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Gentile, ClaudiaExploring New Methods for Collecting Students'School-based Writing: NAEP's 1990 Psrtfolio Study.National Assessment of Educational Progress,Princeton, NJ.National Center for Education Statistics (ED),Washington, DC.ISBN-0-16-036189-3Apr 92192p.; SI;udent writing samples are largelyhandwritten and reproduced in colored ink.U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent ofDocuments, Mai' Stop: SSCT, Washington, DC20402-9328.Reports - Research/Technical (143)

ma/Pcoe Plus Postage.Grade 4; Grade 8; Intermediate Grades; Junior HighSchools; *Portfolios (Background Materials); TeacherRole; *Writing Achievement; *Writing Evaluation;Writing ResearchAlternative Assessment; Chi?irens Writing; *NationalAssessment of Educational Progress; Student CenteredAssessment

This report describes the procedures used to collect,describe, and evaluate school-based writing in a special pilotportfolio study conducted by the National Assessment of EducationalProgress (NAEP) to explore portfolios as an alternative method ofassessing students' writing achievement. The report has three mainpurposes: (1) to explore procedures for collecting classroom .basedwriting from students around the country; (2) to develop methods fordescribing and classifying the variety of writing submitted; and (3)to create general scoring guides that could be applied across paperswritten in response to a variety of prompts or activities. The reportis divided into four chapters. Following an introduction, the firstchapter describes the writing received from the students andinformation from participating teachers about the activities thatgenerated the writing. Chapter 2 explains the procedures used toevaluate the writing students submitted as well as the results ofthis evaluation. Chapter 3 compares the results of the NAM 1990writing assessment with the analysis of participants school-basedwriting samples and summarizes the lessons learned from the portfoliostudy. Chapter 4 contains a set of &ample papers, furtherillustrating how the evaluative guides can be applied and presentinga sense of the range and depth of writing received from participatingstudents. Appendixes contain information on demographiccharacteristics and on students' performance by process strategies.(SR)

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NAEP's 1990 Portfolio StudyDIE NAM'S

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Prepared by Educational Testing Service for the National Assessment of Educational Progress 1990 Writing Assessmentunder contract with tlw National Center frr Education Statistics, Office of Educational Research and InipmvenwntOA Department of Education

Whot Is The Netkm's Repel Card?

THE NATION'S REPORT CARD. the Natimal Assessment of Educational Pmgress tNAEP), is the onlynationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in varioussubject areas. Since 1369, assessments have been conducted periodically in reading. mathematics. science.writing. historyigeography, and other fields. By making objective kiformation on student performanceavailable to policymakers at the national. state, and local levels. NAEP is an integral part of our nation'sevaluation of the condition and progress of education. Only information related to academic achievement iscollected wider this program. NAEP guarantees the privacy of individual students and their families.

NAEP is a comiressionally mandated project of the National Center for Education Statistics, the U.S. Depart-ment of Education. The Commissioner of Education Statistics is responsible, by law, for carrying out the NAEPproject through competitive awards to qualified organizations. NAEP reports directly to the Commissioner,who is also responsible for providing continuing reviews. induding validation studies and solicitation of publiccomment. on NAEP's conduct and usefulness.

In 1988, Congress created the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGS) to formulate policy guidelines forNAEP. The board is responsible for selecting the subject areas to be assessed, which may include adding tothose specified hy Congress: identifying appropriate achievement goals for each age and grade: developingassessment bbjectives; developing test specifications: designing the assessment methodology; developingguidelines and standards for data analysis and for reporting and disseminating results; developing standardsand procedures for interstate, regional. and national comparisonx improving the form and use of the NationalAssessment; and ensuring that all items selected for use in the National Assessment are fret from racial.cultural, gender, or regional bias.

The National Assessment Governing Board

gichani A. Boyd. ChairmanExecutive DirectorMinh. Holden Jennings FoundationCleveland. Ohio

Ma& D. Musick. Vice-ChairmassPresidentSouthern Regional Education BoardAtlanta, Georgia

PtiyThs rannson AldrichCurriculum CoordinatorSaratoga-Warren B.O.C.E.S.Saratoga SPrings. New York

David P. Batts'High School History TeacherCairo-Durham High SchoolCairo. Nrw York

Pawls C. BattleEducation SpecialistDade County Public SchoolsMiami. Florida

Honorable Evan IMOGovernor of Indiana

Indiana

Maly R. BlantonAttorneyBlanton & BlantonSalisbury, Noith Carolina

Boyd W. Bosh*Attorney and School Board MemberPella. Iowa

Una R. IlayantDean of StudentsFlorence Remenstem Middle SchoolPittsburgh. Pennsylvar

Honetable Plictord N. CastleGOVEMOT Of DelawareDover. Delaware

Hoonahle Nation K. CohenConnecticut

House of RepresentativesHartford. Connecticut

Chas* E. Finn. Jr.Professor of Education and Public PohcyVandeibilt UniversityWashington, D.C.

Michael GladeWyoming State Board of Educ ItonSaratoga. Wyoming

Minn MuneChairman of the BoardBasic American. Inc.San Francisco, California

Christine JohnsonDirector of K-12 EducationLittleton Public SehoolsLittleton, Colorado

John S. LlaileyPrincipalSouth Coltsv Elementary SchoolPort Orchard. Washingtm

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Cali .1. MoserDirector of SchoolsThe Lutheran Church-Missoun SynodSt. Louis. Missouri

John A. Mem*Supenntendent of SchoolsCharlotte-Mecklenburg Se.00lsCharlotte, North Carolina

Honorable Carolyn PollanArkansas House of RepresentativesFort Smith. Arkansas

Honorable Willlam T. RandallCommissioner of EducationState Department of EducationDenver, Colorado

Thomas TopazesSenior Vice PresidentValley Independent BankEl Centro. California

Hoban J. WalbornProfessor of EducationUniversity of IllinoisChicago, Illinois

Diane Ravitch (Ex-Ofilde)Assistant Secretary and

Counselor to the SecretaryV.S. Department of EducationWashington. D.C.

Roy TrnbyExecutive Director. NAGBWashington, D.C.

NATIONAL CENTER F01 EDUCATION STATISTICS

EMoring New Methodsfor Collecthig Students'School-based Writing

NAIP's 1990 Portfolio Study

CLAUDIA GENTILE

APRIL 1992

Prepared by Educational lading Service lor the National Amassment of Educational Fi wets 1990 Writing Assesamtniunder contort with the National Center for Education Stallstks. Office of Educational Research and ImprovementUS. Department of Education

For see by the U.S. Cloveniment Priming OfficeSuperintendent of Doctunents. Mail Stop: SSOP. Washington. DC 20402-933

25811 0-16-036189-3

U.S. Department of EducationLamar AlennderSecretary

Office of Educational Research and ImmurementDiane RavitchMsioant Secretary and Counselor to the Secretary

Natitmal Center for Education StudksEmerson .I. ElliottActing Commissioner

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Education Information BranchOffice of Educational Research and ImprovementU.S. Department of Education555 New Jersey Avenue. NWWashington, D.C. 20208-5641

di call 1-800-424-1616 (in the Washington. D.C. metropolitan area call 202-2191651).

Ubrary of Congress, Catalog Card Number 92-60415

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The work upon which this publication is based was performed for the National Center for Education Statistics,

Office of Educatie- al Research and Improvement. by Edmational Testing Service.

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Educational Testing Service, ETS, and fr) registered trademarks of Educational Testing Service.

C5

Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION 2

Pur Pose 2

Collecting Students' Writing 5Outline of this Report 7

CHAPTER ONE Describing the Writing 8

1)/pes of Writing 9Audience 10

Evidence of the Use of Process Strategies 10

Evidence of the Use of Resources for Writing 11

Length of Papers and Use of Computers 12

1)/pes of Activities 12

Summary 16

CHAPTER TWO Evaluating the Writing 18

Developing Evaluative Guides 18

The Narrative Scoring Guide 20The Informative Scoring Guide 21

The Persuasive Scoring Guide 22Applying the Evaluative Guides 23Examples of the Narrative Scoring Guide 29Examples of the Informative Scoring Guide 45Examples of the Persuasive Scoring Guide 52Summary of Performance Across Domains 58Summary 60

CHAPTER THREE Comparing Methods of Assessment 62Features of the Assessment 62Comparing Students' Performance 64Lessons Learned 66Summary 71

CHAPTER FOUR Samples of Students' Writing 76Part 1: Narrative Writing 76Part 2: Informative Writing 109Part 3: Persuasive Writing 141Part 4: Poems 158Part 5: Letters 185Part 6: Research Reports 171

APPENDIX A Demographic Characteristics 184

APPENDIX B Students' Performance by Process Strategies 18!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 187

introduction

Piwpose

In recent years, teachers nationwide have been using process approaches towriting instruction to help students become effective communicators. Manystudents write major texts over extended periods of time, and in many class-rooms, writing instruction encompasses a range of interrelated activities thatengage students in pre-writing activities, drafting, and revision) As a part ofthis process, student writers often consult with peers, teachers, and parents.'The aim of these methods is to enable students to produce richer, moredeveloped pieces of writing.

However, we face a problem when we try to asse:fs the extent to which theseefforts are successful. Traditional methods of evaluating students' writing (inparticular, the timed essay test) are designed to measure a specific facet ofwriting ability how well students can write on an assigned topic undertimed conditions." They are not designed to capture the range and depth ofthe writing processes in which students engage during process writinginstruction programs.4

It is possible to emulate aspects of the process approach to writing withinthe context of traditional writing assessment methods. For example. the timeallocated for writing can be increased, and can even be held over several daysto allow for peer review and other classroom activities (e.g., New Brunswick,Canada Reading and Language Arts Multi-day Assessment Program).5 How-ever, holding an assessment over several days poses operational difficulties.increasing the costs and complexity of assessments.

' Janet Emig, The Composing Processes of hvelfth Grader. s. (Urbana. IL National Council ofTeachers of English. NCTE Research Report No. 13. ERIC Document No. ED 058205, 1971).

Nancy Atwell, "Making the grade." in Understanding Writing: Ways of Observing. Learning. andTeaching (2nd edition). Thomas Newkirk and Nancy Atwell, editors. (Portsmouth. NH:Heinemann, 1988).Hunter M. Breland. Roberta Camp, Robert J. Jones. Margaret M. Morris. and Donald A. Rock,Assessing Writing Skill. (New York: College Entrance Examination Board. 1987).

' C. K. Lucas. "Toward ecological evaluation. Part 1: ThP Quarterly, 10 (1). 1-3, 12-17. 1988.

New Brunswick Reading and Language Arts Assessment Program. (Ministry of Education, NewBrunswick. Canada. 1991).

2 7

Another way of establishing stronger connections between process writingcurriculums and assessment methods is to adapt an instructional toolwriting portfolios for assessment purposes.' Recently, schools, districts.and states have been exploring ways of using claSSi00113 writing portfolios toassess students' writing achievements. Using the writing students have pro-duced as they engage in process writing programs establishes an immediateconnection between the assessment and the writing process curriculum.'Recent efforts to adapt writing portfolios for assessment purposes can beclassified into three types: the classroom portfolio, the combination portfolio,and the assessment portfolio.

The Classroom Portfolio While Classroom Portfolios differ fromclassroom to classroom, they usually share several key characteristics. Duringthe school year, as part of their English/language arts classwork, studentscollect their written work in folders. At specific points in the term, they reviev..their work and create a portfolio by engaging in a process of reflection, selec-tion, and description. (e.g.. New York City Portfolio Project, ARTS Propel)."

The reflection and selection stages are guided by a set of criteria devel-oped by teachers and/or students, based on the writing curriculum they arefollowing.9 These criteria often focus on the depth of student writing (writingthat demonstrates the use of process strategies and writing that shows growthover time) and on the breadth of student w14ting (writing that illustrates therange of activities in which students have engaged).

Often the students determine how many pieces to include in their port-folios, with a minimum of three being common practice. A central element orthese portfolios is the letters or statements students write explaining theirselections and how their choices meet tlw selection criteria. This process ofeviewing and evaluating one's own writing and then articulating one's deci-

sions is considered central to the portfolio experience because it fostersstudents' development as writers.19 The classroom teachers assist studentsthroughout this process and also evaluate the portfolios. Sometimes other

" S. Murphy and M. A. Smith. "Milking about portfolios." The Quarterly, 12 (2). 1990.

D. Ga licher. -Assessment in context: Toward a national writing project model." The Quarterly. 9.131. 5-7. 1987.

Robert J. Tierney, Mark A. Carter. and Laura E. Desai. Portfolio Assessment in the Reading-Writing Classroom. (Norwood. MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers. Inc., 1991).

Roberta Camp. "Thinking together about portfolios: The Quarterly. 12, (2), 8-14. 27. 1990.Mary Fowles and Claudia Gentile. Evaluation Report of CLINY Lehman's Writing Across theCurriculum Program. (Princeton, NJ; Educational Testing &mice. 1989).

9 Denny P. Wolf. "Opening up assessment." Educational Learkrship, 45, (4). 24-29. December.1987/January, 1988.

E. Winner and E. Rosenblatt. "Tracking the effects of the portfolio process: What changes andwhen?" Portfolio, 1 (5). 21-26. 1989.

3

students, friends, and family read and comment on students' portfolios."Students may collect portfolios for part of the year, the whole year, or over

their whole academic careers, for one class or all classes.

The Combination Portfolio The second type of portfolio assessment

system uses a combination of approaches to collect writing from students

(e.g., Vermont Portfolio Project)." In addition to asking students to assemble

a portfolio from the work they have collected for their classes, students are

asked to select a -best piece" and to include in their letter describing theirportfolio an explanation of what makes this their best effort. Students rimy

also be asked to complete a writing activity common to all students in a

particular class or group. These three components portfolio, best piece, and

common piece are then evaluated individually by one or more teachers and

evaluative information is presented on each component, resulting in a profile

of an individual student's writing achi vements. Summary statements to

students about their entire portfolios are also made by their classroom

teacher, other teachers. and/or other students.

The Assessment Portfolio The third type of portfolio assessment

system involves administering several common writing activities to students

(e.g., Rhode Island Portfolio Project)." Committees of teachers design a series

of multi-day writing activities that reflect their writing curriculum. On the

same days, using the same administration procedures. the teachers have theirstudents engage in these activities. They collect the students' work in folders

and have the students review their work and write letters explaining which

activity yielded the best writing and from which they learned the most. A

committee of teachers then meets to score Lie students' responses to each

activity. The result is a profile of each student's achievements relative to the

common tasks. This type of portfolio differs from traditional essay assessments

in that the activities are designed to match a specific school's or state's cur-

riculum and the students' work is accomplished as part of their regularclassroom activities rather than under standardized assessment conditions.

The 1990 ,VilEP Pilot Portfolio Study In keeping with these new

developments. the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has

begun exploring alternative methods of assessing students' writing achieve-

ments methods that focus on the writing students regularly produce as

part of their classroom activities. NAEP conducted a pilot portfolio study in

" J. Flood and D. Lapp. "Reporting reading progress: A comparison portfo4o for parents." TheReading Teacher, 42.17), 508-514. 1989.

'2 R. P. Mills, "Portfolios capture rich array of student performance." The School Administrator. 8-11. 1989.

" Mary Fowles and Claudia Gentile. Validity Study of the 1988 Rhode Island Third-Grade WritingAssessment. (Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service. 1989).

4

1990 in order to explore the feasibility of conducting large-scale assessmentsusing school-based writing. The main purposes of this pilot study were: (1) toexplore procedures fur collecting classroom-based writing from studentsaround the country; (2) to develop methods for describing and classifying thevariety of writing submitted; and (3) to create general scoring guides thatcould be applied across papers written in response to a variety of prompts oractivities.

To this end, a nationally representative subgroup of the fourth and eighthgraders who participated in NAErs 1990 writing trend assessment was askedto work with their teachers and submit one piece of writing that they consid-ered to be a sample of their best writing efforts. The goal was to create a"Nation's Portfolio" a compilation of the best writing produced by fourthand eighth graders inclassrooms across the country.

NAEP analyzed and summarized these samples of writing along with teach-ers' descriptions of the assignments that produced them. In addition, NAEPcompared students' school-based writings to their responses on the 1990NAEP writing assessment to examine relationships between these two modesof assessment. This report describes the procedures used to collect, describe,and evaluate the school-based writing in this special pilot study.

The 1990 writing assessment was a trend assessment prompts that hadbeen developed for the 1984 assessment, and readministered in 1988, werealso given in 1990 in order to measure changes in students' writing achieve-ments across the six-year period. In 1992, NAEP will continue the writingtrend assessment, as well as conduct a new writing assessment comprised ofiniormative, narrative, and persuasive writing prompts developed specificallyfor the 1992 assessment. While the trend writing assessment has nut changedsince 1984, the new 1992 writing assessment reflects recent developments inthe field of writing instruction and assessment. For example, the time allo-cated for writing has been expanded to 25- and 50-minute periods. Also, aplanning page has been included after each prompt, to encourage students toreflect and plan their responses to the topics. The 1992 assessment will alsoinclude a revised and expanded version of the 1990 pilot portfolio study andparticipants will be selected from among those students taking the newregular writing assessment.

