The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress April 30, 2014

Learning to Write “Writing is not an activity. It’s not something you sit down at the keyboard, and just start doing. That’s called ‘typing.’ Typing is an activity … Writing is a process. And if you start thinking of it as a process, life gets so much easier.” “Writing is not an activity. It’s not something you sit down at the keyboard, and just start doing. That’s called ‘typing.’ Typing is an activity … Writing is a process. And if you start thinking of it as a process, life gets so much easier.” – Jeff Bollow, Writing Fast “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” – Stephen King, On Writing The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/142

What helps in formative writing? (Writing Next, 2007; Informing Writing, 2011) Teaching students strategies for planning, revising, and editing their compositions (effect size=0.82) Teaching students how to assess their own writing (effect size=0.46) Explicitly and systematically teaching students how to summarize texts (effect size=0.82) Providing feedback (effect size =.77) Monitor students’ writing progress (effect size=.24) Collect multiple samples of student writing The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/143

Challenge for Implementing Formative Writing Assessment in the Classroom Having students write frequently Providing timely feedback Writing across the curriculum Personalizing training for students Monitoring writing over time and obtaining reliable, valid, timely data for students, teachers, parents and policy makers The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/144

Technology to Support Formative Writing Automated scoring and instant feedback Summarization scoring and feedback tied to online texts Support strategies for planning, revising, and editing Support teachers monitoring of student progress The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/145

Incorporating Automated Writing Assessment in the Classroom Feedback 6 Feedback 5 Feedback 4 Feedback 3 Feedback 2 Feedback 1 Students write an essay or a summary to a prompt or a text assigned by the teacher Students get immediate and accurate feedbacks while they write Teachers check writing scores of classroom and individuals and monitor the progress The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/146

Why Use Automated Scoring? Immediacy & Efficiency – Evaluate responses in seconds – Give students and teachers instant feedback Writing traits Content Grammar, Spelling, … Accuracy Consistency, Objectivity Can detect off-topic, inappropriate and “odd” responses A stored record of a student’s effort The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/147

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Summarization Writing Practice The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1412

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Formative Writing of Essays with Automated Feedback A Secondary School in NC, 2009 Control Group 80 students had teachers without automated scoring in the classroom Experimental Group 85 students had teachers using automated scoring in the classroom Percentage at “proficient” level went from 67% to 95% Remained stable with 70% judged to be at the “proficient” level Blind-marked essays The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1414

Writing Summaries with Feedback is Better Franzke et al., (2005) The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1415 Content while Using Quality while Using Later on their own

Supporting Teacher Monitoring

Conclusions Incorporate tools for scoring writing for: – Rapid, accurate feedback – Assess writing ability and content scoring – Supporting teacher monitoring & feedback Technology to support students and teachers – Scaffolded feedback for students based on their writing performance – Teachers can assign more writing while still reading/grading essays The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1417

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates. All rights reserved. The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1418

Reliability of Essay Scoring The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1419

Jeff Pence 7 th Grade English Language Arts Teacher The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/14

I know… Our students are Digital Natives Proficient Users and Fast Learners We must embrace technology or get left behind The Need Effective monitoring Standards based use Consistent evaluation Timely feedback 21 The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/14 21

Problem If “the only way to learn to write… is to write,” then how do we increase student performance and productivity without sacrificing accuracy and thoroughness? How can this happen? Carefully selected tools, utilized to their full potential! The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1422

Writing Statistics SY _______ The number of writing students I taught each day. _______ The number of essays and summaries each student completed from August 2010 until May _______ The average number of times each essay was submitted for grading, evaluated, scored, and returned to the student. ________________ The number of drafts that were thoroughly evaluated and returned to the students with specific feedback and absolute consistency ,444 The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1423

Monday Grammar Lessons & Review Textbooks, workbooks, and exercises. Printed texts and workbooks ARE still useful! Continuous assessment with Response, Socrative, and. 24 The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/14 24

Tuesday Grammar Re-Teaching More detailed lessons in small groups to ensure understanding of the concepts. Enrichment Online Publishing ( ) “Free-Writing” Cross-Curricular writing projects 25 The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/14 25

Wednesday, Thursday, & Friday Two Directions depending on standards. Essay Writing Assignments Summary Writing Assignments The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1426

Wednesday (Essay Week) Prompt Provided Students Plan and Draft by hand The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1427

Thursday (Essay Week) Completed draft is typed into Revise, Edit, and Collaborate Students are provided 3 feedback submissions The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1428

Friday (Essay Week) Additional 3 feedbacks for improvements to the essay The final submission is made in Publish Polish the text in a separate software program for printing, or complete a project with the text. The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1429

Wednesday (Summary Week) Writing prompt provided Summary Topic and Reading Passage for Notes The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1430

Thursday (Summary Week) Summary draft is typed into Revise, Edit, and Collaborate Students are provided 3 feedback submissions The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1431

Friday (Summary Week) Additional 3 feedback submissions for improvements to the essay The final submission is made in Publish Polish the text in a separate software program for printing, or complete a project with the text. The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1432

What is ? An assessment tool Easily aligned with state writing standards Supports 6+1 Traits of Writing Cross-Curricular to enhance student learning and writing Fully supports Common Core Standards The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1433

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Essay Settings The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1437

Summary Settings The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1438

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Real Results from my Students February with ONE Feedback and all helps turned OFF. August with multiple feedbacks and spelling, grammar, and repeated content checks turned ON. The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1444

February with ONE Feedback and all helps turned OFF. August with multiple feedbacks and spelling, grammar, and repeated content checks turned ON. Real Results from my Students The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1445

February with ONE Feedback and all helps turned OFF. August with multiple feedbacks and spelling, grammar, and repeated content checks turned ON. Real Results from my Students The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1446

February with ONE Feedback and all helps turned OFF. August with multiple feedbacks and spelling, grammar, and repeated content checks turned ON. Real Results from my Students The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1447

February with ONE Feedback and all helps turned OFF. August with multiple feedbacks and spelling, grammar, and repeated content checks turned ON. Real Results from my Students The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1448

February with ONE Feedback and all helps turned OFF. August with multiple feedbacks and spelling, grammar, and repeated content checks turned ON. Real Results from my Students The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1449

I know… In my classes of up to 34 students at a time, within seconds of pressing the feedback button, WriteToLearn™, assesses each essay on a six point rubric for Ideas, Organization, Conventions, Sentence Fluency, Word Choice, and Voice with suggestions for improvement, annotated sample essays, and specific feedback for spelling and grammar. Students, who are able to utilize this feedback independently, flourish. I am able to spend more time with students who struggle and require personal attention to develop writing skills. I am the teacher; the technology is a tool. The best part is that I am able to focus on the development of each student as a writer. The Four P’s of an Effective Writing Tool: Personalized Practice with Proven Progress l 4/30/1450

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