The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress

April 30, 2014

Learning to Write

• “Writing is not an activity. It’s not something you sit down at the keyboard, and just start doing. That’s called ‘typing.’ Typing is an activity … Writing is a process. And if you start thinking of it as a process, life gets so much easier.”– Jeff Bollow, Writing Fast

• “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” – Stephen King, On Writing

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What helps in formative writing? (Writing Next, 2007; Informing Writing, 2011)

• Teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and editing their compositions (effect size=0.82)

• Teaching students how to assess their own writing (effect size=0.46)

• Explicitly and systematically teaching students how to summarize texts (effect size=0.82)

• Providing feedback (effect size =.77)• Monitor students’ writing progress (effect size=.24)• Collect multiple samples of student writing

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Challenge for Implementing Formative Writing Assessment in the Classroom

• Having students write frequently• Providing timely feedback• Writing across the curriculum• Personalizing training for students• Monitoring writing over time and obtaining reliable, valid, timely

data for students, teachers, parents and policy makers

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Technology to Support Formative Writing

• Automated scoring and instant feedback• Summarization scoring and feedback tied to online texts• Support strategies for planning, revising, and editing• Support teachers monitoring of student progress

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Incorporating Automated Writing Assessment in the Classroom

Feedback6

Feedback5

Feedback4

Feedback3

Feedback2

Feedback 1

Students write an essay or a summary to a prompt or a

text assigned by the teacher

Students get immediate and

accurate feedbacks while

they write

Teachers check writing scores of classroom and individuals and

monitor the progress

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Why Use Automated Scoring?

• Immediacy & Efficiency– Evaluate responses in seconds– Give students and teachers instant feedback

• Writing traits• Content• Grammar, Spelling, …

• Accuracy• Consistency, Objectivity• Can detect off-topic, inappropriate and “odd” responses• A stored record of a student’s effort

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Summarization Writing Practice

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Formative Writing of Essays with Automated Feedback

A Secondary School in NC, 2009

Control Group80 students had teachers without

automated scoring in the classroom

Experimental Group85 students had teachers using automated scoring in the classroom

Percentage at “proficient” level went from 67% to 95%

Remained stable with 70% judged to be at the “proficient” level

Blind-marked essays

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Writing Summaries with Feedback is BetterFranzke et al., (2005)

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0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

Automated Feedback

Word Processor

Time stud...0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Content while Using

Quality while Using

Later on their own

Supporting Teacher Monitoring

Conclusions

• Incorporate tools for scoring writing for:– Rapid, accurate feedback– Assess writing ability and content scoring– Supporting teacher monitoring & feedback

• Technology to support students and teachers– Scaffolded feedback for students based on their

writing performance– Teachers can assign more writing while still

reading/grading essays

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Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

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Reliability of Essay Scoring

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Jeff Pence7th Grade English Language Arts Teacher

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I know…

• Our students are Digital Natives• Proficient Users and Fast Learners

• We must embrace technology or get left behind

• The Need• Effective monitoring• Standards based use• Consistent evaluation• Timely feedback

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Problem• If “the only way to learn to write… is to write,” then how do we increase student performance and productivity without sacrificing accuracy and thoroughness?

How can this happen?

•Carefully selected tools, utilized to their full potential!

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Writing Statistics SY2012-13

• _______ The number of writing students I taught each day.

• _______ The number of essays and summaries each student completed from August 2010 until May 2011.

• _______ The average number of times each essay was submitted for grading, evaluated, scored, and returned to the student.

• ________________ The number of drafts that were thoroughly evaluated and returned to the students with specific feedback and absolute consistency.

11722

6

15,444

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Monday

•Grammar Lessons & Review• Textbooks, workbooks, and exercises.• Printed texts and workbooks ARE still useful!

• Continuous assessment with Response, Socrative, and .

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Tuesday

•Grammar Re-Teaching•More detailed lessons in small groups to ensure understanding of the concepts.

•Enrichment•Online Publishing ( )• “Free-Writing”•Cross-Curricular writing projects

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Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday

• Two Directions depending on standards.

• Essay Writing Assignments• Summary Writing Assignments

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Wednesday (Essay Week)

•Prompt Provided•Students Plan and Draft by hand

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Thursday (Essay Week)

• Completed draft is typed into • Revise, Edit, and Collaborate• Students are provided 3 feedback submissions

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Friday (Essay Week)

• Additional 3 feedbacks for improvements to the essay• The final submission is made in• Publish• Polish the text in a separate software program for printing, or complete a project with the text.

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Wednesday (Summary Week)

•Writing prompt provided •Summary Topic and Reading Passage for Notes

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Thursday (Summary Week)

• Summary draft is typed into • Revise, Edit, and Collaborate• Students are provided 3 feedback submissions

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Friday (Summary Week)

• Additional 3 feedback submissions for improvements to the essay• The final submission is made in• Publish• Polish the text in a separate software program for printing, or complete a project with the text.

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What is ?

• An assessment tool• Easily aligned with state writing standards• Supports 6+1 Traits of Writing• Cross-Curricular to enhance student learning and writing• Fully supports Common Core Standards

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Essay Settings

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Summary Settings

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40

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Real Results from my Students

February

with ONE Feedbackand all helps turned OFF.

August

with multiple feedbacks and spelling, grammar, and repeated content

checks turned ON.

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February

with ONE Feedbackand all helps turned OFF.

Augustwith multiple feedbacks and spelling,

grammar, and repeated contentchecks turned ON.

Real Results from my Students

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February

with ONE Feedbackand all helps turned OFF.

August

with multiple feedbacks and spelling, grammar, and repeated content

checks turned ON.

Real Results from my Students

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February

with ONE Feedbackand all helps turned OFF.

August

with multiple feedbacks and spelling, grammar, and repeated content

checks turned ON.

Real Results from my Students

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February

with ONE Feedbackand all helps turned OFF.

August

with multiple feedbacks and spelling, grammar, and repeated content

checks turned ON.

Real Results from my Students

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February

with ONE Feedbackand all helps turned OFF.

August

with multiple feedbacks and spelling, grammar, and repeated content

checks turned ON.

Real Results from my Students

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I know…

• In my classes of up to 34 students at a time, within seconds of pressing the feedback button, WriteToLearn™, assesses each essay on a six point rubric for Ideas, Organization, Conventions, Sentence Fluency, Word Choice, and Voice with suggestions for improvement, annotated sample essays, and specific feedback for spelling and grammar.

• Students, who are able to utilize this feedback independently, flourish.

• I am able to spend more time with students who struggle and require personal attention to develop writing skills.

• I am the teacher; the technology is a tool.

• The best part is that I am able to focus on the development of each student as a writer.

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Any Questions for us?

For more information please visit:

WriteToLearn.net