Collecting Student? Writing

The Participants Approximately 4,000 students who participated in the1990 NAEP writing assessment 2.000 students at grade 4 and another 2,000students at grade 8 were invited to participate in the special portfolio study.Based on traditional NAEP sampling procedures, this group would have been anationally representative sample of the nation's fourth and eighth graders.

0 5

However, only 55 percent (1,110 students) of the fourth graders and 54 per-

cent (1,101 students) of the eighth graders and/or their tnchers accepted thisinvitation. While these response rates provided enough papers to permit ananalysis of the writing submitted on a pilot basis, as statistical samples they

were too small to make generalizations about all of the nation's fourth andeighth graders' writing performances.

While the participants did not represent a national sample of students, they

were from all of the major geographic regions and from various types ofcommunities, including nrral, suburban, and ler city. They represented avariety of racial/ethnic backgrounds as well as a balance between males and

females (see Appendix A for details on tile demographic characteristics of the

participants).

Compared with the entire group of students who participated in the 1990

NAEP writing assessment, the participants of this study differed in some

respects. Slightly higher percentages of the portfolio pilot study participants:

were above the modal ages of the sample (ages 9 and 13).attended schools in advantaged urban communities, reportedhaving higher grades,reported having a greater number of reading materials at home,

andreceived slightly higher scores on the NAEP writing assessmenttasks.

When considering the data from this pilot study, it is important to keep in

mind that the students who participated appear to be somewhat older. higherachieving, and more advantaged than the larger population of students

assessed by NAEP in 1990.

The Procedures In the spring of 1990, at the time of the NAEP writingassessment, the English/language arts teachers of participating students wereasked to help several of their students choose a sample of their own best

writing from the work the students had completed so far in the 1989-90school year. No more than 10 students from any given class were selected toparticipate. Teachers were asked to encourage their students to choose pieces

that had involved the ise of writing process strategies (such as revising suc-

cessive drafts, using reference sources, consulting with others about writing).

NAEP also asked teachers to attach a description of the activities that gener-ated the students' writing and to comment on any process strategies the

students used to produce their writing.

6

Teachers then submitted their students' writing to NAEP, along with a copyor description of the activities that generated the writing and any availabledrafts or prewriting samples. These pieces were used to create two nationalportfolios or collections of students' classroom writing one containing thewritings of fourth graders and the other containing the writings of eighthgraders.

Unfortunately, due to the complex procedures NAEP employs to selectstudents to participate in its assessments, we were unable to inform teachersat an early date which of their students would be participating in this study,with some teachers receiving only several days' notice. Thus, for the pilot.teachers and students did not have much time to review the students' writingand select best pieces. Based on this experience, a procedure for givingteachers more advance notice of the upcoming portfolio assessment wasdeveloped for the 1992 NAEP Portfolio Study. It is hoped that, by giving theparticipating teachers in 1992 several months' notice. the 1992 results willbe representative.

Outline of this Report

This report is divided into four sections. Chapter One describes the writingreceived from the students and information from participating teachers aboutthe activities that generated the writing. Chapter 'Asto explains the proceduresused to evaluate the writing students submitted as well as the results of thisevaluation. Chapter Three compares the results of the NAEP 1990 writingassessment with the analysis of participants' school-based writing samples andsummarizes the lessons learned from this portfolio study. The last chaptercontains a set of sample papers, further illustrating how the evaluative guidescan be applied and presenting a sense of the range and depth of writing wereceived from participating students.

12

Describing the Writing

The first step in determining the feasibility of analyzing the students' class-room-based writing was to see whether NAEP could describe and classify the

wide diversity of writing submitted by the participants. Considering that nomore than eight students from any single class were selected to participate inthis study, most of the papers submitted represented responses to uniqueclassroom activities. The corpus of writing submitted might be so diverse that

every paper would need to be evaluated v.:th a unique set of criteria, whichwould make comparing students' classroom-based writing impossible. Thechallenge, then, was to develop descriptive criteria that would yield usefulinformation about the types of writing students submitted. Once this wasaccomplished, the next step, moving beyond describing papers to evaluatingperformance, could be addressed.

Describing the classroom-based writing collected from students across thenation yields a profile of the types of writing activities actually occurring in

our nation's classrooms. Classroom-based writing samples provide us withfirst-hand information about the writing activities in which students areengaging, rather than the second-hand information gained from teacher andstudent surveys. This information provides a rich context in which to placethe results of NAEP's timed writing assessment. For example, althoughpersuasive wriLing is featured prominently in the frameworks which underliethe NAEP writing assessments, the small number of persuasive papers submit-ted by students in this pilot study indicates that persuasive writing was notfrequently part of their classroom activities.

To accomplish the task of describing the writing submitted. a panel of

writing experts was assembled. Each member had experience developingwriting portfolio programs at the school. district, or state level. After reading alarge sample of the student' papeis, the panel developed a series of descriptivecategories to capture the key features of the students' papers. These categoriesfocused on: (1) the types of writing submitted; (2) the audience addressed; and(3) the evidence of resources used. Also noted were: (4) evidence of processand revision strategies used; (5) evidence of computer use: and (6) length oftexi. A group of trained essay readers then read all of the papers submitted andapplied these descriptive categories to the papers. The results of this analysis

are presented below.

8 13

Types of Writim

As shown in Table 1.1, at both grades 4 and 8 the majority of writing submit-ted was classified as informative. A large percentage of the papers submittedwere narratives and very few were persuasive pieces, poems, letters, or re-search reports. One percent of the eighth-grade papers were persuasive letters.These were classified as persuasives in order to increase the sample ofpersuasive pieces available for analysis.

MI:Jell: Types of Writing'

Type of Writing Grade 4 Grade 8

96

Wormative 51 59

Narrative 36 30

Persuasive 1 5

Poems 2 1

Letters 3 1

Research Reports 0 1

SkM Sheets 7 5

'Due to rounding. percentago may not equal 100.

It is interesting to note that several teachers in both grades commentedthat they did not begin teaching writing until later in the school year. As aresult, they did not have samples of extended pieces of student writing tosubmit. Instead, these teachers sent in copies of work sheets, short answerquizzes, or spelling lists, which were classified as skill sheets.

At an early stage in classifying students' papers, a distinction was madebetween personal experience narratives and fictional narratives, and betweeninformative reports and analytic reports.'4 We believed that these differentia-tions would accommodate and acknowledge the variety within both thenarrative and report classifications. 9owever, during the process of developingthe scoring guides. the distinctions between the two types of narratives andthe two types of reports were found to be negligible the same scoring guide

" These categories were based on those used by the California Assessment Program, 1989.

4 9

could be used for both types of narratives and the same scoring guide for both

types of reports. NAEP classified the papers in these domains, therefore, as

either narrative or informative.

Went'Often writers' perceptions of their audience and their abilities to clearlyaddress audiences are a central factor in effective writing.'s In addition,writing experts have emphasized that having students write for a varietyof

audiences enhances their writing abilities." Although NAEP did not querystudents specifically about the intended audiences of their papers, theirsubmissions were analyzed for evidence of intended audience.

Almost all of the fourth- and eighth-grade papers (93 percent and 96 per-cent, respectively) ,Ippeared to be written to an unspecified audience. Nothingin these papers referred to a particular audience. Less than 1 percent of the

papers at each grade level were written specifically to the teacher. Also,approximately 1 percent at each grade were written to an authority figure orparent. Less than 3 percent at either grade level were written to a friend orto oneself.

Evidence of the Use of Process Strategies

When analyzing the students' papers, the readers also looked for evidence ofthe use of writing process strategies, such as revisions of drafts, prewritingactivities, and peer or teacher collaboration. To locate this evidence, thereaders considered the pieces submitted by the students, as well as informa-tion provided by the teachers about the writing activitie*.

As Table 1.2 indicates, less than 50 percent of the papers submitted showedevidence of the use of writing process strategies. Of those papers containingevidence of revision, only 1 percent at each grade level involved revisionsbeyond changes to the surface features of the papers (i.e., spelling, punctu-ation, capitalization). lipventy-one percent at grade 4 and 31 percent at grade 8showed evidence of minor revisions. Sixteen percent at grade 4 and 11 percentat grade 8 showed evidence of having used other process strategies, such asprewriting (brainstorming, reading, discussing topics with family or friends)

and teacher or peer conferencing.

1$ William F. Brewer. "Literary Them, Rhetoric, and Stylistics: Implications for Psychology," inTheoretical Issues in Nettling Comprehension, Rand J. Spiro, Bertram C. Bruce. and William F.Brewer. editors (Hillsdale, NJ: lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1980).

m George Hillocks, Jr., Research on Written Composition: New Directions for Teaching (Urbana, ILERIC Clearinghouse on Reading and Communication Skills, 1986).

1 0

ends 4 Gado II

96 96

Mime of =Or widow 1

Ellie= of thee wishes 21 31

flame of other process strategies* 16 11

Mina of writing puns, told 38 43

*Other process stratigges include peer or teacher confetencing and rewriting activities.

It should be noted that several teachers indicated they sent us "clean"copies of their students' writing. Although we had asked for drafts and evi-dence of students' use of process strategies, the teachers stated that theyassumed we wanted final, "error-free" versions of students' work with noteacher comments on them. To help avoid this confusion in 1992, the direc-tions to teachers and students emphasize that any prewriting or drafts avail-able for each piece should be included in the portfolios submitted in 1992.

Evidence of the Use of Resources for Writing

Mother central aspect of recent developments in writing instruction has beenan emphasis on integrating writing and reading and on the role writing canplay in promoting learning across the disciplines." While the focus of thisstudy was on the writing students did for their English or language artsclasses, the readers also looked for evidence that students had used outsideresources when writing their papers as a further clue to the kinds of writing inwhich students engaged.

Table 1.3 shows that the resources used for the majority of papers were thestudents' own ideas and observations. This wa, more true for the eighthgraders than for the fourth graders. Note that the categories overlap apaper may have contained a reference to something read as well as to some-thing studied in school. Therefore, if totalled, the percentages may exceed 100percent.

" 1. Moffett and B. J. Wagner, Student-centered Langialge Arts find Reading, K-13 .4 Handbook forMadras, 3rd edition, (Boston, Mk Houghton Mifflin,A. Young and T. Fulwiler (Editors). Writim &ran the Discipliner Research into Ructice, (UpperMontclair, NJ: BoyntonCook, 1986).

1 6

,'1 1

Table fvicience of Resources foi Writing

%dors owe Ideas, observation

Samethhe Nal

Semethig stalled le wheel

Grade 4 Glade II

96 96

76 87

12 14

13 6

Length of Papers mai Use of Computers

One benefit to using students' classroom-based writing is that, under regularclubroom situations, students have time to write longer texts than they do

under timed assessment situations. The length of the classroom-based paperssubmitted by the fourth graders in this study ranged from eight words to

1,250 words, with a median length of 84 words. The papers submitted byeighth graders ranged from five words to 4,400 with a median length of 140

words.

Although many schools across the country have computersavailable to

students, it is in4. 7-ging to note that a very small percentage of papers sub-

mitted for the study tre presented on computer printouts: 2 percent at thefourth grade and 6 percent at the eighth grade.

Types of Act1vWies

Recent theories in literacy education emphasize the benefit of creating rich,

realistic learning contexts in which students are active participants in the

development of their reading and writing abilities.18 Process approaches to

writing instruction also emphasize the active, meaning-creating aspects of

writing.'9 Under these approaches teachers alternate between activities thatrequire students to select their own topics, purposes, and audiences for writing

and activities in which the teacher (or other students) specify a topic. The goal

is to give students a wide range of experience with writing. In school andbeyond school, students will be asked to write for their own as well as for other

people's purposes. Therefore, a central goal of writing programs is to enable

students to be effective writers under both self-directed and authority-directed

conditions.

" Angela Jaggar and M. Mak Smith-Burke. Observing the Language Learner, (Newark DE:International Reading Association and Urbana. IL: National Council of Teachers of English.

1985).

"' Judith A. Langer and Arthur N. Applehee, How Writing Shapes Thinking: A &tidy of Maltingand Learning, (Urbana, IL National Council of Teachers of English, 1987).

1217

Fifty percent of the teachers who participated in this study included a briefdescription of the activities that generated their students' writing. Less than1 percent of the activity descriptions submitted by teachers at either gradeindicated that students had been asked to select their own topics.

The remaining activity descriptions were analyzed and then classifiedaccording to how specific the activities were and what sources of knowledgestudents were required to draw upon to complete the activities. This analysisyielded four main types of activities: general prompts, focused prompts,content reports, and integrated activities. "Prompts" are any topic, situation.stimulus, or assignment given to students to elicit a sample of writing. Inkeeping with recent theories about the importance of context in literacylearning, writing instruction and assessment experts maintain that an effec-tive writing prompt (or instructional activity) should not only specify a topicfor the writer, but a clear audience and purpose as well?

Table 1.4 summarizes the percentage of activities in each category. None ofthe persuasive paper s had activity descriptions from the teachers, so only thetwo major domains, narrative and informative, are presented below.

I a

Informative

Grads 4 Grade 8

Narrative

Giade 4 Grade 8

Total

Goode 4 Grade 8

96 96 96 % 96 96

&wand

Muffs 47 48 89 82 68 60

Fooled

Muslin 17 22 6 12 12 18

Content

Reports

hytegrates1

28 22 1 5 15 16

Activities 8 8 4 2 6 6

'Due to rounditg. percentages may not equal 100.

Gene7a1 I Wiling Prompts Sixty-eight percent of the fourth-grade and60 pe:cent of the eighth-grade activities could be classified as General WritingPrompts. In these types ot activities the teachers gave the students a general

" Edward M. White. Teaching r.nd Assessing Writing, (San Francisco, CA Josey-Bass Publishers,1986).

13

topic about which to write, but did not focus their attention on any single

aspect of the topic. Nor do these prompts make explicit to students an audi-

ence or purpose for their writing. The overwhelming majority of narrativepapers fit into this category, as did almost half of the informative papers.Below are two examples of this type of activity.

1.0*.

Write about Thanksgiving. Choose one of the following topics:what Thanksgiving means to me or what lam thankful for.

(eighth grade)

fn.Look at the copy of the photograph I gave you (a bicycle lying

on its side on a country road). Write a story that refers in some

way to this bicycle.(eighth grade)

GPO

Focused Itriting Prompts Overall. 12 percent of the fourth-grade and

18 percent of the eighth-grade activities described by the teachers could beclassified as Focused Writing Prompts. With these activities, teachers specifiedfor students not only the topic and the task but an overall purpose. Sometimes

activities in this category also specified an audience and criteria for effectivewriting. Only 6 percent of the fourth-grade and 12 percent of the eighth-gradenarrative papers were written in response to focused prompts; 17 percent of

the fourth-grade and 22 percent of the eighth-grade activities that generatedinformative pieces specified audience and purpose. Below are two examples of

this type of activity.

00,Writing Situation: Your day is going badly. You were late to le

first period, you forgot your math homework, you left your lunch

on the bus, your pen ran out of ink, and your locker combinationdidn't work! To top it all off, you suddenly realize that sinceyesterday you have shrunk two inches.

Directions for Writing: Write a story about what happens to

you next. Let your reader know how you feel, what you think and

see, how people treat you, and what happens after you discoveryou are actually shrinking. Write a readable story that will enter-

thin and surprise your readers.(eighth grade)

1.0*

14 19

04),

students were asked to write an informative paragraph givinga advice to a ytkinger sister or brother about how to get along in

school or how to get along with the teacher.(eighth grade)

Content Reports Although we had asked for papers students hadwritten for their English or language arts classes, some students submittedpapers on science or social studies topics, indicating the use of writing acros:the curriculum.

Overall, 15 percent of the fourth-grade and 16 percent of the eighth-gradeactivities fit into the third category: Content Reports. These activities requiredthat students write papers reporting on information they learned from class-work and/or readings. Papers about historical figures or concepts in scienceare examples of this type of activity. Also in this group are book reviews andreactions to fictional stories.

Only 1 percent of the fourth-grade and 5 percent of the eighth-grade narra-tive activities fit into this category.'11venty-eight percent of the fourth-gradeand 22 percent of the eighth-grade informatives were Content Reports, Beloware two examples.

as").

After all r.f the students read a story that dealt with emotionalchange, t" le students were told to write their own story involvingan emotional change. They were to use the one they had read inclass as a model.(eighth grade)

44).

Based on our lesson about Paul Revere, write a dialogbetween Paul Revere and a newspaper interviewer. The inter-viewer should ask Paul Revere for details about his role inthe American Revolution.(eighth grade)

104>

Integrated Activities Very few of the activities, 6 percent at both grades4 and 8, appeared to be part of multi-day, multi-stage, integrated activities,where teachers engaged students in a series of classroom activities around acentral theme or text. Below is an example of this type of activity.

1520

ao.1. Story starters were distributed to students (such as: "Tom

'flukey was a big turkey. Now I don't mean an ordinary bigturkey. No sir! ! mean an extraordinary, gigantic turkey. Infact, Tom Thrkey was so big that. . .").

2. The class brainstormed together. They shared ideas about thesr different story starters, jotting down notes for their own

Pa Pers.

3. Students selected one of the story starters and wrote first

drafts of a story.

4. The next day, they divided into groups of three to share theirfirst drafts. Croup members offered ideas to revise/improveeach others' stories. They also helped with sentence structureand other grammatical problems.

