1. Writing Assessments Webinar
Robert W. Frantum-Allen

2. Objectives Overview of Writing Assessments Handwriting Spelling
HWT and Checklist
Spelling
Writing CBM

3. Handwriting Assessments

4. Handwriting with out Tears Memory
1. Omitting the letter/number is a memory error.
2. Writing an unrecognizable letter/number (like a squiggle) is a memory error.
3. Writing the wrong letter/number (lowercase f for capital F or vice versa) is a memory error.
4. Lowercase i, j without the dot is a memory error.

5. Memory 5. A letter or number that is reversed/backward
6. A letter that uses wrong size - Oo, Ww, Ss
7. A letter in the wrong place - Pp, y

6. Orientation 8. Reversals, or backward letters are orientation errors.
No orientation error for:
9. Symmetrical letters/numbers. They cannot be reversed and are not scored.

7. Placement
10. A letter/number (or part) that should be on the baseline but is outside the gray area (more than 1/16” above or below the line) is a placement error.
a. Letter/number parts that should be on the line but are above the gray area
b. Letter/number parts that should be on the line but are below the gray area
Note: Measure questionable placement. Line up the 2nd Grade Placement Tool with the writing line (not the letter).

8. Sentence 11. Not using a capital to begin is a sentence error.
12. Mixing capital and lowercase letters is a sentence error.
13. Putting too much space between letters in a word (w r o n g) is a sentence error.
14. Putting words too close is a sentence error.
15. Forgetting ending punctuation is a sentence error.

9. Name
You will not mark errors for this category. Instead, note the stage of development. Does the student use:
- All capitals (CHRIS)
- Transitioning mix (ChRis)
- Title case (Chris)

10. Other Concerns Formation- starting at the bottom and moving up
Size- too large for grade level
Neatness
Speed- too slow and too fast
Posture- slumped, feed unsupported,
Pencil Grip- awkward grip
Helper hand- doesn’t use this hand to hold the paper
Other- Cognitive concerns

11. On-line Scoring System

12. Report

13. Handwriting Screening Checklist
Free writing or short constructed writing on single lined paper
Have the student write the capital alphabet, lower case alphabet and the numbers on single lined paper
Dictate to the students the phrase “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” If the student is too young for dictation, then have them copy the phrase. The phrase contains all the letters of the English alphabet.

14. Handwriting Screening Checklist

15. Spelling Inventory

16. Analysis of Spelling Errors
Spelling errors are a rich source of information about language processing (Masterson and Apel, 2000)
Substitution, omitting or changing the order of sounds in a word
Weak phonological skills
Strong phonological awareness and having trouble remembering letter and letter patterns.
Weak orthographic skills
Lacks stable spelling in multiple syllable or multiple morpheme words
Weak morphological and/or syllable skills
Masterson, J., and Apel, K. (2000) Spelling assessment: charting a path to optimal intervention. Topics in Language Disorders, 20(3), 50-66

17. Grading a Spelling Inventory
Clues about their psychological processing ability and/or instruction received
-Emergent to Letter name- possible phonological/orthographic processing errors
-Syllable and Affixes and Derivational Relations might hint at lack of morphological and syllable knowledge and might indicate a masked phonological/orthographical processing errors
What is their stage of spelling development?
-Emergent (Grade pre-k to middle of 1)
-Letter Name (Grade K to middle of 2)
-Within Word Pattern (Grade 1 to middle of 4)
-Syllables and Affixes (Grade 3-8)
-Derivational Relations (Grade 5-12)
Clues about their psychological processing ability and/or instruction received
-After 3rd grade, if more than 50% of the errors are phonological in nature then there might be a possible phonological processing concerns
-After 3rd grade, if more than 50% of the errors are orthogprahic with few phonological errors then possible orthographic processing or lack of instruction in spelling
-If morpheme spelling are inconsistent then possible lack of instruction in morphology
2. Error Analysis to determine the number of phonological (disphonetic) and/or orthographic errors.
-1-3rd grade phonological and orthographic errors are expected based on the instruction and experience of this age group
-After 3rd grade phonological errors should be greatly reduced

18. Directions
give the screeners just like you give a spelling test, however students do not study the words.
say the words two times clearly, without emphasis on a particular sounds or syllable
you do not need to use them in a sentence (we are not looking at their word context skills, just their phonological/orthographic, syllable and morphological skills)
if it looks like a student is stuck at a level, consider stopping but make sure you have enough words to analyze for phonological or orthographic erros.

