Written-Expression Curriculum Based Measurement (WE · PDF file14.09.2012 · Written-Expression Curriculum Based Measurement (WE-CBM) A Practitioner’s Guide to Utilizing WE-CBM

Written-Expression Curriculum Based Measurement

(WE-CBM)

A Practitioner’s Guide to Utilizing WE-CBM

within Response to Intervention

Draft | Do not Distribute

LeAnne K. Robinson, Ph.D. Department of Special Education Western Washington University

[email protected]

*This manual is in draft form.

Please avoid distributing (updated September 14, 2012)

*This manual is the result of several years of working with pre-service teachers and combines lessons learned from work with real students in the field with the work in curriculum based measurement that was described and developed by Ken Howell. I would like to thank all of the practicum students over the last eight years who have helped to test these procedures. I know that each one of them is out making a difference in the lives of children. LeAnne

LeAnne Robinson | Western Washington University 2

Table of Contents

Introduction 3 Overview of the WE-CBM Process 4 Section I: Assessment, Analysis and Evaluation Understanding the Evaluation Cycle 5 Screening and Benchmarking 6 Progress Monitoring 7 Understanding Conditions of Learning 10 Error Domains and Hypothesis Testing 12

Hypothesis Testing and Problem Validation Tables for Decision Making

14

Legibility 14 Conventions 15 Fluency 17 Vocabulary 18 Sentence Complexity 19 Content 20 Writing Process 22

Early Literacy and Emergent Writers 23 Section 11: Organizing and Presenting Information RIOT | ICEL 24 Sharing Information with Decision

Making Teams 25

Decision Making Chart 26 Section III: Implementation Philosophical Musings on Writing 27 Some Notes on Explicit Instruction 28 Overview of Designing Writing Lessons 29 Sentence Complexity 31 Conventions 33 Fluency 35 Vocabulary 36 Content 37 Legibility 40 Section IV: Appendices and Resources A: Administering a 1 Minute Think –

3 Minute Write 42

B: Scoring Words Spelled Correctly 43

C: Scoring Correct Writing Sequences

44

D: Punctuation Status Sheet 45 E: Story Grammar 45 F: Recommended Readings and

Resources 46

G: Holistic Scoring Rubric 46 Section V: Professional Development Activities Activity 1: Scoring Practice 48 Activity 1: Answer Key 49 Activity 1: Reliability Practice 50 Activity 2: Writing Samples 51 Activity 2: Error Domains and

Common Hypotheses 52

Activity 2: Error Domain Worksheet 53 Activity 3: Skills, Strategies and

Concepts in Holistic Rubrics 54

Activity 3: Examples of Identifying Error Domains in a Holistic Rubric

55

Activity 3: Identifying Skills, Concepts, Strategies in Holistic Rubrics

56

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INTRODUCTION Writing is one of the most difficult cognitive tasks we can perform as a human. In order to express our thoughts on paper not only do we need the physical capabilities, we must also have deep understandings of language and print. I have worked with many students who can read but cannot write, and I have yet to meet a student who can write but cannot read. Although writing is probably the most complex academic task, it is the primary way that we ask students to show what they know. Unfortunately, if we look closely at what happens in a given school day, very little explicit writing instruction takes place. We often provide time for writing, but time for writing is very, very different than time spent on actually instructing students in the art, craft and science of communicating with print. When a student fails to produce text similar to that of other students his or her age, teachers are often perplexed as to what to do to support the tangled writer. Although there are many published books with ideas on how to teach, there are relatively few diagnostic assessment tools to use to pinpoint what, specifically, needs to be taught. The purpose of this handbook is provide an overview of how to “diagnose” an instructional written expression problem and then to select a targeted intervention. The word diagnose, as I am using it, refers to identifying the instructional problem that is preventing success. (I really don’t care how the problem got there- whether the student was born with it or caught it from someone else). As a teacher, I want to know what to do in the classroom. Once any good teacher knows what the major road block is, he or she can usually come up with a creative and direct way to teach the student what he or she needs to know to advance. Teachers are really good at teaching!

The framework presented here follows a Response to Intervention decision-making model: (1) Identifying who has a problem (Screening) (2) Determining what the problem is (Hypothesis generation and testing) (3) Designing a complete intervention plan (4) Implementing the plan (5) Monitoring progress (progress monitoring | formative assessment) (6) Evaluating the success of the intervention (summative evaluation) (A process specific to written language is described on page 4). It should be made clear that the methods presented here are for students and/or groups of students who have been identified as “at risk” or are below grade level and in need of a tiered intervention. It is entirely possible that a classroom teacher could screen her class and find no students in need of remediation, confirming that the currently established practices of writing instruction are working for everyone. I also want to stress the importance of continuing to provide quality core instruction to those students who are receiving tiered interventions. Tiered interventions should support, not supplant, quality core instruction! Additionally, I am not recommending that teachers give up using formative assessments that have been helping them make qood classroom decisions. Instead this process is meant to provide a way to enhance and support what is already working in your classroom. Also, this process may also highlight some areas within the core that may benefit from change.

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Overview of the WE-CBM Process In the introduction I provided an overview of a generic RTI decision-making process. Here I want to make this specific to Written Expression – Curriculum Based Measurement (WE-CBM). Each stage is explained in more detail throughout this manual.

(1) Identify if there are any students with potential problems in Written Expression (Screening | Benchmarking)

(2) For students who appear below standard, review writing sample(s) and identify a potential Error Domains

(3) Confirm that there is a problem and establish benchmark

(4) Develop a hypothesis as to why the problem is occurring

(5) Check the hypothesis through an assessment(s) (6) Design an intervention and plan for progress

monitoring (7) Implement the plan (8) Evaluate the intervention

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SECTION I: Assessment, Analysis and

Evaluation


Understanding the Evaluation Cycle It is helpful to understand what is sometimes called “The Assessment-Evaluation Cycle” or the “Evaluation Process”. More often than not, the words assessment analysis and evaluation are used interchangeably. They are not the same. Understanding the difference will assist in understanding other terms and concepts in Response to Intervention. Assessment is the act of following through on some procedure or activity that will result in the collection of data. This may be the administration of a test or probe (which is a short test), planning and conducting a formal observation, conducting an interview or reviewing information in a systematic way. Assessment is merely the act of collecting data. (See R.I.O.T on page X) Analysis is the process of making the data meaningful. The means such things as: scoring a test or probe, calculating the percentage of incidents of a behavior, recording an interview or organizing information from a review of records. Analysis is the act of preparing the raw data for meaningful interpretation. Evaluation is the rendering of a judgment. This is the final and most critical act in the assessment cycle. Once you’ve collected data and organized it in a way that makes it meaningful (analysis),you can then make a decision or judgment about student performance. There are a lot of references to “Formative and Summative Evaluation” or “Formative and Summative Assessment”. Personally it seems that the concept of both makes has become complicated when it doesn’t need to be. Before administering any assessment, you should state your assessment question. Your question should be answered when you evaluate the data. If your question relates to determining how a student is progressing, then you are likely to engage in a “formative process”. If you

are asking a question as to whether or not a student “passed” or “should move on” or how a student “compares to others”, then you are likely to be engaged in a summative process. Generally teachers are more interested in questions that will be used to guide instruction, such as “what does Sally know about …..” or “Can Sally complete….”. Administers are generally interested in summative questions such as “How did the class do?” or “How many students met benchmark at the end of the year?” Knowing your question will help ensure that you are administering the correct assessment. You cannot make good targeted instructional decisions if you are asking summative questions and administering summative type assessments (e.g. most state tests, norm-referenced assessments).

Figure 1: Assessment/Evaluation Cycle

Assess Analyze Evaluate


Screening and Benchmarking Simply defined, screening is the act of administering an assessment to determine who may be at risk for failing (or is failing) in a specific area. Benchmarking is screening with the intention of using the score as a “baseline measurement” that can be used as a comparison in a future screening. In RTI, benchmarking is usually done in the Fall, Winter and Spring. Benchmark measures in WE-CBM are generally specific types of Curriculum Based Measures (CBM) that are called “General Outcome Measures” (GOMS). It is important to remember that GOMs are correlational measures. Briefly stated, a correlational measure correlates with another measures, meaning that the score on a GOM should fairly accurately predict a score on another assessment. Finally, they also are time efficient, simple to administer, reflect a variety of skills, and can capture subtle changes in learning. They can also be used for progress monitoring. In the case of WE-CBM GOMs, the scores frequently correlate with other holistic scores, state tests and general achievement tests. There are a variety of WE-CBM GOMs but they differ on how highly they correlate with other measures, depending on the grade level of the student. The most common WE-CBM assessment is the Administration of “one-minute think- three minute write” (See also Appendix A: Administration a 1 Minute Think 3 Minute Write). This assessment can be analyzed in a variety of ways. Here are some of the common analyses:

• Total words written (TWW), • Words spelled correctly (WSC) • Correct Writing Sequence(CWS) • Percentage of Correct Writing Sequences (%CWS)

At the middle and high school levels, percentage of Correct minus incorrect writing sequences (CMIWS) or the Percentage of Correct minus incorrect writing sequences. (%CMIWS) is often the most accurate predictor of success for older writers. The current research literature presents a variety of ways to score 1-minute thing 3-minute write. What is most important is that you pick one way and score samples consistently. (See Appendices B & C for a summary of scoring procedures). As stated earlier, benchmark assessment is the practice of repeatedly administering an assessment over time for the purpose of comparison. GOMs can be based on benchmark measures, but so can other assessments. There are a few “key” ideas in appropriately selecting and using an assessment as a benchmark measure.

(1) The assessment must be either the same assessment or a parallel form of the assessment so that progress (or lack thereof) can be measured at a future point in time.

Pre-Assessments are often confused with benchmarking. They are not the same. For example, if you pre-assess a student on chapter 1 from a math book in the Fall, and later do a pre-assessment of chapter 2, you can’t really compare any progress as the skill sets are different. However, if you compare the total words written in the Fall (one type of WE-CBM) to the total words written in the Winter, you can determine whether or not progress has been made.

(2) The score on the assessment should provide some indication of performance relative to an overall standard.


Screening and Benchmarking (continued)

(3) The assessment should provide immediate feedback to the teacher (and others)- meaning that the teacher should not have to wait days or weeks to know where a student is.

Too often in written expression the Screening assessment that is an untimed response to a writing prompt. While the product of this prompt may be useful for the teacher, it is often scored by someone outside of the classroom and the results do not come back in a timely manner. A good benchmark should quickly indicate which student(s) need attention. Also, scores from many holistic rubrics cannot be reliably compared across or between classrooms. However, when used in conjunction with a WE-CBM, an untimed writing prompt can yield richer diagnostic information.

