“Assessment is, indeed, the bridge between teaching and learning.”
Dylan Williams, Embedded Formative Assessment (2011)
Assessing writing can often feel complex and rather subjective. Yet accurate assessment is essential for pupils to make progress in writing, a skill needed to access tasks and activities throughout education and into adulthood.
In order to make accurate assessment judgements, we need to have knowledge of the National Curriculum for English (including its terminology), a secure idea of age-related expectations and the subject knowledge to recognise whether or not a child has met a specific statement, such as ‘integrating dialogue in narratives to convey character and advance the action’. Similar to the curriculum area itself, the assessment of writing is a task requiring the culmination of many different skills.
With teachers already at full capacity during the working day, it is important to consider how time-effective your assessment of writing is, how it benefits the children and whether it moves learning on. Many schools are moving away from lengthy written feedback, in favour of verbal feedback in response to in-the-moment assessment. Not only is this more impactful and likely to be acted on, it can mean teachers can spend their valuable time supporting the pupils or planning next steps.
In this blog we will explore how we can make the assessment of writing both manageable and meaningful, having a positive impact on pupil attainment and teacher workload.
Formative Assessment (Assessment for Learning)
Formative assessment is used to describe any form of assessment that takes place whilst learning or a given unit of work is ongoing. Very much the basis of adaptive teaching, this type of assessment requires practitioners to respond to pupils’ learning and make the necessary amendments to provide the level of support or challenge required. Formative assessment can take place before, during and after learning; meaning that any planning is based on building on what the pupils already know.
It is important to assess throughout the writing process; from discussing the text stimulus to editing a final piece. The most effective form of assessment depends on the given area of the English curriculum. For example, pupils’ knowledge of spelling patterns, grammar and punctuation can be assessed through quick-fire quizzes, oral work, whiteboard work or starter activities to name but a few. We also need to assess whether a pupil is able to apply a concept when completing an independent piece of writing; a skill in itself and one that often takes more practice.
Self and peer assessment can be used alongside teacher assessment in day-to-day lessons. It is important for teachers to model proof-reading for errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation in any writing, so this becomes routine for the children. To help children develop the skill of editing writing for effect, provide one particular aspect to really focus on and model this; ‘thinking aloud’ to share thought processes when reviewing writing. Consider providing pupils with sentence stems to help structure their feedback or ask them to highlight examples, making this purposeful and constructive. If a pupil is reading work aloud to a peer, it is often easier for them to identify errors or words and phrases that could be more effective. This focused discussion between pupils helps them look at writing more critically in terms of effectiveness and authorial choices, particularly important for pupils who are working at greater depth.
Summative Assessment (Assessment of Learning)
The summative assessment of writing takes place at the end of a unit of work. This is when all areas of writing – and how they are put together – are reviewed by looking at a pupil’s final piece. To give pupils the best possible chances to succeed, we should chunk learning into manageable steps and model each stage of the writing process wherever possible. Providing children with a clear audience and purpose and using a high-quality text or experience as a stimulus also help produce successful outcomes. Reading as a reader first, then as a writer, helps pupils to understand why certain choices are made by authors in their writing. It is with this in mind that we have developed our PICC a Text approach to writing, which you can read more about here: Please Insert Link to blog
One tool that can be effective in the assessment of writing is a Whole Class Feedback Sheet. This is completed at the end of a writing unit/final outcome, enabling the teacher to identify common misconceptions, strengths and next steps for the pupils; both individuals and groups. Additionally, the next time that particular genre or text type is taught, the teacher can focus teaching and learning based on the previous feedback. Use this as a diagnostic tool to highlight where pupils need support. For example, this might be during idea generation, vocabulary, sentence structure or transcription fluency.
The summative assessment of writing also requires teachers to come to an overall judgement of the level at which a pupil is working, based on a collection of independent pieces. At One Education, we have developed Writing Trackers containing ‘pupil can’ statements for all year groups from Nursery to Year 6.
Once a term or half term (depending on your school’s assessment policy), we recommend assessing children’s independent pieces against the ‘pupil can’ statements for the appropriate year group to come to an overall judgement based on the criteria. This exercise will also highlight any statements that have not yet been met by the pupil, which would help identify children’s next steps from the National Curriculum.