5. The third day, proofreading guidelines were discussed andstudents worked in pairs to proofread each others' stories.

6. Students prepared a final draft of their stories and shared them

as part of the Thanksgiving celebration.(fourth grade) ae

Summary

Although participants in this study came from different classrooms in differ-

ent schools across the country, and they wrote on a wide ,ariety of topics. the

papers they submitted had some commonalities. Most of the papers we re-

ceived were either informative or narrative pieces, written for an unspecified

audience, in response to general writing prompts or content report activitiesfrom their teachers. Less than half of the papers showed evidence that their

writers had employed process strategies in producing them, and most werebased on the students' own ideas and observations. In addition, the papers at

both grade levels varied widely in length, while few were written on computer.

One of the major lessons we learned from our initial examination of thestudents' classroom-based writing was the need tocollect more systematicinformation about the types of activities in which studentt had engaged. As

part of the 1992 NAEP Portfolio Study design, a brief teacher questionnaire,asking for more specific information about the activities that generate thewriting students select for their portfolios, is included. Also, students are

asked to write a letter explaining why they included the pieces they selected.Likewise, the need to include evidence or information about the use of processstrategies is emphasized in the directions to both students and teachers.

1621

Evaluatiq the Writing

Dove le*g Evaluative Guides

In order to broaden the information gained about students' classroom-basedwriting performance as well as the context for writing, NAEP wanted toexplore the feasibility of evaluating writing obtained from a variety of promptsor activities. For its regular writing assessments, NAEP typically developsspecific scoring guides for each of its writing prompts. The limitations of thisapproach for evaluating diverse samples of school-based writing are obvious.With more than 250 classrooms involved in this study, developing a scoringguide for each unique assignment would be impossible. Therefore, NAEPexplored the idea of developing scoring guides specific to each of the majordomains identified through our descriptive analysis: narrative, informative,and persuasive. To accomplish the task of developing domain-specific scoringguides. NAEP assembled a team of elementary teachers, secondary teachers,and teacher educators.

Using samples of the writing, NAEP staff worked with the team of teachersto develop scoring guides for the two most commonly submitted domains:informative and narrative. Because NAEP also assesses students' persuasivewriting in the regular assessment, we developed a scoring guide for the per-suasive papers, even though very few persuasive papers were submitted. Theprocess the team of teachers used to develop the guides involved three majorstages: reading and sorting; classifying and consensus; and describing andconfirming.

Reading and Sorting Beginning with the informative pieces, the teamfirst read approximately 60 randomly selected papers from each grade level.which comprised about 10 percent of all the informative papers. Based on ageneral, holistic impression. team members sorted the papers into four to sixgroups ranging from highest to lowest.

This stage involved confirming that all of the papers first classified asinformative were genuinely informative. The team defined informative asthose papers that had, implicitly or explicitly, the purpose of conveying infor-mation or ideas. Thank you letters and opinion statements are examples ofsome of the papers that were reclassified because their purposes were notprimarily informative. Research papers that used more than five reference

18 22

sources, although informative in purpose, were so much longer than most ofthe other informative papers that they were placed in a separate category.

Also, papers in which the teacher provided students with the first sentenceto each paragraph seemed more like elaborated fill-in-the-blank worksheetsthan original papers. These were reclassified as skill sheets.

Classifying and Consensus Next, the readers compared the way theyeach had sorted the papers. discussing which papers represented high, me-dium, and low levels of performance. In the process, they discussed a range ofcriteria that could be used to evaluate writing in general and informativewriting in particular. Their goal was to identify levels of development ininformative writing.

To this end, the team decided to focus on the cognitive elements of thepapers. When rereading the papers. they asked themselves, "How muchinformation is the student conveying in the paper?" "What kinds of relation-ships do the writers establish between the ideas and information?" "Howdeveloped are the ideas and information?"

As the discussion progressed, the team members articulated the criteriathey each used to place papers into categories. This discussion continued untila common set of criteria could be agreed upon and specified.

Describing and Confirming Using the common set of criteria, theteam then described a range of performance for informative writing. Papersthat exemplified each level of performance were selected. The team thenapplied the criteria to a new set of papers from each grade level (another 10percent of the informative papers), refining their descriptions.

At first, the fourth- and eighth-grade papers were read separately, the planbeing to develop different guides for each grade level. However, after theinformative guide had been developed for the fourth-grade papers, and thegroup moved on to consider the eighth-grade informative pieces. they foundthat the same criteria could be applied to both grades.

The procedures outlined above also were used to develop scoring guides forthe narrative and persuasive pieces. Narrative papers were defined as piecesthat described a sequence of events, real or imagined. Persuasive papers wer;..-those letters, paragraphs, or essays that stated a position or opinion primarilyfor the purpose of persuading or convincing. The idea of developing onegene, scoring guide for all papers was discussed. However, the scoring guidedevelopment team concluded that the purposes and methods of developmentfor the three domains were so different that they required separate sets ofcriteria for evaluation.

1923

Figures 2.1, 2.2, and 2.3 present the three scoring guides developed. Eachguide classifies papers into six main levels. Later in the chapter, samples ofstudents' papers are presented for each of the levels within these guides.

The iVarrative Scoring Guide In reading and evaluating the narrativepapers. the scoring guide development team focused on several key featuresof narrative writing. First, they loosely defined a story as a saies of relatedevents or happenings. Hence, the first level of the narrative scoring guide isnot termed a "story," but an Event Description becaus& only one event is

described.

Figure 2.1: Narrative Storing Guide

I Event Description. Paper is a list of sentences minimally related or a listof sentences that all describe a single event.

9 Undeveloped Story. Paper is a listing of related events. More than oneevent is described, but with few details about setting, characters, or theevents. (Usually ther-. is no more than one sentence telling about eachevent.)

3 Bask Story. Paper describes a series of events, giving details (in at leasttwo or three sentences) about some aspect of the story (the events, thecharacters' goals, or problems to be r,,Ived). But the story lacks cohe-sion because of problems with syntax. sequencing, events missing, or anundeveloped ending.

4 Exteedwl Story. Paper describes a sequence of episodes, includingdetails about most story elements (i.e., setting, episodes, characters'goals, problems to be solved). But the stories are confusing or incom-plete (i.e.. at the end the characters' goals are ignored or problemsinadequately resolved: the beginning does not match the rest of thestory: the internal logic or plausibility of characters' actions is notmaintained).

5 Developed Story. Paper describes a sequence of episodes in whichalmost all story elements are clearly developed (i.e., setting. episodes,characters' goals, or problems to be solved) with a simple resolution ofthese goals or problems at the end. May have one or two problems orinclude too much detail.

6 Elaborated Story. Paper describes a sequence of episodes in whichalmost all story elements are well developed (i.e., setting, episodes,characters' goals. or problems to be solved). The resolution of the goalsor problems at the end are elaborated. The events are presented andelaborated in a cohesive way.

202 4

The second feature the team saw as differentiating among the narrativepapers was amount of development. The main difference between the secondand third levels of the narrative guide is that, in a Basic Story, one aspect ofthe story is somewhat developed, whereas no aspects of an Undeveloped Storyare presented in any detail. The difference between the third and fourth levelsis that many of the events of an Extended Story are somewhat developed atthe fourth level. At the fifth level (Developed Story) almost all of the events aredescribed in detail.

The third feature of narrative writing the team used to evaluate the paperswas quality of development. Papers classified at the upper two levels, Devel-oped Story and Elaborated Story, not only contained detailed episodes, butalso included some source of tension or conflict (characters' goals, problemsto be solved, mysteries to be unravelled). These two levels differ in the author'ssuccess in establishing and resolving the tension or conflict. While in Devel-oped Stories tension is clearly (and often creatively) established, it is notcompletely resolved: in Elaborated Stories the tension is both clearly estab-lished and completely resolved.

The Informative Scoring Guide In reading and evaluating theinformative papers. the scoring guide development team focused on severalkey traits of informative writing. First, they loosely defined informative writ-ing as the presentation of information and ideas for the purpose of informingan audience. Further, in the proces.s of presenting information, the writerestablishes relationships between pieces of information and/or ideas. Thepapers were then classified according to how well the writers had succeededin establishing relationships and according to how well they presented theinformation to a particular audience for a specific purpose.

The differences between levels one through four are the degree to whichthe writers established relationships between the pieces of information intheir papers. The difference between levels five and six is the degree to whichthe writers conveyed a sense of audience and purpose. This was often accom-plished through the use of an overt type of organizational structure.

;

2521

Figure 2.2: informative Scoring Guide

1 Using. Paper lists pieces of information or ideas all on the same topic1

but does not relate them. A range of information/ideas is presented.

2 Attempted Massie& Paper includes several pieces of information andsome range of information. In part of the paper, an attempt is made torelate some of the information (in a sentence or two), but relationships

are not clearly established because ideas are incomplete or undeveloped(the amount of explanation and details is limited).

3 Wove loped Discvssion. Paper includes a broad range of informationand attempts to relate some of the pieces of information. The relation-

ships are somewhat established, but not completely. The ideas areconfused, contradictory, out of sequence, illogical, or undeveloped.

4 Massie& Paper includes a broad range of information and. in atleast one section, clearly relates the information using rhetoricaldevices (such as temporal order, classification, comparison/contrast.

cause and effect, problem/solution, goals/resolutions, predictions.speculations, suppositions, drawing conclusions, point of view, ranking.

exemplification).

5 Perfidy Developed Dims leo. Paper includes a broad range of informa-tion and establishes more than one kind of relationship using rhetoricaldevices, such as those listed above. Information and relationships arewell developed, with explanations and supporting details. Paragraphs

are well formed but the paper lacks an overriding sense of purpose and

cohesion.

6 Developed Dims los. Paper includes a broad range of information andestablishes more than one kind of relationship using rhetorical devices.

such as those listed above. Information and relationships are explained

and supported. The paper has a coherent sense of purpose and audience.

and is free from grammatical problems. An overt organizational struc-

ture is used (such as the traditional essay format).

The Persuasire Scoring Guide In reading and evaluating the persua-sive papers, the scoring guide development team focused on several key

features of persuasive discourse: stating an opinion or position, supportingone's opinion with reasons and/or explanation, and attempting to diffuse or

refute the opposing position. While developing an argument by clearly statingand supporting an opinion may be considered an effective way of persuading

an audience, the team felt that papers which include the recognition and

22 26

refutation of an opposing viewpoint to be more complex forms of persuasion.They placed the 58 persuasive papers submitted by students along a con-tinuum of persuasive complexity, ranging from opinion to argumentation torefutation.

Figure 2.3: Persuasive Staring- Guide

1 Cipbdon. Paper is a statement of opinion but no reasons are given tosupport the opinion, or the reasons given are inconsistent or unrelatedto the opinion.

2 Lvtended Opinion. Paper states opinion and gives reasons to support theopinion, but the reasons are not explained or the explanations given areincoherent.

3 Partially Developed Argument. Paper states opinion and gives reasons tosupport the opinion, plus attempts to develop the opinion with furtherexplanation. However, the explanations are given but not developed orelaborated. May contain a brief reference to the opposite point of view.

4 Devel,ed Argument. Paper states opinion, gives reasons to support theopinion, plus explanations, with at least one explanation developedthrough the use of rhetorical devices (such as sequence of events, causeand effect, comparison/contrast, classification, problem/solution, pointof view, drawing conclusions). May contain a brief summary of theopposite point of vif w.

5 Partially Developed Refotation. Paper states opinion, gives reasons tosupport opinion, explanations, plus attempts to discuss and/or refutethe opposite point of view. Contains an adequate summary of theopposite point of view.

6 Developed Refutation. Paper states opinion, gives reasons to supportopinion, explanations, plus a discussion and/or refutatic rl of opposingpoint of view. Refutation is clear and explicit summarizes oppositepoint of view and discusses why it is limited or incorrect.

Applying the Evaluative Guides

Scoring the !lifting After the scoring guides were developed, anothergroup oi teachers (16 elementary, secondary, and college teachers) was trainedto apply the scoring guidelines to the papers. The training consisted of twostages: explanation and application. On the first day, the informative scoringguide was presented and explained to the readers, along with samples ofpapers at each level.

27 23

After questions and discussion, the whole group applied the guide to the

same set of 10 informative papers. In small groups, the readers compared the

scores they assigned and then the whole group discussed each paper and

reached consensus on how it should be scored. This process was repeated with

another set of 10 papers, until group members felt confident that they could

apply the scoring guideline consistently and reliably.

The group then scored all of the informative papers. The training proce-dures were repeated the next day for the narrative papers. Because the number

of persuasive papers was small, they were scored by members of the team who

had developed the scoring guides, rather than by the group of 16 readers.

Interrater Agreement Thirty percent of the papers in each domain

received a blind second scoring the second reader could not see the score

given to the paper by the first reader. Table 2.1 presents the rate of reliability

and agreement between the two readers.

The reliability coefficient is a correlation between the scores assigned to

papers by the first and second readers, taking into account not only when two

scorers disagreed but also the size of their disagreement. Coefficients above a

.80 are considered strong and above .65 are considered good.

With a six-point scale, agreement within one score point, which is called

adjacent agreement, often is also calculated. This is done because increasing

the size of a scale requires that readers make more refined distinctions be-

tween each level. Any percentage adjacent agreement above 90 is considered

strong. Both measures of reliability are presented in Table 2.1.

Table 2,1: Interrater Re liabilities

apd Percent Adjacent Agreement

liabilityCoefficient

Pewit Ad loomApeeseat

Narratives Forth .76 100

With .82 96

lproatives forth .89 100

EVA .88 99

Perna* as* NobEVA .76 96

*There was an insufficient number of persuaswe papers at the fourth grade to compute valid statistics. Interpret

the eighth-grade persuasive statistics with caution due to the small sample size. Note: The scoring was based

on a six-point scale.

24 28

The following section presents the percentage of papers, by grade level, ateach performance level of the narrative, informative, and persuasive scoringguides. Due to rounding, percentages may not equal 100.

Narrative Papers Figure 2.4 presents the percentage of narrative papersat grades 4 and 8 at each performance level of the scoring guide. At the fourthgrade, 11 percent of the students' papers were classified as Event Descriptions,57 percent as Undeveloped Stories, 26 percent as Basic Stories, 5 percent asExtended Stories, and 1 percent as Developed Stories.

Paniesps

11%I 3%

57%

I

35%

26%

34%

5%

N = 339 (Fourth Graders) Mill

N = 315 (Eighth Graders) Mil

19%

8%

III. 1% 0% 0%

Event Undeveloped Bask Extended Developed Elaborated

Description Story Story Story Story Story1 2 3 4 5 6

*Due to rounding, percentages may not equal 100.

As might be expected, more of the eighth-grade papers received higherratings than did the fourth-grade papers. Three percent of the eighth-gradepapers were rated as Event Descriptions, 35 percent as Undeveloped Stories,34 percent as Basic Stories, 19 percent as Extended Stories, and 8 percent asDeveloped Stories. None of the fourth- or eighth-grade papers were classifiedas Elaborated Stories.

25

29

informative Papers Figure 2.5 presents the percentage of informativepapers at grades 4 and 8 ateach performance level of the scoring guide. At thefourth grade, 31 percent of the papers were classified as Listings, 41 percent asAttempted Disausions, 17 percent as (hdeve4edDiscussions, 9 percent asDiscussions, and 2 percent as Partially DevelopedDiscussions.

41%

30%

17%

27%

N = 559 Veer* Graders) 1111/1

N = 628 (WA Graders)

22%

9% 8%

2%0% 0%

kkaiphol iledeveleped Distasslea Paddy Dayoloped

Mamba Mamba 4 Developed Discussion

2 3 Discesske 6

5

*Due to munding, percentages may not equal100.

As with the narratives papers, more of the eighth-grade informative papersreceived higher ratings than did the fourth-grade papers. Thirteen percent ofthe papers were classified as Listings, 30 percent as Attempted Discuzions, 27percent as Undeveloped Discussions, 22 percent as Discussions, and 8 percent

as Partially Developed Discussions. None of the fourth- or eighth-grade papers

were classified as Developed Discussions.

2630

Persuasive Papers Figure 2.6 presents the percentage of persuasivepapers at grades 4 and 8 at each level of the scoring guide. Please note thatonly eight of the papers submitted by fourth graders and 50 papers submittedby eighth graders were persuasive, so the percentages below should be inter-preted with caution.

Figure 2.6: Persuasive Papers'

Porastaiss

0%

N 3 (Fourth Graders)

N 50 (Rigid Graders)

1 0% 0% 0% 0%

Ophion Extended Maly Developed Partially Devebped

1 Opinion Developed Awned Developed Refetation

2 Argument 4 Refutotion 6

3 5

°Due to rounding, percentages may not equal 100.

At the fourth grade, 25 percent of the papers were classified as Opinions, 50percent as Extended Opinions, and 25 percent as Partially Developed Argu-ments. At the eighth grade, 6 percent of the papers were classified as Opinions,40 percent as Extended Opinions, 32 percent as Partially Developed Argu-ments, and 22 percent as Developed Argzonents. None of the persuasivepapers at either grade was classified as Partielly Developed Refutationsor Developed Refutations.

