ASSESSING WRITTEN WORK

Feedback in Writing (ZX)

• L2 learner are concern about their errors
• they expect the teacher to point out the grammatical
mistakes they made
• they try their best to produce their thoughts and hope the
audience to appreciate their works
• An experiment carried out by Raimes (1985, p. 246) proves
that when writing takes place in L2, the students are
concerned more to get down their ideas on paper rather than
concerned with accuracy as much as we thought.
• most EFL teachers link a view of English as a subject of
teaching rather than a good way to teach students to
communicate effectively.
 Feedback in Writing
• teachers are constantly “forced away from the content of the text toward
the way the content is presented” (Ilona, 1990, p. 59)
• teachers’ high expectation on accuracy is demonstrated by correcting
every grammatical error in the compositions.
• many researchers point out that it is still an open question whether
students who got error correction would write more accurately in the
future assignments (Chandler, 2003, p. 269, Fathman & Whalley, 1990, p.
180).
• sometimes over-correcting can have a very demotivating effect and the
teachers need to keep a proper balance between being accurate and
truthful on the one hand and treating students sensitively and
sympathetically on the other (Harmer, 1998, p. 84)
• therefore, how to assess students’ works could be a crucial part in
promoting L2 writing skill.
 Feedback in Writing (ZX)
• part of the teachers responsibility to students is to respond to the ideas, feelings,
or perceptions that they have tried to communicate through their writing (Tribble,
1996, p. 119).
• teachers could use different ways to assess different aspects of written works,
including assessing language, structure, the writer’s expectation and the readers’
response.
• It is unnecessary for the teacher to focus on specific composition but rather to give
a general evaluation to the whole class.
• Then the member in the peer editing groups could self-evaluate or win the help or
suggestions from other members while the teacher could be the assistant to work
with them since it is generally assumed that teacher and peer comments are
directed at helping students meet certain goals in writing (Hillocks, Jr. 1986, p.
220).
• After discussion in the editing groups, the teacher could comment on the strengths
and weakness generally and let students propose some good examples from their
works in different points, such as vocabulary usage, logical organization, task
fulfillment, readers’ response, communicative functions etc.
• Helping students write more effectively and finding the confidence to be a good
writer are the key ideas in teaching writing.
 Correction Procedures
• Correct all mistakes
• Correct mistakes selectively
• Indicate mistakes so students can correct
them
• Staged approach
 Correct All Mistakes
• traditional approach to the correction of written work.
• time-consuming for the teacher and discouraging for the students - at
least if they get their work back covered with red ink
• some students learn nothing from it; others are more interested in why
something is wrong rather than the correction itself
• if you can correct something in class, while the students are still engaged
in writing and everything is fresh in their minds, this is likely to be more
effective than looking at a mass of corrections several days after the
event.
• unless the educational system obliges you to carry out this kind of
correction, you should consider alternative approaches.
 Correct Mistakes Selectively
• you do not attempt to correct all the mistakes in a piece of
writing, but only those in certain areas, such as tenses or
articles, either because this is where the students particularly
need help or because you have decided to focus attention on
these for a while
• this approach is more positive than total correction - in
practice, of course, most teachers exercise some form of
selection - but it probably needs to be backed up by some
form of remedial teaching
 Correct Mistakes Selectively
• normally done by underlining the mistakes
and using some kind of symbol to focus the
attention of the students on the kind of
mistake they have made
• see next for an example of these symbols
 What to do with the list above?
• get the students, individually, in pairs or in small groups, to
identify at least most of the mistakes for themselves
• if they cannot, then they should consult you
• this approach makes them more aware of the kind of
mistakes they are making and therefore likely to result in
something being learned
• you do not need of course to indicate all the mistakes
• in practice, however, it does not solve all the problems
• if students are left to identify mistakes for themselves, they
may not bother.
• even if they work in groups, some form of confirmation may
be needed and this could take up a lot of class time in a large
class.
 Staged Approach
• If your teaching situation permits, you could try to implement
a staged approach for getting the students to correct their
own work
Stage 1 Underline the mistake and diagnose it by writing the
appropriate symbol in the margin
Stage 2 Underline the mistake but do not diagnose it
Stage 3 Diagnose the mistake by writing the symbol in the
margin but do not show where it is in the line
Stage 4 Put a cross in the margin (for each mistake)
Stage 5 Put a cross against each line with a mistake but do not
indicate how many mistakes there are
 Indicate Mistakes – Students Correct
Themselves
• not a procedure that you are likely to be able
to follow all the time
• occasionally, you should be prepared to hand
over the whole business of correction to the
students - which they will generally do
scrupulously and with enjoyment
 Other Measures
• Explain mistakes
- write a comment in the margin or at the end
of a piece of written work
- is especially useful for drawing attention to
recurrent mistakes in a particular area and
when you are able to look at students' work in
class
 Other Measures
• Use the mistake as a basis for remedial teaching
- should be followed if a sufficient number of students in the class have made a
mistake to warrant general correction
- alternatively, you can set individual remedial work.
