Using Formative Assessments to Improve Lit Essay Writing

We are required, as part of our curriculum, to give a core assessment at the beginning and at the end of the year. This core assessment is supposed to show growth in the subject, and is used as one data point along with standardized testing (when available) and in-class unit assessments. For the English Language Arts curriculum, we ask students to read a short story and write a literary essay about it. We use the same Six Traits literary essay rubric that we use during our Lit Essay unit. For the past several years that I've been doing this, I whipped through the scoring, knowing that the students weren't going to see or use the information until the end of the year when they did a reflection about their growth as writers. I scored the essays for the data point they were, trying to minimize the time commitment they required of me.

And then I read this article by Nancy Frey and Doug Fisher in English Journal, "A Formative Assessment System for Writing Improvement" (103.1, 2013, 66-71). Frey and Fisher advocate for a documentation system in which errors on a piece of writing done early in the unit can be clustered together by type, and then follow-up instruction is easy to organize and implement. They provided an example chart that made their system clear. Their point is that spending time assessing, and then instructing based on the information gleaned, early in the writing process will improve student writing much more than the red ink explosion we often expend on the final piece and which students generally ignore.

This is certainly not a new idea to me, more like review than an "ah ha!" moment. However, sometimes these reminders come at exactly the right time to change my habits. This was one of those times. I was just about to sit down to score my core assessment literary essays. And we are in the early stages of our lit essay unit.

So using Frey and Fisher's example chart as a model, I made the left-hand column of my error analysis chart reflect the main points from the literary essay rubric (see below). As I scored the essays, I found I needed some sub-categories to be more specific about the types of errors I was seeing. I included these sub-categories in the right-hand column, along with the students' names that needed support with that particular skill (I removed the names before posting to preserve anonymity).

Error	Class 1
Introduction includes thesis statement that alerts reader to upcoming argument	No thesis: Expand: No intro:
Topic sentences link thesis to paragraph content	Topic sentence wording: No topic sentences: Body paragraphs connected to thesis:
Conclusion summarizes main ideas and includes a reflection/insight	No conclusion: Reflection:
Idea is supported by text evidence (quote or paraphrase)	Quotes: Paraphrase: Evidence supports topic sent/thesis: All parts of text:
Text evidence is explained for significance
Literary and academic words are used formally	precise words: Vocabulary building: Formal:
Sentences are fluent and grammatically correct	choppy sentences: concise: Verb tense shifting: Subject-verb/adjective-noun agreement:
Quotes are punctuated and cited correctly, including quoted dialogue
End punctuation is correct	end punctuation and comma splices: Clauses as sentences:
Editing tool used effectively	spell & grammar check:

Next, I looked at areas where a large number (a third or more of the class) had difficulty, and decided to make those whole-class lessons. For example, punctuating and citing quotes correctly is a skill that nearly half the class has not yet mastered. This will become a whole-class lesson. I will also do a whole-class lesson on introductions and conclusions. Since our 8th grade lit essay is focused on comparing two texts, a new structure for middle schoolers, having an introduction that sets up the structure for the reader, and a conclusion that goes beyond summary to a more generalized idea, are lessons everyone can learn. Within those whole-class lessons, though, I can still check in with individuals or small groups who need further scaffolding during conferring time. 

This system took about twice as much time as I normally spend with the core assessments. However, I think it is worth it so that my students can get targeted instruction that meets their writing needs when they will actually use it. Frey and Fisher suggest that time spent assessing early in the process means that teachers need less time assessing at the end of the process because we have already made our suggestions and recommendations. That makes sense too. 

Our next writing unit is short fiction. I wonder if I can get a quick fiction piece-- a pre-assessment as it were-- from students about a week before the unit starts. Getting the unit started with formative information already in place can help me know how to help my writers improve every day of the unit.