19. Determine the Stage of Spelling Development
This puts him at the letter name-early stage
for each correct feature
-Circle the incorrect feature
-total only the words asked to spell
Final consonant is mostly right
Began to make mistakes with short vowels
What was the latest skill they got mostly right? When did they start to miss the critical feature?

20. What stage is this child at?

21. Grading a Spelling Inventory Practice

22. Determining the type of errors
Spelling
Word
Phonoloigcal
Orthographic
Sal
Sell
Les
Less
Forck
Fork
Sip
Slip
smop
Shop
Cond
Coin
Flot
Float
Driv
Drive
Spoon
Spon

23. Examples Alan 3rd Grade

25. What does Alan’s spelling inventory tell us…
Most of his errors are orthographic- he doesn’t have a phonological processing problems
The type of orthographic errors are expected for his grade level based on what is expected for 3rd grade according to the state standards
He needs instruction on long vowel spellings, variant vowels, inflectional morphemes and unaccented final syllables

26. Jean 5th Grade

28. What does Jean’s spelling inventory tell us
For a 5th grader Jean has a profound phonological processing disorder, which is why she is not able to connect phonemes and graphemes
She cannot distinguish long and short vowel sounds and spelling
She might be lacking some instruction beyond the 26 letters of the alphabet, needs instruction in digraphs and vowel teams
Relative strength with consonant blends

29. Grammar Inventory

30. TMG Parts of Speech: Knowledge
Check the grade level expectations to determine is this is a problem
Parts of Speech: Knowledge
Subject/Predicate Identification: Knowledge
Sentence types : Knowledge
Sentence Identification: Knowledge
Helps to determine what to teach

31. If there are NO grade level expectations then TEACH IT!
TMG
If there are NO grade level expectations then TEACH IT!
CLOZE- hints at a processing disorder
Higher-level reasoning: finding evidence, judging perspective, synthesizing or elaboration, having a new idea
Self-regulation: revising, employing strategies, setting goals, managing attention, taking perspective of the reader
Automatic Pilot

32. Writing CBM

33. Written Expression CBM
Writing CBM
Total Words Written
Words Spelled Correctly
Correct Writing Sequence
Spelling CBM
Correct Letter Sequence

34. Writing CBM-
The student is given a writing prompt, one minute to plan and then three minutes to write for the CBM and a chance to finish writing to be graded by a rubric
The student’s writing is scored as total words written, total words spelled correctly and correct writing sequence
Rubric looks at typical writing composition skills and handwriting

35. Writing CBM
Writing
Total Words Written, Spelling, Syntax, Semantics and Handwriting
Administration Time
1 minute to plan and 3 minutes to write, additional writing time to complete a story
Administration Schedule
First grade – Twelfth grade
Score
1 point for each words written, one point for each correct writing sequence, one point for each word spelled correctly, and rubric scoring
Wait Rule
No wait rule
Discontinue Rule
No discontinue rule

36. Writing CBM: Standard Directions Handout: “How to Conduct a Writing CBM”
Provide students with a pencil and piece of lined paper or writing notebook.
Select an appropriate story starter.
Say: “Today I want you to write a story. I am going to read a sentence to you first and then I want you to compose a short story about what happens. You will have 1 minute to think about what you will write and 3 minutes to write your story. Remember to do you best work. If you do not know how to spell a word, you should guess. Are there any questions? Put your pencils down and listen. For the next minute, think about …. (insert your story starter)”
After reading the story starter, begin your stopwatch and allow 1 minute for the student(s) to think. (Monitor student so that they do not begin writing.) After 30 seconds say; “You should be thinking about…(insert your story starter).” At the end of 1 minute restart your stopwatch for 3 minutes and say, “Now begin writing.”
Monitor students’ attention to the task. Encourage student to work if they are not writing.
After 90 seconds say; “You should be writing about … (insert your story starter).
At the end of 3 minutes indicate on the student paper with a ] but allow the student to finish writing. The write CBM will be graded up to the ]. The remainder of the paper will be needed when grading on the writing rubric.

37. Scoring Writing CBM How to score writing CBM
Count the total number of words written to obtain the total words written (TWW)
Count the total number of words spelled correctly to obtain the words spelled correctly (WSC) score
Count the total number of correct writing sequences (CWS) score
There are many more scores you can collect from this writing sample if you wanted such as
Number of nouns, verbs, adjectives
Total number of punctuation marks, total number of correct punctuation marks
Correct capital letters,
Complete sentences and sentence fragments
Words in complete sentences
Simple sentences
Research is limited on these scores.