ACTIVITY 1: ADMINISTERING AND SCORING WRITTEN EXPRESSION CURRICULUM BASED MEASURES

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Progress Monitoring Progress Monitoring (PM) is the process of tracking a student’s growth over time to make sure that an intervention is actually working. Progress monitoring generally occurs in more frequent intervals between Benchmarking periods. This is because we often want to know if an intervention is working before we have spent too much time on something that is not effective. In RTI, progress monitoring techniques involve more than just repeated assessment or using a variety of formative assessments. Like Benchmark measures, PM measures have to be comparable; they have to be the same assessment or parallel forms of the assessments, so that growth can be measured and graphed from one data point to another. Generally, PM scores are graphed to allow for easier interpretation by teachers or data teams. Progress monitoring measures can be direct measures of a particular skill | Concept | Strategy – called mastery measures, or they can be a general outcome measure. It is very important to understand the distinction between the two because they serve two very different purposes. Used together, they can give teachers a powerful picture of progress. We discussed GOMs in the previous section on Benchmarking. They are time efficient, simple to administer, reflect a variety of skills, and can capture subtle changes in learning. Repeatedly administering a GOM over time can tell a teacher if there are overall improvements in writing achievement. This may be the result of the intervention or it may be related to the continued delivery of the core curriculum. We want to see growth in overall achievement no matter what the intervention.

Mastery Measures (MM) are measures of a specific skill, concept or strategy. A MM gives us a clear picture of whether or not a student is progressing in the targeted intervention. In simple terms, the MM tells us whether or not a student has learned what we set out to teach. A key component of a good tiered intervention in writing is that it focuses on something specific (See Section 4 on Error Domains). Mastery Measures are designed to measure exactly what we want the student to do after we have provided instruction. Mastery Measures are given frequently. Like GOMs, MMs need to be either the same assessment or parallel forms. A simple example of a mastery measure is assessing sentence writing. If your goal is for a student to write a complete sentence, then an appropriate mastery measure would sample that skill specifically. So, you might select a topic, provide a piece of paper with three lines and say: “Write me three complete sentences.” Figure 2: Sample Mastery Measure Write 3 Complete Sentences on ________ 1. 2. 3. You could give this assessment repeatedly (on different days) and would know if the skill is mastered when the student reaches 100% on three consecutive occasions. (A good special education rule of thumb generally is if something can be repeated 3x in a row accurately it is safe to assume that a student “learned.”) Administration should happen more frequently then a Benchmarking. With a skill such as sentence writing, you’d give the sentence writing MM once a week, as well as a GOM, for 4-8 weeks. It may (or may not) follow


Progress Monitoring (continued) instruction. You simply want to try and have a consistent assessment schedule. A rule of thumb is to expect accurate performance three times in a row to consider mastery of the skill. Like GOMs, Mastery Measures can be graphed or charted. Figure 3: Example of a Bar Graph (Mastery Measure)

Thanks to R. Bennett and S. Hemp –two amazing teachers- for their graphs!

Figure 4: Example of Line Graph (Mastery Measure)

Figure 5: Example of Aimsweb Progress Monitoring with a GOM


Used together, a GOM and MM can provide a powerful picture of achievement. It has been my experience that initially on the GOM there is a discrepancy between the TWW and the CWS, indicating a lot of inaccuracies in the writing. When targeted interventions are implemented, there is generally an initial decrease in the TWW but less distance between the TWW and CWS, meaning that the student becomes more accurate in their writing before they become more fluent.

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Understanding Conditions of Learning Before I move on, describing how to begin the process of analysis and evaluation, it may be helpful to take some time to review “conditions of learning”. Although the concepts here, when employed, come after evaluation and are used in the implementation stage, they help to guide one’s decision making. In 1965, an educator named Gagne’ described “nine conditions of learning.” He believed (as do many instructional designers) that if we (as teachers) know the “type of learning”, it is easier to select an appropriate methodology. For example, we don’t have people learn to fly using discovery learning- we are all better off if would be pilots received some explicit instruction and used a simulation before getting in a real plane!). Today’s teachers do not have time for more complex processes and assessments. Thus, for simplicity, I have found it easier to boil down the nine conditions relative to writing to three:

• Concepts • Skills • Strategies

A problem in an error domain (See section 4: Error Domains) is generally related to a need for an instructional method that is either a concept, skill or strategy. I am presenting these here first because having the concept of Conditions of Learning seems to aid in the diagnosis of a problem within the error domain. CONCEPTS: These are the “Big Ideas” and are usually involve more abstract understanding. Examples include: understanding an author’s purpose; recognizing genres; realizing that a sentence is a complete thought. Methods of instruction usually include using mentor text to


Understanding Conditions of Learning (continued) illustrate something, such as a genre. Concept instruction may include the use of examples and non-examples but always needs to be connected with real world examples and experiences! SKILLS: These are the “Nuts and Bolts.” Examples include: holding a pencil correctly; placing a punctuation mark at the end of a sentence; and spelling words correctly. Skill instruction is generally best taught using direct or explicit instruction (I do it, We do it, You do it- See Price and Nelson, 2010). Skill instruction should occur after a concept is understood. For example, when a student writes a run-on sentence we often jump to the conclusion that the problem is a skill problem (he doesn’t know where to put a period). However the problem is usually a concept problem: the student doesn’t have the concept of a complete sentence! You can’t teach a convention skill easily (like punctuation) without first teaching the concept that writers use complete thoughts – a sentence- which is made up a subject and predicate. (I am not necessarily advocating using the term “predicate.” I am just using the terminology for illustrative purposes). Once the student has the concept of a sentence, it is relatively easily to teach how to use a period to indicate the conclusion of a compete thought, which makes it easier for the reader to understand the print. Good skill instruction almost always requires some conceptual teaching first! STRATEGIES: Strategies are procedures or processes that help a writer complete a task. Using the writing process is a strategy that helps to break down the steps of writing in a way that aids the writer in completing a quality piece of “published” work. For example, writing a 5 paragraph essay with a topic paragraph, three supporting paragraphs and a concluding paragraph is a strategy fopr completing a WASL prompt task. Quickly

generating a list of ideas before writing is a brainstorming strategy. Editing is a strategy! (A student can’t fix his or her work unless he has the skills to recognize errors in the first place). Strategy instruction is generally a more lengthy process than skill or concept instruction. Before a strategy can be employed, skill and concept understanding needs to be in place. It is hard to use an editing strategy effectively if the student doesn’t understand the importance of “published” work (concept) and or does not have the skills necessary for recognizing errors. Strategy instruction, like skill instruction, requires clear, explicit or direct instruction. Understanding the type of learning can go a long way in matching an intervention to a problem. Teachers often find that once the problem is clearly identified (first the error domain and then they type of learning) teachers can come up with a great instructional idea. They also find that a student quickly advances in his or her own writing achievement. Remember, things aren’t always “cut and dry”. To meet a certain objective often requires a combination of skill, strategy and concept instruction!

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Error Domains and Hypothesis Testing The use of Error Domains is specifically for the purpose of determining a key area for remediation. The categories are very different than many holistic rubrics. This is because the domains are meant to help indicate specific skills (and strategies and concepts), whereas holistic rubrics tend to provide an indication of strengths and weakness in more global categories. The categories in most holistic rubrics include a wide variety of skills that significantly overlap both within and between the categories, making it difficult to figure out where, exactly, to target remediation. (See Activity 3)

(1) Identify the probable Error Domain (2) Confirmation/Baseline: Using the writing sample

from the 1 – 3 Minute Write, confirm that there is actually a problem. (Believe it or not, often our “first guess” in writing is incorrect)!

(3) Generate a hypothesis and use a Mastery Measure to pinpoint the problem within the error domain (See Mastery Measures and Progress Monitoring in Section 2, p. 5 & 6).

Identifying Error Domains: With practice you will be able to look at a 1-3 minute writing sample and have a good idea of the domain(s) in which the error(s) are occurring. When starting, it is sometime helpful to start by first generating a list of problems that you see using common teacher language, such as: “disorganized” “run on sentences” “rambling thoughts.” After you are done, for each descriptor identify the error domain. Then look at your list and select 1-2 major areas or what you feel are the most important areas, based on what you know about the student. (Most students have problems in all of the areas, so narrowing the focus is important). Confirmation | Baseline: RTI is really about quantifying student growth so that we can see progress

over time. The quantification has to be meaningful. Within written expression, this can be done in many ways. Initially you confirm that there is a problem within the domain and capture the baseline. You can use the 1 -3 minute write to do this. (These scores are sometimes useful for SPED teachers who are writing IEPs!). After you identify the problem, you QUANTIFY the problem in the domain. It is true that the national standards don’t exist for writing. However, most states have some type of grade level expectations or standards that infer quantifiable expectations. For example, in Washington, it is the expectation that 3rd graders write with complete sentences. Thus, from 3rd grade on, the standard should be “writes sentences with 100% accuracy” and you can calculate the percentage of correct sentences from a 1 – 3 write to get a baseline in the error domain of “sentence complexity.” Each error domain can be quantified in different ways, so you want to match up, as closely as possible, to the errors exhibited by the student that you are concerned about. (See Ways to Quantify Error Domains on the next page). Hypothesis Testing is the purposeful act of checking to make sure that the instructional problem we perceive is actually the problem. This helps to ensure that the instruction that we provide is truly matched to the learner’s needs. A hypothesis might start like this: “The problem is occurring because the student lacks the skill of ___ “; or “The problem is occurring because the student lacks a strategy for ___ “;“The problem is occurring because the student lacks the concept of ___ “

ACTIVITY 2: IDENTIFYING POTENTIAL ERROR DOMAINS IN A 1-3 MINUTE WRITE


Error Domains (continued) Identifying Error Domains Error Domain

Description

Common Patterns

Fluency amount of text written and the skill or ease with which text is generated.

• Few words

Legibility letter formation; ease with which a reader can read the text.

• Hard to read

Conventions mechanical aspects of writing such as capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

• Misspelled words • Inappropriate capitalization

• Inappropriate ending punctuation

Vocabulary sophistication of the words used and the meanings of words; using a variety of words and relatively few repetitions.

• Repeats words (e.g: I like cats. I like dogs. Cats like dogs.)

• Uses simple words Sentence Complexity

grammatical order of words; complete sentences; production of sentences and the complexity of sentences; Using a variety of sentence types and sentence lengths.

