Writing Assessment and Intervention

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Writing Assessment and Intervention

• Lisa Bates Dean Richards 1/9/09

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• Running with the Squirrels

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Objectives for Written Language

• To build awareness of screening and progress
  monitoring assessments used to identify students
  needing intervention and to monitor their
  progress
• To build awareness of core instruction,
  supplemental and intensive intervention for
  students
• To identify what you may have in place and what
  you may what to think about developing and
  refining

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Necessary Components

• Assessment
• Universal Screening
• Progress Monitoring
• Instruction
• Core Program
• Second Tier Intervention
• Third Tier Interventions

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Assessment is

• Continuous
• Authentic
• Multidimensional
• Grounded in knowledge
• Collaborative

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Purpose of Assessment

• Measurement strategies are chosen to...
• Answer specific questions
• Make specific decisions

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Qualities of Typical Assessment Measures
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Universal Screening

• Why use universal screening?
• To determine effectiveness of the core program
• To inform instruction
• To determine which students need additional
  support

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Universal Screening Tools and Procedures

• Screening tool must dove-tail with progress
  monitoring tool
• Robust indicator of academic health
• Brief and easy to administer
• Must have multiple, equivalent forms
• (If the metric isnt the same, the data are
  meaningless)
• Must be sensitive to growth

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Make a Plan

• Who will conduct Universal Screening?
• Who will train the screeners?
• Who will prepare materials?
• Who will organize at the school?
• Where will the data go?
• Who will organize the data and present it to
  teaching teams?
• Who will keep track of which students are in
  interventions?

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Universal Screening

• In an ideal world

• Reality.

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TTSD Standard Written Expression Protocol
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What does TTSD use for screening for Written
Language?

• K-1 Students receiving Emergent/Pre-Writing level
  on the Progress Report are red flagged
• 2-5 Students receiving 1s and 2s only in
  Organization, Conventions, and Sentence Fluency
  (Writing) on the Progress Report and/or students
  scoring below the 30th percentile on OAKS are
  red flagged by the EBIS grade level team.
• Each red flagged student is assessed using
  Curriculum Based Measurements (Total Words
  Written and Correct Writing Sequences in 1-5).
  Students scoring below the 30th percentile on
  CBMs are placed in Second Tier Interventions.

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Grades 2-5- Organization
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Grades 2-5 Sentence Fluency
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Grades 2-5 Conventions
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Logistics of Writing Assessment

• Who administers classroom teachers
• When prior to progress reports being completed
  (3 times per year)
• How are assessments scored ideally as a grade
  level team for consistency
• Who collects the data grade level
  representative, literacy specialist, principal

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Time for Reflection

• In your team determine the following on your team
  worksheet
• Components of a universal screener that are in
  place
• Components of a universal screener that you may
  need to consider

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Progress Monitoring in TTSD
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• Quantity produces quality. If you only write a
  few things, youre doomed.
• Ray Bradbury

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ADVANTAGES TO USING THIS OBJECTIVE SCORING METHOD

• Objective
• High Reliability
• High correlation with performance of norm
  referenced achievement tests and teacher
  judgments of quality at the elementary levels
• Sensitive to student growth in written expression
  across 10 and 16 week periods
• (Tindal
  Marson 1990)

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CBM Written Expression Admin.

• Group or individual administration
• Story starter
• One minute to plan three minutes to write story
• Scoring
• Total words written fluency
• Correct writing sequences fluency and
  mechanics

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Story Starters

• Cross-Age Suitable for All Benchmark Grades
• 1. I couldnt fall asleep in my tent. I heard
  this noise outside and
• 2. My father sold his store last year and my
  whole family
• 3. All during the day I was nervous. I ran home
  at 300. When I got home

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Scoring Total Words Written (TWW)

• When scoring TWW underline each word written
• A word is any letter or group of letters
  separated by a space, even if the word is
  misspelled or a nonsense word.
• Examples
• The sky was blue TWW 4
• The sky was blew TWW 4
• I tuk a baf TWW 4
• I tuka baf TWW 3

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Total Words Written
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Writing Fluency NormsWords Written Per 3 Minutes.
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Writing Fluency NormsWords Written Per 3 Minutes.
Shapiro, 2001
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Correct Writing Sequences

• A correct writing sequence refers to two adjacent
  writing units (word/word or word/punctuation)
  that are acceptable within the context of what is
  written.
• The term acceptable means that the writing
  sequence is syntactically and semantically
  correct.

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Correct Writing Sequences

• Correct ...
• Capital letters
• Ending punctuation
• Spelling
• Syntax
• Semantics

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CWS Procedures

• Scott
• Grade 2
• and he was jumping on descs and when
  we tride to get him he would climb up
  on top of the cupberds and we could
  not reach him . When we went up
  their on a Ladder he would jump on a
  light .
• TWW 42
• CWS 34

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Writing CBM Administration and Scoring Resources

• AIMSWeb (www.aimsweb.com)
• Intervention Central (www.interventioncentral.org)
  

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How do we know how students are performing?

