Teacher Assessment of Writing for the New School Year 

• Wednesday 28 August 2019

It seems timely in the summer to reflect on the previous academic year. And a good place to start would be the teacher assessment of writing. As we are all aware, STA produced exemplification materials for years 2 and 6 to support the end of key stage assessments for writing. To support the accurate assessment of writing for all KS1 and KS2 year groups, we produced the Prim-Ed ‘The Moderation Toolkit’. 

As a KS2 moderator, I would like to share some of the headlines from moderating this year. These headlines apply to all KS2 year groups. 

1. Have you got enough evidence? 

• The first ‘I can statement’ reads – ‘The pupil can write effectively for a range of purposes and audiences, selecting language that shows good awareness of the reader (e.g. the use of the first person in a diary; direct address in instructions and persuasive writing)’ 
• We must take notice of ‘a range of purposes and audiences’ and ensure that our long-term planning provides opportunities for doing this. 
• When we look at a collection of writing, has the child written for a range of purposes? Let’s look at Child A who has the following evidence: 

This looks like a range of evidence. However, when we read the collection we find that there are 5 recounts presented in 5 different forms. So, has this child written for a range of purposes? Sadly not.  

When planning our long-term writing opportunities, we need to think about: 

If the above is considered for each writing opportunity, teachers can track the purposes for writing to ensure there is a range.  

2. Are children proof-reading and editing? 

• Year 2 GDS children can proof read and make simple additions/revisions to their writing. So, all KS2 year groups should dedicate time to teaching children to proof-read and edit. It is really important that teachers model both of these skills separately. 
• We need to question of proof-reading has status in our classrooms. As an experienced teacher, I know that a common instruction of mine was, ‘Check through your writing and line up for lunch…’ giving those hungry children an opportunity to line up and be first for lunch without checking their writing at all! Later whilst marking their writing, I wondered if the children had read what they had written at all. 
• I began to observe them as they ‘checked.’ Some would nod their heads as they read whilst others used a finger to run over their writing and then place their books to be marked. 
• It was then that I admitted to myself that I had never explicitly taught children how to proof-read. So, I introduced the proof-reading hand. 

• When doing guided and shared writing, I paused and displayed the proof-reading hand. Asking children to choose a finger to focus on, for example ‘punctuation’ we then checked our writing for accurate punctuation before moving on to check another area. I laminated a set of these hands and noticed vast improvements with proof-reading as children had a strategy. 
• Regarding editing, do our children really know how to improve their writing? Usually the group of children who benefit most from ‘editing’ are the middle ability who can check success criteria and identify something that they have missed out or misunderstood so they have an area ‘to fix and improve.’  
• However, our most able writers may have achieved everything and do not know what to do to improve. And our less able writers may struggle to read their own writing back so may benefit from an activity that promotes editing instead. I have found these resources most useful to teach editing skills. 

3. What about the greater depth writers? 

• Do all KS2 teachers ensure that children have opportunities to write for an audience?  
• GDS children can ‘distinguish between the language of speech and writing and choose the appropriate register ‘& ‘exercise an assured and conscious control over levels of formality, particularly through manipulating grammar and vocabulary to achieve this.’ 
• If the task does not have an audience, GDS cannot select the appropriate grammar, punctuation and vocabulary to match the appropriate register. 
• Let’s take the task, ‘Write a non-chronological report about wolves.’ When it comes to assessing this writing, how can we use the GDS ‘I can statements’ above if there was no audience identified in the task? 
• If the task had included – this report is for year 2 or this report is for readers of National Geographic, then children will identify their audience and in turn choose the appropriate grammar, punctuation and vocabulary to match the register. 
• Within the introduction of this report, it would be appropriate for the year 2 audience to include the following, ‘Have you ever wondered where wolves come from? Do you know what wolves eat or where they live? How many types of wolves are there? Read on and I will answer all of your questions!’ However, we would not expect a report for National Geographic to be written in such an informal tone. 
• It is very important to teach children levels of formality and use the language of informal and formal rather than ‘let’s put on our posh voice.’ Formal does not equate to posh.  
• Many children are asked to write a formal letter to their head teacher as a writing task. Most head teachers would not regard themselves as ‘posh’ yet see themselves as a formal person in a child’s life. 
• Ensuring that children understand how to write in an informal or formal style is important in all KS2 classes. The features of writing required for a specific task can be modelled and taught (and included as a success criteria). 

I hope that these headlines will support you as you plan writing opportunities for your new classes. Then The Moderation Toolkit can be used to support your teacher assessment of writing too! 

Maddy Barnes - Author of the Teacher's Moderation Toolkit

• Teaching Tips and Advice
• Writing Moderation and Composition