- remedial teaching may take the form of an explanation, where this is felt to be
sufficient, or exercises, oral or written, whichever seems to be appropriate,
designed to correct the mistake
- teachers tend to place their faith in one type of correction procedure rather than
another in particular, many do not accept (or only accept with some misgiving)
self-correction procedures
- although it is important to give the students opportunities to correct written work
so that they develop a self-critical attitude, NO ONE approach is so superior at all
time
- you should use various approaches to suit the needs of your students
• PUT THE OLD SLIDES
 Hereonwards ….
Zainurin Abdul Rahman
TEACHING ANO ASSESSING WRITING
SKILLS
Luis Alberto Lázaro
Universidad de Alcalá
 Suggestions for Marking/Correction
Techniques
• mark positively. The teacher's corrections should not have a
discouraging effect on students
• instead of deducting points for each mistake they have, we could
respond positively to their strengths and reward them with what
they have got right
• Although at the end the result might be the same, the point of
view
is completely different. Besides, as Tricia Hedge states:
Ideally when marking any piece of work, ticks in the margin and
commendations should provide a counterbalance to correction
of «errors» in the script. (1988: 10)
 Suggestions for Marking/Correction
Techniques
• Design a specific and reliable correction system. Decide:
- What aspects of writing will be taken into account (content,
organization, grammar, vocabulary, spelling, etc.)
- What type of descriptors will be used (numbers, letters, words
such as «excellent», «good», «fair», etc.)
- What criteria will be established to understand what each
descriptor represents
• These criteria could be arranged in:
- holistic scales (general descriptions of writing ability)
- or analytic scales, which separate the aspects of writing into
different units.
Sample … holistic scale
Sample … Analytic Scale
Sample … Analytic Scale
 Suggestions for Marking/Correction
Techniques
• mark selectively. Focus our attention on some
particular aspects, such as:
- grammatical mistakes or organization, and
ignore the rest, otherwise
• students will see their page painted in red and
feel discouraged.
• We can leave the other mistakes for another
time.
 Suggestions for Marking/Correction
Techniques
• use a clear correction code
• create a system of abbreviations which they write
in the margins of the composition to indicate the
type of error detected, so that students can try
to identify and correct them themselves later on
in class
• Below are some correction symbols that could be
used:
 Suggestions for Marking/Correction
Techniques
• Sp = spelling mistake
• T = wrong tense
• Wo = word order
• Pr = prepositions
• L = linking
• V = vocabulary (inappropriate language)
• P = punctuation
• O = a word missing
• ? = unclear meaning
• Pa = paragraphs
 Other Convention
GUIDELINES FOR TEACHING AND
ASSESSING WRITING
ANA MUNOZ
SANDRA GAVIRIA
MARCELA PALACIO
 Other Suggestions for
Marking/Correction Techniques
• Self-assessment:
1. when the teacher hands back written work students identify
their mistakes and correct them.
2. teacher and the students discuss and negotiate the criteria
involved in assessment.
• 3. The teacher corrects the compositions but does not write a
mark.
- students get the compositions back and decide what the mark
is
following the criteria set beforehand.
• 4. Students work in groups and read, criticise, and proofread
their own writing.
• 5. Students examine a set of questions that prepare them for
revision activities.
• 6....
 Other Suggestions for
Marking/Correction Techniques
• Peer correction:
1. Students sit in pairs and read each other's work. They look for
mistakes in each other's writing and attempt to correct them,
giving a mark.
2. A group of students correct the writing done by another group.
3. In the case of group writing, if each student in the group writes
a section, they exchange their pieces of writing with other
members of the group and mark the draft for revision.
• 4....
 Other Suggestions for
Marking/Correction Techniques
• • In composing your draft, what was the biggest problem you
• experienced?
• • If the teacher were to read your paper right now, what would be
• the first thing the teacher would say about it?
• • If the teacher were going to say something really nice about your
• draft, what would it be?
• • Write a criticism of your draft. Imagine that your draft is in the
• hands of a critical English teacher. What would the teacher write?
• • On the basis of the comments you've already received from your
• teacher, or your classmates, what changes do you intend to make
• when rewriting?
• • List three important details in your paper.
• • Look at your opening sentence. On a scale from 1 (Iowest) to 10
• (highest), what score would you give it?
• • If yoiJ had something to add to this paper, what would it be?
• • If you had to cut something, what would it be?
• • What do you need to do to your paper between now and the day
• it's due? How long will it take?
• (Taken from Whitlock, 1984)