• Incomplete sentences

• Run on sentences • Short simple sentences with only noun and verb (e.g. She is nice).

• Grammatical errors (e.g. She go home.)

Content organization of thought- indicated by text cohesion; selecting and following the stylistic conventions of different genre; writing on topic

• Lacks paragraph structures

• Disorganized • Rambling thoughts • Knowledge Telling

Writing process awareness and Use of a strategy for completing a writing task. Conceptual understanding of Planning; Transcribing or drafting; Reviewing and revising; Editing; Publishing:

Viewing the process as linear, unable to describe the components, no strategy for completing a writing task.

Ways to Quantify Error Domains Error Domain

Common Patterns

Confirmation | Baseline

Fluency • Few words • Total words written Legibility • Hard to read • Letter formation

analysis Conventions • Misspelled words

• Inappropriate capitalization

Inappropriate ending punctuation

• % errors of conventions, checklist of convention errors*

• *(discriminate between spelling, and types of punc. and cap.)

Vocabulary • Repeats words (e.g: I like cats. I like dogs. Cats like dogs.)

• Uses simple words

• type-token ratio • Percentage of simple words

• Ratio of simple to complex words

Sentence Complexity

• Incomplete sentences • Run on sentences • Short simple sentences with only noun and verb (e.g. She is nice).


• T-units or % of complete sentences-

• % of sentence types or % of complete sentences

Content • Lacks paragraph structures


• holistic scoring rubrics* (e.g. Hasbrouck and Tindal)

• *(longer writing sample may be needed)

Writing process • Viewing the process as linear, unable to describe the components, no strategy for completing a writing task.

• observational scale* (longer writing sample may be needed)

ACTIVITY 3: IDENTIFYING SKILLS AND STRATEGIES IN HOLISTIC RUBRICS


Hypothesis Testing and Problem Validation Tables for Decision Making

Error Domain: Legibility What it is: Legibility refers to the readability of text. Confirmation/Baseline: Results can be quantified using formal methods like a handwriting analysis (See Howell and Nolet, 2000 for more specifics) or calculating the percentage of correctly formed letters or words. You can use the results of the 1 minute think – 3 Minute write for a baseline. Common Hypotheses: (1) Student lacks skill of correctly forming letters Validation of the

problem Mastery Measure Instruction

Ask student to write specific words or letters and determine which letters are a problem

Ask student to write specific letters. Count percentage correct.

Explicit instruction in letter formation; Provide letter strips; Provide wide lined paper*

• There are several skill areas within forming letters that may need to be taught separately: formation; size/height, slants and alignment.

(2) Student has a physical problem that prevents accurate and fluent writing.

I would include the support of an OT for problem validation. There are formal evaluations that include ergonomic factors and fine-motor skills. For younger students, a pencil grip is sometimes a valuable support.

(3) Student is not holding the pencil correctly. Validation of the


Observe pencil holding

Observational checks without prior prompting

Model pencil holding and assist student with grip

Error Domain: Legibility (continued)

(4) Student lacks a strategy for spacing words. Validation of the


Ask the student to dictate a sentence.

% of correctly spaced words when asked to complete a short writing task.

Use a finger or popsicle stick between words. Provide wide lined paper.

Standard Protocols Available: Handwriting Without Tears

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Error Domain: Conventions What it is: The mechanics of writing- spelling, punctuation and capitalization. Each area must be examined independently!

Spelling Confirmation/Baseline: % of words spelled correctly Spelling is a unique problem. Spelling instruction needs to occur in addition to writing instruction. Common Hypotheses: (1) Student lacks spelling skills Validation of the


Administer Words Their Way Developmental Spelling Test

Word lists at developmental level

Instruction Spelling Program; Explicit instruction within Words Their WayDirect

(2) Student lacks pre-reading or early literacy skills Administer diagnostic early literacy tests (these would be found in a different handbook). Nonetheless, a lack in literacy skills is often a key problem in spelling. Classroom Supports: Word Walls, Word lists, letter and sounds list with corresponding Available Standard Protocols: Spelling Morphographs, Spelling Mastery,

Error Domain: Conventions (continued)

Punctuation Confirmation/Baseline: % of correctly used ending punctuation, % of correctly used quotation marks, etc. You can use a punctuation checklist to identify the problem (See Appendix D, Punctuation Status Sheet) Common Hypotheses: (1) Student lacks concept of a sentence *See also Error

Domain: Sentence Complexity Validation of the


(a) Ask the student to describe what makes a sentence complete (b) Identify complete sentences from a list of examples and distracters (usually 10 total); (c) Ask student to write 3 complete sentences.

May include asking student to write 3 complete sentences.

Usually need to teach parts of a sentence (who or what the sentence is about and what they are doing). Sometimes need to start with building sentences from subject/predicate strips and transition to writing sentences.

(2) Student lacks skill of ending punctuation (or any

other punctuation skill) Validation of the


Make sure student has the concept of a sentence (see 1 above).

Ask student to write 3 complete sentences.

Explicit instruction. Use mentor texts and examples and non-examples.


Error Domain: Conventions (continued)

Capitalization Confirmation/Baseline: % of correctly used capitalizations Common Hypotheses: (1) Student lacks the skill of writing uppercase or

lowercase letters. Validation of the


Ask student to write the alphabet in lowercase and then in uppercase.

Student dictates specific letters

Explicit instruction in identifying and writing specific problem letters. May need to teach vocabulary of “uppercase” and “lowercase” or “capital letter”

(2) Student lacks the skill of capitalizing sentence

beginnings Validation of the


(make sure student can differentiate between capital and lowercase letters- see 1). Ask student to write 3 complete sentences. You may also want to ask students to identify complete sentences from a list with distracters.

Ask student to write 3 complete sentences.

Generally, start with identification of correctly capitalized sentences and use mentor texts. Follow with explicit instruction in capitalizing sentence beginnings

Error Domain: Conventions (continued) (3) Student lacks the skill of capitalizing proper nouns Validation of the


Make sure student has skills of writing uppercase and lowercase letters (See 1 above). Ask student to dictate several proper nouns. Include names, streets, etc.

Create dictation lists with 5-10 words that target the type of proper nouns.

Explicit instruction in identifying proper nouns. Use mentor texts, road signs, and other realia.

You can use a punctuation checklist to identify the problem (See Appendix D, Punctuation Status Sheet)

Editing (1) Student lacks a strategy for editing. If you believe that a strategy for editing may be the problem, it is important to first check for the necessary skills. A student cannot employ an editing strategy if he/she lacks the pre-requisite skills

Validation of the


(a) Ask the student about his editing strategy.

After writing, ask the student to edit. Calculate percentage of improvement

Self Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) methods work well.

Teacher Resource: Anderson, J. (2005). Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer’s Workshop. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers

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Error Domain: FLUENCY What it is: Fluency is the amount of text written and the skill or ease with which text is generated. Confirmation/Baseline: Total words written in 1 minute think/ 3 minute write. Common Hypotheses: There are several common problems, many of which are probably related to another error domain. (1) Student has a physical problem with handwriting

See recommendations under “Error Domain: Legibility”

(2) Student has a problem with spelling.

It isn’t unusual for poor spellers to attempt to hide issues with spelling by refusing to write.

(3) Student does not have a strategy for generating ideas

about what to write *See also Error Domain: CONTENT

Validation of the problem

Mastery Measure Instruction

(a) Ask the student to tell you how they come up with ideas (b) Ask the student to show you how he comes up with ideas

Ask student to generate a list of five ideas after being given a topic.

Self Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) methods work well Use idea walls in the classroom and model brainstorming for the student. Engage class in shared writes and brainstorming activities.

Error Domain: FLUENCY (continued) (4) Student does not have a strategy for organizing

information before writing *See also Error Domain: CONTENT



(a) Ask the student how they plan before writing (b) provide the student with a topic and ask them to show you how they would organize before writing.

Completion of a planning sheet

Self Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) methods work well Shared writes and modeling. May need to include genre instruction and/or the use of architectures.

(5) Student lacks confidence as a writer or has not had

success as a writer Validation of the


Ask the student about his or her experiences.

Total words written on 1 – 3 write

Determine which error domain is the biggest source of frustration and begin remediation.

(6) Student doesn’t like the prompt. Validation of the


Ask the student Total words written on 1 – 3 write

Generate a list of potential prompts for student use in the future.

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Error Domain: Vocabulary What it is: the use of a variety of words and age appropriate vocabulary in writing. It also includes the appropriate use of word meaning. Skilled writers use a variety of words and relatively few repetitions. Confirmation/Baseline: There are several ways to determine if there is a problem. For repeated words, determine the ratio of total words to unique words (Standard is .7). For use of simple words: % of high frequency words. Common Hypotheses: (1) Student lacks English vocabulary. (Student is an ELL learner)

The importance of quality vocabulary instruction is becoming more apparent in our classrooms. Vocabulary instruction is a more in-depth topic than can be covered here. Instruction in vocabulary should happen throughout the day. I recommend reading “Bringing Words to Life” by Isabelle Beck.

(2) Student is using “safe words” because he lacks

spelling skills. See “Error Domain: SPELLING”. Encourage student to use inventive spelling, provide assistive technology, spelling dictionaries and other assistive technologies in addition to appropriate spelling instruction.

Error Domain: Vocabulary (continued)

(3) Student lacks a strategy for selecting more descriptive words Validation of the


Ask the student to replace common words in a sentence or make the sentence “more descriptive” (e.g. Joe likes to pet the dog.)

Ask student to elaborate on a series (3) of simple sentences.

Use modeling and shared writes to show students how to expand sentences. Include the use of mentor texts that utilize descriptive language.

Standard Protocols: Language for Learning Teacher Resource: Beck, I., McKeown, L., and Kucan, I.(2002). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. Guilford Press: New York, New York

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Error Domain: SENTENCE COMPLEXITY What it is: the grammatical order of words, production of sentences and the complexity of sentences. Confirmation/Baseline: Calculate the percentage of complete sentences; calculate the number of complete thoughts (T-Units); Ratio of simple to complex sentences; percentage of complex sentences. Common Hypotheses: (1) Student lacks concept of a complete sentence Validation of the


(a) Ask the student to describe what makes a sentence complete (b) Identify complete sentences from a list of examples and distracters (usually 10 total); (c) Ask student to write 3 complete sentences.

May include asking student to write 3 complete sentences.

Usually need to teach parts of a sentence (who or what the sentence is about and what they are doing). Sometimes need to start with building sentences from subject/predicate strips and transition to writing sentences.

