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Assessing Writing Samples for grades 2 and 8

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Discuss how you assessed the two writing samples from grades 2 and 8 (attached). Provide your score of the writing samples, offer a summary of why you gave this score, what you noticed about the student's strengths, and recommendations for instruction. How did your score compare to the assessment sample?

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Solution Summary

Discuss how you assessed the two writing samples from grades 2:

I assessed for FOCUS and offered a summary of why I gave this score.
There is some evidence of a topic. The common theme seems to be Mexico, but the focus is supposed to be My Favorite Place to Visit.

I assessed for CONTENT and offered a summary of why I gave this score.
The three complete thoughts I immediately understood were...

I assessed for ORGANIZATION and offered a summary of why I gave this score.
The author states that she left to go to Mexico. She shares that her Spanish speaking Uncle went with her on this trip, and that he was born in Mexico.

I assessed for Conventions and offered a summary of why I gave this score.
There is little understanding or control of most end punctuation and capitalization.

I used the rubric and went through the writing sample step by step to see if the sample matched the criteria. I think my assessment was far more realistic and much more helpful with regard to using the rubric as a tool, not only to improve the student's writing, but also to improve instruction for the next writing assignment given to an entire class of students. Clearly whatever the results are, if you follow the rubric like this and note the strengths and weaknesses, you will clearly see what areas need more instruction for that particular group of students.

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GRADE 2 WRITING SAMPLE

My Favorite Place to Visit

One day we laft to go to Mexico and my uker went
with us he can spek Spanis to and he was boning at
Mexico then he move to pasavey.
One year ago we went to Mexico We came back this
sumer and play with my dog outsid. And I wut to go back
nakt year and have more fun.

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Discuss how you assessed the two writing samples from grades 2:

FOCUS = 0

Offer a summary of why you gave this score:
There is some evidence of a topic. The common theme seems to be Mexico, but the focus is supposed to be My Favorite Place to Visit. The author says that her Spanish speaking uncle went with her to Mexico where he was born, and then where he moved; but the author NEVER states how or why it is her favorite place to visit. She also states that when she came back she played with her dog outside. Finally, in conclusion she states that she wants to go back, but it is never suggested that this is her favorite place to visit and we never learn why she wants to return. Actually, the author doesn't ever tell anything about the actual trip to Mexico at all. The author did not follow her own focus of the writing, which was My Favorite Place to Visit. The author did not even follow up on her introductory paragraph by explaining what happened after she left to go to Mexico.

CONTENT = 2

Offer a summary of why you gave this score:
The three complete thoughts I immediately understood were:
? One day we laft to go to Mexico.
? One year ago we went to Mexico.
? We came back this sumer.

ORGANIZATION = 0

Offer a summary of why you gave this score:
The author states that she left to go to Mexico. She shares that her Spanish speaking Uncle went with her on this trip, and that he was born in Mexico. Her topic sentence says this paragraph will be about what happens after she leaves to go to Mexico, but instead it turns out to be about her Spanish speaking Uncle who was born in Mexico, and then later moves to pasavey. This is poor very organization. The paragraph should be about the subject of the topic sentence.
In the next paragraph the author does the exact same thing again.
The topic sentence exclaims "One year ago we went to Mexico." Next, the author is talking about how "We came back this sumer and play with my dog outsid. And I wut to go back nakt year and have more fun." The paragraph should be about one year ago when she went to Mexico. The topic changes and suddenly the author is writing about how she came back this summer and played with her dog outside. Then the author shifts back writing about wanting to go back next year and have more fun on a trip that she never even really wrote any details about. This is very poor organization.

STYLE = 0

Offer a summary of why you gave this score:
This author's writing exhibits simplicity in sentence structure with almost no use of adverbs, adjectives, and prepositional phrases. There is also poor use of connecting words. The student doesn't even seem to know where one thought ends and the next thought begins. The basic sentence patterns are very rough, and there is a lack of understanding regarding compound sentences, noted by the use and over-use of and.

Conventions = 1

Offer a summary of why you gave this score:
There is little understanding or ...

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