3127

Writing Process Strategies Due to the interest educators have in theeffect the use of writing process strategies has on students' writing, a furtheranalysis was conducted. The scores students' school-based papers received

were compared to their use of writing process strategies and use of resourcesfor writing. Appendix B presents a detailed summary of these comparisons.

There were slight, statistically nonsignificant differences between the scores

a paper received and the !ikelihood that the writer had employed processstrategies at both fourth and eighth grades. Likewise, an analysis of students'

us- of resources for writing revealed nonsignificant differences between the

scores their school-based papers received and their use of either their ownideas, something read, or something studied in school when writing their

papers.

As was mentioned in Chapter One, although we had requested papers thatshowed the use of process strategies, less than half of the papers submittedcontained evidence of the use of these strategies. Likewise, only half of the

papers were accompanied by a description from the teacher of the activitiesthat had generated the papers. Therefore. the comparisons made in this study

between the ratings students' school-based writing received and their reported

use of process strategies and resources for writing are presented for informa-

tion only.

The 1992 NAEP portfolio study will collect more detailed information aboutwriting process strategies and if all goes well, present more complete infor-

n-iation about the relationships between students' use of these processes and

their writing achievements.

In the next three sections, exampies ofItudei its' papers are presented foreach performance level of the Viree scoring guides, along with an explanationof how each paper exemplifies the !val. A note about our selections: manystories submitted by students. est'? :ally by the eighth graders, could beclassified as horror stories. Our samples of the narrative scoring guide reflectthis preponderance of thrillers. Also, the selection of examples was limited to

he papers that could be reproduced legibly.

In addition, the papers at the upper end of the scales are much longer thanthose at the lower end. While length alone was not a consideration, all threescoring guides value development of ideas, information, or the elements ofnarratives. Therefore, it would be difficult for a brief paper (one or two para-graphs) to place above a three on any of these scales.

28 32

bigamies of the Narrative Swim Gakh

Event Description (score of 1) Papers classified as event descriptionstell about one event. Basically, they say, "such and such happened." Some ofthe papers in this category give details about the setting and so appear to bemore elaborate stories. However, they end with a description of a single event,rather than a series of events. The paper below, written by a fourth grader, isan example of a simple Event Description.

Undeveloped Story (score of 2) Papers classified as UndevelopedStories tell about a series of events. Basically, they say, "one day this happened.then something else happened, and then another thing happened." However,the events, as well as the setting and characters, are only briefly described. Thewriters give very few details about each event; the story is a listing of relatedevents.

29

33

Thew stories are similar to front-page newspaper reports, where the basicfacts of a stmy are reported (who, what, when, where) but few details aboutwhy events happened are presented. For example, in the paper below, thefourth-grade writer uses one sentence to describe each event.

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Basic Story (score of 3) In papers classified as Bask Stories, thewriters go one step beyond a simple listing of related events. One aspect of thestory (the events, the characters' goals, or the setting) is somewhat developed.However, these stories lack a sense of cohesion and completeness. Events maybe presented out of sequence, some aspect of the story may be confusing dueto problems with syntax, or a key event may be unclear. For example, in thepaper below, the fourth-grade writer describes a series of events and, at thebeginning, develops a problem in some detail (a librarian who puts books awaytoo quickly). However, the resolution to the problem, although humorous, isnot well developed.

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It is important to note that, while Extended Stories are not as elaborated orcomplex as are Developed Stories and Elaborated Stories, they are successfulstories all of the key story elements and events are clearly presented. Theyare the simplest type of complete story on this scale.

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Developed Story (score of 5) Devekced Stories describe a sequenceof episodes in which almost all of the events and story elements are some-what elaborated. Yet, one aspect of these stories is not well developed, suchas the ending or a crucial event. In the example below (written by an eighthgrader), each episode is somewhat developed, but could be further elaborate&

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Elaborated Story (score of 6) No papen were considered to be Elabo-

rated Storks. lb be classified as elaborated, stories had to present a sequenceof episodes in which almost all of the events and story elements were welldeveloped. Goals or problems introduced in the beenning were well resolvedby the end, characters' motives were well developed, and the entire story was acohesive, unified whole.

In the example below, the eighth-grade writer of "The Black Rose" retellsthe pia of a Halloween movie. In it, the writer effectively pnesents eachepisode, leading to a spine-tingling ending. The only discordant note is theorvasional switching of narrative voice between first person and third person.A revising of this story that included a consistent use of narrative voice wouldmake this an example of an Elaborated Story. (As is, this story received a scoreof 5.)

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Exam; los of the Informative Scorig Guido

usting (sco,, of 1) In the first categoiy, LLsting, the writer presentspieces of information Or ideas all on the same topic. While the papers maycontain a range of information about the topics, no attempt is made to relatethe ideas or information. For example, in the paper below, the fourth-gradewriter lists a series of facts about bones, but these facts are not connected toeach other, except that they are each about bones.

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Attempted Discussion (score of 2) As with papers classified as List-imps, Attempted Disaissions present a range of information Or ideas about atopic, but they go beyond Listings because some attempt is made to establishrelationships between the pieces of information or ideas. However, theserelationships are not clearly established. The ideas or information may beincomplete or undeveloped.

For example, in the paper below the fourth-grade writer presents a range ofinformation about horses and, in the first and second sentences, begins todevelop the subtopics of color and diet by giving examples. Yet, these examplesare only mentioned in passing and are not developed enough to present ageneralized view of horses supported by detail.

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46 50

Undeveloped Discussion (score of 3) PaPers classified as Undevel-oped Discussions go beycmd Attempted Discussions in that the attempt tocaddish relationships between ideas or information is more successful. Clearconnections are made between information or ideas in at least one part of thepaper. However, the information and ideas are not well developed. They maybe confused, contradictory, out of sequence, illogical, or undeveloped.

For example, in the paper below (written by an eighth grader), the writerexplains how watching television might influence students. This is more thana simple assertion that television influences viewers and more than a listing ofthe ways it can influence viewers. Through a brief description of a scenario,the writer explores the mechanism by which students can be influenced.While this approach is effective, the ideas are not developed or elaborated: thepaper is more the beginning of a discussion on the topic than a completediscussion of the issues involved.

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Discusskm (score of 4) Discussims are more complex than At-

temptedDiscussions or Undeveloped Dfrcussions because, in at least onesection, the writers clearly relate the ideas or information. A signal of thislevel of development is the use of rhetorical devices (such as temporal order,classification, definition, comparison/contrast, cause and effect, problem/solution, goals/resolutions, predictions, speculations, drawing conclusions,point of view, ranking by importance, exemplification) to relate some of theinformation and ideas presented. However, these papers do not take the nextstep and relate all of the ideas or information presented to an overarchingpurpose. Thus, while these papers retain their focus on the main topic beingaddressed, they also seem to skip from subtopic to subtopic.

For example, in the paper below, the fourth-grade writer gives a range ofinformation about opossums. Each paragraph deals with a specific aspect ofopossums and the writer uses examples to illustrate and explain these acpecf.s(i.e., in the third paragraph, the writer employs several examples to illustratethe small size of baby opossums). Yet, the paper don not have an overall sense

of purpose there is no apparent reason for the ordering of these pieces ofinformation about opossums.

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53 49

Partially Developed Discussion (score of 5) In Partially DevelopedDiscuscions, information and relationships are established and well developed,with explanations and supporting details. The paragraphs tend to be unifiedand well formed. However, the paper lacks an overriding sense ot purpose,audience, and cohesion. The writers of these papers present a wide range ofinformation on a topic, organize this information clearly, develop most of theaspects of this topic, yet do not create a context for their discussion thatenvisions a wider communicative purpose.

For example, the fourth-grade writer of the paper below has a definite voice,exhibitnng much enthusiasm about the topic. Each paragraph develops a pieceof information about bison, including transitions from one subtopic to thenext. However, what is missing is a sense of audience and the overall purposefor writing about bison. Despite the writer's clear voice and effective manage-ment of details, it is unclear to whom the paper is directed and for whatpurpose.

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5551

Developed Discussion (score of 6) For papers to be considered

Developed Discussions they had to contain all the elements of the previouscategory, and also present a coherent sense of purpose and audience. A signal

of this level of writing is the overt use of organizational structure and excel-

lent command of the conventions of written English. No papers in the 1990

sample were rated as Developed Discussions.

Examples of dm Persuasive Scorkg Guide

Opinion (score of 1) In the first type of persuasive writing, Opinions,

the writers assert an opinion, but do not develop or explain this opinion in anydetail. Sometimes they give reasons to support their opinion, but these rea-

sons are unrelated to the opinion or contradict one another. For example, the

paper below, written by a fourth grader, states an opinion about trick-or-treating ("it is fun") with one reason to support this opinion ("you get lots of

candy"). Then the writer gives several pieces of information relating to thedanger of trick-or-treating that seem either unrelated or contradictory to theopinion that trick-or-treating is fun.

qiietzrar .L6 15tur Aecti.4.4 kipui

cam amd cyd ioto 66.4 .,titk 00(101

ofbd to go to litkkaa v(4/I paThyntoi4L1ILqO

AO CONflOolD Alaftuffnei diwu 143to

i6c05161-i-So.k co4L ui )101/Ozve4m

ry*,

52 56

Extenthd opinion (score of 2) Extended Opinions include a state-ment of opinion and reasons to support the opinion. However, the reasons areonly briefly presented or the explanations are confusing.

For example, the paper below, written by an eighth grader, states an opinion(1 would like to go to the fair by myself.") and lists several reasons in supportof this opinion ("I am old enough," "I have a job to keep money," and "I amresponsthle."). The last reason is somewhat elaborated ("I take care of thehouse and everything."). However, this elaboration is not directly connected tothe opinion it does not explain why taking care of the house makes oneresponsible enough to go to a fair alone.

ley) U\r)Lceub k

CIte-)0\ AV k.'SOU

57 53

Partially Developed Argwnent (score of 3) Partially Developed

Argwnents include an opinion statement and clear reasons to support the

opinion. They also contain attempts to develop the opinion with furtherexplanation. However, the explanations given are not developed or elaborated.

These papers may also contain an implicit reference to an opposing point of

view opposite to their own.

For example, the eighth-grade writer of the paper beim states an opinion("Students must behave during open lunch.") and gives elaborated reasons to

support this opinion. However, the reasons and elaborations are confusing.

The first paragraph seems to relate, implicitly, to an opposing point of view,

the second paragraph to potential rewards, and the third paragraph to actual

rewards.

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.&tculd Oare. LD 'fta-t i.t Lit.oxists

thz.cr) LxIrci-1 LLAAAn mIxiciarsto mcit.r1thsvi RaLAA. _ALLA.a. Uyj . kklaitiLL

. bo -te tkuilLtocnautsx..z 1.1/4Aarl StLIriacAD 48Clat

tOrl ccaan Ulrich -LVIax 0.atcxAt6 rim Gla. CQC d trIar)

-khQAt Lo.YeArL C.WSCIZI

anCtrISIA- Julatazien studarito sneuldbah:Lx3e. "z kriat" khaxi. or) cvcioltAnzin u3n% arick&x?r, 4-1aAt rax5rt cztat

ca.x).33.s4 0.0 o sLa.Lxslaci _atamEk.

54 58

rN'ncert _Qsksan:k -Ulat (J-Irdn . asux3kci isb.oand kh.o, 56nect, Nitcpt tavasL.5cpb c dwx LOD ,ts,t li.inchFctsi'L) .

Ttnakb.A., cpar, Lunch5tucith (0, cizon Lurch

ha.tei. Loom- JuLaclerviall.z. an3 mcallksul...i4)Cuip -to ltICK 04114, -Lharmaakkv3 andanC11.- Cp2f1 kUrah ck) ao.).,nsd

L..NoefekutiSn 3Luciantoen qxn Lusvh nek, teocxuztitdd tr3 bileataZa. "erlittopon Lurch .

Atdento shouiwci WI-at Lt 4A-1:4*

59 55

Developed Argument (score 014) In Develwed Arguments, writersstate their opinions with reasons to support those opinion& They also include

at least one explanation that is well developei. Rhetorical devices (such as

sequence of events, comparison/contrast, problem/solution, and classification)

may be used to develop the explanation. These paimrs may also contain a brief

summary of the opposite point of view.

For example, in the paper below, the eighth-grade writer presents a clearopinion, with elaborated reasons to support theopinion. In addition, in thethird paragraph, the writer briefly mentions and addresses the opposing point

of view.

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so.. J lailAre) aakob 01.6tdAcAbi-JRmoln elafti4eadt-AziAiLdlteiNumAR):Jukta,J iD aimpxoZtLccdahAt+41-

(1)9AM/A Jai\ rnir&h 0044.31,0.6PAD ILOA1 -c4L-ZO oAd\thAx)-Qacf, 4e thA.+xttAitzleirttn

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asvi ostellobA, do a -6-tdta9 inkak)calixoo 41k10 (1(4 tgathotb

to ,x4weant.Q.) ock oAck ad.p-AOetaz\uvti) ,asvi ctAkclfaM aid%aht, into.h u.ACCe5r, is) jo)

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I zuwAsuki, P*11 CLik6 ettluA D99\t) i4p,o

.ottoaci ck401,

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*1, AtNicttetpto a*.tkCia Jkaz RoAL,

.9AuzaiLm0 LiNzAZ.ve.)eCtuteM9_,(t1A- tiQ,

Cl 57

Partially Developed Refutation and Developed Refutation (scores of 5and 6) Of the 58 papers classified as Nam:51'v, none fit into these lasttwo categories. Yet, the team of teachers who &Moped the scoring guidesemphasized that these two performance levels of persuasive writing should bedescribed. Noting the limited number of persuasive papers received and theimportant role refutation plays in persuasive discourse, the team wanted toidentify the characteristics of penuasive papers that contained more overt andcomplex refutations.

Partially Developed Refutations include a clear opinion statement, withreasons to support the opinion and elaborated explanations. These papers alsocontain an ulequate summary of the opposite point of view and may include anattempt to discuss the opposing position.

Developed Refutations are papers that have opinion statements, reasons tosupport the opinion, explanations of these reasons, plus a discussion and/orrefutation of the opposing point of view. The refutation is clear and explicit,including a discussion of why the opposing viewpoint is limited or incorrect.

Sammy of Performance Across Domains

In order to develop a portfolio of students' writing at grades 4 and 8, we sum-marized their performance across the three domains by grade level. Table 2.2presents the fourth graders' performance at eat'. domain by grouping thelevels of each scale into low (scores of 1 and 2), medium (scores of 3 and 4),and high (scores of 5 and 6).

While slightly more of the informative and persuasive papers submitted bythe fourth graders received higher ratings than did their narrative papers, ingeneral, the ratings assigned papers across the three domains of narrative,informative, and persuasive were very similar.

58 62

low

(1 Dr 2)

Mean

(3 or 4)

talik

(5 w 6)

96 96 96

Nornitives 69 30 1

inforwatives 72 26 2

Peneasivn" 72 28 0

"Due to rounding, percentages may not Mai 100.

**interpret statistks cei persuasive papers with caution due to small sample size.

Table 2.3 presents the eighth graders' performance at the low, medium, andhigh levels of each genre. As with the fourth graders, there was little differ-ence in the distribution ofscores among the three domains. As might beexpected, compared with the fourth grade, more eighth-grade papers receivedmedium and high ratings.

Table 2.3: Eighth Graders' Classroom-BasedINJiting Performance'

law

(1 ar 2)

Moans

(3 et 4)

MO

(5 w 6)

96

Narratives 40 51 9

leformatives 45 48

Perseasives" 50 50 0

*Due to rounding. percentages may not equal 100.

**Interpret statistics on persuasive papers with caution due to small sample size.

. 63 59

SUOMIllfy

The results of this study indicate that more than half of the fourth-gradenarrative papers simply listed a series of related events, while over one-quartercontained some elaboration. Few of the fourth-grade stories contained devel-

oped characters or plots. Also, approximately one-third of the fourth-gradeinformative papers were simple listings of infonnation or ideas. More than half

of the fourth-grade informative papers attempted to discuss topics by trying toestablish relationships between the pieces of information or ideas. In 9 percent

of the fourth-grade informative papers relationships were successfully estab-

lished between several ideas in the papers. As might be expected at grade 4,

few (only 2 percent) wrote papers where almost all of the information wasrelated. For persuasive writing, the few papers that were written by fourthgraders were opinion statements, some with explanation. In two papers, the

argument was partially developed.

The eighth-grade narrative papers were, for the most part, simple or basic

stories (68 percent). Compared with the fourth graders, fewer eighth graderswrote Undeveloped Stories and more wrote Basic Stories. As might be ex-

pected, more eighth graders (about one-quarter) than fourth graders wroteExtended and Devekved Stories. The same trend holds true for the eighth-grade informative papers, with only 13 percent of the eighth graders simplylisting information or ideas. The older students were moresuccessful atestablishing relationships between ideas and information: fewer eighth-gradethan fourth-grade papers were rated as AttemptedDiscussions (30 percent)

and more were rated as Undeveloped Discussions or Discussions (49 percent).

At the upper end of the informative scale, 8 percentof the eighth graderswrote papers in which almost all of the information presented was cogentlyrelated. For persuasive writing, fewer eighth than fourth graders wrote simpleOpinion statements (6 percent compared to 25 percent, respectively) andfewer wrote Extended Opinions (40 percent compared to 50 percent, respec-tively). However, it is interesting that similar percentages of fourth and eighthgraders wrote papers classified as Partially DevelmedAwnents, whilealmost one-quarter of the eighth graders wrote Developed Arguments.

