Using Success Criteria to Refine Writing

The other day I gave my students a transactional writing task to complete. Below is the task:

I had just finished doing a holistic book check, template found here, and as such I was acutely aware and depressingly reminded of how many wasted sentences students spent earning themselves no marks; they wrote mostly banal sentences with one show-stopper stuck in, as if the other sentences led up to something worth marking. Four sentences that said things like: “when I was seven, I made a bad decision. I am sorry I made this decision. This decision is important because…” and so on. Technique zero.

Furthermore, their self assessment highlighted the techniques they did use, like: “well done for using repetition!” But failed to point out wasted opportunity. Of course, it’s then my job to take note of this and act.

I decided to reteach it, and break it up. Get rid of waste.

First task:

Then I modeled it, in class, with student input. That way, it encourages a culture of error. I know my writing won’t be perfect, and that student I put will improve my efforts. I welcome this behavior as a secondary modeling of my expectataion for student collaboration.

Then, using success criteria, we assessed my efforts together.

Then students got started. As they wrote, I added instructions:

1. Write the rest of paragraph one with a focus to include the following: a long, descriptive sentence, four adjectives, the use of sensory perception and one other techniques.

2. Make your next paragraph a one-liner, and include at least one of our A* vocabulary words.

Etc.

Then students annotated their work for all skills they included, again using the success criteria to guide them.

Below is an example of what they did:

As you can see, a paragraph has been highlighted. This is because, after reading their work with a partner, they picked a paragraph they wanted to improve. This what what we call “refining” at our school. I added targets to help ensure they changed more than one thing in their refinements, that it wasn’t a wasted effort where students rewrote rather than recrafting their work.

Students choose their EBI(s), write them on their refine sheets, and strive to meet their targets.

This is an example of the result, which I was able to take home in an evening, check against their EBIs, spend literally 15 minutes on, and hand back the following lesson. This enabled me to get a clear picture of students’ access to the learning and their progress.

To finish, I assigned homework, helping them further extend their learning with independent practise.

Usually, with homework, I don’t mark extensively. How can I, when time is so tight? But I’ve found that if I provide specific marking top sheets, with randomly assigned values, students are able to self/peer assess their homework quite well and I can glance at their top sheets quickly, record their result and give them credit. This is sustainable and puts the ownership for learning onto the students’ shoulders.

Of course, my efforts are also still in stages of refinement, but I find that this method enables students to access he material and make their writing more meaningful.