(2) Student lacks skill or strategy for combining simple

sentences Validation of the


Give sets of simple sentences and ask student to combine them

Give (3) sets of simple sentences and have students combine them

Explicit instruction on combining simple sentences.

Error Domain: SENTENCE COMPLEXITY (continued) (3) Student lacks skills for writing complex sentences

Validation of the


Ask student to write a “longer sentence”

Ask student to write (3) complete sentences on a topic using complex sentences

Explicit instruction on how to “expand a sentence”

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Error Domains: CONTENT What it is: the organization of thoughts. Cohesive text and a clear message. Writing on topic, following conventions of a specific genre. Baseline/Confirmation: It is generally difficult to determine if the errors are related to content without additional, longer writing samples. Ask for an untimed prompt and use a holistic scoring rubric that accurately captures content. (See Appendix 6, Holistic Scoring Rubric) Common Hypotheses:

(1) Student lacks strategy for generating ideas Validation of the


(a) Ask the student to share how they come up with ideas (b) Ask the student to show you how he comes up with ideas

Ask student to generate a list of ideas after being given a topic.

Self Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) methods work well Use idea walls in the classroom and model for the student. Engage class in shared writes and brainstorming.

(2) Student lacks strategy for planning before writing

or organizing before writing Validation of the


(a) Ask the student how they plan before writing (b) provide the student with a topic and ask them to show you how they would organize before writing.

Completion of a planning sheet

(a) Self Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) (b)Shared writes and modeling. May need to include genre instruction and/or architectures.

Error Domains: CONTENT (continued)

(3) Student lacks concept of genre Validation of the


Ask student to describe the key components of a specific genre (e.g. fairy tale, persuasive essay, biography)

Interview the student about the components of specific genres.

Select a genre and teach parts. It is usually common to start with “Story Grammar” (See Appendix E, Story Grammar)

(4) Student lacks skill of writing on topic.



Ask student to write three consecutive sentences on a topic. (Do not number them)

Ask student to write three consecutive sentences on a topic. (Do not number them)

Explicit instruction on writing on topic. Modeling and shared writing, and mentor text use is helpful.

(5) Student lacks concept of a paragraph



(a) Ask student about the purpose of a paragraph (b) Ask student to identify paragraphs

Interview student about the purpose of a paragraph

Explicit instruction, use examples and non-examples as well as mentor texts


Error Domains: CONTENT (continued)

(6) Student lacks skills/strategy for writing a paragraph



Ask student to write a paragraph

Ask student to write a paragraph on a topic

Start with explicit instruction on a topic paragraph. Use mentor text to look at various types of paragraphs and begin writing with a variety of paragraph forms. (Not all paragraphs are 5 sentences and 3 sentences is not necessarily a paragraph!)

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Error Domain: WRITING PROCESS The writing process is in and of itself a concept and strategy that requires the utilization of many skills. Many students who struggle with written expression lack an overall framework for, or awareness of, the process that writers go through which aids them in accomplishing a writing task. Instruction in the writing process is essential for all students, including those who receive remedial support. Problems within each component of the writing process are frequently found within the other domains as well. It is important to determine what the student’s background knowledge is in each of these areas, which can be done through both interviewing and observation.

• Planning: Includes a prewriting stage in which the writer formulates a purpose for writing, decides what to write, selects a style that is likely to accomplish the purpose, and then organizes the message.

• Transcribing or drafting: getting the words on paper

• Reviewing and revising: changes in style, content, organization, word selection, and sentence complexity.

• Editing: correcting mechanical errors, such as spelling,

• Capitalization, punctuation, and grammar

(conventions).

• Publishing: The completion of a final product.

Entire books are written on teaching the writing process, and for each of the categories as well. It is beyond the scope of this manual. However, I would add that core instruction should be connected in teaching and engaging in all aspects of the writing process.


Early Literacy and Emergent Writing A 1 minute think 3 minute write can be given as early as first grade (usually mid year to the end of the year). By this time most students should be using invented spellings and have a developing concept of story. However, for struggling writers, this type of assessment is well beyond their skill level and the measure itself may not pick up changes in learning. Also, there are some older students who are also just developing early literacy reading and writing skills. In both instances, it is important to assess early literacy skills like you would in the area of reading. In terms of writing, there are some skills that beginning writers need and some concepts about print and written language that are absolutely necessary. These areas are beyond the scope of this manual, however, there is a great inexpensive resource that is a must for all teachers of small children. Matteson, D.M., & Freeman, D.K. (2005). Assessing and Teaching Beginning Writers: Every Picture Tells a Story. Katonah, NY: R.C. Owens This inexpensive book explains how to assess and teach students the concept of story. There are two areas that are focused upon: the actual concept of story and telling stories through pictures and language. For many many struggling students these key ideas have been neglected in favor of strict skill instruction. This is a huge mistake! Please, if you have a young struggling writer, in addition to checking for early literacy skills, spend time assessing the concept of story!

Early Literacy and Emergent Writing Other skills to consider for emergent writers include:

• Pre-literacy skills • knowledge of story and the print and text

connection.

• Do they have understanding of the alphabetic principle? (That letters represent sounds and the sounds make words?)

• Can they identify their name?

• Can they identify the individual letters in their name?

• Can they write their name?

• Can they say the common letter sounds for each letter of the alphabet? (lower case and capital?)

• Can they write the letter for the common letter sounds of the alphabet?

• Do they use invented spelling?

• Can they use a picture (one they drew and/or one that to tell a story that has a beginning, middle and end?


SECTION II: Organizing and Presenting

Information

RIOT and ICEL

Gathering information (data) from a variety of sources can help provide a better picture of both the student’s needs as well as potential changes needed in the student’s instructional program. The use of a RIOT and ICEL chart is a strategy for gathering and organizing information for review by a teacher and/or a decision making team. RIOT refers to the way one can gather data

• Review • Interview • Observe • Test

ICEL refers to the domains in which one can gather data (RIOT)

• Instruction • Curriculum • Environment • Learner

The chart on the following page helps organize available information prior to decision making. See also Ken Howell’s work (2000) on Curriculum Based Evaluation for more details regarding RIOT and ICEL.


RIOT and ICEL Chart

Learner

Environm

ent

Curriculum

Instruction

Review

Interview

Observe

Test

Sharing Information with Decision Making Teams Decision making teams play a key role in Response to Intervention. These teams can be made by just a few, such as a teacher and parent or may include stakeholders from a variety of sources. In addition to a RIOT | ICEL matrix that aids in providing a picture of the student’s academic program, it is often necessary to condense the information including highlights of the information from the RTI process into a format that can be interpreted and used by a wide variety of professionals and family members. What follows are some suggested categories of information and decision making details that can assist in developing a complete tiered intervention plan. *Including information on what is the expected performance (or standard) helps to make it clear whether or not a problem exists.


Student Information

Name: Age: Grade: Important Background:

General Achievement Measures General Outcome Measures Total Words

Written Words Spelled Correctly

Correct Writing Sequences

Student Performance

Standard Discrepancy? Yes No Yes No Yes No Other Measures Assessment Student Performance

Standard Discrepancy? Yes No Yes No Yes No

Baseline Data in Error Domains (as appropriate) (legibility, conventions, fluency, vocabulary, sentence complexity,

content, writing process) Error Domain Student Performance

Standard Grade Level Expectation

Discrepancy? Yes No Yes No Yes No

Initial Hypotheses 1. 2.

3. Results of Hypothesis Testing

Assessment Student Performance

Pass? Yes No Yes No Yes No

INSTRUCTIONAL PLAN (include days/week, minutes, teacher, and curriculum)

Progress Monitoring Plan GOM Frequency Goal Who? Mastery Measure

Frequency Goal Who?

INTERVENTION REVIEW DATE:


Section III: Implementation

Philosophical Musings on Writing Writing, through words, one shares his or her experiences. It is our experiences that when intertwined, shape our future, ground us in the present and preserve our past. Stories, our stories, define us. It is as though our lives are a tapestry of many beautiful colored threads and together they create the print of who we are. These stories can also be used to create a cloak that hides our true essence from the world. The skill of writing is one way, a important way, that each of us is able to contribute to our own growth and refinement as a human being. Through words we show our essence, we communicate our feelings, we make sense of who we are and why we are here. Words help us to find our purpose, our path. To deny someone the opportunity to learn how to share his or her experience, thoughts, feelings and ideas is simply sad; it is often through examining our words that we open our hearts, that when we can examine the heart of our Self, and create a heart with room for others, with room for ultimate love. Our children deserve the opportunity to learn the value of their individual selves, to experiencing the importantness of their human beingness. Their stories are important, as it is only through valuing oneself that one is then able to value and take care of others and the earth. Writing instruction itself is multifaceted and complex. There are no hard and fast, real right or wrong ways to teach. Teaching, although laced with research and best practices, requires an artful selection of the procedures and processes for each individual child, for each group of children. It is our duty as teachers to carefully learn about our students- to become students of students, a studier of students, so that like a fine artist, we select exactly the right color, the right medium to create a picture. That doesn’t mean we get to pick our favorite colors only – teaching using one method or one approach is like painting with the same color; eventually the color


won’t work when trying to complete a complex work of art. The assessment steps presented earlier and the lessons presented in the following pages here are not full blown, finely detailed maps. Instead they are ideas that can be used as a guide to lead one in what, perhaps, is a good direction. It is up to each teacher to step back and periodically examine if the “colors” of the picture need changed, meaning each teacher has the obligation to assess his or her students’ progress and adjust accordingly. We do know that students who struggle struggle for many reasons. It might be from lack of experience with words and language as a young child; it may be because of specific learning problem or it may be because he or she has never been taught. The reason why a student struggles isn’t generally important. What is most important is determining what he or she needs to move forward in his or her development as a writer, what is needed for him or her as a conveyer of his own story, imagined or experienced of the past, of the future and most importantly, of now. Most often students who struggle need some explicit instruction as he/she has clearly not picked up what his or her peers did previously. Also, it isn’t true that a student who struggles will always struggle, nor is it true that a student who “appears as his/her peers” won’t struggle with something. Every writer can be pushed! It is important to remember that like all artists, time to actually create is important. Thus, explicit instruction should be balanced with opportunity to create, to share, to experience wholly the sharing what is in the heart.

