In this blog-guide, we address the three critical and sequential steps in teaching and assessing writing. Of course, we could have been more granular and expanded the process to far more specific steps but have kept the process to three with further articulation reserved for other blogs. We consider the first step as critical, without which, teaching and learning is likely to become jumbled: Decide on the discourse type as the structural guide that dictates all further steps. This discourse defines the content and structure of your writing prompts. After that, these further steps can be invoked uniformly (writing as a process and providing feedback and reporting results). These three basic components of writing instruction and assessment are critical for students to improve their writing by writing. Later, with more proficient writing, discourse types can be mixed and matched, but it is wise to master each type first.
Learning Progressions through Diagnostic Assessments
About a decade ago, we published a technical report on learning progressions. As we note in that report, learning progressions involve building blocks of (sub)skills that students must master, with their assemblage sequenced, and eventually with increased difficulty...