. Shown through his work Nick tends to write some words very big and some words small. In the beginning stage the child often starts

Literacy: Otis is able to convey his ideas around a topic effectively through his writing. He writes in complete sentences with appropriate spaces, includes punctuation and the spelling makes sense. Otis spells high frequency words and some word wall words correctly and utilizes in his writing. He is currently setting and working towards learning goals. His next steps are to use uppercase letters at the start of sentences and lower case letters inside the sentence consistently. Otis is also encouraged to continue to show emphasis in his writing by writing in big or bold letters. For example, in his writing journal he wrote “I feel sad when someone calls me BOSSY.”. Otis has excellent comprehension and continues to work on his fluency by reading

In the paper on “An Essay On Writing” written by an Anonymous author he gives a reason for rejecting good writing. The author states that “the misapprehension that is necessary to write well in order to communicate. This is utter nonsense”. What he is saying is that there is no linking between writing and communicating. They are two opposite things. Just because you're good at communicating doesn’t mean you’re always great at writing, but you might be the total opposite. The author had two good points to back up his arguments one was he did a test with three different people. One of the three was controlled. What he did is he “gave each subject a pencil and paper and commanded him to write. After “three minutes and forty-seven seconds,”

Aiden’s overall achievement in English is pleasing. He makes thoughtful contributions to class discussions and will ask questions that elicit further information. Aiden is continuing to develop his confidence and speaking skills when presenting to the class. His use of expression has improved. However, more content and eye contact was needed. Aiden reads with high accuracy but is still developing his fluency and expression. He successfully decodes unknown words and monitors his reading to maintain understanding. When writing, Aiden increasingly attempts to produce creative texts. He has experimented with figurative language to describe actions and objects. Aiden can organise his writing using paragraphs and is continuing to build his spelling and grammar skills.

although the student exhibited good reading skills; however, his writing skills is not great for students at his age level. The student ability to read with accuracy shows a good potential to excel in school and in the real world. The student’s progress in the ability to use computer and keyboard skills indicates good potential to meet goals stated in IEP. The student would benefit from writing assignments to increase fine motor skill needed for

One of my strengths is spelling and punctuation; however, I need to work on in text MLA citations. In evidence-based writing, if there are any evidence that the individual is citing then they must used an in-text MLA format. For example, the in text citation should be in parenthesis and should be placed at the end of the quote. Depending on the source, it would either have the author or the title of the source. In the evidence, if the individual used a source, this part is the most essential because it can become plagiarism if the source isn't cited. Despite the fact my strength is punctuation, in text citation is an important factor in evidence-based writing and it should be improved on.

Analysing children’s writing is critically important because it allows teachers to have an understanding of what the child knows already, and what he/she needs to build on with their writing (Stewart, 2012). In the paragraphs ahead, two samples have been chosen and have been analysed using the Victorian Essential Learning Standards and the Western Australia First Steps Developmental Continuum.