SUBJECT: ENGLISH AND ITS TEACHING

TEACHER: GRACIELA MARTÍNEZ

STUDENT: NATALIA NAVARRA

REPORT

DO THE WRITE THING: THE POSITIVE IMPACT OF WR ITING

ASSESSMENT

Introduction

This report is about a seminar on the importance of writing assessment as a

process of learning. The seminar was delivered by Graeme Harrison on May
5th at A.A.C.I. (Asociación Argentina de Cultura Inglesa).

What do we need from a writing task?

The coordinator showed the audience three different topics which were not so
specific, and asked the audience which would be the best option to write an
essay. As the topics were not so specific, we realized that some important
elements should be considered in writing tasks:

 Context: what kind of text and what is the topic

 Readers: who you are writing for
 Purpose: why you are writing

Making criteria

Establish criteria depend on the level of the students and it is essential to

assess. The coordinator provided the audience a kind of table in which the
following items were considered:

 Content: how well has the candidate fulfilled the task?

 Communicative achievement: how appropiate is the writing for the task
and has the candidate used the appropiate register?
 Organisation: the way the candidate puts together the piece of writing;
is ti logical and ordered? Are the ideas linked together well?
 Language: focuses on vocabulary and grammar. Including range and
how accurate it is.
SUBJECT: ENGLISH AND ITS TEACHING
TEACHER: GRACIELA MARTÍNEZ
STUDENT: NATALIA NAVARRA

After that, he proposed an activity in which the audience had to read different
pieces of writing and give them a mark taking into account the items mentioned
before.

Why do we assess?

The aim is to promote productive student learning. They can identify their own
mistakes and correct them in order to improve their writing.

Teacher assessment should be clear by making correction codes , suggestions

and coments. It is important to mark any line that is really good in order to
encourage the students, and also give a mark. But teachers can also use “peer
assessment” which is useful and has many advantages. This kind of
assessment allows a more relax atmosphere where students feel more
confident , scaffolds weaker students with input from the stronger ones, and at
the same time it make them critical readers and revisers for their own writing.

Conclusion

In my opinion, the seminar was clear and useful since it provided us elements
to use the assessment as an effective tool.