Some Notes on Explicit Instruction: Explicit instruction is also sometimes called direct instruction. Unfortunately, many myths surround the phrase “direct instruction.” Direct Instruction with a capital D.I. has been carefully, developed using principles that have been found to accelerate learning. There are some Direct Instruction writing curricula, but they are not the focus here. The phrase direct instruction, without a capital D. and I., refers to a set of principles of instruction originally observed and described by Rosenshine (DATE). These principles include rapid rates of responding, accurate responding, active participation, guided practice and immediate feedback so that students don’t learn and practice incorrectly. Incorporating such principles into an explicit instruction framework is likely to increase the odds of student learning. Explicit instruction is often simply described as “I do it, we do it, you do it.” While this is true, it is also an over simplification of a complex teaching process. A lesson may be divided into three distinct phases or it may be a reciprocal approach where the process is repeated multiple times in one setting, where the teacher engages in “I do, we do, you do” once and then repeats the process. For example a teacher may provide an example of how to write a sentence, support the student while he/she writes a sentence, and then observes while the student attempts to write independently. When the teacher sees that there is an error, he/she adjusts the teacher model and repeats the steps. It is up to the teacher to decide what the student needs. One thing is for certain, however- extensive time spent with the “I do” (the teacher model) is sure to result in DIS-engaged student. Although I have not seen formal studies on length of time for a teacher model, repeated observations of teachers’ lessons seems to be show that the model component should be about 1:5 of the time. Meaning for 1 minute of teacher model, there should be


five minutes of time for the guided practice and independent practice. It is also a myth that the students have to sit completely still, like soldiers, just watching a model from the teacher. Let’s face it - the mind wanders. You have to keep the children’s minds on what you are doing. How? This may be as simple as using group responding to questions, think pair share, taking guided notes – asking simple questions. Or ensure that the teacher model is broken into steps so that no more than 10 minutes (for older kids) are spent observing before engaging. Even less time is appropriate for younger students. Anyone who engages in instruction as a cold drill sergeant and who fails to have a heartful connection with his or her students needs to take a break. Although many students need to be pushed, or may require a stern disposition at times from his or her teacher, this should be a conscious choice made by the teacher, selected as the best approach for that particular moment. Direct or explicit instruction requires the most compassionate, artful and energetic teacher- one who is connected with his or her students(s) and is willing to employ a myriad of skills to ensure that each student is actively engaged, responding correctly.

Overview of Designing Writing Lessons The difference between a master teacher and a novice teacher is not always one of experience. Students are more likely to learn when teachers “teach” with intentionality. This means that a master teacher has an instructional reason or rationale for everything he or she does, including the sequence of events. Novice teachers are often asked to write down what they are going to “teach”. Most people do not enjoy writing lengthy lesson plans and teachers in the field often share with beginning teachers that “writing lesson plans is not reality”. However, what we often forget, is that master teachers have had much practice teaching and often the steps or sequence of instructional events that they perform are done so with intentionality; experience with writing the lesson plans eventually takes them to a place where he/she no longer needs clearly written steps: they are automatic. However, if one has never taken the time to critically think through what instructional goals are, identified clear objectives and made an effort to understand why the educational literature recommends certain sequences when designing instruction, then the shift from novice to master may never happen. Here are my definitions of ideas, lessons and activities: Ideas: Quick ideas that can be expanded into lessons or activities Lesson: A sequence of instructional events that are all tied to a common or single learning outcome. Activity: An instructional event that is either (a) part of a lesson or (b) is supplementing a lesson Mini-Lessons The concept of “Mini-lessons” has been around for a long time. The ideas presented here can be converted into “mini-lessons” in that they are focused on one specific


objective. They are meant to be targeted and Mini refers to the number of skills, strategies or concepts that are explicitly taught. Generally they are shorter in time, as to prevent overload – they are to be targeted and explicit. The purpose of the following sections is to provide brief ideas that are tied to both a long term goal and clear instructional objective so that (a) novice teachers have a place to start when designing lessons or activities; and (b) for master teachers to incorporate solutions into their existing frameworks for teaching. Although there are general frameworks for designing lessons, the fine tuning of the lesson(s) happens in the context of the learning environment and is dependent upon the needs of the students. For example, two groups of students may have the same instructional objective, but the best way to meet the instructional objective is really dependent on the actual learners. It is up to each individual using this resource to decide how to best incorporate these ideas into lessons and activities. Teachers ask what is the difference between a goal and objective. The instructional design literature generally distinguishes the difference as follows: Goal: A long term instructional outcome which can usually only be reached through the meeting of a series of objectives; Objective: Specific measureable statement that clearly identifies the observable outcome of a lesson (or activity) Objectives should be written with the following components: Behavior, condition, criteria, and content.

• Behavior describes what you want the student to do.

• Condition is the circumstances that the task should be completed under (such as ‘independently’ ‘when asked’ ‘when given a pencil’).

• Criteria generally refers to the accuracy or the end product (e.g. with less than 2 errors, with zero errors, all components of the organizer completed).

• Content refers to the subject area (e.g. writing, spelling, math)

In the sections below, goals and objectives are generally written with just the behavior and sometimes the condition. This is because you will need to decide the full extent of your goals and objectives and this can only be done when you are planning for your specific student. It also would make the ideas here too specific. These are meant to provide you with initial starting points. Just be clear what the ending point is: what, exactly, you want your student to be able to do at the completion of your instruction? Knowing this ahead of time will help you to design your lessons.


Sentence Complexity • lacks skills for writing complex sentences • lacks concept of a complete sentence and/or Lacks the

skill of writing a complete sentence Conventions

(punctuation) • lacks skill of applying appropriate ending punctuation

(or any other punctuation skill) Capitalization

• Lacks skill of capitalizing sentence beginnings • Lacks skill of capitalizing proper nouns

Editing • Lacks strategy for editing Fluency • Lacks strategy for generating ideas about what to

write • Lacks confidence as a writer • Does not have strategy for organizing information Vocabulary • Lacks strategy for selecting more descriptive

vocabulary • Lacks English vocabulary • Uses safe words because of a lack of spelling skills Content • Lacks strategy for generating ideas • Lacks strategy for planning before writing or

organizing before writing • Lacks concept of genre’ • Lacks skill of writing on topic • Lacks concept of paragraph • Lacks skills/strategies for writing a paragraph Legibility • Lacks skills of correctly forming, spacing or aligning

letters • Physical problem prevents accurate and fluent writing • Lacks skill of holding pencil correctly

Sentence Complexity Problem: lacks skills for writing complex sentences Goal: utilize a variety of sentence lengths and types Potential Instructional Objectives • arrange different parts of a sentence in order to

create a complex sentence • uses subordinating conjunctions to expand sentences • combine two simple sentences using a connecting word • expand a simple sentence by answering journalistic

questions Sentence Combining (1) Select two connected simple sentences from a student’s writing, mentor text, or write your own. Introduce “combining” words such as “and, but, or, then.” Model how to combine simple sentences, practice together, and then work independently. This can be done using worksheets, sentence or word cards, post it notes, etc. (2) *Note: this can be done with small groups or with the whole class. On individual tag board signs, write one with a “,” and several “comma causers” (e.g. after, although, when, while, until, because, before, if), and several simple sentence set signs such as: The kid is dirty – he played in the mud the dog is wet – she went swimming Have the students create sentences with the comma, comma causer and the simple sentences.


Sentence Expanding (1) Take a simple sentence and teach how to add words by introduce the idea of “journalistic questions.” Who? What? When? Where? How? Why?. Take a simple sentence and see if the sentence provides the reader information to answer as many questions as possible.

Problem: lacks concept of a complete sentence and/or Lacks the skill of writing a complete sentence Goal: write using complete sentences Potential Instructional Objectives: • write complete simple sentences using a noun and a

verb (1) Explain that sentences are a complete thought and have two parts (noun\verb or subject/predicate, who it is about/what they do). Create a word bank of “nouns” and a word bank of “verbs” and create simple sentences. Use this bank of words to fill in blanks on a worksheet or overhead (e.g. madlibs) or write the words on index cards and make sentences, use magnetic strips, post it notes. (2) Teach that sentences have a “naming part” and an “action part”. Start by identifying these in mentor texts or sample sentences. Use colored index cards or post-it notes to write “naming words” and “action parts” and make sentences. (Include card with punctuation as well). (3) Write words on post-it notes (or use word cubes or sentence strips) to make complete sentences.

(4) Use a sentence “map” to teach subject and predicate.


Conventions Punctuation Problem: lacks skill of applying appropriate ending punctuation (or any other punctuation skill) Goal: apply appropriate ending punctuation Potential Instructional Objectives: • utilize appropriate ending punctuation Ideas (Before instruction in ending punctuation, make sure the student has the concept of a complete sentence.)

(1) use analogy of a race with a starting line…..The beginning is a capital and the end is ending punctuation.

(2) Write sentences together using green for the capital letter and red for ending punctuation.

(3) Identify capitals and ending punctuation in magazine pages.

(4) Have note cards with ending punctuation marks ( period, explanation, question mark) and place them at the end of pre-made sentences.

(5) Moving punctuation. Make signs with punctuation marks. Have students slowly walk…when you put up a period, they stop. A comma, they pause, question mark they shrug and exclamation point they jump up with hands in the air. Tie this to reading sentences with fluency (prosidy).

Capitalization Problem: lacks the skill of writing uppercase or lowercase letters. Goal: Student will write using upper and lower case

letters appropriately. Potential Instructional Objectives: • write uppercase letters • write lowercase letters Ideas Problem: lacks the skill of capitalizing sentence beginnings Goal: Student will capitalize the beginning of each sentence. Potential Instructional Objectives: • capitalize sentence beginnings Ideas (Make sure, first, that a student can actually distinguish and write both lower and upper case letters). Use a mentor text to show how author’s use capital letters. Problem: lacks the skill of capitalizing proper nouns Goal: capitalize proper nouns Potential Instructional Objectives: • identify proper nouns • distinguish between common nouns and proper nouns • write proper nouns • capitalize proper nouns


Ideas (1) Make a table with common nouns on one side and proper nouns on the other. List common nouns and then find corresponding proper nouns, being sure to capitalize the proper nouns. (2) create notecards with common nouns and proper nouns and make appropriate matches (3) Identify nouns and proper nouns in a mentor text. (4) List questions that require the use of proper nouns and have them write the appropriate proper noun (e.g. what street do you live on?; what is the name of your school? What is your favorite book?) Editing Problem: lacks a strategy for editing Goal: Complete written work free of errors; Select and apply an appropriate editing strategy Potential Instructional Objectives: • apply an editing strategy after completing a writing

task. • complete a writing task (final draft) with fewer than

2 errors. Ideas Make sure that the student has the skills needed for the editing task. (If a student doesn’t know what a complete sentence is, he won’t be able to edit for complete sentences.) Also, editing can be applied to single sentences, paragraphs or longer pieces of work.

