Modblog 10

 Modblog 10

The aim of this blog is to allow teachers to develop skills in writing moderation and to add comments/votes to help find accurate writing levels. Hopefully it is a safe and productive place for people to practise levelling children's writing and engaging in discussion.

Using this blog has been the most worthwhile CPD experience I have had in 18 years as a teacher. I especially valued the discussion which took place about Modblog 5 
(written by my daughter, Evie) and since then I have felt so much more confident in my own judgements and more at ease with the necessary dialogue and challenge which is central to effective moderation. For their work and contributions I remain grateful for the personalised training given to me by Emma Dawson, Claire Bills, Pete Curtis, James Town, Rebecca Stacey and Ros Wilson. I haven't done too much with Modblog since then because the blog had done it's job, and made me much more confident in this area of my work.

I do hope that teachers are willing to send in samples of writing to me at modblog@hotmail.com to allow visitors to this blog to continue to engage in productive dialogue about children's writing.



The writing sample below was written by Hollie ( year 6) after a visit to Eden Camp Museum in North Yorkshire. Please add your comments/votes.
 

Criterion Scale: Level 3,4,5 ( reproduced with kind permission from Ros Wilson)

APP Writing Grids: Level 3/4  Level 4/5

 

Modblog 9

Modblog 9

This piece of writing was designed to be a motivational speech aimed to encourage pupils to face challenges and reach their goals. The class have been looking at features of motivational speaking as part of a project linked with our local Children's University.

Motivational Speaker

The writer is 10 years old and is at the beginning of year 6. I have been impressed with his progress this term and feel his  potential is  some way beyond the level 3b he achieved in year 5. 

I am going to use the Criterion Scale ( used on this blog with kind permission from Ros Wilson) to try to find a level and hopefully highlight ways forward and next steps. I haven't done this yet ( before posting) because I want to do it as the first comment on the blog and then seen what other people have to contribute.

All comments are welcome and appreciated. This isn't something I have always found easy, particularly in moderation activities but using this blog has given me a lot of help.

 I think sometimes in moderation activites the most vocal members of the group can sway opinion (unintentionally) so perhaps valuable contributions to this blog could lead to a more accurate and considered moderation experience. 

I do hope readers of this are able to add comments in terms of providing an accurate levelled assessment of the writing
( it doesn't need to be with the Criterion Scale), and offer suggestions to take the writer forward. 

Thanks for visiting this site and for ( hopefully!) joining in.

Chris

NP denotes new paragraph- added by the writer

NP in middle added by writer. NP at top of page by teacher ( writer said it was obvious)

Criterion Scale Level 3

Criterion Scale Level 4

Modblog 8

This week's writing is based on the game "Bike Baron" and is the same activity featured in Modblog 6 and based on  the article Raising Standards in Boys' Writing. 

This year I am trying to make an impact on pupil writing through the use of Guest Markers following on from an  idea I read about in the excellent book The Lazy Teacher's Handbook:  How your students learn more when you teach less,  by  Jim Smith. This week's writing also features on the Guest Marker  section of the class blog I work on with David Andrews, which also explains how the Guest Marker project is going to work.

All comments/discussions/votes and suggestions for levels are most welcome. Please join in!

Level outlines: from (Lend me your literacy)

A general overview of Level 2 writing

• Simple and compound sentences with basic connectives that could be repetitive (such as ‘and’, ‘then’ and ‘so’).
• Writing style shows some evidence of purpose and awareness of audience.
• Often uses capital letters and full-stops.
• Writing is organised to show some understanding of the purpose of the task.
• Uses simple noun phrases.

A general overview of Level 3 writing

• Simple and compound sentences with connectives (such as ‘because’, ‘but’ and ‘while’).
• Some variety of sentence openings.
• Writing style is sometimes adapted deliberately and usually relevant to suit the purpose.
• Sentences show an understanding of sentence structure and include accurate use of capital letters and full-stops.
• Speech marks, question marks and exclamation marks sometimes used correctly.
• Some adverbial and noun phrases are used and are sometimes well-chosen.

A general overview of Level 4 writing

• Complex sentences (extra clauses).
• Written in logical paragraphs.
• Awareness of an appropriate opening and ending.
• Commas marking clauses.
• A range of connectives (not just simple ones).
• Apostrophes used.
• Adverbs and noun phrases which are appropriate to the task.

A general overview of Level 5 writing

• Complex sentences, with well-chosen clauses used to have an intentional effect on the reader.
• Written in well-organised paragraphs that are purposely varied in length for effect and are sometimes linked.
• Correct use of ambitious/adventurous vocabulary with figurative language used deliberately to have an impact on the reader.
• Commas used correctly along with a wider range of punctuation (such as brackets, colons, ellipsis and fully punctuated speech).
• A range of connectives used accurately.
• Writing style is almost totally appropriate to the task and individual noun phrases and adverbs are chosen for their impact and according to the purpose of the task.

Modblog 7

Modblog 7 is a beginning of term writing assessment based on a resource available on The Literacy Shed.

Last term the process of shared writing moderation through this blog helped me in lots of ways and I have really valued and enjoyed the input and discussions.

All comments and contributions are welcome.

 Please vote/comment/join in!

Modblog 6

Click this link for Modblog 6 Thanks for contribution from David Andrews http://mrandrewsonline.blogspot.co.uk/ All views/comments/votes welcome.

Modblog Shared Task:

 Thanks to everyone who has visited this blog, offered comments, voted on levels and discussed issues on Twitter. It is doing everything I hoped it would for my ability and confidence in marking/levelling/moderating children's writing.

Over the next few weeks I will try to collect examples of children's work where they have attempted the same task. If you want join in please send in a scan/picture/typed version of a piece of writing to modblog@hotmail.com.

Writing from children from all ages ( at school/ your own children?) can be submitted. The writing is going to be used to help teachers with online moderation and levelling activities and will remain anonymous.

Please email modblog@hotmail.com if you have any questions.

All involvement is greatly valued and appreciated. 

(don't forget to check Modblog 5 and share your comments/vote)

Narrative writing: 

The prompt for this task comes from the excellent Storyshakers.

The storyshakers dice have generated the following suggestion:

Using the ideas for setting, character, problem, solution and ending, write your own story!

.

Story Shakers gives  thousands of different options for storyboards in a range of writing genres including stories, non-chronological reports, instructions and newspapers. I am going to get a password and explore their resources, I really like the ideas I have seen.

Teachers who want a password for full access to the Story Shakers resources can email  hello@storyshakers.com  

Mod blog

 Modblog: Aims

Some teachers can see it straight away, some dither and sometimes some  are wrong.

 

Quickly finding a fair and accurate  level for children's writing is something that can be improved and developed with practice.

This blog is the start of an attempt to develop a simple online writing moderation practice resource for UK primary school teachers. Each week one short example of writing will be presented,alongside details of the prompt and purpose. Readers of the blog will be able to comment on the writing and suggest a best-fit level and give justitfications.

I realise this is an artificial and out of context activity and that a broad range of examples of writing should be used to build a full and accurate picture. However, I am hoping to build my own skills through this blog and would value and appreciate the input of  people who have 5 or 10 minutes to spare to add to the discussion and shared online moderation process.

The main purpose of the blog is to give teachers as safe, simple and constructive opportunity to build their skills in accurately levelling children's writing. If you would like to send any examples of writing to be posted on this site please let me know via the comments facility.

This week's writing is Modblog 5 and can be accessed on the right hand side of this page.