• We need to look at the norms..

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CBM Written Expression-Norms
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Goals for understanding norms

• To understand how to read the norm table
• To become aware of where we want students to be
  performing (low risk level)

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Lets take a closer look!!!
v
v
v
Low risk
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Lets take a closer look!!!
v
v
v
Lower risk
Low risk
Some risk
At risk
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Lets try this together!
What is the low risk scores for the fall of 3rd
grade? What is the low risk score for the
winter of 3rd grade? What is the low risk score
for the spring of 3rd grade?
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Lets practice in pairs
What is the low risk score in the winter of 4th
grade? What is the low risk score in the spring
of 4th grade?
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Lets practice with some scores
Some risk
Low risk
At risk
Lower risk
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Class Scores on Writing Assessment
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CBM Written Language Score
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Time to reflect

• What is important about progress monitoring for
  written language?
• Please share with a tablemate.
• In your team, what do you have in place already
  for progress monitoring and what might you want
  to consider?

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Problems with Written Language Instruction

• minimal attention to explicit writing instruction
• minimal time allocated to writing tasks
• writing instruction is introduced too late in the
  curriculum

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Instruction in Written Language

• Provide explicit instruction in both process and
  mechanics
• Provide more demonstration of writing process
  procedures
• Provide more demonstration of the revision
  process
• Increase use of self monitoring

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Components of Expressive Writing Products
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Progression of Expressive Writing Skills

• Copying and editing text
• Composing simple sentences
• Composing paragraphs
• Composing multi-paragraph prose

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TTSD Core Program

• MacMillan (grammar and spelling components) and
  Lucy Caulkins
• Time 30 minutes per day during 90 minute
  literacy block time
• Who Delivers Classroom teachers
• Group size determined by grade level

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TTSD Second Tier Interventions

• K ERI
• 1-5
• Increased teacher attention during core writing
  instruction
• More guided practice
• Who delivers
• K Reading interventionist
• 1-5 Classroom teacher

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TTSD Third Tier Interventions

• K ERI and Language for Learning
• 1-5
• Core plus
• 20 minute weekly session focused on guided
  practice
• Who delivers
• K Reading Interventionist
• 1-5 Grade Level Team

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Other Resources

• Step Up to Writing features research-based,
  validated strategies and activities that help
  students proficiently write narrative, personal
  narrative, and expository pieces actively engage
  in reading materials for improved comprehension
  and demonstrate competent study skills.
• Creates a common language and approach across
  grade levels and content areas
• Provides models of student writing for teacher
  and student reference
• Explicitly connects reading and writing
• Teaches all stages of the writing process, with
  an emphasis on planning
• Provides tips specifically for kindergarten
  students in Primary Level
• Aligns with the Six Traits assessment model

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Other Resources

• Expressive Writing 1 2 (2005)
• Helps poor writers improve their skills with an
  easy-to-use approach to teaching the basics of
  good writing.
• Expressive Writing focuses on the writing and the
  editing of basic sentences, paragraphs, and
  stories. Instructional strands include Mechanics,
  Sentence Writing, Paragraph and Story Writing,
  and Editing.  

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Time to Reflect

• In your team determine what components of
  instruction you have in place and what components
  you may want to consider or refine on your team
  worksheet

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How do you know if the intervention is working in
TTSD?

• Progress Monitoring
• CBMs are given every other week
• Trendlines are reviewed every 12 weeks
• Intensifying the intervention
• If progress is below the expected rate after 12
  weeks of Second Tier Intervention, students
  should move to Third Tier intervention
• If progress is below the expected rate after 12
  weeks of Third Tier intervention, EBIS team makes
  a referral for special education.

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Steps to Draw a Trendline

• Start with at least 7 data points
• Approximately divide the data points into three
  equal sections using vertical lines. The outer
  two sections should have at least three data
  points
• In the first and third sections, calculate the
  mid-date (draw a vertical line) and mid-rate
  (draw a horizontal line).
• Mark the points on the graph where the two values
  intersect.
• Connect the points to draw a trendline.

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Steps to Redraw an Aimline

• When an intervention needs to be changed, the
  aimline needs to be redrawn
• Using the last three data points, find the
  intersection of the mid-date mid-rate.
• Draw a new aimline from this point to the end of
  the year benchmark.
• Draw a phase line to reflect that the
  intervention has changed (after that point).

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Aimlines Trendlines
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
7
6
6 11
10 8
14 9
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Aimlines Trendlines
60
50
40
30
20
10
2 7
4 5
10 6
10 7
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70
60
50
40
30
20
10
3 3
14 4
2 5
10 3
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70
60
50
40
30
20
10
3 3
14 4
2 5
10 3
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Contact Information

• Lisa Bates
• lbates_at_ttsd.k12.or.us
• 503-431-4079
• Dean Richards
• drichards_at_ttsd.k12.or.us
• 503-431-4135