(1) Create a checklist of editing tasks. Demonstrate how to use the checklist.

(e.g. CUPS (Capitalization, understanding, punctuation, spelling) or COPS (Capitalization, organization, punctuation, spelling)

(2) Use peer editing. Pair students up. Have the author read his/her paper aloud and the other student then goes back and edits the paper with his peer using a checklist.

(3) Assign a specific number of sentences (or paragraphs) to edit from a writing sample.


Fluency Problem: lacks strategy for generating ideas about what to write Goal: Generates ideas and selects a topic for writing (in timely manner) Potential Instructional Objectives: • Selects an idea from a list of ideas • Independently Generates a list of 10 ideas

Ideas • Model for the students how you might come up with

an idea for writing. For example, explain that you want to write a story that ‘entertains the reader’. Briefly tell three funny stories and write the ideas down. Select the one that is the most entertaining.

• Keep a “writer’s ideas” poster. • Go for “an idea walk” and list potential ideas. Problem: lacks confidence as a writer or has not had success as a writer Goal: engages in writing tasks Potential Instructional Objectives: Completes a writing task in a timely manner (specified by teacher) Independently engages in writing activities Ideas Sometimes it is important to simply help students become aware that they have important stories to share. This

can then in turn motivate them to tell stories first in alternative formats and second, to begin to write on paper. • Draw pictures and verbally tell the story afterwards.

Record the story. (Complete the final draft by inserting images and audio into PPT or iMovie).

• Use an online story telling program that provides pre-made graphics.

• Write a script (or tell a story) as a puppet show. • Use blank comic strips • Use blank storyboard scripts for planning a movie (and

make a movie) • Use speech to text softward on the computer or iPad • Record a video with original poetry or stories. • Make a movie. Problem: does not have a strategy for organizing information before writing *See also Error Domain: CONTENT Goal: Student plans and organizes a piece of writing; student completes a writing task that is well organized Potential Instructional Objectives: • selects and applies a strategy for organizing before

writing • completes a graphic organizer before attempting a

writing task • completes a planning sheet • uses a strategy to pre-plan and organize writing

before engaging in the rough draft Ideas

(1) List thoughts on the topic. Go back and identify thoughts that are relevant. Number order the thoughts.


(2) See above, but do this on note cards and sentence strips to make it more organized, or use something such as “Inspiration” software to make it easy to (re)organize thoughts.

(3) Provide an “architecture” or “story grammar” map for pre-planning.

(4) Self-generate an “architecture” based on a type of genre.

Vocabulary Problem: lacks a strategy for selecting more descriptive words Goal: student’s writing contains a variety of descriptive words Potential Instructional Objectives:

• Generates a list of describing words • Adds descriptive words to existing writing

Ideas • Compare and contrast mentor texts that use/don’t use

descriptive language • Generate a list of describing words. Add them to an

existing sentence. There are many ways to “add” words. For example: use post it notes, cut up sentence strips and tape the words in, write words on index cards.

• Show how to use a thesaurus. • Use modeling and shared writes to show how to

expand sentences Problem: lacks English vocabulary Goal: Increase English vocabulary; write with grade level appropriate vocabulary Potential Instructional Objectives: • use a graphic organizer to define a word Ideas

(1) create personal dictionary. Include new words that a student may see in an upcoming lesson. Include the word | definition | word in a sentence | picture

(2) Use BoardMaker or writing with symbols to create


dictionaries. (3) For selected words make a vocabulary map

(graphic organizer) that includes the word, definition, the word used in a sentence, synonyms, antonyms and picture.

(4) Go for a “picture walk” and include pictures (either drawn or taken) in a word book.

Problem: using “safe” words becomes of a lack of spelling skills Goal: Student completes writing tasks with a variety of words; completes writing with correctly spelled grade level vocabulary Potential Instructional Objectives: Uses a strategy to edit spelling Ideas

Content Problem: lacks strategy for generating ideas Goal: Student independently identifies a topic for writing and completes a writing task Potential Instructional Objectives: • generate a list of ideas • generate a list of ideas and select one for use as a

topic Ideas

(1) Take a walk around the school building and school yard with a writer’s notebook. Make a list of experiences that happened in different areas. For example, list two memories of fun games that you played during recess.

(2) Keep a writer’s ideas chart in the classroom where the class brainstorms things to write about

(3) Keep a box of interesting pictures from magazines or greeting cards that can be used as picture prompts.

(4) Have a student record, digitally, ideas or experiences from which to write about.

Problem: lacks strategy for planning before writing or organizing before writing Goal: writing is logically organized Potential Instructional Objectives: • fill out a planning sheet before beginning a writing

task • fill out a planning sheet and complete a writing task


Ideas There are many strategies in Self-Regulated Strategy Development(SRSD) that can be used as a resource.

(1) Create an “architecture” that students use for a specific genre that indicates what is supposed to be told in the first sentence, middle sentences, ending sentences.

(2) Use story grammar planning sheets. These can be very simple to more complex. (e.g. Beginning | Middle | End). Students in primary grades can fold a paper into threes and draw pictures of what happens at the beginning, middle and the end.

(3) Use cartoon or movie scene boxes. (4) Start by digitally recording ideas. (5) List components or events for a story on

notecards and then sequence the notecards before writing.

(6) Draw a series of sketches of the story and sequence them before writing

Problem: lacks concept of genre Goal: Student purposefully writes following the characteristics of a particular genre Potential Instructional Objectives: • Describes author’s purpose • Identifies a variety of genres • Identifies the key components of particular genres Ideas

(1) Introduce the concept of genre. Using mentor texts, provide examples of various genres (or of a

particular genre that is the focus of an instructional unit, e.g. fairy tales, auto-biography, historical fiction, etc.)

Problem: lacks skill of writing on topic. Goal: writes several (3) connected sentences on a topic Potential Instructional Objectives: • identifies the topic of a paragraph • writes three connected sentences on a given topic. • Selects a topic and independently writes three or more

connected sentences on the topic

Ideas (1) Select paragraphs from mentor texts and identify

the topic (2) Select a topic. On sentence strips, brainstorm

several sentences. Select sentences that are on the topic and them.

(3) Teach the importance of writing on topic. Using mentor texts find examples of writing several connected sentences on a topic. Complete a writing task and then use a checklist to determine if the sentences are all on topic.

Problem: Student lacks concept of a paragraph Goal: will identify and describe a paragraph Potential Instructional Objectives: • Describe the characteristics of a paragraph • Identify examples and non-examples of paragraphs • Identify paragraphs in a mentor-text


Ideas (1) List characteristics of a paragraph and explain

how paragraph structure helps a reader. Identify types of paragraphs in mentor texts.

(2) Take examples of paragraphs from mentor texts and identify the components of various paragraph types.

(3) Take sample paragraphs from mentor texts (or ones that you have written). Cut the sentences apart and then have the student organize them following the guidelines for what constitutes a paragraph. You can do this first with one paragraph, and then mix two together. You could also have multiple sentences that don’t necessarily have to be used but could be placed together to form a paragraph.

Problem: lacks skills/strategy for writing a paragraph Goal: Student will write an organized paragraph Potential Instructional Objectives: • Write three or more sentences on a topic • Write a five sentence paragraph with introduction,

three supporting sentences and conclusion Ideas *Note: For beginning writers, you might start by teaching how to write three sentences on a single topic. From here, you can move to a five sentence paragraph and from five sentence paragraphs to more complex or varied paragraph structures.

(1) Generate several sentences on a topic. Write on sentence strips. Reorganize the sentences into a paragraph.

(2) Use a graphic organizer (e.g. hamburger with bun

as intro sentence, meat-lettuce-cheese as the supporting paragraphs, and bottom bun as a concluding sentence.

(3) Use an architecture to write several sentences on a topic. (E.g. First sentence tells what you have using a “naming word”, middles sentences tell more about what you have using naming words and ending sentence the re-states what you have).


Legibility Problem: lacks skill of correctly forming, spacing, or aligning letters Goal: will write legibly Potential Instructional Objectives:

• form upper case letters correctly • form lower case letters correctly • write three legible sentences • correctly space words

Ideas There are several discrete skills that may been to be taught separately:

• Spacing • Letter formation • Letter Size/height • Slants • Alignment

For Spacing:

(1) Use the index finger between words (the finger that they do not write with).

(2) Use a popsicle stick. (3) Use a popsicle stick with a hand w/index finger

PUT IN A PICTURE (4) Provide wide-ruled paper (5) Use graph paper and leave 1-2 squares between

words For Letter Formation:

(4) Provide letters with directional arrows and dots. FIND EXAMPLE ON INTERNET

(5) Write letters with the finger before holding the

pencil (examples may include: tracing larger letters- both flat letters or raised letters*, writing the letters in sand, writing letters in shaving cream *there are many ways to make raised letters, including hot glue on cardboard

Supports include: providing letter strips; using wide lined paper; using raised line paper; graph paper, Problem: Student has a physical problem which prevents accurate and fluent writing. Goal:Complete legible writing task in a timely manner Potential Instructional Objectives: Ideas Usually in the case of physical challenges, the expertise of an Occupational Therapist is recommended. Additionally, there are many assistive technologies that can support a student:

• Speech to text software (e.g. Dragon Naturally Speaking)

• Supportive Word Processing software (E.g. co-writer, WYNN, Clicker)

• Digital Recorders • Picture based digital story telling

Problem: not holding the pencil correctly. Goal: hold pencil correctly


Potential Instructional Objectives: Student will use independently use a tripod grip Ideas Teach how to use a tripod grip (INPUT A PICTURE HERE) http://www.drawyourworld.com/contact/?success=true This includes modeling and physical assisting them so they know how it feels. Time must be provided for the student to practice the hold apart from regular writing activities If after several practice opportunities, consider providing pencil grips (www.thepencilgrip.com)

Section IV: Appendices and Resources


Appendix A: Administering a 1-3 Minute Write Today you are going to write a story. I am going to read a sentence to you first, and then I want you to write a short story about what happens. You will have 1 minute to think about and plan the story you will write. Then you will have 3 minutes to write it. Do your best work. If you don't know how to spell a word, you should guess. Are there any questions? For the next minute, think about . . . [insert story-starter]. (Administrator starts the stopwatch). At the end of 1 minute, the examiner says, Start writing. Selecting Prompts There are a variety of prompts available online. When selecting a prompt, there are some key things to keep in mind:

(a) Avoid prompts that encourage list making such as “What are your favorite foods” or “What did you do this weekend?” Encourage story telling instead: “Write a story about what you did this weekend” or “Write about the best and worst things about school lunch”.