It is important to note that the panel that developed the scoring guides,while depending for the most part on the group of papers submitted by par-ticipants in this study to specify a range of performance, also relied on theirexperience as teachers and teacher educators in establishing the upper ends ofeach of the three scales. They felt it was possible and desirable to project,

based on the few upper-range papers and their own knowledge of writtendiscourse, the key features of complex narrative, informative, and persuasive

papers. Likewise, it should be noted that, in the scoring guides developed forthis study, creativity independent of development did not influence the scores

papers received.

60 64

Comparing Methods ofAssessment

Collecting samples of students' writing produced under traditional essayassessment methods and writing produced under more typical classroom-based conditions creates a unique opportunity to compare these methods ofassessment. It makes possible an exploration of a number of questions con-cerning what we learn about students' writing from essay tests, on the onehand, and from school-based samples of writing, on the other.

The first part of this chapter compares the key features of these two ap-proaches to messment the characteristics of the texts generated and thenature of the processes in which students engaged. In the second section, theratings that a subset of the students' writing received on the regular NAEPwriting assessment are compared with the ratings their classroom-basedwriting received. In the last part of this chapter, the major lessons learnedfrom this pilot portfolio study are discussed.

Features of the Assessments

Characteristics of the Writirg Earlier in this report, several charac-teristics of studenV writing were analyzed: type of writing, intended audience,type of activity, and length of papers. These will be the focus of the comparisonbetween the writing provided under traditional assessment conditions and thewriting collected for the school-based study.

In the 1990 NAEP writing assessment, students respoaded to two 15-minute prompts." As a result of an elaborate development and review process,which included field testing. NAEP prompts are characteristically very clearand specific The prompts span three types of writing: informative, narrative,and persuasive. In 1990, students were asked to write to a variety of audiences(i.e., teachers, principals, school newspapeis, peers, political figures) aboutarange of topics. Some of the topics included: (1) writing a letter to a companyrequesting a course of action; (2) writing a newspaper article based on given

11 The 1990 NAEP assessment was a trend assessment prompts developed in 1984 werereadministered in 1990 unchanged Due to recent changes in the field of writing, the 1992 NAEPwriting essessment consists of 25-minute prompts at four* eighth, and twelfth grades andseveral 50-minute prompts at the eighth and twelfth grades.

6265

information about a haunted house; (3) writing a paper taking a stand on thedissection of frogs in a science class; (4) writing a letter to a radio stationmanager convincing himiher to allow the class to visit the radio station; and(5) writing a story about imagined adventures with a flashlight that hadspecial powers. The prompts required that students draw on their own experi-ences as well as on information presented in the prompt Given the limitedamount of time students had to write in response to the prompts, it is notsurprising that, in the 1990 NAEP assessment, the average length of fourthgraders' responses was 34 words and the average length of eighth graders'responses was 52 words.

The breadth and diversity of texts submitted in school-based writing assess-ments are dependent upon the kinds of writing instruction students receive.The writing submitted for this school-based study indicated that participatingstudents were mostly writing narrative and informative pieces. The activitiesthat generated their writing rarely appeared to have provided students with asense of the audiences or purposes for their writing. The assignments variedgreatly in specificity and elaboration, as did the length of students' mers. Aswas presented in Chapter One, the median length of fourth-grade classroom-based papers was 84 words and of eighth-grade classroom-based papers was140 words. In addition, the majority of students' school-based writing waslonger than the average of their responses to the NAEP writing assessment.Ninety percent of both the fourth and the eighth graders' school-based paperswere longer than the average length of their responses to the NAEP writingassessment.

Thus, school-based writing assessments yielded significantly longer textsand have the potential to yield a variety of text types that are written to diverseaudiences. However, all of these features are dependent upon the amount oftime and attention paid to writing instruction. On the other hand, NAEPwriting assessments, and other timed writing assessments, provide a consis-tent view of a particular valiety of student writing: writing produced in a fixedtime period and on a specified topic.

Writing Processes In this study, we have referred to several writingprocess strategies: major revising, minor revising, prewriting, conferencing,and referring to sources. The NAEP writing assessment, because it occurs in asingle sitting, does not allow for much revision, major or minor. During theassessment, students are not able to refer to sources or to conference withpeers or teachers.22 One of the principal limitations of single-sitting writingassessments is that the writing produced essentially represents writers' firstdrafts. These methods of assessment yield little information about students'revision strategies,

2 The 1992 NAEP writing assessment includes a prewriting page before each prompt, wherestudents can Sot down ideas, make notes, or plan their writing.

66 63

As was discussed earlier, for this study of classroom-based writing therewere limitations in the kinds of information we received about students' use of

process strategies. Therefore, this pilot study yielded little specific informationabout process strategies. In general, school-based writing assessments offer

the opportunity to collect evidence about very complex writing processes.Students are able to include all the prewriting, drafting, and revising that was

involved in the production of their texts. 'This method has the potential toyield a rich array of information about the processes the writers engaged in, as

well as the outcomes of these processes.

Comparbig Students' Performance

A comparison was conducted of students' performance on the NAEP writing

assessment and their school-based writing sample. As a preliminary step intesting for relationships between the scores students' papers received on theirschool-based writing and the NAEP writing assessment, we wanted to make

comparisons by type of writing, under the hypothesis that students who wroteexcellent stories in a timed assessment situatior. would probablywrite excel-

lent stories under classroom-based writing situations. We wanted to makecomparisons within a type of task; that is, if a student submitted an informa-tive piece, we wanted to compare it with the student's performance on theinformative NAEP assessment task, and likewise for the narrative and persua-sive tasks. Then, if relationships were found within type of task, we would lookfor relationships between overall performance on the NAEP writing assess-ment and thE school-based writing samples.

However, we faced a problem in making these comparisons. Due to theemphasis placed on informative and persuasive writing and the complexsampling design used to collect the NAEP writing assessment, none of thestudents selected for this study wrote narratives for the NAEP writing assess-ment. In addition, very few students submitted persuasive school-basedwriting samples. Given these limitations, we elected to focus only on thosestudents who submitted informative school-based writing samples and com-pare the scores they received on these samples with their performance on theNAEP informative prompts.

The sampling design of the 1992 NAEP school-based writing study ensuresthat all three types of writing will be rep) .sented. In addition, we are request-ing multiple pieces of classroom-based writing from students in 1992 andasking that these samples represent several types of writing. In this way, we

hope to be able to make more substantial comparisons of students' perform-

ance on these two methods of writing assessment.

Because students' NAEP assessment pieces were scored on a four-pointprimary trait scale and their school-based writing on a six-point scale, we

64 67

grouped each scale into high and low categories to simplify and facilitate

comparisons. On the NAEP assessment scales, scores of 1 and 2 were placed

in the low category; 3 and 4 in the high. For students' school-based writing,

papers that received scores of 1, 2, or 3 were grouped in the low category;

papers with scores of 4, 5, or 6 were placed in the high category. The correla-

tion between these two pieces of writing wa low, .16 for fourth graders and

.06 for eighth graders. Presented below are the details on this comparison bygrade level.

Fourth Graders As Figure 3.1 shows, 72 percent of the fourth graders

received a low score on both the NAEP writing assessment and their school-based writing. Lthewise, 5 percent received a high score on both types of

writing. However, 16 percent of the fourth graders received a low score on

their school-based writing and a high score on the NAEP writing assessment

Eight percent received a low score on the NAEP writingassessment, and ahigh score on their school-based writing.

Sores es

SchooHlased

Writ*

1, 2, 3

4, 5, 6

Scores so MAW Writing Assossaiest

1, 2 3, 4

72%

N = 470

8%

N = 50

16%

N = 103

5%

N = 30

*Due to rounding. percentages may not equal 100.

Because of the high numbers of students whose writing received a score of1 or 2 on the NAEP writing assessment and a score of 1, 2, or 3 on the school-based writing, this distribution is not that informative. There appears to be anoverall consistency between fourth graders' performance on both types ofwriting sampies only 24 percent of the students received very differentscores. The distribution is much different for the eighth graders, whose scoreson both assessments were more spread out over the range of score points.

Eighth Graden As Figure 3.2 shows, 41 percent of the eighth gradersreceved a low score on both the NAEP writing assessment and their school-

6568

based writing. Likewise, 14 percent received a high score on both types of

writing. However, 29 percent of the eighth graders received a low score on

their school-based writing and a high score on the NAEP writing assessment

and 16 perce..t received a low score on the NAEP writing assessment and a

high score on their school-based writing.

ScoruonScloophbosed

writing

1124

4,5,6

Scores on NAIP Wdling Assessment

1, 2 3, 4

41%

N = 370

29%

N = 258

16% 14%

N = 142 N = 129

*Due to rounding, percentages may not equal 100.

Thus, 45 percent of the students received rather different scores on their

NAEP writing assessment and on their school-based writing. In considering

these comparisons, it is important to remember that, due to limitations in oursampling design, only a subgroup of our total participants, 723 fourth graders

and 454 eighth graders, are represented.

One explanation for the low levels of correlatior. between eighth graders'performance on these two methods of assessment is that the different proce-

dures and features of the methods of assessment may result in a sampling of

different aspects of students' writing abilities. Composing clear pieces of

writing in response to specific prompts involves one set of writing abilities;

composing a longer text, over several days, after consultation with others, in

response to a general prompt or one's own ideas, provides information about a

different, more complex set of writing processes.

Lessons Learned

The main purpose of this study was to conduct a preliminary exploration of

methods for collecting, describing, and evaluating classroom-based writing on

a large scale in preparation for a larger portfolio study as part of the 1992

NAEP assessment. From our experiences in 1990, we learned useful lessons on

6669

how to improve collection procedures that will be implemented in the 1992NAEP Portfolio Study. This includes giving teachers advance notice, in the fall,that we will be collecting student portfolios in the spring and providingstudents with folders to collect their writing. Also, students we asked to writea brief letter describing the pieces of writing they select and teachers are askedto complete a brid questionnaire describing the classroom activities thatgenerated the students' writing. The methods developed for describing andevaluating students' writing will be further refined and expanded in the 1992NAEP Portfolio Study.

Thking a more general view, this study allows for an examination of fourkey issues in developing new modes of assessment comparability (Doesthe assessment method offer a standard against which students' work canbe compared?), authoiship (noes the assessment method provide a meansfor establishing the author of the writing?), covcrage (Does the assessmentmethod provide a way for measuring a broad range of learning outcomesdeemed important by educators and the general public?), and relevancy(Does the assessment method relate to the goals and methods of writinginstruction?).

Comparability Can a large-scale system for assessing classroom-based writing provide a standard means for comparing students' writingachievements?

One strength of traditional methods ofassessing writing such as the NAEPwriting assessment, is that they providea standard means for comparingstudents' performance. By administering a common prompt or set of activitiesto students under standardized conditions, and by applying a standard set ofevaluative criteria, these assessment methods ensure that all students have thesame amount of thne to respond to the same tasks and are given the samedirections and information about the topic. In audition, the prompts andscoring guides are designed to minimize the effect students' specializedbackground knowledge might have on their performance, in order to ensurefairness to all students.

Because they offer a standard, systematic means for assessing wilting,traditional methods of writing auessment are especially useful for com-paring groups of students' writing performance beyond the classroom level.Through their day-to-day work with students, classroom teachers havedetailed knowledge of students' abilities and achievement& They do not need astandard means for comparing students within their classrooms because theyobserve and evaluate their students' performance, formally or informally,every day. However, as soon as a teacher or school wants to compare theachievements of students from one classroom with those of another, the needfor a standard method of assessment arises. While using a common writing

6770

prompt, a fixed period of time, and a specific method for scoring students'

writing may differ from students' usual school-based writing experiences,

these controls provide a standard means for compating students' writing

beyond the classroom.

A major concern about using school-based writing samples to assess stu-

dents' performance for school, district, state, or national assessment purposes

is that it is difficult to create the controls necessary to ensure a fair and valid

basis of comparison. The papers that students select to place in their portfolios

are so varied and result from such a great diversity of classroom experiences

that the question arises, are these papers truly comparable?

This pilot study provides an excellent example of this difficulty. For the

purposes of this study, we classified the papers submitted into the three broad

categories of narrative, informative, and persuasive writing. In order to de-

velop scoring guides that could be applied to all of the papers in each category,

we then assumed that the specific assignments teachers had given or activities

they had designed were consistent with broader narrative, informative, orpersuasive goals. The scoring guides were then designed to represent these

more general, domain-specific goals.

The scoring systems designed for this study did not take into account thedegree to which a paper fulfilled the assignment for which it was written. For

example, it could be argued that, as part of an ongoing writing curriculum, a

teacher might first focus students' attention on presenting lists of information

about a common topic. The students who submitted papers resulting from

this activity could only receive a score of 2 (Attempted Discussion) under our

scoring system, even though their papers completely satisfied the activities

that generated them.

On the other hand, students who submitted more elaborated reports could

receive higher scores, even if their papers did not completely fulfill the assign-

ments for which they were written. Thus, the scores assigned to papers in this

study reflect the types and quality of instructional activities that generated

them, as well as the writing achievement of the students. In other words,portfolio assessments provide a measure of the effectiveness of both teachers

and students.

Authorship Can a classroom-based assessment system be developed that

specifies and guarantees the authorship of papers submitted?

Traditional methods of writing assessment, because their administrationprocedures are standardized, ensure that the student being tested is the

author of the writing submitted. In a highstakes assessment environment,this question of authorship becomes a major issue. For example, states that

68 71

require studepts to pass a writing exam before graduating from high school(i.e., Louisiana, New York) employ standard procedures for collecting stu-dents' writing in order to ensure that the papers by which the students'abilities are being judged are truly the students' own work. It is difficult toensure authorship when collecting classroom-based writing samples fromstudents.

In addition, one of the strengths of using classroom-based writing to assessstudents' achievements is that this writing is the result of the use of writingprocess strategies. A key component of the process awroach to writing in-struction is the use ofpeer review and consultations with the teacher to assiststudents in revising their texts. This discussion of work with other students,friends, and family members provides the oral component of language useconsidered important to the development of good writing. However, thiscauses a problem when, under a classroom-based assessment program, onestudent submits papers that were the result of a group effort or a process thatinvolved peer and teacher reviews andanother student submits papers thatreceived no reviews or assistance. Does their writing represent comparableefforts? Is it fair to compare the pieces they have submitted?

Coverage Can portfolio assessment methods cover the broad range ofwriting tasks required by most assessment frameworks?

Using a less structured approach to portfolio assessment, such as the oneemployed in this study, post.- several problems for an assessment program. Acentral goal of many assessment programs is to measure a range of students'writing abilities. Most writing experts and educators maintain that this in-volves having students write in a variety of domains (i.e., informative, narra-tive, Persuasive), using a variety of sources of information (i.e., informationpresented in the prompt, personal experiences), and using a variety of forms ofwriting (i.e., letters, essays, stories). Assessment programs that meet this goalhave students perform a variety of writing tasks especially designed to cover arange of writing abilities.

Portfolio assessment programs that are designed to minimize the degree towhich the assessment intrudes upon the instruction, while providing richcontextual information about students' writing, does not provide assessmentcoverage. Unless teachers and students were given very specific informationabout the types of pieces to include in a portfolio, it would be difficult toobtain the coverage necessary to meet the assessment goal of measuring arange of writing abilities. For example, in this study we asked teachers andstudents to select a variety of types of writing to include, yet we received veryfew papers that were not classified as either informative or narrative. Also, fewof the papers were written to other than a general audience.

72 69

One solution would be to actually specify the writingactivities teachersused to generate writing pieces for inclusion in students' portfolio& However,

many large scale assessment programs are not in a position to specify actualwriting activities for teachers to use as part of a portfolio assessment program.For example, NAEP assessments are specifically designed to monitor theresults of instruction, not to provide instruction. Yet, for some states andschool districts, providing exemplar instructional activities from which port-folio writing samples are selected may be possible. In lieu of actually specify-ing instructional activities, the 1992 NAEP Portfolio Study design includesdirections to students and teachers that emphasize more strongly the need forentries that represent a range of types of wilting. It will be interesting to see,with the more specific directions and the request for more pieces of writing,whether a wider range of types of writing is submitted in 1992.

Relevancy Can a method for conducting a large-scale portfolio systembe developed that allows for some standardization while maximizing itsrelevancy to instruction?

The main strength of school-based methods of writing assessment is thatthe information they provide is highly relevant to instruction. Because thewriting sampled is a result of classroom writing activities, the informationgained about the students' strengths and weaknesses relates directly to theinstructional goals of their classes.

Writing is such a complex process involving many stages that it is verydifficult, if not impossible, in a traditional, standardized setting to obtainmeasures that encompass many of the larger goals of writing instruction, suchas peer review, use of references, and thorough use of revision processes.NAEP employs committees of educators and teachers to establish the goals forits writing assessments and to design the specific prompts that comprise theassessments, so that, as much as possible, the assessment will reflect currentinstructional practices. However, the need for standardized prompts, adminis-tration procedures, and scoring procedures necessarily distances traditionalmethods of writing assessment from the classroom.

