I think that in literacy, assessment depends obviously on the grade level your assessing. I believe firmly that grammatical correctness should never stand in the way of the creative process of getting things down on paper. I know I struggle until all of a sudden I get a spurt of creativeness, and totally forget about the mechanical elements in favor of getting something down. The other stuff being addressed sometime later. I know its important for readability, and certainly a lot easier to teach than creativity. Here you need to look at the student, and where they are at in their writing maturity. Knowing where in the developmental level they are can direct you to what you should be assessing. The goal, like a just right book, is to push the bar a little higher, and thus encourage the student to strive higher. I think back to my first days in a kindergarten class with a room full of very early writers, and how the teacher would beam with encouragement to just get letters on a piece of paper. Even funnier was the students helping her spell out on the active-board exactly what they dictated, and again beam with accolades of encouragement. That is the joy of writing, and often times we get hung up on the technical parts of it. Myself being a prime example, and ever reluctant to proof my work. But I am getting better.
In working one on one in my placement with students that need extra help its important to always complement the sometimes, small strides they make in both reading and writing. I always on the evaluation sheet include more positive than negative observations which is how it should be I believe. I have learned to choose my words carefully to encourage. I like how Routman cautions against students work being “rubricized.”
Write, write, write
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