How to assess first and second grade writing to inform instruction

Yesterday I was sent some information on something called CBM, or Curriculum Based Measurement. I remember trying out this method to assess student writing when I was teaching first grade. I'm going to explain how it works and then tell you why it, and other rubrics, are not the most helpful way to inform instruction. (though they may have other uses)

I think it is important to understand the difference between rubric-based assessments and formative/summative assessments.

The main purpose of a rubric is to show where a student is on a continuum, in order to give a grade or to show progress.

The CBM assessment requires students to write for 3 minutes based on an instructional-level story starter. Scoring is standardized for accuracy and the score is based on several aspects of the writing: 1) Total words written (TWW) whether or not they are spelled correctly, 2) Words spelled correctly (WSC), and 3) Correct word sequence (CWS), where points are scored by strings of words spelled correctly and with punctuation.

Because the scoring has a strict set of guidelines, this assessment is an impartial way to score a student's handle on writing conventions. If you are curious to see all the nuts and bolts of how CBM is administered and scored, you can see more here.

CBM is a very detailed form of a rubric, similar to DIBELS, where students are put into a percentile for their grade level. Here are some other examples of rubrics to score student writing that are less detailed and not normed the way CBM is, but still along the same lines of a big general picture of where a student is on a continuum.

A few examples of informal rubrics:

This is a less formal rubric than CBM and would be more subjective in scoring.

Here is another type of informal rubric that can be found on websites like Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers.

When are these types of rubrics helpful? The very detailed CBM assessment, because it is impartially scored and can be put into grade level norms, is the kind of test that would be useful in making professional decisions around Special Ed placements. It could also be used to look at the overall progress of students over a year to see if a writing program or teacher is being successful in teaching conventions.

The informal assessment rubrics pictured above could be useful for keeping track of each student's progress and when putting in grades for report cards.

The weakness of these types of assessments is that they are not connected with an instructional program. If half the class scores a 2 in Composition from the top chart, can the teacher then go back to the curriculum and see where to reteach?

The most useful form of assessment for teachers is the kind that is linked to instruction. It is built in to a good curriculum.

Here’s how it works:

1) You teach a lesson or a short unit with a few targeted skills (very specific).

2) You assess what was taught with a simple assessment based on those few targeted skills.

3) If not enough students mastered it, you reteach and assess again.

It’s that simple.

So please don’t waste your precious time on complicated charts unless there’s a good reason to justify it.