Assessing writing: practices to support young writers

Assessment is integral to the effective teaching of writing and is deeply connected to the ways educators and teachers design and deliver daily teaching programs to support students’ learning. This chapter explores assessment practices for early writing, emphasising the need for educators and teachers to carefully examine students’ developing writing skills, situated within the context of purposeful, meaningful writing tasks, and also considers the way this information can be shared with young writers. To illustrate this process, an interactive writing analysis tool designed to analyse children's writing in terms of authorial and secretarial (editorial) skill development is introduced. Examples of students’ written texts, teachers’ analysis of the texts, and the teaching conversations that followed are presented to demonstrate how the tool can be used to inform teaching decisions and support young writers. Reflection prompts are inserted throughout the chapter, along with recommended readings.