WRITING ASSESSMENTS WEBINAR Robert W. Frantum-Allen
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Objectives Overview of Writing Assessments Handwriting HWT and
Checklist Spelling Writing CBM
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Handwriting Assessments
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Handwriting with out Tears Memory 1. Omitting the letter/number
is a memory error. 2. Writing an unrecognizable letter/number (like
a squiggle) is a memory error. 3. Writing the wrong letter/number
(lowercase f for capital F or vice versa) is a memory error. 4.
Lowercase i, j without the dot is a memory error.
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Memory 5. A letter or number that is reversed/backward 6. A
letter that uses wrong size - Oo, Ww, Ss 7. A letter in the wrong
place - Pp, y
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Orientation 8. Reversals, or backward letters are orientation
errors. No orientation error for: 9. Symmetrical letters/numbers.
They cannot be reversed and are not scored.
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Placement 10. A letter/number (or part) that should be on the
baseline but is outside the gray area (more than 1/16 above or
below the line) is a placement error. a. Letter/number parts that
should be on the line but are above the gray area b. Letter/number
parts that should be on the line but are below the gray area Note:
Measure questionable placement. Line up the 2nd Grade Placement
Tool with the writing line (not the letter).
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Sentence 11. Not using a capital to begin is a sentence error.
12. Mixing capital and lowercase letters is a sentence error. 13.
Putting too much space between letters in a word (w r o n g) is a
sentence error. 14. Putting words too close is a sentence error.
15. Forgetting ending punctuation is a sentence error.
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Name You will not mark errors for this category. Instead, note
the stage of development. Does the student use: - All capitals
(CHRIS) - Transitioning mix (ChRis) - Title case (Chris)
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Other Concerns Formation- starting at the bottom and moving up
Size- too large for grade level Neatness Speed- too slow and too
fast Posture- slumped, feed unsupported, Pencil Grip- awkward grip
Helper hand- doesnt use this hand to hold the paper Other-
Cognitive concerns
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On-line Scoring System
http://www.hwtears.com/hwt/online-tools/screener
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Report
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Handwriting Screening Checklist Free writing or short
constructed writing on single lined paper Have the student write
the capital alphabet, lower case alphabet and the numbers on single
lined paper Dictate to the students the phrase The quick brown fox
jumps over the lazy dog. If the student is too young for dictation,
then have them copy the phrase. The phrase contains all the letters
of the English alphabet.
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Handwriting Screening Checklist
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Spelling Inventory
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Analysis of Spelling Errors Spelling errors are a rich source
of information about language processing (Masterson and Apel, 2000)
Masterson, J., and Apel, K. (2000) Spelling assessment: charting a
path to optimal intervention. Topics in Language Disorders, 20(3),
50-66 Substitution, omitting or changing the order of sounds in a
word Weak phonological skills Strong phonological awareness and
having trouble remembering letter and letter patterns. Weak
orthographic skills Lacks stable spelling in multiple syllable or
multiple morpheme words Weak morphological and/or syllable
skills
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Grading a Spelling Inventory 1.What is their stage of spelling
development? -Emergent (Grade pre-k to middle of 1) -Letter Name
(Grade K to middle of 2) -Within Word Pattern (Grade 1 to middle of
4) -Syllables and Affixes (Grade 3-8) -Derivational Relations
(Grade 5-12) Clues about their psychological processing ability
and/or instruction received -Emergent to Letter name- possible
phonological/orthographic processing errors -Syllable and Affixes
and Derivational Relations might hint at lack of morphological and
syllable knowledge and might indicate a masked
phonological/orthographical processing errors 2. Error Analysis to
determine the number of phonological (disphonetic) and/or
orthographic errors. -1-3 rd grade phonological and orthographic
errors are expected based on the instruction and experience of this
age group -After 3 rd grade phonological errors should be greatly
reduced Clues about their psychological processing ability and/or
instruction received -After 3 rd grade, if more than 50% of the
errors are phonological in nature then there might be a possible
phonological processing concerns -After 3 rd grade, if more than
50% of the errors are orthogprahic with few phonological errors
then possible orthographic processing or lack of instruction in
spelling -If morpheme spelling are inconsistent then possible lack
of instruction in morphology
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Directions give the screeners just like you give a spelling
test, however students do not study the words. say the words two
times clearly, without emphasis on a particular sounds or syllable
you do not need to use them in a sentence (we are not looking at
their word context skills, just their phonological/orthographic,
syllable and morphological skills) if it looks like a student is
stuck at a level, consider stopping but make sure you have enough
words to analyze for phonological or orthographic erros.