As progress through the writing levels at each year group – WTS, EXS or GDS – is not incremental, recording a definitive judgement termly does not always capture children’s progress. A more helpful approach might be to consider an attainable prediction by the end of the year, before recording a child’s progress through the ‘pupil can’ statements. This will enable teachers to monitor whether pupils are ‘on track’ to meet either WTS, EXS or GDS when the full writing curriculum has been taught and children have had multiple opportunities to apply their skills.
Using AI to Support Assessment
“Evidence shows that high quality feedback drives pupil performance, but marking is a huge drain on teacher time”
Department for Education; Department for Science, Innovation and Technology; The Rt. Hon. Bridget Phillipson MP; The Rt. Hon. Peter Kyle MP
Recently, the government have allocated £1 million to develop the use of AI for assessment in schools, so teachers can spend more time with pupils and focus on “delivering brilliant lessons”. This will undoubtedly be a very useful tool, which will help practitioners focus teaching and learning around individual children’s next steps.
With the first prototypes set to be released in April 2025, this initiative is part of the government’s ‘Plan for Change’, which aims to “…break down barriers of opportunity”. The AI tools being developed will be based on the current statutory documents for teaching, working in partnership with teachers’ knowledge, with the article stating the importance that: “…the tools retain teacher oversight of the feedback – balancing AI efficiency with crucial teacher expertise and judgement.”
Undoubtedly, the use of AI will bring huge benefits to teacher workload. However, it is important that it is used alongside- not instead of – the expertise of practitioners. We must not underestimate the value of teachers’ own judgements, based on a holistic picture of the child, their learning journey and a secure knowledge of the curriculum.
You can read the full article here.
When Should We Assess Writing?
Writing assessments should take place regularly throughout the year, and each may have a different focus. For example, teachers might find it useful to complete a benchmark assessment at the start of the academic year to identify children’s starting points and inform planning. Writing assessments in July enable teachers to make judgements on children’s attainment at the end of the year and help support transition into the next year group.
Spring term assessments are crucial in terms of identifying pupils’ next steps in order to support teaching and learning over the rest of the academic year. The summer term can then be used as an opportunity to consolidate and apply the knowledge and skills taught over the year, bringing all learning together.
To support schools to make accurate assessment judgements, we are running a new suite of courses in the spring term for teachers in Years 1, 3, 4 and 5. Exploring reading and writing expectations, including working towards, expected and greater depth statements, these sessions will assist practitioners in making secure judgements and identifying next steps to support learning over the summer term. Delegates will have the opportunity to bring a sample of their children’s books to moderate alongside colleagues and trained moderators. For more information or to book a place, please visit:
Alternatively, for more in-depth support, our consultants are available to validate assessment judgements within school, identifying next steps for teaching and learning.
Our Top Tips for Assessing Writing
1. Formative assessment can be completed daily, through the use of questioning, observations, low-stakes tests/quizzes and marking of written tasks. Use this before, during and after lessons to adapt teaching in response to students’ responses.
2. Writing is a complex process, so ensure any writing assessment is diagnostic to help you pinpoint the areas particular children or groups require further support. For example: Are there particular spelling patterns you need to re-teach to the class? Would any children benefit from an intervention (such as Colourful Semantics) to help with sentence structure?
3. At the end of a writing unit, Whole Class Feedback Sheets can be a very useful way to assess children’s outcomes. With all assessment notes being recording in one place, teachers are able to refer back when planning the next unit.
4. Our Writing Trackers can be used in all year groups to assess the level a child is currently working at. Judgements should be made after reviewing a collection of a child’s work rather than a single piece, and – in the autumn and spring terms – it might be that the child is working within a particular level but has not yet achieved it.
5. Look for opportunities to moderate writing and hold professional dialogue with colleagues, both internally and with other schools. This provides an ideal opportunity for teachers to discuss judgements and share good practice.
6. AI tools for assessing writing will have a positive impact on teachers’ workload, but should be used alongside professional judgement.
Please look out for our upcoming Case Study on Writing Moderation Cluster Groups. We will explain what you can expect from the sessions led by one of our Education Consultants and how they contribute to teachers’ CPD. We will also hear from teachers who have attended writing moderation workshops, as they discuss the impact these have had in school. In addition, our upcoming blog on the Effective Use of Success Criteria for Writing addresses how we can balance teacher input with children’s independent application of skills in a writing task.
For more information on how our team can support you, please contact our Literacy Team Leader, Laura Buczko by emailing Laura.Buczko@oneeducation.co.uk
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