The tension between the needs of assessment for standardization and theneeds of instruction for individuality creates difficulties for programs thatemploy classroom-based writing to assess students' achievements. Someeducators avoid all forms of portfolio assessment, maintaining that thewritingportfolio is an instructional tool, not an assessment system. They are con-cerned that the diversity and individuality, which are the strengths of port-folios, will be lost when portfolios are used for assessment purposes beyondthe classroom. Because there is a danger that the standardization necessaryfor large-scale, high-stakes assessment programs could result in a formulaic

use of portfolios, some educators are recommending that portfolios be adapted

70

,111OMMIIMIMI0111=1MIM1

73

for assessment purposes only at the classroom or school level, rather than atthe district or tne state level.

%minify

The use of classroom-based writing samples to assess students' writingachievement has certain strengths and weaknesses that might influence aschool, district, or state's decision about the selection or development of large-scale portfolio assessment programs.

Quality of Writing Samples First, because the time limits imposedunder standardized testing conditions are eliminated when classroom-basedwriting is used, there are no limits to the writing students are able to submitAlthough in this study we did not often see the use of process strategies, thewriting submitted under a classroom-based assessment system can be theresult of complex writing processes, involving multiple revisions, the use ofreference sources, as well as the use of peer conferencing and consultationswith teachers.

One result of using collection procedures that impose no time limits onstudents is longer and more developed texts. In this study, students' paperswere much longer than the typical papers written under timed assessmentconditions. In addition, their papers were more developed than those writtenunder timed conditions. The evaluation criteria developed in this pilot studywere designed to accommodate this higher range of writing.

For example, a typical 25-minute NAEP prompt that asks students todiscuss a topic and provide details supporting their discussion would assign ascore of a four or five if a paper addressed the topic and included severaldetails elaborating on the topic. For a paper to receive a 4 or 5 under theinformative scoring guide developed in this study, it would have to not onlyinclude multiple details, but relate these details in some fashion that repre-sented more in-depth thinking and sophisticated development of the topicbeing discussed.

Likewise, a NAEP prompt that asks students to write a story in 25 minuteswould assign a score of a 4 or 5 to a story that was clear and had multipleepisodes. In order to receive a score of a 4 or 5 under the narrative portfolioscoring guide, most of the episodes of the story would have to be developed insome detail.

Thus, compared to writing produced under timed, standardized conditions,school-based writing yields a longer, more developed sample of students' workand this work is more reflective of the processes they normally engage inwhen they write for school.

71

74

Choice of Writing Samples In acklition, giving students and teacherschoice about what writing sample to include in a portfolio allows them to

select the best from among each student's efforts. Having students reread andreflect upon their work engages students in evaluation processes that areconsidered to be essential to their development as writers.

The factor of choice also makes this method of assessment sensitive todifferences in instructional programs. For example, as part of a writing in-

struction program a teacher may have focused students' attention on narrativewriting. If given a traditional writing assessment, these students may be asked

to write a persuasive letter and an informative essay. While their responses to

these prompts will reflect certain aspects of theirwriting achievements, they

are not reflective of the kinds of writing they have focused on in class. Havingstudents and teachers select best examples of students' writing enables them

to select pieces that relate directly to what students have been ler-ning.

Dependency on instruction While one of the strengths of classroom-based writing is its connection to classroom instruction, from an assessment

point of view, this connection also is a potential weakness. Because writing

ability is considered to be a combination of a variety of skills, knowledge, and

strategies, most measures of students' writing achievement attempt to assess

a range of writing performance. Traditional writing assessments includeprompts that have students write to a variety of audiences, for a variety of

purposes, in response to a range of stimuli. As was mentioned earlier, theNAEP writing assessment framework calls for narrative, informative, arid

persuasive prompts that ask students to write to a range of audiences (i.e.,

their peers, teachers, politicians, newspapers) and include a range of stimuli

(i.e., pictures, poetry, advertisements, or brief magazine articles).

Portfolio assessment programs that use classroom-based writing sampleshave the potentill for presenting a range of writing, but only if the writing

programs in which students engage involve them in a broad range of writingactivities. Unless stue.eias and teachers are directed to include specific kinds

of writing in the portfolio, having them select the pieces to be included inassessment portfolios (the method used in this study, and which will be used

in the 1992 NAEP Portfolio Study) can result in acollection of writing that is

limited in range.

To guarantee that a wide range of writing samples is collected in a portfolio,

one would need to give teachers specific assignments or very detailed guide-lines about what is to be included. This approach poses problems for organiza-

tions such as NAEP, whose mission is to design assessments that reflect thegoals of current writing instruction and assess the impact of instruction on

7275

students' achievement, not to directly influence instruction by providingspecific classroom activities.

Measure of Instruction A second consideration of using portfolios toassess students' achievements also stems from the element of choice. Underthe collection system employed by NAEP in this study (and in the 1992 study),individuals decide what samples to submit in their portfolios. This results in awide variety of writing being submitted. If the writing is assessed on a com-mon scale, specific to the domain of the writing, then the assessment may beas much a measure of the classroom activities and amount of time spent onwriting instruction as of the students' achievements.

When the assessment is located in the classroom or school, this factor doesnot pose a problem because the teacher can provide the contextual informa-tion about students' abilities and writing instruction to the concerned audi-ence (i.e., other teachers, school administrators, parents). However, when theassessment involves students from across a district, a state, or the nation, theneed for efficiency in handling large amounts of information and the need toapply a standard scoring system to students' writing precludes the use of richcontextual information. The differences in students' work may be partially aresult of the writing activities in which they engaged, tbe amount of time theyhad to produce the writing, and the curricular goals of the school in whichthey study. Yet, in large-scale assessment programs, they are judged on acommon scale. Students attending schools that emphasize writing have anadvantage over those who do not when taking any kind of writing assessment.However, this advantage is increased when the method for collecting samplesof z .,Jdents' writing is rooted in the classroom.

To conclude, the use of classroom-based writing or writing portfoliosystems for assessment enables us toassess writing in a way that is highlyrelevant to instruction. The length and quality of the writing submitted bystudents enables us to develop and articulate higher standards for studentwriting. It also engages students and teachers in evaluative processes thatsupport the goals of the writing curriculum, ensuring that the assessment isan integral, meaningful part of the instructional program.

At the same time, caution must be advised if the assessment results gobeyond the classroom or school level. If used to assess students at the district.state, or national level (or for any "high stakes" purpose, such as promotion orgraduation requirements), portfolio collection systems need to include ways ofensuring authorship and comparability of performance. This is especially truewhen participating teachers cannot be part of the assessment program devel-opment team and/or are unable to provide contextual information aboutinstructional practices that would assist the assessors in making the compari-sons across students that are central to large-scale assessments.

7f;73

Over the past 30 years, our understanding of what it means to be a goodwriter and how one becomes a good writer has expanded to include a varietyof intellectual, communicative, and social processes. It seems natural, andnecessary, that our methods for judging students' writing also expand toinclude a variety of assessment modes. From its regular, timed wrifingassessment, NAEP gains information about students' writing achievements

on a broad range of tasks. From its special portfolio study NAEP learns infor-mation about students' classroom experiences and school-based writing thatprovides a context for understanding students' overall achievements. As thevarious methods for collecting classroom-based writing for assessment pur-poses are refined, using both portfolio and traditional modes of assessmentin concert may provide educators with rich, detailed portraits of students'

writing abilities.

7477

Samples of Students' Writing

PART 1: Narrative Writbrg

The following examples illustrate the range of stories submitted by the stu-dents who participated in this study. The students' papers are arranged accord-ing to the scores they received when they were evaluated (see Chapter 'Rim forthe complete scoring guide). Each set of samples is preceded by an explanationof how these papers fit into the corresponding category.

I: Event Description The two papers below are examples of EventDescriptions. They describe a single happening, rather than a series ofevents. The second paper describes the setting of the story in some detail, yetonly tells about one action or event. Therefore, it was classified as an EventDescription.

Example #1 (Fourth Grade)

ef rut. (Lady -UNAite, ..4.Astazha o-

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Ex #2 (Foiffth Grade)

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2: Undeveloped Story The four papers below are examples of Undevel-oped Stories. These stories are a series of events, but the events, as well as thesetting and characters, are only briefly described. These stories are similar tofront-page newspaper reports, where the basic facts of a story are reported(who, what, when, where) but few details are presented about why eventshappened.

Ex #1 (Fourth Grade)

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Exam& #2 (Fowth Grade)

SharK's Covene hot v.immer, a Ow nam d So* was ualxine with thr**

veoPls. Their r.ames war* Stieven.Mitohand T*rrtence. Th*Y wer*Stood friends.Thc., .:ali.so! a coy*. Terr*nce wont down for4ator. All of a swdden MiKe busivtod Torronco and hf, fell intothe :owl.. Stiaven was 1 au2hino,Joe turn*d around in time tosee ne ia dorsal fin. H* said to Terrence."Giet out of thowaterl" Terrznca twrned arour.1 and saw & KO sham. h* swamto th* edge of thte cove,and ne Yolltpd.HHELP!" Steutin and MixtYellipd."Come on! Come thon all of a suddian the sham bithim.

erom this day on.. Terronce has two marks_htoft th* sham.

Example #3 (Eighth Grade)

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3: Basic Story The four papers below are examples of Basic Stories, inthese stories, the writers describe a series of events and go beyond a simple listof related events. Some aspect of the story (the events, the characters' goals,

or the setting) are somewhat developed. However, these stories lack a sense ofcohesion and completeness. They may have problems with syntax or sequenc-ing of events.

lion* #1 (Fourth Grade)

One time I was walking down to our house. When I decided to takea short cut. So I went down Ban park Rd. passed the softball fieldand cut through the dark gloomy woods. And passed theBlanchette's red barn. I was past David Razcek house and therebefore me stood a spooky wrecked house that I had never seen.The address was 200 and there was no last name. The Lane wasDan Lane. I decided to leave the Old squeaky house. A few dayslater I got one letter from that Old wrec.el hcrase It said, "Behere a 6:00 p.m. Sharp!" I was thinking it over when I thought,"What if it's the monster far illy with Freddy Crougar, Jason, andthe Texas Chainsaw man." So I said to my self, "What the heck Imight as well see what they're like." So I started off they weren'tfar because they were our next door neighbors. I went up andknocked on the door. A big man that looked like Jason answeredthe door and pulled me inside. I saw two miniature FreddyCrougar. Jason pulled me in and sat me down on an old dampdusty chair and he took off his shiny mask. I covered my facewith my hands soon after I looked out it was a regular man then Iremembered it was Halloween.

8082

Ens* #2 (Fowth Grua)

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4: Extended Story The four papers below are examples of Extended

Stories. In these papers, many of the events are somewhat elaborated, giving

the sense of a sequence of distinct story episodes. Details are given about the

setting, the characters' goals, problems to be solved, and the key events. Yet,

these stories are confusing or incomplete. The characters' goals may be left

unresolved, the problem posed in the story's opening never solved. The ending

may not match the beginning Or the story's ending may be inconsistent with

the internal logic established throughout the rest of the story.

Exam* #1 (Few* Grade)

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Example #2 (Fourth Grade)

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#3 (Eighth Grade)

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Emu* #4 (BO Grade)

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5: Developed Story The four samples below illustrate the DevelopedStory. These papers describe a sequence of episodes in which almost all of theevents and story elements are somewhat elaborated. Yet, some aspect of thesestories is not well developed, such as the ending or a crucial event

Ex #1 ( 3 Grade)

Iftbdxsamme

The last thing I remember wiethe ship sinking Into the murky

waters of the Atlantic. But now there was nothing. No boat, no

one except me and some strange place that looked like an island.

As I dragged my cold and tired body to chore, I became

frightened. What if the island was inhabited by cannibals? What

if this island was inhabited by some Satan worshipers? I could

only dread what they would do to me. Then I caught hold of myself.

There were no cannibals or Satan worshipers here. There was no

sense in letting my imagination get away from me. There was only

one thing here for sure, and that was me.

All of a sudden my left leg hit something hard. I reached

down to pick it up. I could hardly believe my eyes! It was the

flag to the ship, And it was still attached to the mast. I tried

to drag it to shore but it was too heavy. I managed to rip the

flag frnm the mast. It was the only remembrance that I had of my

oarentq, for we were separated in the accident. The flag would make

a good blanket for the night time too.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

93 91

Soon I reached shore, and I got out of the water. I figured

the best way to dry off was to let the aun do it for me. I started

to wall along the beach. I guess I had been walking for 45 minutes

or so. It seemed like I had already gone all around the island, so

I eat down to think. Where am I, Will I die? These questions

we-e flowing through my head like crazy. I got back up and looked

around me. But there was nothing except water and trees. I

decaded to go for the trees.

I entered the forest and could no longer hear the sound of the

ocean. This was AA scary place to be. I walked deeper and deeper

into the forest where I spotted some berry bushes. I almost lost

ey head and ate a whole hand full. Just then I remembered a trick

I learned in girl scouts. You take the berry and put it on your

bottom lip and after a few minutes if it does not sting, leave a

rash, or itch at's okay to eat. I did so and to my advantage the

berry didn't do anything negative. I ate until I was stuffed.

Then feelang tired, I dozed off and fell into a deep sleep.

Suddenly I woke up. I wasn't in the woods any more. The

surroundings looked like a hospital. Then the pain hit me right in

the gut. I screamed an agony. One of the masked people pushing my

cart looked down and then lissed :no. The person said "It will be

alright darling."

Mom' But what was she doing here') I thought she cised on the

ship.

92 94

"Moo, why am I here"

"You ate some very poisonous berries," she said.

I passed out and that's all I remember until one day later.

I was sitting in a hospital bed with my two parents hovering

over me. For the next few minutes my parents xplained the whole

thing to me. They had escaped the ship on a life boat. Then they

told me how a young boy had walked out into his back yard and found

ms. As soon as he and his parents found out what I had eaten, they

took ma to the hospital where the police located my parents.

And to think I thought I had been on a dese?ted island, when

was really on Rhode Island off the coast of Maine. When I thought

I had walked around the island, I had really walked only part of

the coast line. Unfortunately this area was uninhabited.

When I got home I hung the flag on my bedroom wall as a

reminder of my great adventure.

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95 93

#2 (Eighth Grade)

-the Day oc the vir-A,) K.;c1

"Chemistry 101Chemistry 105...Chemistry 107. Oh here it is

Organic Chemistry." SPLASH! a big jug hit me as I fell off the

ladder. The jug's label read "INk." I couldn't read the rest

because it was smeared away."What was that? Are you ok? What are you doing down here?"

asked my dad."I'm just getting a chemistry book for my report."

"You shouldn't have procrastinated on this report!

Nt.14 you'll hi:ve to get up extra early to do it. It's late; go to

Nadi""O.K. Dad."The next morning I was uo working on my report. My mom

knocked pn the door and came in. When she looked at my bed, her

jaw dropped."Ken, come here! Erica? Erica, come here, wherever you are!"

"I'm right here mom."No answer."What's going an here? Where Ls she?" my dad asked as he

walked into my room. "Uh. she's

not here," "I can't believe her running awayfrom doing her report! Vicki, you go look downstairs: I'll look

up here." My dad went from room to room calling my name andsaying, "She's in big trouble. Erica? I can't undei-stand her.

Erica?"Each time he said that I kept answering with "I'm right here.

What are you talking about?" This was very absurd.Meanwhile my mom called the police. "Hello, this is Uickl

Oliver. I'd like to report a missing girl. Description? Well,

she's about five-feet-four-inches tall, has brown hair. and

green eyes. She's thirteen years old..."While Mom did that I went back into my Dad's lab. Even thogh

my Dad's a scientist, he acts pretty stupid sometimes. my mom

is warm and carrying. She caes when something happens to aparson, but my dad just gets mad.

I Found the jug on the Floor where I'd left it. Now the

"INK" was gone from the labei and the smudge of writing was gone

tool Then it finally dawned on me. It Was a bottle of

disappearing ink! When it fell on me, it hrd made me invisible.

Nrw all I had to do was get my dad's attention.I went back upstairs and heard my parents yelling "She's

gone because of the report! That girl has got to learn not to

procrastinate!""No, she's run away because you're always yelling at her!" my

mom retorted."I'm never going to be the same. be invisible Forever."

krot running through my mind.I tried to get my mom's attention I moved pillows. slants.

turned on the t.v.. and the lights. Finally, I took a washablemarker and wrote on the wall. "I'm invisible. Your ink fell on

me. Help me!"Dad read it and laughed. He was sure I was hiding out at a

friend's house.Two hours went by and he still didn't believe me. I made uo

my mind to go to a magic store and get some reappearng cream.

94

96

I left my house at noon and walked about a block. I was Eine.but really hungry. I walked a long time. By the :Am I reachedmain street, I thought that I would Faint.

The cars would not stop for ma because they couldn't see me.I went to the corner and pushed the walk button. When the lightchanged, I went. A guy in a red sports car ran the light andbarely missed hitting me! I was glad when I finally reached themagic store.When I went inside, noticed there were a lot of customers. I

went Over to the shelf and got a bottle. Everyone was shockedto see a bottle in mid-air float to the back roan. I opened thebottle, and rubbed the on the cream.

Five minutes later I was back to normal. I yelled, "It's amiracle!"