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Determine the Stage of Spelling Development for each correct
feature -Circle the incorrect feature -total only the words asked
to spell What was the latest skill they got mostly right? When did
they start to miss the critical feature? Final consonant is mostly
right Began to make mistakes with short vowels This puts him at the
letter name-early stage
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What stage is this child at?
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Grading a Spelling Inventory Practice
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Determining the type of errors
SpellingWordPhonoloigcalOrthographic SalSell LesLess ForckFork
SipSlip smopShop CondCoin FlotFloat DrivDrive SpoonSpon
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Examples Alan 3 rd Grade
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What does Alans spelling inventory tell us Most of his errors
are orthographic- he doesnt have a phonological processing problems
The type of orthographic errors are expected for his grade level
based on what is expected for 3 rd grade according to the state
standards He needs instruction on long vowel spellings, variant
vowels, inflectional morphemes and unaccented final syllables
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Jean 5 th Grade
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What does Jeans spelling inventory tell us For a 5 th grader
Jean has a profound phonological processing disorder, which is why
she is not able to connect phonemes and graphemes She cannot
distinguish long and short vowel sounds and spelling She might be
lacking some instruction beyond the 26 letters of the alphabet,
needs instruction in digraphs and vowel teams Relative strength
with consonant blends
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Grammar Inventory
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TMG Parts of Speech: Knowledge Subject/Predicate
Identification: Knowledge Sentence types : Knowledge Sentence
Identification: Knowledge Helps to determine what to teach Check
the grade level expectations to determine is this is a problem
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TMG CLOZE- hints at a processing disorder Higher-level
reasoning: finding evidence, judging perspective, synthesizing or
elaboration, having a new idea Self-regulation: revising, employing
strategies, setting goals, managing attention, taking perspective
of the reader Automatic Pilot If there are NO grade level
expectations then TEACH IT!
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Writing CBM
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Written Expression CBM Writing CBM Total Words Written Words
Spelled Correctly Correct Writing Sequence Spelling CBM Correct
Letter Sequence
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Writing CBM- The student is given a writing prompt, one minute
to plan and then three minutes to write for the CBM and a chance to
finish writing to be graded by a rubric The students writing is
scored as total words written, total words spelled correctly and
correct writing sequence Rubric looks at typical writing
composition skills and handwriting
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Writing CBM WritingTotal Words Written, Spelling, Syntax,
Semantics and Handwriting Administration Time 1 minute to plan and
3 minutes to write, additional writing time to complete a story
Administration Schedule First grade Twelfth grade Score1 point for
each words written, one point for each correct writing sequence,
one point for each word spelled correctly, and rubric scoring Wait
RuleNo wait rule Discontinue RuleNo discontinue rule
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Writing CBM: Standard Directions Handout: How to Conduct a
Writing CBM 1.Provide students with a pencil and piece of lined
paper or writing notebook. 2.Select an appropriate story starter.
3.Say: Today I want you to write a story. I am going to read a
sentence to you first and then I want you to compose a short story
about what happens. You will have 1 minute to think about what you
will write and 3 minutes to write your story. Remember to do you
best work. If you do not know how to spell a word, you should
guess. Are there any questions? Put your pencils down and listen.
For the next minute, think about . (insert your story starter)
4.After reading the story starter, begin your stopwatch and allow 1
minute for the student(s) to think. (Monitor student so that they
do not begin writing.) After 30 seconds say; You should be thinking
about(insert your story starter). At the end of 1 minute restart
your stopwatch for 3 minutes and say, Now begin writing. 5.Monitor
students attention to the task. Encourage student to work if they
are not writing. 6.After 90 seconds say; You should be writing
about (insert your story starter). 7.At the end of 3 minutes
indicate on the student paper with a ] but allow the student to
finish writing. The write CBM will be graded up to the ]. The
remainder of the paper will be needed when grading on the writing
rubric.
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Scoring Writing CBM How to score writing CBM 1. Count the total
number of words written to obtain the total words written (TWW) 2.
