Larrat_Journal+1

This first assessment is a writing assessment where the students were asked to write a story based on a given topic. The students are usually allowed to ask for help when writing but in this assignment the students were supposed to work on their own without help from the teacher. This is because the assessment was based on what the students could do on their own and how far their writing has come along since the beginning of the year. The students were given a story at the beginning of the year and assessed the same way they are midyear. These assessments are used for an evaluation on their report cards. The students are given a topic. In this case it is to pretend a long lost relative visits and brings a strange gift. The students are then prompted with what the story should include such as, describing the relative, the gift and their reactions. The students are provided with information on what each paragraph should include. They are also given a story outline to fill out before they begin to write their stories. The outline includes ‘characters,’ ‘settings,’ ‘solutions and conclusions,’ etc. The students writing is assessed on a 1-5 scale, 5 being the best. The scores are based on the Grade Level Expectations. To obtain a score of 5, the student must have written a thoughtful, fully developed story with many details and character descriptions. It needs to be well organized with a strong beginning, middle, and ending. The word choice needs to be exceptional and appropriate as well as a strong variety of sentence types, lengths and beginnings. There should be very few errors in conventions and grammar. I feel that this is an effective assessment type because it gives the students a rubric in what they should be writing, as well as a structure outline for the students to start their writing. Since the assessment is being compared to a previous assessment, I think it is beneficial to the teacher because there are two pieces as proof as to what the student has accomplished in a given period of time. The rubric is clear and is easy to assess students writing based on the requirements that should be met. The fact that the rubric refers to the GLE’s is also beneficial because it gives teachers and extra resource for assessment.