Amy Peabody April 9, 2013 ELD 307 Professor Rich Writing Assessment This writing assessment was the

last time I would be able to work with a child to really assess and evaluate their work, so before choosing a student I consulted with my cooperating teacher, Miss Refsin. Miss Refsin suggested that I take a look at Sujays writing; Sujay is a seven-year-old boy in second grade. Sujay is an average writer at the current moment, but that is because he has had time to practice writing since he started second grade. Sujay has matured as a writer and is now more on track in second grade than he was in September. I interview Sujay and he was able to self-evaluate him as a writer; Sujay had a difficult time understanding what I meant about writing, at first he thought I meant handwriting and the ability to write. Sujays mom had bought him handwriting books before he started school and this meant that he knew how to write. Sujay learned to write the proper way in first grade from his teacher, but he explained that he has learned more now in second grade and his work is better now because he practices. Sujay is the oldest child in his family; he has a little sister who does not know how to write. Both Sujays parents know how to write; Sujays father writes at work because he sends letters and emails and his mother only writes a little, but she writes in both English and Hindi. During my interview with Sujay I asked him if it was possible to learn to write on your own; his reply was interesting, Well maybe you can teach yourself to write, but it would be very hard. It is difficult to learn to write according to Sujay and he feels this way because when he started writing he did not know what to do. Sujay goes to Kumon and they assign him to write

while at tutoring there and now that he knows how to write he enjoys it. Sujay writes for homework and because it is exercise for his hand and wrist. Sujay was unsure of why other people write, then I mentioned Kevin Henkes, he is a class favorite author and Sujay thinks that Kevin Henkes writes because he wanted to be an author and entertain people. Sujays favorite type of writing is small moment stories; Miss Refsin let me photocopy Sujays small moment story from September to analyze. There was no planning that went into this piece of writing; the students were given instructions to write about something they did over summer vacation. Sujay wrote about a trip that his family took to Lake George. Sujay struggles with using proper punctuation and capitalization, but you can tell what his focus of his writing is. This piece is not something that Sujay has created himself but rather a story that he is telling of an event in the past. Since September, Sujay has learned the importance of revising and editing. Sujay writes neatly and most of his work is legible and he leaves the proper amount of space between words. I was not able to discuss this writing piece with Sujay but I would like to hear what he has to say about it now and if there are any changes he would make to it. Sujay has progressed into more developed thoughts and complete sentences in his most recent writing unit, realistic fiction. I have seen Sujay work on this unit since I started at Wicoff; there are so many improvements in Sujays writing from September to now. I am very impressed with how Sujay has grown as a writer and an illustrator. Miss Refsin always encourages her students to draw pictures and drawing is one of Sujays talents. One area where Sujay needs improvement is editing; although creative spelling is accepted, he does not take the time to actually look up words he has spelled wrong. I think Sujay would benefit from peerediting because he might be able to correct mistakes others have made and the students who are stronger writers may help Sujay further develop as a writer. Sujays writing has developed and

he is now adding dialogue and more details to complete his thoughts. Sujay has added expression and emotion to his writing, Jack says OMG; I asked Sujay why he wrote that and he explained that the reader would know how Jack is feeling because the story says so and the picture also illustrates it. The structure of Sujays writing is grade level appropriate according to Miss Refsin and she is pleased with the progress that Sujay has made since the start of the school year. Sujay is a very hard worker and is on task most of the time in class; he follows instructions well and knows when to ask for help. Sujay explained that editing is both easy and hard; editing for capital letters and punctuation is not that difficult now but spelling is something that Sujay can struggle with. Creative writing is enjoyable for Sujay because he likes to make his own characters; it is fun to imagine writing your own book and being an author. Sujay has expanded into multiple genres since September and can write non-fiction pieces as well. Sujay is always able to selfevaluate his writing; students have to read their work three times before handing it in to the teacher. I found it very interesting that Miss Refsin has the students write author pages for their stories. Sujays message to his readers is, I hope you enjoyed my book. It was very fun writing my book but it was also hard writing my book. This author page gives the child a chance to reflect and also evaluate what they wrote; I was not able to view a writing page from the very beginning of the year to see if his view of himself as a writer has changed. This assessment was mostly in an interview setting which took place between Sujay and myself. Sujay has grown as a writer throughout the school year thus far and that is what I was trying to assess; I was lucky enough to be able to photocopy some of Sujays work from September. Sujay does still struggle with spelling and sometimes capitalization but I think that some peer-editing could help correct these errors. I know that the classroom has dictionaries and

I think that Sujay should take advantage of this when editing and revising his writing. Sujay is a wonderful illustrator and he uses his pictures to reinforce what he is writing, this helps him stay focused and on task. Sujay has become very creative when writing his own stories and he is proud of his work. An area where Sujay needs improvement is in seeing all of his stories to completion before changing his mind to a new topic. I noticed that Sujay had originally started story mapping about a boy who plays soccer but then changed his mind to a boy who loves art. Miss Refsin agreed with me when I mentioned editing and revising; she feels as though Sujay could work harder when editing and revising along with spelling. One of Sujays biggest strengths is in creating story structure; he can develop a character, a plot, a problem and a solution. Sujay is also very good at developing his characters and their traits. Applying previous writing lessons from writers workshops is another area where Sujay shows the abilities of being a writer.