(b) Avoid fantastical stories or stories that require too much imagination (e.g. Tell a story about when Martians landed). Stick to what students have experienced such as, “Tell about the best birthday ever.”

(c) Avoid prompts that encourage students to use

movie or book titles, as titles often contain non-convention spellings.

Teachers have frequently thought that providing students with a prompt will impact the results of the 1 – 3

write. Last spring a graduate student put this theory to the test. She found that there is no difference between those who selected their own prompts and those that did not. (Good work, Yvonne!) Allowing students to select prompts will take more time and allowing students to select prompts is not considered “standard administration.” It is probably better to just select good prompts that you believe are relevant and of interest to your students.


Appendix B: Scoring Words Spelled Correctly A word is spelled correctly when it is spelled correctly according to the rules of standard English and is spelled correctly within the context of the sentence. Sue is eight years old. WSC=5 Sue is ate years old. WSC=4 Other considerations: If a morpheme in a hyphenated word can stand alone, in it is counted as a separate word My mother-‐in-‐law is great. WSC=6 My mther-‐in-‐law is great. WSC=5 You need to re-‐do the assignment. WSC=6 You need to re-‐du the assignment. WSC=5 Commonly used abbreviations are counted as words: Dr., Mr., Mrs. Proper nouns must be capitalized to be considered correct. Other incorrect capitalizations are not considered incorrect. She lives in Bellingham, Washington. WSC=5 She lives in bellingham, washington. WSC=3 John Walked to The store. WSC=5

Contractions are counted as a single correct word if the apostrophe is in the correct place. He hasn’t eaten dinner. WSC=4 He hasnt eaten dinner. WSC=3 Titles of books and Movie names need to be capitalized We watched Pirates of the Caribbean. WSC=6 We watched pirates of the carribbean. WSC=4 Do not count as correct or incorrect missing hyphens. I like my mother-‐in-‐law. WSC=6 I like my mother in-‐law. WSC=6 Incorrect tense is NOT an incorrectly spelled world. She go home. WSC=3


Appendix C: Scoring Correct Writing Sequences A correct writing sequence (CWS) is one when two adjacent words (or a word and adjacent punctuation mark-‐ other than a comma) are: (1) mechanically correct (spelling and/or capitalization); (2) semantically correct (make sense) (3) syntactically correct. (grammatically correct) Use a carot (^) to indicate a CWS. There is an implied space at the beginning of a sentence. ^My^ dog^ is^ yellow.^ CWS=5 ^Jeff ^likes ^to ^run. ^ ^He ^ran ^five ^miles. ^ CWS=10 Do not use a “^” between the prompt and the start of the student’s response Do not use anything at the end of the student’s response. Pairs of words must be spelled correctly ^John ^was ^jumping ôn ^the ^couch. ^ CWS=7 ^John ^was ^jumping ôn ^the_ coutch. _ CWS=5 Story titles must contain appropriate capitalization ^Jeff’s ^Big ^Day CWS=3 ^Jeff’s big day CWS=1 ^The Ênd. CWS=2 ^The end. CWS=1

Hyphenated words are treated as a single word, and each morpheme must be spelled correctly. ^Her ^father-‐in-‐law îs ^great.^ CWS=5 ^Her fatr-‐in-‐lw is ^great. ^ CWS=3 Numbers do not count in a CWS unless they are spelled out. Dates are an exception. ^There ^were ^three ^dogs. ^ CWS=5 ^There ^were 3 dogs. ^ CWS=3 ^Yesterday ^was ^January ^6, ^2007. ^ CWS=6 Unusual characters are not included in a CWS. ^Jonah & Josh ^went ^to ^the ^concert. ^ CWS=6 ^Laura ^was @ the ^store. ^ CWS=4 Word endings must be correct ^She ^ jumped ^high.^ CWS=4 ^She jump high.^ CWS=2 The verb tense must be consistent within each sentence, but sentences do not have to be consistent with each other. Adapted from Aimsweb at Http:www.aimsweb.com Powell-‐Smith, K. A. & Shinn, M.R. (2004). Administration and scoring of written expression curriculum-‐based measurement (WE-‐CBM) for use in general outcome measurement. Eden Prairie, MN: Edformation Inc.


Appendix D: Punctuation Status Sheet Capitalization opportunity Error Accuracy First Word in sentence ____ ___ ____ Name of Person ____ ___ ____ Title ____ ___ ____ Days of Week ____ ___ ____ Month ____ ___ ____ Street Names ____ ___ ____ Towns, countries ____ ___ ____ Buildings, companies ____ ___ ____ First word of Quotation ____ ___ ____ Geographical names ____ ___ ____ Pronouns ____ ___ ____ Period End of Sentence ____ ___ ____ Initials ____ ___ ____ Abbreviations ____ ___ ____ Question Mark End of Sentence ____ ___ ____ Exclamation Mark End of Sentence ____ ___ ____ Comma Items in a series ____ ___ ____ Dates ____ ___ ____ City, State ____ ___ ____ Apostrophe Contraction ____ ___ ____ Possession ____ ___ ____ Semicolon Separation ____ ___ ____ Colon Before series ____ ___ ____ In Time ____ ___ ____ Quotation Marks Direct Quotation ____ ___ ____ Dialogue ____ ___ ____ Other ____ ___ ____

Appendix E: Story Grammar

32

Plot and Sequence of Events

Conclusion

1

Setting

Characters


Appendix F: Recommended Readings and Resources Anderson, J. (2005). Mechanically Inclined: Building Grammar, Usage, and Style into Writer’s Workshop. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers Beck, I., McKeown, L., and Kucan, I.(2002). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. Guilford Press: New York, New York Graham, S. & Harris, K.R. (2005). Writing better: Effective strategies for teaching students with learning difficulties. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Graham, S. & Penrin, D. (2007). Writing Next: Effective Strategies to Improve Writing of Adolescents in Middle and High Schools. A Report to Carnegie Corporation of New York. Washington, D.C: Alliance for Excellent Education (Available online) Howell, K.W. & Nolet, V. (2000). Curriculum-based evaluation: Teaching and decision making (3rd ). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Matteson, D.M., & Freeman, D.K. (2005). Assessing and Teaching Beginning Writers: Every Picture Tells a Story. Katonah, NY: R.C. Owens. Available through Amazon.com Powell-Smith, K., & Shinn, M. (2003). Administration and scoring of written expression curriculum based measures. Available at: http://aimsweb.com Robinson, L. & Howell, K. (2008). Best practices in curriculum based evaluation and written expression. In: Grimes, J. and Thomas, A. (Eds.) Best Practices in School Psychology V, Chapter 25, Volume 2, 1-14. The Charlesworth Group. Smith,T.E.C., Polloway, E.A. & Beirne-Smith, M. (2004). Written language instruction for students with disabilities. Denver: Love.

Appendix G: Holistic Scoring Rubric


SECTION V:

Professional Development

Activities


Activity 1: Scoring Practice Prompt #1: The best birthday I ever had was….. when I was going roller skating because They had

limbo and a dice game. It also was good because

arcade and you could buy a candy and vampir teeth.

TWW=____ WSC=____ CWS=____ (ICWS=_______ )

Prompt #2: There was a loud know on my door. When I opened the door I found a great big box with a bow. I picked up the box and……. Somebody knock on the Door and they leff a big box

with a bow. it was great when he open the door

TWW=____ WSC=____ CWS=____ (ICWS=_______)

Prompt #3: One day, while I was sitting at home, I heard a loud “BANG” outside. I ran to the window and saw…. and so a gowt hiding on a tin bucit and then it went

bag them so egen wet it wes and is wes a caw

steping on a

TWW=____ WSC=____ CWS=____ (ICWS=______)

Prompt #4: “Will you keep quiet?” whispered Bob, “If you don’t someone will…..” Chatch us like the mean old rotten neighbor she eat

us hurry up how long does it take you just get the

bag hurry up grab it stop burping it’s not funny grab

the bag here she comes ruuuunnnn!!!!

TWW=____ WSC=____ CWS=____ (ICWS=____)


ACTIVITY 1: SCORING PRACTICE Answer Key Prompt #1: The best birthday I ever had was….. when I was going roller skating because They had limbo and a dice game. It also was good because arcade and you could buy a candy and vampir teeth.

when Î• was •going• roller^ skating ^because ^They^

had ^limbo ând â ^dice ^game. ^^ It âlso ^was^

good ^because • arcade • and^ you^ could ^buy^ a

^candy ând • vampir • teeth. TWW=29 CWS=18 WSC=28 (ICWS=11) Prompt #2: There was a loud knock on my door. When I opened the door I found a great big box with a bow. I picked up the box and……. Somebody knock on the Door and they leff a big box with a bow. it was great when he open the door

Somebody ^ knock^ on ^the ^Door ând ^ they • leff •

a ^ big ^box ^with â ^bow. ^ • it • was ^ great

^when ^ he • open • the ^door TWW: 22 CWS=12 WSC= 21 (ICWS=10)

Prompt #3: One day, while I was sitting at home, I heard a loud “BANG” outside. I ran to the window and saw…. and so a gowt hiding on a tin bucit and then it went bag them so egen wet it wes and is wes a caw steping on a

and • so• a• gowt• hiding^ on ^ a ^ tin • bucit • and

^ then ît ^went • bag • them • so • egen • wet • it

• wes • and • is • wes• a• caw • steping • onâ TWW=28 CWS=7 WSC=18 (ICWS=20) Prompt #4: “Will you keep quiet?” whispered Bob, “If you don’t someone will…..” Chatch us like the mean old rotten neighbor she eat us hurry up how long does it take you just get the bag hurry up grab it stop burping it’s not funny grab the bag here she comes ruuuunnnn!!!!

Chatch ^ us • like • the • mean • old • rotten

•neighbor^^she ^ eat ^ us ^ ^ hurry • up ^ ^ how •

long • does • it • take • you ^ ^just • get • the •

bag ^ ^hurry • up ^ ^grab • it ^ ^ stop • burping •

•it’s • not • funny ^ ^grab •the ^ bag ^ ^ here • she

• comes ^ ^ruuuunnnn!!!! TWW= 39 CWS= 25 WSC= 38 (ICWS=24)


Activity 1: Reliability Practice

The best movie I ever saw was….. Passage 1: The movie Dukes of Hasard it was because they have a fast

car and they enter a really race so he can save his twon

hazard then they get in to a sittuasion of some mine

examples

TWW: ______ WSC: ______ CWS: _______ (ICWS)= ________ CMIWS: ________ Passage 2: The best movie I ever saw was Strangers with candy. The

movie was hilarious, It was about some chick that was kinda

mental, old and she wanted to start school where she left

off. She started school by announcing her name was Jenny

Blank.

