Browsing by Subject "writing skill’s assessment"

Objectives. In primary education the pupils form a basis for their writing skills. By assessing pupils' writing skills the teacher gathers information about the development of their skills and notices possible learning disabilities. The assessment of writing skills requires both knowledge of different evaluation methods and the phonological system in Finnish language. The purpose of this study is to analyze the pupils' writing skills and different assessment methods that help the teacher in writing evaluation. The pupils' writing skills are viewed from spelling, composing and writing motivation's point of view. Methods. The research material consists of dictation exercises, written stories and writing motivation self-assessments of 19 pupils. Dictation exercises measured the spelling skills of pupils and they were written in the spring of the first grade and the autumn of the second grade. Dictation exercises were analyzed with two different methods: mistake analysis and word-structure analysis. Information of pupils spelling skills' development was gathered by comparing their performance in autumn's dictation exercise to spring's dictation. Composing skills were measured with stories that the pupils wrote. Both the stories and the writing motivation's self-assessment were made in the autumn of the second grade. Composing skills were analyzed according to assessment criteria formed for this study. Results. The spelling skill of most of the pupils had developed from the first grade's spring to the second grade's autumn. The spelling skills of half of the pupils (N=9) had improved significantly. The composing skills of the pupils varied largely. Strongest part of the pupils' composing skill was following instructions and the weakest part was the use of versatile vocabulary and clause structures. The girls outdid the boys in all segments of their composing skills. For most pupils their spelling skill reflected their composing skill: good spellers were also good story writers. The relation between writing motivation and general writing skill was not this simple: some pupils (N=5) writing motivation was much higher than what would have been expected based on their writing skills.