Teaching Secondary Students to Write Effectively

Obstacle 3.2. I don’t have time to regularly 

conduct formative assessments for all of my 

students.

Panel’s advice. Determine a schedule and 

approach to formative assessment that works 

for the specific classroom and students, and 

will inform instruction. Teachers do not need 

to use formative assessment with every activ-

ity, and they may already be assessing their 

students formally or informally on a regu-

lar basis. In addition, students can reduce 

the burden on teachers by doing self- or 

peer-assessments.

Typically, it takes time to see students’ 

growth, which might require only a few 

assessments every year. For instance, growth 

in overall writing quality can take quite a bit 

of time. In those cases, conducting formative 

assessments at the beginning, middle, and 

end of the year may suffice.

Think about how to use existing 

assignments and assessments 

for formative assessment. For 

example, have students work in 

pairs to grade one another’s writ-

ing, and use that data for formative assess-

ment. The key is to set up records to easily 

group students according to their needs and 

easily aggregate information across students 

to identify lessons to be re-taught or taught 

differently. Digital spreadsheets are useful for 

record keeping, as they can be easily sorted on 

specific criteria to see which students are not 

doing well on specific topics.

Obstacle 3.3. I am not allowed to modify my 

school’s curriculum or standards. How can I 

still use formative assessment?

Panel’s advice. Using assessments to 

modify instruction can be done within the 

existing curriculum and standards. Identify 

a way to use and summarize information 

that is already available. For example, make 

a list of the things students are asked to do 

regularly—some of the tasks or assignments 

they complete—that involve even brief writ-

ing, whether it is done during class or for 

homework. These brief writing samples can 

be quickly reviewed to check in on students’ 

specific skills (e.g., topic sentences, general 

organization, varying sentence structure). If 

necessary, give an additional mini-lesson or 

reminder to students about the importance  

of the skills evaluated.

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