I walked out of the stora, and made it home safely. I

tip-toed up the stairs, and about half way up my dad caught me."It's about time you decided to come home to do that reporto"I laughed and ran up the stairs. I wworked on my report

until my mom came in and threw her arms around me."Thera; goodness you're home. I better call the police and

let them know." She walked out withoJt even asking me where I'dbeen.

Dad thinks I was at a friend's house; Mom thinks I ran away.I just let them believe that because they wouldn't understand.It's been two years, and they still don't know.

9597

kw* #3 (EIO Grade)

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Example #4 (Eighth Grade)

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A Moder coo, floArm

102

KEIRI $41171

A Modern-day Fairytale

By

One day in a faraway place. a lovely lady sat in front of a window sewing.

As she was working, she prlcked her finger, and one drop of blood fell in the

sunlight.

°How happy I would be if I had a little girl with red lips as red as blood,

skin as tan as tan could be. and hair an black AS charcoal," thought the lady

as she sewed.

When summer came, het wish was granted. A little daughter was born to the lAdy

and her husband. 1-iley nosed her Berri after her great-grandmother who, when she was

young, was the most beautiful woman in the town.

103 101

tunny.

After a few days, the Lady died and

eventually the man serried agate. The new

wife was beautiful, Out she was cruel and

she was jealous of all the beautiful women

in the land. Kerri's step-mother was

extremely jealous of her.

The step-mother's most prised

possessive yam her T.V. She used to look

at the T.V. and say, "T.V., T.V. on the

floor, who in the cuoleet of ue all?"

The T.V. always replied, "You are."

Oes day the T.V. said, "Why do you ask

me the same question every day? Why don't

you ask me something like who la going to

win the Super Bowl?"

The step-mother didn't think that was

The next day she asked again, "Who is the coolest of them all?"

The T.V. said,"Don Johnson." After a lea* pause, it added, "I'm just kidding."

So the next day the step-mother asked again and the T.V. replied, "'Caryl

White." The step.mother knew the T.V. wasn't joking this tine - aod this made her

mad, even though she keew Kerri yes beautiful and wore really cool clothes.

The step-mother said, "I'll have to do something drastic to her, but after I

get my hair done." So the step-mother got her hair done end after that she told

the chautfer to take Xerri out in the woods and shoot her,

102 1C4

The Chauffer drove Kerri out into the meads to shoot her.

are vs ioinig herr

The chauffer replied by saying, "I'm going to kill you:" Little did the

cbsuffer know that Mari knew karate. so Kerri did a flying drop kick right in his

face. Hs went flying into the tree and was knocked out.

Karri drown the car to the airport and took the first plane. It was going

to Miami. Whop oho got there. all she could do was walk the streets. That's how

she met Don Johnson.

Karri said, "Whet

105 103

Dom lobelias' WAS flying by the mall to his

Ferrari. He spotted Karst coming out of Macy's

Departuent store. Since she was so beautiful.

he *topped rieht at her feet.

"geed a lift?" asked Don.

gem said, "Who are you?"

Don said, "gavee't you rein me on

gerri said, "Dh, I know who you are. You're that person who sells Air fresheners!"

Doe Johnson introduced himself and said. "Come one, get in. You're too beautiful

to be left here:"

Don took her to the police station and introduced her to all his friends.

Then he took her home to stay with him. He warned har not to WY anything from

door to door sales people.

Alter a few days. the step-oother found out where Sarni was staying. The stap-sother

mother dressed up like Vizi Scout leader and went to the house Ca sell cookies.

Sha had put poison an some of the cookies. She knocks* on the door.

Karri answered, "Who is it?"

The etep-mather said, "It's only a Clrl Scout leader who is 'Hallos cookies."

Se Kern opened the doer and the lady said, "Would you like some?"

Urn./ eeked, "Do they have almonds in thee?"

The step-mother said, "Yes, they sure do, and they Mit. good, too" as she popped

on* in her mouth and began munching sway.She had accidentally eaten one of the

poisoned cookies and she fell to the floor, not moving. Lerri called some of the

policemen to help her, but by the time they had arrived the step-mother used her

magic powers to make herself come back to life, and had escaped by way of the

back door.

104BEST COPY AVAILABLE icc

When Dom Johnsoo got home, he said. "I just remembered I forgot to say something

this mornimg:"

Kerri said, "What di you forget to &ay?"

Daa answered by paying, "I say it every morning before I go to work. I say,

I's rich, I'm rith, it's off to work I go. I own a pool, I own a boat, I'm rich,

I's rich."

"Tom also foreot to tell me there waa an alligator in your swimming pool:

It spictled me when I was trying to get a suntan. He just popped up out of the water."

The bent day the tep-mother came again, dressed as an Moe Lady. She

knocked on the door.

Kerr said, "Who is it?"

The Lady said, "It's just an Avon Lady."

Karel opeeed the door. This time the lady was selling perfume.

!tarsi asked, "May I smell it?"

the lady said, "Sure."

Karri took one whiff of the perfume and fell to the floor because the perfume

was poisoned. In her hurry to get away, the step-mother dropped her hand lotion and

spilled it all over the floor.

107 105

Don arrived home a few seconds later and saw Sarni lying on the floor. Me

heard a noise and looked up in time to see the sepmother trying to eacepe from

the condo, hp walking quietly out the beck door. She slipped on her hand lotion

and slid into th, pool right on top of Don's alligator. That sax the end of her.

Don leaned over to give Kara 4 farewell kiss, and suddenly she opened har

eye..

Marti and Don got married and drove off into the sunset in Don's Ferrari.

106 1CS

This book is dedicated to ay whole family

to thank them for laughing in all tha right placas.

109107

Elaborated Story No papers were considered to be ElaboratedStories1 lb be classified as elaborated, these stories had to present a sequenceof episodes in which almost all of the events and storyelements were well

developed. Goals or problems introduced in the beginning were well resolved

by the end; characters' motives were well developed; and the entire story was a

cohesive, unified whole.

108

PART 2: Informative WrithsThe following examples illustrate the range of informativewriting submittedby the students who participated in this study. The students' papers arearranged according to the scores they received when they were evaluated (seeChapter 'I1vo for the complete scoring guide). Each set of samples is precededby an explanation of how these papers fit into the corresponding category.

1: Listing The two papers below are examples of Listing. The writerspresent pieces of information or ideas all en the same topic. These papers mayalso cont2in a range of information about the topics. However, no attempt ismade to relate the ideas or information.

Example #1 (Fourth Grade)

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2: AttemptedDiscussion The four papers below are examples ofAttempted Discussions. A range of information andfor ideas about a topic ispresented in these papers. Also, in one part of each paper, some attempt ismade to establish relationships between the pieces of information or ideas.However, these relationships are not clearly established. The ideas or informa-tion may be incomplete or undeveloped.

Ex #1 (Fourth Grade)

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Exam* #3 (EIO Grade)

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3: Undeveloped Discussion The four papers below are examples ofUndeveloped Discussions. These papers ir lude a broad range of informationabout their topics. Relationships are somewhat established between the ideasand/or information, but not completely. The ideas may be confused, contradic-tory, out of sequence, illogical, or undeveloped,

#1 !fourth Grade)

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Example #3 (Eighth Grade)

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120122

4: Discussion The four papers below are examples 0' Discussions. Inthese papers, a broad range of information and/or ideas is presented. In at leastone sectkm, the writers use rhetorical devices (such as temporal order, classi-fication, definition, comparison/contrast, cause and effect, problem/solution,goals/resolutions, predictions, speculations, drawing conclusions, point ofview, ranking by importance, exemplification) to clearly relate the informationand ideas.

Ex #1 (Fourth Grade)

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Exam* #2 (Fmth Grade)

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Example #3 (Eighth Grade)

Per. 1"My Brother"

I have a brother his name is Heath, he is eight years old.Meath has light brown hair, giant brown eyes, wears nbron glasseswith a little neon yellow band that goes around thou: Ms is about5 foot tall, very skinny, and very strong for his age.Tnterview On Paul Revere "Paul, now that theRevolutionary Mar is over, could you please answer acouple ofquestifIns for me?" "Yes, I'd be happy to."

"I'd like to know what your profession was before the war?""Back in Boston ; mas a silversmith."

"Since you mentionmd Boston did you have anything to do withthe Boston Tea Party?"

"Yes, myself and a group of patriots had taken part in theBoston Tea Party."

"Paul, what was the pourpose of the Boston Tea Party?""It was a warning that the colonists would refuse to pay

taxes unless they had some share in their own government.""Paul, what was the midnight ride all about, and what role

did you play in it?""The midnight rid, was soposed to inform the minutemen

:hey march by land or go by water. I had to wait night..fr night for a signal saying weather to march by land or go by

water, then I would ride by horse spreading the news.""I thank you for speanding your time hers to talk to

me." "Your welcome, I enjoyed being heretalking to you, '

Interveiw by:

127 125

Example i4 (EIghtli Grade)

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4,4

5: Partially Developed Discussion The two papers below are examples

of Partially Developed Discussions. These papers include a broad range ofinformation. Information and relationships are established and well developed,with explanations and supporting details. The paragraphs tend to be unifiedand well formed. However, the paper lacks an overriding sense of purpose,audience, and cohesion. The writers of these papers present a wide range ofinformation on a topic, organize this information clearly, develop most of theaspects of this topic, yet do not place their discussion in context, within awider communicative purpose.

Example #1 (Fourth Grade)

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Developed Discussion No papers were considered to be DevelopedDiscussions. For papers to be placed in this category, they had to contain allthe elements of the previous category, plus present a coherent sense of pur-pose and audience. These papers would contained an overt use of organiza-tional structure and demonstrate excellent command of the conventions ofwritlen English.

140 142

PART 3: Persuasive Writ*,The following examples illustrate the range of persuasive writing submitted by

the students who participated in this study, The students' papers are arranged

according to the scores they received when they were evaluated (see Chapter

'hvo for the complete scoring guides). Each set of samples is preceded by an

explanation of how these papers fit into the corresponding category.

1: Opinion The paper below is an example of an Opinion. In this paper,

the writer asserts an opinion, but does not develop or attplain this opinion in

any detail. In Opinion papers reasons sometimes are given to support the

opinion, but these reasons are unrelated to the opinion or contradict one

another.

Example #1 (Fourth Grade)

AO,baAd, _mog

113 141

142 114

2: Extended Opinion The four papers below are examples of ExtendedOpinion& These papers include a statement of ivinion and reasons to supportthe opinion. However, the reasons are only briefly presented or the explana-tions are confusing.

b #1 (Fourth Grade)

In my opinion smoking is bad foryou, because it causes problems likewhen people get covered with smokethet smell like smoke. When peopleleave a room because of the smoke.Smoke polution is caused by smokingtoo. It harms your heath too. Itcauses your lungs to turn black. Itputs holes in your air sacs. You getless oxygen. You get cancer. Here'sjust a few things that could happenif you smoke. So don't Smoke.

145143

Eno* #2 (Fourth Grade)

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upu cQ deuckt 01/4)1'('Care._ 5064 Cas

\C\ 1/443006 \cic.Qss.a.z.s,

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144 iiu

woe #3 0304 GraMmmtirnimi 16,19Set

ai20/1 E.SzkOsbnoeaCk

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Exam* #4 (EIO Grate)

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146 1 1

3: Partially Developed Argument The four papers below are examplbof Partially Developed Arguments. These papers include an opinion statementand clear reasons to support the opinion. They also contain attempts todevelop the opinion with further explanation. However, the explanations givenare not developed or elaborated. These papers may also contain an implicitreference to the opposing point of view.

131 I #1 Paid &GM

Governor WoJhee ;6 +binkini ct,b00 le-14;:Joiiki(ilcr.rtrif.6 4takt of #.0111#cs 0.44 C terp cjITh +heir abliftre,I 0100 1-rb 0. 600A ;dec 4or work;n3

-t5 +0 come, -to 5thoot becao...)e +hetihave, +0 90 .fo work awl hut cyfher hf'ng5 +030.

Lc oi-her epeogleS rout,r6n1-5 COnle +0 oCh 00(

1,4Joulotn1 rnicl mud) ba+ 51 II ve-f-in irouble anck YY)J beli

r}urerrf were, here -i-huoi rnisH th:nk .frn06 back, in4luenct and noi 4heirCOM& )j hocAlsc. noi me 90 cver

I wouldn't warii oparetits, 4v Con ieifleir's,

rn.5 schoo becQu6e. ca i 11- rev* ornieihing else or rn3 mom or otad

oc_-0

#2 (Eighth Grade)

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151

Example #3 (Eighth Grade)

" Look mom, I know you dont want me to have a sling-

shot, but think of all the wonderful things I could do with

it' There are tons of reasons why I should be able to have

one. Here are just some of the reasons.

For Lytle thing. I would be able to keep the neighboors

cats away from the birds in the bird house! I know you'd

hate it if those cats got in there and actually ATE one!

Another reason is at Christmas time, I could go out

and kill maybe a squirrel and make an ornament out of him!

I know you spend clot of money on Christmas decorations

every year.

And most importantly, I feel that you should let me

have a slingshot because I am on top of everything. I' m

doing well in school, been doing my homework, and for the

past week, I've been babv-sitting my little brother!

I deserve a slingshot!"

150 152

Exinith #4 (EVA Grade)

gC:likA S. Tphoruz (7/9 7r,S

In my opia'oniharn priars2

44,kma roixoctiLo,04211.00r0J,

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151153

4: Developed Argument The four papers below are examples of Devel-oped Arguments. In these papers, the writers state their opinions with reasonsto support their opinions. They also include at least one explanation that iswell developed. Rhetorical devices (such as sequence of events, comparison/contrast, problem/solution, and classification) may be used to develop theexplanation. These papers may also contain a brief summary of the oppositepoint of view.

Examile #1 (NA Grath)

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Example #2 ( Grmie)

Dear Editor,

feel that the school lunches are very distasteful and

to worsen the problem, some of the cafeteria workers are

discourteous and impolite. With the addition of long lines,

it just isn't worthwhile to eat at our school cafeteria.

Many of the meals they serve us are unappealing and are

made with such a low grade of food that they are not

healthy. Also, sometimes the food is either cold or too hot

to eat.

Many of the cafeteria workers make wmting even more

unpleasant. Some of them tend to have an unfriendly

attitude. Whenever they give instructions, they holler :A.

you instead of kindly

To improve the school lunches, 1 suggest that the

school should buv a higher grade of food and try to fix the

meals more to the student body's liking. Maybe the mchool

can also serve a mixture of dishes so that each student can

picic the food of their choice. I know that changes will

cost money, but it 2S time to make changes and T'm sure most

of the students would be wlling to spend a little more to

have a better lunch.

Sincerely,

15 5153

Example #3 (Eighth Grade)

mr.Pin

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6: Partially Developed Refutation In order to be classified as PartiallyDeveloped Refutations, papers had to include a clear opinion statement, Withreasons to support the opinion, and elaborated explanations. These papers alsoshould contain an adequate summary of the opposite point of view and mayinclude some attempt to discuss this oppining position. No papers submittedfit into this category.

Developed Refiltation For papers to be considered Developed Refuta-tions, they had to contain opinion statements, reasons to support the opinion,explanations of these reasons, plus a discussion and/or refutation of theopposing point of view. The refutation must be clear and explicit, including adiscussion of why the opposing viewpoint is limited or incorrect No paperssubmitted fit into this category.

159

1157

PART 4: Peens

The following ouunples illustrate the poems that were submitted. The first

four examples were written by fourth graders; the last three by eighth graders.

Example #I (Fourth Groh)

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Ems, le #2 (Fart GA)

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Therz_ doe_s sty eyulFoJe. ckeperci

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161 139

Exam* #3 (Fm* Grade)

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Ex . #4 (Fourth Grade)

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Example #5 (ElO Grade)

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I. art-, its be an gUA r"cl ,

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I. 501 1" our V., oi-hers

drean.s Or cor..n,;(u3 Mr% bo4n,10 or ..nrir-ini;a5

kvi t. Gnd teAcwi ciamc,3e,

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lies* 16 (BOA Grade)

'The Dinoikette

fez time, I mizzed the Auz.My moffeh 40 mad, 4he'h 4ta4Ling to OU.6.6.

She pickh me up in a lemon o/ a can,I'm thinking cutout an ani4y on a dinozaun,Men all a zadden, the can ztopz.And the nadio'h ztiti zinging Setopz.Mom caltz Dad Aom m04k.Age4 that; Ahe tniez the can again, amd it4taraz with a jenk.Men Mom getz Sack,To the houzShea hang hen coat on the /Lack,

7aik to hen zpouze, when he getzHome.

ztand up (az tat, az a gnome),And yeil.....and yea... yell...7hen mayte the houze

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Ex 1 III #7 ( '1 1 Grade)

164 16 f;

PART 5: Lettas

The following examples illustrate the letters that were submitted, but couldnot be classified as informative or persuasive. The first five were written byfourth graders; the last two by eighth graders.

#1 (Nob Grade)

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ce Afrolvrkts.a.,zihm4alyult

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Emu*. #2 (Fourth Grade)

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it,g_ ott nfit P..

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Example #3 (Fourth Grade)

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: #4 (Fourth Grade)

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Ex .1 #5 (Fourth Grade)

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(IMO 9010 Lit 016m13

PART 6: Research Reports

The following research paper, "The History of the Mite House," is typical ofthe several research reports that were submitted. This paper was written by aneighth grader. Some of the other topics of research reports were: AbrahamLincoln, Watergate, and World War II in the Pacific.

