Writing Assessment

SOL standard(s):

10.6 The student will develop a variety of writing to persuade, interpret, analyze, and evaluate
with an emphasis on exposition and analysis.

d) Write clear and varied sentences, clarifying ideas with precise and relevant evidence.

e) Organize ideas into a logical sequence using transitions.

f) Revise writing for clarity of content, accuracy, and depth of information.

10.7 The student will self- and peer-edit writing for correct grammar, capitalization, punctuation,
spelling, sentence structure, and paragraphing.

e) Analyze the writing of others.

WIDA standard(s):​ Standard 2 - The Language of Language Arts

WIDA level:​ Level 3-Developing

Purpose/Objectives:

Content

● The student will be able to interpret someone else’s writing in their own words.

Language

● The student will be able to identify and recreate key elements of a passage in order to
rephrase the author’s message using appropriate vocabulary in written form.

Directions​:

Carefully read the passage below and rewrite it in your own words. Try to avoid changing the
meaning of the passage or losing any information, and do not use any direct quotations or reuse
sentences from the original text. You may use a dictionary, but not the internet.

Assessment items

"That same night, I wrote my first short story. It took me thirty minutes. It was a dark little tale
about a man who found a magic cup and learned that if he wept into the cup, his tears turned
into pearls. But even though he had always been poor, he was a happy man and rarely shed a
tear. So he found ways to make himself sad so that his tears could make him rich. As the pearls
piled up, so did his greed grow. The story ended with the man sitting on a mountain of pearls,
knife in hand, weeping helplessly into the cup with his beloved wife's slain body in his arms."
(​Hoseini, 2005​)

Scoring

Students will be graded according to the following rubric:

Use of own Student restates Student restates Student copies a Student makes
words: the passage the passage in significant little or no
entirely in their mostly their own portion of the attempt to use
own words. words. (9-12 original text. (5-8 original
(13-15 points) points) points) language. (0-4
points)

Grammar: Student’s writing Student has 4-7 Student’s writing Student’s writing
is free or nearly grammatical has 8-12 has 13 or more
free of errors (3-4 grammatical grammatical
grammatical points) errors. (1-2 errors. (0 points)
errors. (5-6 points)
points)

Information: No information is Some Significant Student’s

lost in retelling. information lost amounts of passage tells a
(12-15 points) or changed in information lost completely
retelling. (9-12 or changed in different story
points) retelling. (5-8 than the original.
points) (0-4 points)