38. Determining the Total Words Written
Underline any words that are produced in the writing sample (even if the word is misspelled or is a nonsense word). Find the sum the sum of the total words written.
Hyphenated words where each morpheme can stand alone should be counted as a word (mother-in-law = 3 words)
Hyphenated words where each morpheme can’t stand alone should be counted as 1 word (re-evaluation)
Abbreviation: Commonly used abbreviations should be counted as words (Mr., Mrs., T.V.)
Story Titles and Endings that are written in the title or the ending should be counted in the TWW
Numbers and symbols that are not spelled out should NOT be counted as words (5, 31, %, &)

39. Total Words Written TWW 30
In your practice booklet, underline each word written. How many words were written.
TWW 30

40. Total Words Written

41. DPS CBM Benchmark Guidelines for SLD Eligibility Determination
The score for fall 4th grade was 30
According to the score where did the student fall for TWW for fall 4th grade?
At or Above Benchmark?
Below Benchmark?
Well Below Benchmark?

42. Determining the Words Spelled Correctly (WSC)
WSC refers to the number of correctly spelled words in the writing sample, REGARDLESS of the context in which they are used. Incorrectly spelled words should be circled. WSC is calculated by subtracting the total number of errors (circled words) from the Total Words Written (TWW)

43. Determining the Words Spelled Correctly (WSC)
Abbreviations must be spelled correctly
Each Morpheme counted individually in a hyphenated word must be spelled correctly. If the morpheme cannot stand alone and part of that word is spelled incorrectly, the entire word is counted as incorrect.
Titles and endings should be counted in the WSC
Capitalization rules: Proper nouns must be capitalized unless that word is also a common noun. Capitalization of the first word in the sentence is not required for the word to be spelled correctly. Others words are counted as correct even if they are capitalized incorrectly within the writing sample
Letters that have been written reversed are not counted as errors unless the reversal causes the word to be spelled incorrectly (p, q, d, b, n, u)
Contractions are counted as WSC as long as the apostrophe is in the correct place

44. Words Spelled Correctly
In your practice booklet, underline each word written. How many words were written.
30-7=23 WSC

45. Words Spelled Correctly

46. DPS CBM Benchmark Guidelines for SLD Eligibility Determination
The score for fall 4th grade was 23
According to the score where did the student fall for WSC for fall 4th grade?
At or Above Benchmark?
Below Benchmark?
Well Below Benchmark?

47. Determining the Correct Writing Sequence (CWS)
A correct Writing Sequence (CWS) is a pair of adjacent, correctly spelled words that are acceptable within the context of the written phrase. CWS takes into account punctuation, syntax, semantics, spelling, and capitalization. When scoring CWS, a caret (^) is used to mark each correct word sequence. A space is implied at the beginning of the sentence.
Place a caret (^) between words that are (1)mechanically (spelled correctly, appropriate capitalization, (2) semantically, and (3) syntactically correct; calculate the sum of the number of carets = CWS
There are many rules for CWS! Please refer to page 3 and 4 in the How to Conduct a Writing CBM (yellow) handout

48. Determining the Correct Writing Sequence (CWS)
^The ^dog ^is ^big. ^ CWS=5 Perfect ^The ^dog ^is ^big CWS=4 Punctuation is missing the ^dog ^is ^big. ^ CWS=4 Missing capitalization

49. Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details
Spelling: Words must be spelled correctly
CWS 8
Show each carrot and explain the correct sequece.
Have the participants do the second sentence in their practice book. Then show the anwer.
CWS 3

50. Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details
Capitalization: Beginning of sentences, proper nouns counted, incorrectly capitalized are incorrect
CWS 5
CWS 3
CWS 3

51. Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details
Capitalization: Beginning of sentences, proper nouns counted, incorrectly capitalized are incorrect
CWS 3
CWS 4

52. Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details
Punctuation: At the end of sentences, commas not counted unless in a series, where they must be used correctly, other punctuation not counted
CWS 12
CWS 8

53. Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details
Punctuation: At the end of sentences, commas not counted unless in a series, where they must be used correctly, other punctuation not counted
CWS 8
CWS 7

54. Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details
Syntax: Must be syntactically correct to be counted. Words that begin with a conjunction are correct
CWS 8
CWS 5

55. Rules for Scoring See Handout for Details
Semantics: Semantically correct
CWS 5
CWS 4

56. Correct Writing Sequence
15 CWS

58. DPS CBM Benchmark Guidelines for SLD Eligibility Determination
The score for fall 4th grade was 15
According to the score where did the student fall for WSC for fall 4th grade?
At or Above Benchmark?
Below Benchmark?
Well Below Benchmark?

59. Writing Rubric
Primary
Intermediate/secondary

60. Extension of the Writing CBM
alternate between
expository and narrative
give back to the student the next
day to revise then rescore on the
rubric