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The History of the

WhIte House

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Outline iii

Introduction

Construction of the White House 2

Living in the White House 4

Burning of the White House 6

Changes in the White House 7

The White House Today 11

Ghosts in the White House? 13

Conclusion 14

Bibliography 15

Endnotes 16

November 2, 1800, President John Adams, moved into the White

House. Evr since that day, each president has lived there

during his term. It also houses a number of administation

offices. Over the years, the White House has become a groat

symbol of th executive branch of the United States. It has also

become one of the world-wide symbols of Democracy.

172 1 7.4

Chapter I

Construction of the White Souse

In 1791, United States Congress was looking for a permanent

home for the federal government.' They decided to build a

capital city along the Potomac River. They also needed a

President's Mansion in the capital.

Congress offered $500.00 to any architect who could design

the best President's Mansion. An Irish-born architect named

James Hoban and eighteen other architects sent in their plans for

the perfect President's Mansion.2

President George Washington looked over all the plans and

decided that Hoban's would be the best, even though Congress

requested that the porch and wings of the Hoban's plans be

deleted.

In July of 1792, the commissioner invited James Hoban to the

Federal City (soon to be called Washington, D.C.). When he

arrived there, he saw that the 'laity" was nothing more than a

swamp.

On October 12, 1792, the first cornerstone of the mansion

was laid. It was the first government building to be started in

the city. Hoban figured that they had eight more years to build

the mansion. Hut Congress were running low on money, and

materials were hard to get.

President John Adams and his wife Abigail were ready to move

in, even though only siz rooms were ready for occupancy; but they

moved in anyway.

1 75 173

Chapter II

Living in the White Nouse

Abigail Adams moved into the mansion on the night of

Novembr 16, 1800. President John Adams moved in two weeks

earlier. When she got there, she soon learned about all the

inconveniences of living in the unfinished mansion; however, she

was pleased with the mansion despite the many problems

President Adams decided to lend dignity to the new white

mansion. Re called it the "President's Palace". On New Years

Day, 1001, the President Adams held the first formal reception in

Abigail's upstairs oval room.

The next President to serve his term and move into the Wbite

HOUSS was Thomas Jefferson. Since the mansion can Only be

occupied by the President in office, Ex-president Adams had to

move out. Jefferson did not believe that the President should

live in a palace; he merely called it th "President's Rouse".

Since the "President's Nouse" was not yet finished, ho took

great pride in finishing and furnishing many of the rooms in it.

Re added a porch and low colonnades. Re added East and West

Terraces to the growing mansion.

Also, be furnished the State oval room quite elegantly. R

used it to meet important dignitaries. It is called the Slue

Room. He chose not to finish the East Room. Instead, he used it

aS an extra pantry. President Jefferson did most of his form41

174

entertaining in the two parloro on either side of the Blue Room.

These rooms were named after the colors most used in them. The

room decorated in red is called the Red Room, and the room

decorated in green is called the Green Room.

Before Jefferson moved into the capital city, it was a bog.

But he made it fit for carriages and had poplar trees planted

along the streets.

The nest president and his wife to live in the White house

were James and Dolly Madison. Dolly had many gay parties in the

President's Rouse. When Congress granted money for furniture,

Dolly Bought mirrors to brighten up the mansion.

177 175

Chapter III

The Burning of the White Souse

In 1814, the Baited States was at war with England in the

War of 1$12. Part of this time, President Madison was away,

leaving Dolly alonf/ in the White Nouse. It was then, that word

had spread that the British were coming to Washington. Dolly

carefully packed some important state papers and a large portrait

of Oeorge Washington taken from the frame and hidden. Then Dolly

disguised herself as a poor farmer's vife, entered a waiting

stage coach, and fled to safety.

That night the Bri.'sh burned every government building to

the ground, including the White Souse. The next day, the only

structure left of the mansion wer the four blackened outside

walls. Mt. Bohan was again called back to rebuild the White

Mouse. The mansion was finally rebuilt and the walls were again

white.

President Monroe was the new President It cost so much to

rebuild and restore the house that Congress had barely any noney

for furniture. Monroe offered to sell his own furniture to raise

more money. With this money, Congress bought elegant French

furniture for the mansion, sone of which is still being used in

the White Rouse today.

1761 7S

Chapter Iv

Changes in tbe White Nouse

President Monroe liked to live very formally. After the

fire, be redid the White Nouse to suit his taste. Re also

preferred to call the mansion the "Executive Mansion". Even

tbough be called it the Executive Mansion, everyone ls called

it just the White Nouse.

Jackson was the next president. Ns made many isportant

changes in the White Rouse. Na bad water piped into the mansion,

making it no longer necessary to carry it in by band. No added

tbe North Porch, or portico. Tbis gave the Wbite Nouse the

address 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. "This entrance shall be used

only by kings, queens and very isportant people," Jackson

announced.5 This custom is still observed today.

Jackson also finished the Bast Room. It became the formal

reception room, but it was also used as a play room for the

children of the White Nouse. Gradually, the 16 acres of the

Visite Nouse were drained, and gardens were planted there. Gas

lights were installed in the mansion in the 1040's.

In MO President Fillmore made headlines wten be bad the

first bathtub in the Wbite Nouse installed. People were

concerned because they considered tub bathing dangerous. Re also

biAaght a cookstove for the kitchen, but tbe cook refused to use

it because she felt comfortable with the big fireplace used up

179 177

to this time. so President 7illmore himself learned how to use

tbe stove and then taught the cook.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Fillmore, being a teacher, realized that

there were no books in the mansion- not even a dictionary! With

the money Congress granted for books, Mrs. Fillmore selected the

first books for the White Nouse Library.

When Chester Arthur became President, he refused to move in

unti? everything was reZurnished and redecorated. U. had twenty-

four wagon-loads of furniture sold at an auction. Today, the

government has a lavr prohibiting such a procedure. All furniture

not wanted must by law be sent to the Smithsonian Institution.

As the country grew and changed so did the mansion.

Telephones were installed. Electricity took the place of gas.

When Theodore Roosvelt became President, the house was

becoming too small for a large family and a growing staff. Also

the president was informed by engineers that the foundations were

weak. Congress agreed that after one hundred years, the house

needed extensive renovation.

The Roosevelts had to temporarily move out of the mansion,

so that the engineers, painters, and carpenters could do their

jobs. They put steel beams in the basement to support the

mansion and elongated the dining room to seat one hundred people.

A wing was added for presiient offices, and the second floor was

made into a private home for the President and his family. They

also added a wing for the offices of the president.

"Let's change the name officially to the White Rouser"

178 VA)

1

Roosevelt said to Congress. "That's what everyone calls it

anyway.m4 In 1902, Congress passed a law making the "White

Souse,' the official title of the mansion.

With the White Mouse fully renovated, it ventually still

seemed too small; President Coolidge adds* a third floor, which

provided extra bedrooms and needed storage space. In the 1930's

President Roosevelt added a swimaing pool.

Along with the rest of the country, during World War II,

precautions were taken to protect the White Rouse. Black-out

curtains were installed, underground offices and bomb shelters

were built, and machine guns were mounted on the roof.

During President Marry Truman's term in office in 1948, he

was alerted to the alaraing possibilty that the building might

collapss at any moment. It seems that over the many years of

changes in pipes and electrical wiring, and the wear and tear

caused by the thousands of sight-seers who toured through the

White House, the building was under too great a strain.

At first, serious thought was given to tearing down the

place and building a modern new White Rouse, but the American

people wanted their original mansion preserved. It was finally

decided to dismantle each room carefully and to rebuild just as

close as possible to its original design. It was a tremendous

job. The architects used the basic plans made by James Hoban.

They added a strong foundation that could withstand the heavy

traffic. Congress gladly granted the nearly 6 million dollars,

which was a very large sum during that period of time.

During President John P. Remedy's presidency, Mrs. Mennedy

restored and added many beautiful furnishings and valuable art

work to make the White House a showcase of the country.

181179

Chapter V

The White Rouse Today

Today the Whits Rouse has become the most famous house in

the world. Millions tour it each year.

The White Souse itself is surrounded by la acres of

beautiful garde= scenery. It has trees, flowers, and a groat

lawn called the President's Park,s There are now 132 rooms in

the White Nouse. There ars 323 permanent staff working in the

White Rouse.6

The East Wing of the White Nouse serves as a public

ntrance, and houses many offices for the Presidnt's staff. The

public rooms of the White Nouse are used for weddings, parties,

and other social events. Examples of these rooms are the Red

Rtsom, Green Room, Blue Room, and the East Roos. The East Room is

used to display caskets of the Presidents who have died during

their term like Lincoln, Kennedy, etc.7

The Executive Wing of the house is where the offices of the

President and other government officials are located. The Oval

Office, which is the President's office, was added in 1934 by

President Roosevelt. The top two floors of the White Nouse ars

the official living quarters of the President snd his family.

In th West Terrace of th White House is the family's

private movie theater. The indoor swimming pool is located in

the East Terrace. Above that area are the Whit. Nouse press

facilities, where presidential speeches are televised via

satellite all over the world.6

180 1S2

Chapter VI

Ghosts in th White Souse?

Rome people claim they have seen a ghost in th White Nouse!

Wll-knomm people like Winston Churchill and Princess Julianne of

the Netherlands claim that they had seen Lincoln's ghost in his

bedroom at the White Nouse.9

Also members of th Reagan family claim that they had seen

him. When Maureen Reagan and her hustband, slept in the

Lincoln's Bedroom, they said they have experienced the presence

of Lincoln's spirit. President Reagan and Nancy Reagan refused

to be spooked by Lincoln's ghost, but "there is one other member

of the First Family who believes. Nancy Reagan says Rex, the

family dog, often barks at the Lincoln Bedroom door, but refuses

to go in."10

1 83181

As our country has grown and matured, so has the White House

refloated all these Changes and improvements. This Mansion is

not just the living and working quarters of our Presidents, but

also an important symbol of our American heritage. Bach

President has loft his mark, good or bad, during his term of

office. The people of our country over th years hove developed

a deep love and pride for our great growing and changing White

Rouse.

Bibliography

1. Natalie Miller, The Otorv of the White House

Chicago, Childrens Press, 1966.

2. World Book =cyclopedia, "White Rouse,"

pg 240, world Book Inc., Chicago, 1946.

3. David Oliver =lin, "White =use, Nerve Center of the

Presidency" Ocholatsic Dodatq, vol. 121 (Jan 13, 1989) pg. 8.

4. Didney Hugh, "The $50 Million Dollar Face-lift,"

Time vol. 132 (Dec S, 1988) pg. 24.

S. "Maureen Reagan Meets Lincon's Ghost," Newsweek, vol. 109

(Feb 2, 1987) pg. 28.

1821 S

1. Natalie Miller, The Story of the White HouseChicago, Childrens Press, 1966

2. World Book Encyclopedia, "White House,"pg 240, World BookInc., Chicago, 1966

3. Natalie Miller, The Story of the White HouseChicago, Childrens Press, 1966

4. Ibid

5. David

iriemse;;;;;;"

7. Ibid

8. Ibid

Oliver Malin, "White House, Nerve Center of the4001astic Update, vol 121 (Jan 130 1989) pg 8

Hugh, "The $50 Million Dollar Face-lift,"132 (Dec 5, 1988) pg 24

9. "Maureen Reagan Meets Lincoln's Ghost," Newsweek, vol. 109(Feb 2, 1987) pg 28

10. Anonymous, "Maureen Reagan meets Lincoln's Ghost,"Newsweek, Vol. 109 (Feb 2, 1987, pg 28)

185 133

MIM=0111

Appendix

Appendix k Demographic Characteristics of the

School-Based Writing Study Partidpants

This report contains results for groups ofstudents within the nation defined

by certain demographic characteristics. The definitions for subgroups, used in

all NAEP assessments, as defined by gender, race/ethnicity, parents' education

level, geographic region, and type of community follows.

Gender. Results are reported sepr ately for males and females. Gender was

reported by the student.

RotojEtiodeity. Results are presented for students of different racial/ethnic

groups according to the following mutually exclusive categories: White,

Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander, and American Indian (including

Alaskan Native). Some racial/ethnic results are not reported separately be-

cause there were too few students in the classification. However, the data for

all students, regardless of whether their racial/ethnic group was reported

separately, were included in computing the overall results.

Ponds' Edna*. Loyd Students were asked to indicate the extent of school-

ing for each of their parents did not finish high school, graduated from

high school, had some education after high school, or graduated from college.

The response indicating the higher level of education for either parent was

selected for reporting.

Gaya* Region. The United States has been divided into four regions:

Northeast, Southeast, Central, and West.

Typo of Comosity. Results are provided for three mutually exclusive commu-

nity types advantaged urban, disadvantaged urban, and extreme rural

areas that typically reveal differences in students' performance. The definitions

of these areas follows.

184 166

Advantaged Urban: Students in this group reside in metropolitan statisti-cal areas and attend schools where a high proportion of the students' parentsare in professional or managerial positions.

Disadvantaged Urban: Students in this group reside in metropolitanstatistical areas and attend schools where a high proportion of the students'parents are on welfare or are not regularly employed.

Extreme Rurab Students in this group do not reside in metropolitanstatistical areas. They attend schools in areas with a population below 10,000where many of the students' parents are farmers or farm workers.

Table A.1 presents the percentages of students who participated in this school-basedwriting study in each of the major demographic categories.

Grade 4 Grath 8

OdeFan*

5248

5149

Roco/Etbildty Wles 68 71Ike 17 15ape* 10 10Mir 5 4

Pants' Levol Lass dm N.S. 6 8of iikkation ILS. Grad. 18 34

Sumo EL sifts ILL 4 12Gasp Grad 39 36Mama 33 9

GoorePle Ilidbeast 28 24Regius SupthessI 27 22

Cattri 20 23Was? 25 31

Typo of Advadspod 12 13Commaly Dissimespi 10 8

Exton Iva 11 7

*Due to rounding, percentages may not equal 100.

185187

Append* B: %gents' Performance im School-Based

Writing and Their Use of Process Strategies

and Resources for Writing

The table in this appendix presents the percentages of students at each score level whose

papers contained evidence ri having employed process strategies and resources for

writthg. Process strategies inchide major revisions (changes beyond the sentence level),

minor revisions (changes at the word or sentence level), and other strategies, such as

conferencing with peers or teachers. Resources frarwriting include using one's CAVI1 ideas,

referring to something ont has read, or referring to sounding one has studied.

Use of Proceu Strategies

Sao 1 Son 2 Sow 3 Sew 4 Score 5 Sal 6

Grade 4 flieler lharliees 1 0 2 0 10" 0"Mx Revision 27 23 22 19 7** 0**Odor Strefesios 32 37 43 57 61" 100"

erode $ hvidons 0 0 2 1 7 10"Nen lievhbas 27 30 29 30 48 52"Wm %de& 34 32 51 53 55 50"

Use of Rewires for Writing

Score 1 Store 2 ken 3 Sao 4 Score 5 Score 6

Grade 4 Ow Was 80 8; 81 62 44" 0"had 10 11 12 16 41** 100"Sidled 10 9 8 14 25** 100"

GridsI Owilim 94 91 89 95 95 80"Rad 5 7 13 14 18 41"Shedisd 3 4 6 4 7 0"

"Due to small sample size. interpret with caution.

1861 5

Acknowledgments

This report is the culmination of efforts by many individuals who contributedtheir considerable knowledge, experience, creativity, and energy to the devel-opment, administration, scoring, analysis, and reporting of the NAEP 1990Pilot Portfolio Study. Most importantly, NAEP is grateful to the students andschool staff who made the assessment possible.

The NAEP 1990 Pilot Portfolio Study was funded through the NationalCenter for Education Statistics, in the Office of Educational Research andImprovement of the U.S. Department of Education. Emerson Elliott, NCESActing Commissioner, provided consistent support and guidance, and his staff

particularly Gary Phillips, Eugene Owen, Stephen Gorman, and Carol SueFromboluti worked closely and collegially with ETS.

Under the NAEP contract to Educational Testing Service, Archie Lapointeserved as the project director and Ina Mullis as the deputy director. Thewriting assessment development activities were coordinated by Lynne Jenkins.The statistical and psychometric activities were led by Bruce Kaplan withdirection from Eugerie Johnson and assistance from Lucy Chan. JulesGoodison directed the operational aspects of the assessment Westat, Inc.,under the supervision of Renee Slobasky, Keith Rust, and Nancy Caldwell,coordinated and performed sampling and data collection activities. The pro-cessing of the materials were the responsibility of National Computer Systems,under the direction of Lynn Zaback and John O'Neill.

Many thanks are due to the committees and panels who provided guidancefor this pilot study. Lisb of their names appear on the next page. NAEP isespecially grateful to the teachers who scored the papers. Thanks to theNAEP staff members at ETS who assisted with the preparation and reviewof the report, including Kent Ashworth, Lucy Chan, Gene Johnson, BruceKaplan, Steve Koffler, Rebecca Melchor-Logan, Ina Mullis, and John Olson.Special thanks are due to Karen Damiano, who provided the excellentword-processing skills essential to the project, and to Ann Schlesinger,who designed the report

189 187

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