TWW: ______ WSC: ______ CWS: _______ (ICWS)= ________ CMIWS: ________ Passage 3: The best movie I have ever seen has been Ray Charles.

That movie inspires me to do better and it lets me know that

even though I might be hurt/injured I am not incapable of

doing anything. Sometimes I just have to take a second to

remember that because I often forget.

TWW: ______ WSC: ______ CWS: _______ (ICWS)= ________ CMIWS: ________ Passage 4: A walk to Remember. It was so heart touching. It was the

best because it kept you watching, was happy and sad. and

was like real life. They have tough things happened by

strongly get over them.

It is intesly filled to keep you interested in watching.

It has its Scary moments not to pee your pants scary but life

threatening. So you want to keep watching to what

happens.

TWW: ______ WSC: ______ CWS: _______ (ICWS)= ________ CMIWS: ________


Activity 2: Writing Samples Standard Student The animals are one of the most interesting things. But the animals that I think are the most interesting are the dinosaurs. They are extinct but I still like them. My four faivorit are the tricaritops, stegasaurs the anklyasaurs and tyranasaursrex. Why do I like these paticualar dinosaurs? Because they have good protection. Take the tricaritops for instens. It has three horns on it’s head. It was one of the only dinosaurs that could beat tyranasaursrex. Speaking of tyranasaursrex he was the most feared dinosaur. He had six inch long teeth. I wander if he brushed his teeth. Oh well. Another well protected dinosaur was the anklyasaurs. This dinosaur had protection of a armed ball, like a hardshell, and sidespikes. Now that’s what I call good pertection. Now the stegasaurs was very calm. Know one knows what the plates and spikes were for. Were they for fighting or to make him look dangerous? You deside. dinosaurs stragly disapeared of the face of the earth. Some say it was a meatyer or a comet. I guess the world will never know.

Target Students

(1) Grandma's Dog Tell a story about your favorite pet: I like my grandma’s dog. She is funny and crazey. I like my dog. She is cool. Her fur is wearm as a fireplace. I love her. I like her. And She like me too. I like my grandma’s dog more than my Dad. And she like’s me more than my grandma. She is fun and weird I love her. And she love’s me too. She is nice and friendly. And she is prite. Sometimes my grandma get’s mad at my dog.

(2) Knocked Over

It is a cold, rainy afteroon. You are sitting inside watchin a movie when you hear a crash! You get up to see what made the loud noise and discover…. that my dog nocked over a big lamp and I just notested that I fell out of my bed to and I didn’t feel enything.

(3) Boom There was a loud knock on the door. I opened the door and found a large box with a bow on it. I opened the box and…. I wood open it and look in side and Boom was in it.


Activity 2: Error Domains and Common Hypotheses Error Domains Error Domain

Description

Common Patterns

Fluency amount of text written and the skill or ease with which text is generated.

• Few words

Legibility letter formation; ease with which a reader can read the text.

• Hard to read

Conventions mechanical aspects of writing such as capitalization, punctuation, and spelling.

• Misspelled words • Inappropriate capitalization

• Inappropriate ending punctuation

Vocabulary sophistication of the words used and the meanings of words; using a variety of words and relatively few repetitions.

• Repeats words (e.g: I like cats. I like dogs. Cats like dogs.)

• Uses simple words Sentence Complexity

grammatical order of words; complete sentences; production of sentences and the complexity of sentences; Using a variety of sentence types and sentence lengths.

• Incomplete sentences

• Run on sentences • Short simple sentences with only noun and verb (e.g. She is nice).


Content organization of thought- indicated by text cohesion; selecting and following the stylistic conventions of different genre; writing on topic

• Lacks paragraph structures


Writing process

Awareness and Use of a strategy for completing a writing task. Conceptual understanding of Planning; Transcribing or drafting; Reviewing and revising; Editing; Publishing:

Viewing the process as linear, unable to describe the components, no strategy for completing a writing task.

Common Hypotheses Legibility (5) lacks skill of correctly forming letters (6) has a physical problem which prevents accurate and fluent writing. (7) is not holding the pencil correctly. (8) lacks a strategy for spacing words. Conventions • Spelling (1) Student lacks spelling skills (2) Student lacks pre-reading or early literacy skills • Punctuation (3) lacks concept of a sentence lacks skill of ending punctuation (or any

other punctuation skill) • Capitalization (4) lacks the skill of writing uppercase or lowercase letters. (5) lacks the skill of capitalizing sentence beginnings (6) lacks the skill of capitalizing proper nouns • Editing (1) Student lacks strategy for editing Fluency (1) has a physical problem with handwriting (2) Lacks spelling skills (3) does not have a strategy for generating ideas about what to write

*See also Error Domain: CONTENT (4) does not have a strategy for organizing information before writing (5) lacks confidence as a writer or has not had success as a writer (6) doesn’t like the prompt. Vocabulary (1) Student lacks English vocabulary. (Student is an ELL learner) (2) Student is using “safe words” because he lacks spelling skills. (3) Student lacks a strategy for selecting more descriptive words Sentence Complexity (4) lacks concept of a complete sentence (5) lacks skill or strategy for combining simple sentences (6) lacks skills for writing complex sentences Content (7) lacks strategy for generating ideas (8) lacks strategy for planning before writing or organizing before

writing (9) lacks concept of genre (10) lacks skill of writing on topic. (11) lacks concept of a paragraph (12) Student lacks skills/strategy for writing a paragraph Writing Process

• Planning: • Transcribing or drafting: getting the words on paper • Reviewing and revising: • Editing and Publishing

Early Literacy- Emergent Writing Skills


ACTIVITY 2 WORKSHEET Step 1: Describe what you See

Step 2: Identify Possible Error Domain

STEP 3: Identify Highest Priority Error Domains and Confirm Discrepancy Error Domain

Assessment Student Performance

Standard Discrepancy?

Yes No

Yes No

Yes No

STEP 4: State Potential Hypotheses

STEP 5: Measures for Assessing Each Hypothesis


Activity 3: Skills | Strategies | Concepts in Holistic Scoring Rubrics Making the Traits Accessible in an RTI Framework RTI is a process that can be used as a means for making entitlement decisions for special education. Many schools and districts have begun to implement RTI processes and procedures whether or not they are using it to identify students with learning disabilities. This is because the problem solving within RTI and the concept of utilizing a tiered approach for instructional decision-making shows great promise for improving outcomes for all students. Critical components in an RTI model include the use of validated screening measures to identify students at risk, as well as measures that can be used to frequently monitor student progress. Additionally, sound assessments are necessary to clearly identify student needs (diagnostic measures). The types of measures that have been identified as appropriate for such a process are called curriculum-based measures. There are multiple types of curriculum based measures. Two of the types of CBMs are General outcome measures (GOMs) and mastery measures (MM). GOMs are frequently misunderstood because of the seemingly simpleness of their design. GOMs are quick assessments that correlate highly with other measures of achievement, reflect a broad skill set and are sensitive to subtle changes in learning. They can be used to screen a group of students for potential problems as well as used on a more frequent basis to monitor progress. The are generally graphed within an RTI model so that teachers can determine the potential effectiveness of the overall implementation of writing curriculum and interventions. Examples of written expression GOMs include Correct Writing Sequences (CWS), Percentage of Correct Writing Sequences (%CWS) and Total Words Written (TWW), to name a few. There are also CBMs that are called mastery measures. Mastery measures are also fairly quick to administer and are used to assess such things as specific skills, strategies and

concepts. Mastery measures are generally created directly from a school or classroom curriculum. A very basic example of a mastery measure is a spelling test. A spelling test assesses a student’s skill at writing specific words. 6+1 traits has been used as both the foundation of many writing curricula and as an assessment tool. State mandated writing performance assessments are generally scored with a holistic scoring rubric. It is now common for districts to collect a writing sample one to three times a year and score the assessment using a holistic scoring rubric. It is not unusual for the scoring instrument to be a 6+1 rubric. Although these assessments may serve administrative purposes, such as to indicate trends in schools or districts, they are time consuming to score. The resulting scores are not necessarily able to be used in a way that facilitates targeted instructional decision making that is necessary within an RTI model. This is because to master each trait, a multitude of skills, strategies and concepts must be employed. Because of this, it can make it difficult to identify which skill, strategy or concept a student is missing when he or she scores low on a trait by examining the trait score alone. The following brief example outlines a way that we may begin to examine the efficacy of our instruction interventions and core curriculum by downwardly extending the 6+1 traits into a system that can used within an RTI problem solving model. This process will allow a teacher (or other stakeholder) to more clearly target specific areas for instruction within a specific trait, especially within a tier 2 or tier 3 intervention.


Activity 3: Example of Identifying Error Domains in a Holistic Rubric Student Problem Indicator What is in the student’s writing that leads me to believe that an intervention is needed?

Trait and Skill What is the trait and what is the specific area within the trait that I am focusing on?

Potential Missing Skill, Concept or Strategy Is the student lacking a skill, strategy or concept?

Potential Mastery Measures How do I measure student progress? What assessment will directly measure student performance?

Potential Instructional Solutions Which instructional approach will most likely target the area of deficit?

1. Writes with only simple sentences

SENTENCE FLUENCY (Error Domain: Sentence Complexity: using a variety of sentence lengths and types)

Skill: lacks the skill of sentence writing Strategy: no strategy for selecting and editing Concept: lacks understanding of how authors use a variety of sentences to engage the reader.

% of short sentences % of sentence types

1. Teach sentence expanding. 2. Teach sentence combining 3. Teach strategy for identifying sentences to expand or combine

Student Problem Indicator What is in the student’s writing that leads me to believe that an intervention is needed?

Trait and Skill What is the trait and what is the specific area within the trait that I am focusing on?

Potential Missing Skill, Concept or Strategy Is the student lacking a skill, strategy or concept?

Potential Mastery Measures How do I measure student progress? What assessment will directly measure student performance?

Potential Instructional Solutions Which instructional approach will most likely target the area of deficit?


Activity 3: Identifying Skills | Concepts | Strategies in Holistic Rubrics

Trait Description Skills | Concepts| Strategies

Notes:

Documents

Written-Expression Curriculum Based Measurement (WE · PDF file14.09.2012 · Written-Expression Curriculum Based Measurement (WE-CBM) A Practitioner’s Guide to Utilizing WE-CBM