Count the total number of words spelled correctly to obtain the
words spelled correctly (WSC) score 3. Count the total number of
correct writing sequences (CWS) score
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Determining the Total Words Written Underline any words that
are produced in the writing sample (even if the word is misspelled
or is a nonsense word). Find the sum the sum of the total words
written. Hyphenated words where each morpheme can stand alone
should be counted as a word (mother-in-law = 3 words) Hyphenated
words where each morpheme cant stand alone should be counted as 1
word (re-evaluation) Abbreviation: Commonly used abbreviations
should be counted as words (Mr., Mrs., T.V.) Story Titles and
Endings that are written in the title or the ending should be
counted in the TWW Numbers and symbols that are not spelled out
should NOT be counted as words (5, 31, %, &)
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Total Words Written TWW 30
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Total Words Written
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DPS CBM Benchmark Guidelines for SLD Eligibility Determination
The score for fall 4th grade was 30 According to the score where
did the student fall for TWW for fall 4 th grade? At or Above
Benchmark? Below Benchmark? Well Below Benchmark?
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Determining the Words Spelled Correctly (WSC) WSC refers to the
number of correctly spelled words in the writing sample, REGARDLESS
of the context in which they are used. Incorrectly spelled words
should be circled. WSC is calculated by subtracting the total
number of errors (circled words) from the Total Words Written
(TWW)
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Determining the Words Spelled Correctly (WSC) Abbreviations
must be spelled correctly Each Morpheme counted individually in a
hyphenated word must be spelled correctly. If the morpheme cannot
stand alone and part of that word is spelled incorrectly, the
entire word is counted as incorrect. Titles and endings should be
counted in the WSC Capitalization rules: Proper nouns must be
capitalized unless that word is also a common noun. Capitalization
of the first word in the sentence is not required for the word to
be spelled correctly. Others words are counted as correct even if
they are capitalized incorrectly within the writing sample Letters
that have been written reversed are not counted as errors unless
the reversal causes the word to be spelled incorrectly (p, q, d, b,
n, u) Contractions are counted as WSC as long as the apostrophe is
in the correct place
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Words Spelled Correctly 30-7=23 WSC
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Words Spelled Correctly
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DPS CBM Benchmark Guidelines for SLD Eligibility Determination
The score for fall 4 th grade was 23 According to the score where
did the student fall for WSC for fall 4th grade? At or Above
Benchmark? Below Benchmark? Well Below Benchmark?
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Determining the Correct Writing Sequence (CWS) A correct
Writing Sequence (CWS) is a pair of adjacent, correctly spelled
words that are acceptable within the context of the written phrase.
CWS takes into account punctuation, syntax, semantics, spelling,
and capitalization. When scoring CWS, a caret (^) is used to mark
each correct word sequence. A space is implied at the beginning of
the sentence. Place a caret (^) between words that are
(1)mechanically (spelled correctly, appropriate capitalization, (2)
semantically, and (3) syntactically correct; calculate the sum of
the number of carets = CWS There are many rules for CWS! Please
refer to page 3 and 4 in the How to Conduct a Writing CBM (yellow)
handout
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Determining the Correct Writing Sequence (CWS) ^The ^dog ^is
^big. ^CWS=5 Perfect ^The ^dog ^is ^big CWS=4 Punctuation is
missing the ^dog ^is ^big. ^CWS=4 Missing capitalization
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Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details Spelling: Words must
be spelled correctly CWS 8 CWS 3
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Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details Capitalization:
Beginning of sentences, proper nouns counted, incorrectly
capitalized are incorrect CWS 5 CWS 3
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Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details Capitalization:
Beginning of sentences, proper nouns counted, incorrectly
capitalized are incorrect CWS 3 CWS 4
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Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details Punctuation: At the
end of sentences, commas not counted unless in a series, where they
must be used correctly, other punctuation not counted CWS 12 CWS
8
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Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details Punctuation: At the
end of sentences, commas not counted unless in a series, where they
must be used correctly, other punctuation not counted CWS 8 CWS
7
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Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details Syntax: Must be
syntactically correct to be counted. Words that begin with a
conjunction are correct CWS 8 CWS 5
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Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details Semantics:
Semantically correct CWS 5 CWS 4
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Correct Writing Sequence 15 CWS
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DPS CBM Benchmark Guidelines for SLD Eligibility Determination
The score for fall 4 th grade was 15 According to the score where
did the student fall for WSC for fall 4th grade? At or Above
Benchmark? Below Benchmark? Well Below Benchmark?
