When students see that their writing resembles the unsatisfactory model, they become highly motivated to improve. I will never forget the 3rd grade boy who asked permission to redo his paper when he saw how close his writing was to the poor criteria. In Mrs. Hughes' class, all students have assessment forms on their desk to be used as a resource during writing. Each week, students complete the self-assessment portion, judging their writing performance against the assessment criteria. The weekly paper and the students' assessments are given to Mrs. Hughes, who writes her evaluation on the same form and returns it before the next week's writing activity.
Students study any differences between the teacher's assessment and their own.
When necessary, individual conferences are held. With the assessment of their past week's writing clearly in mind, students are asked to set a personal goal to improve the new week's writing activity. The original assessment form simply showed a box with the four sets of criteria for each grade. As predicted, the form needed to be changed to reflect student needs. For example, Mrs. Hughes noticed students still had trouble formulating introductions and conclusions.