Camryn Guertse

Edu 316

Mrs. Kersul-Wiener

22 October 2021

Writing Assessment

The student I was able to conduct a writing assessment with was a 9-year-old student

named Raika, whom I babysit. She is in 4th grade at Simmons Elementary School. She is

intelligent, determined, and has a creative imagination. Instead of writing, Raika favors drawing

pictures and then further explaining those drawings in detail which tells her story. This dedicated

task was to assess Raika’s writing using the Pennsylvania Writing Assessment Domain Scoring

Guide. This is an analytic rubric that is used to evaluate the student’s writing on a scale of 1-4,

with 3 being considered Proficient.

Raika’s writing sample was from something that I suggested she complete. For this

writing assignment, I prompted her to write a short story that’s the main idea was a Bat and had

to be at least 5 sentences to make a paragraph. This was my first time observing Raika while she

was doing any form of writing and this case was a short story. I took note that starting the story

was a little more difficult for her therefore, I gave her one word to base the entirety of her story

from. During the duration of Raika writing her story, she would constantly re-read her sentences

out loud for clarity and to assure herself she was making sense.

According to the Domain Scoring Guide, the focus includes a single controlling point that

stays on topic within a specific topic. Raika scored a 4 out of 4 in this domain, placing her at the

advanced level in that category. Raika was able to demonstrate a clear point about a single topic
of a Bat meeting a Fox and, in the end, the two become friends. She was aware she had to

continue with the story of the bat and make it come together to be a completed short story.

When considering content, Raika scored a 4 out of 4 possible. According to the domain

Scoring Guide, content is measured on the students writing of their presence of ideas developed

through facts, details, examples, reasons, etc. Raika’s ideas were strong and supported

thoroughly continuing to stay on track with the previous sentence. She was not limited, lacking,

or off track with her explanation of details with her characters, plot, and overall story.

The organization is the order developed across paragraphs using transitional devices and

including an introduction and conclusion. There is evidence of arrangement of informational

content with ordering and some transitions. Raika received the highest score of 4, for the

organization. She explained enough detail in her story to elaborate adequately transitioning her

points from one to the next that created a story that makes sense. I believe she implemented a

proper introduction of the bat first in stating sentences. Next, in the middle of the story, the bat

heard the noise. Then, the bat solved the problem of the noise by approaching the animal it was

coming from, a fox. Finally, the bat and fox introduced themselves to one another and soon

became friends. It was appropriate for the length of her story and well suited for her grade level.

Style is described as the word choice, arrangement, and sentence structure that creates

tone and voice. From the description given from the Domain Scoring Guide, I provided Raika

with the highest score of 4. She was able to make the story engaging and entertaining using

words that were able to evoke different feelings in readers to establish a mood. Raika was able to

allow the reader to be curious about what was going to happen next by setting the tone, naming

characters, and having a plot. Overall, she stayed consistent with the theme of the story and

dedicated a voice appropriate to any audience.

 Conventions are the use of correct grammar, mechanics, spelling, and sentence

formation. Raika demonstrated a 3 out of 4 because she was proficient enough to understand her

story clearly and fully. When considering grammar, her punctuations use was great. She ended

her sentences with all periods and knew when to provide question marks as she was writing. She

was unable to provide proper punctuation marks when it came to the necessary pauses needed

that include commas. Although Raika did have a few misspelling errors it was nothing to an

extent when reading the story, a reader could not understand. Her most common mistake was

words with double letters such as “suddenly”. After she was done writing her story completely, I

was able to go over her errors with her and guide her to fix her mistakes.

Raika’s observable strengths were her ability to make the story engaging while still

counting the theme of the story and not getting off track. She used different tones and

expressions in the story that increased her scoring in style to be an advanced score of a 4. Raika

would benefit from more practice knowing when to place commons in the correct spot. The use

of her creativity can get her very far when writing to create unique stories that will have readers

engaged.

Raika can improve on writing her letter “e”. She has been in the habit of starting her e’s

from her pencil at the bottom and making her curve to complete the form of the letter. After the

completion of the short story, I was able to go over the story with Raika to correct and support

her through her errors. She first reported to Alexa when she did not know how to spell a word,

she wanted to use it but, I did not allow that to happen. When it was time to go over her story

together, instead of me spelling out her misspelled words for her we sounded out the words

together. While utilizing this strategy she was able to determine what letters she was able to hear

and proceeded to write them correctly. Lastly, I noticed it took Raika a much longer time to write
a paragraph than I would have expected. With brainstorming, writing, and re-reading in total, it

took her about 30-35 minutes to fully complete a product she was satisfied with.