Primary Writing Rating Scale: Checklist Assessment for Grammar, Spelling, Ideas

The Primary Writing Rating Scale: Checklist Assessment for Grammar, Spelling, Ideas

Here is a ready-to-print writing assessment for your students in grades 1-4. It's a simple checklist that you can use multiple times throughout the year to assess your students' writing skills in several areas.

Skills Assessed:

• Spaces between words

• Uppercase letter to start a sentence

• Uppercase letter for proper nouns

• End marks

• Commas

• Apostrophes

• Proper letter formation

• Proper letter size

• Correct spelling for common sight words

• Correct spelling for phonetically spelled words

• Reasonable invented spelling for difficult words

• Grammatically correct sentences 

• Ideas link together in a logical order

For each skill you have the option of checking off:

1. Not present

2. Less than half

3. More than half

4. Always present

How to Use:

Assign your students a writing task such as retelling a common fairy tale, writing about a favourite memory, or writing an informative paragraph about an animal they have studied.

Then go through each student's writing sample and use the checklist. This will give you valuable information about which topics the whole class may need more instruction on (perhaps many students are struggling with commas) and it will provide information about which students in particular may need some targeted writing intervention.

If you use the checklist throughout the year, it can show student growth and improvement.

What's Included:

A one-page rating scale for Primary Writing that assesses:

Spaces between words

Uppercase letters to start a sentence and for proper nouns

End marks, commas, apostrophes

Letter formation and size

Spelling for sight words and phonetically spelled words

Grammar

Logical organization

Grades to Use With:

This scale can be used in primary classrooms from grades 1-4. At the younger levels, you may choose to only use some of the assessment rows (based on what your students have been taught). By grade 4, students should be able to tackle most or all of the skills in the checklist.