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Writing Moderation Mark Sheet

Uru Mānuka R0 criteria

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2022 Writing Prompts (Explanation)

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E-asttle Writing FAQ’s

How do I mark a script that seems off topic?

The topic outlined on the prompt (for example, ‘being a good friend’) is intended as a springboard for �writing, rather than a tightly defined focus. Take this into account when scoring the ‘ideas’ element: �ideas can be loosely related to the topic and still be considered relevant.

How do I mark a script that seems to be off purpose?

The purpose for the writing (to explain, persuade, narrate, describe or recount) is the focus of the ‘structure and language’ element. It is not the focus of any other element. If the student has been asked to describe a photograph of two dogs playing on the beach, but actually narrates a story about a dog, this will be reflected �in the category score for ‘structure and language’.

How do I mark when factual information is wrong?

E-asTTle writing does not assess curriculum area content knowledge, so there is no element for scoring the correctness of information. Writing sometimes contains incorrect facts, but this does not mean a student will necessarily have a low score for the ‘ideas’ element.

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Of note from E-asttle

The communicative purpose for the writing (to explain, persuade, narrate, describe or recount, as specified on the prompt) is the focus of the element “structure and language”. If the student has been asked to describe a photograph of two dogs playing on the beach, but narrates a story about a dog, this will be reflected in the category score for structure and language. For all other elements, the writing will be scored at face value, without reference to the specified purpose. This approach enables the the E-asttle tool to provide rich diagnostic information about skill levels in seven clearly defined elements of writing, including the ability to achieve a communicative purpose through appropriate selection of structural and language features. Manual p.19

Of note from Manaiakalani

If any recorded scores are a 0, the data goes onto the spreadsheet not onto e-asTTle. No student can score a 0 for Structure and Language and Punctuation, they must score a 1.

Uru Manuka R0 criteria

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Discussions from Previous Moderations

Exemplars MUST be used alongside the Rubric	Remember when looking at Sentence Structure read in the missing or incorrect punctuation as this is assessed separately.
Garry Taylor would like to acknowledge that the marking of e-asTTle is not an exact science, but neither should it be classed as subjective. You will never get total agreement but there are valid ways of getting very close to agreement.
We asked for further clarification re the definition of the complexity in regards to ideas (R3 to R4). The following was our reply: So ideas covers three aspects – quality of ideas, selection of ideas and elaboration of ideas. Elaboration is the writer providing more detail to the event, description, or analysis etc. In R3 it can be either “Text has many simple, unelaborated ideas related topic. In my words ‘lots of different things without the detail’. (Have a look at ‘By the Mall in the generic exemplars). There is also “An idea is related to the topic and has some basic elaboration.” The important bit here is that it really is just one main idea with some detail. (My iPod in the generic exemplars is an ok example) Experience you typically see these type of texts in half a page to a page piece of writing where there is either a lot of assumed knowledge or it really only focuses one main idea. So R3 really focuses on relevance and elaboration (or lack thereof) At R4 the concept of movement form simple to complex ideas becomes prominent. Up to R3 ideas are simple, meaning they are generally focussed on the writer’s know world (the ‘All about me’ idea). Writers who write simple ideas focus on what they know, what they have seen, what they have done. Basically just tells it how it is. As writers become more complex the focus is still mainly on telling it how it is but there may be some aspects of reflection (I had a really enjoyable day (‘Rainbow’s end’ or ‘When I go to the beach’ is a good example)) or starts focussing on things that are not obvious but perceived (He was really honest handing that money back in) or deals with things that are abstract in nature (pollution, capitalism etc.) There feels like a bit of a jump in the maturity and sophistication of the writing because it is more than just the bare bones – the writing starts to develop some character.

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Discussions from Previous Moderations

Question: Our focus has been on the description but we are finding a lot of scripts are written as narratives or recounts. Initially, we would have thought this was an R1 for 'structure and language' however there are some overlaps in features. The key word appears to be 'some' in R2. Would you suggest that in order to score an R2 they would be required to have more than one structural and one language feature from that genre? What happens if the genre overlaps eg tense, orientation? The Describe a moment in time prompts are the prompts most likely not to go off script and end up as narratives and recounts. Just the way it is, but not enough of an issue to exclude them as a prompt option. “The adventurous dog” is a great example of this and it only scores at R1. “By the mall on the other hand has some language features so is placed at R2 although is probably best categorised as a describe piece of writing. So no I don’t think you need both a language and structural feature to be at R2. The rubric states AND/OR at R2, meaning only one or other is required to be classified at R2. The notes at the bottom of the structure and language notes may be helpful to answer your second question. 1 Some texts may also include the past tense, e.g., if background events to the moment in time are included or if the text is actually a narrative or a recount. Use of the past tense is acceptable if it does not interfere with the purpose – to describe. Note that, if the text is a narrative or a recount, the structure and language category is unlikely to be higher than R2. So in other words you can use as tense in some circumstances, but I have found it generally means they have written a recount or narrative. To summarise if they write a recount or narrative for this prompt R2 is about as high as you can go. If it is just a straight retelling then likely to be an R1, but if there are attempts to describe you can push them to an R2. Remember with describing words, it is just whether they are there or not, not how good they are. That is dealt with in Vocabulary.

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From our Term 1 Discussion

The structure and language notes we found interesting due to being allowed to have persuasive features as well. Discussed how much is too much. Exemplars did not give us a clear indication on this point.
Interesting to discuss whether some of those more junior texts are one idea with elaboration or many simple ideas on a theme. Exemplars lead us to say that they are many on a theme whereas if it was a more senior piece we were marking it would be one idea with elaboration.
Again it has come up around how many precise words (and the type) that is needed in order to progress through the vocab marks. Robust discussion had around the length of the text in order to support what our expectations are. However short texts does not mean that a couple of precise words/adjectives would give you the extra mark.

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Sample #1

IndependentlyMARK the sample noting down why you give each mark

Discuss marking taking note of the differences that exist in results

Look at Sample #1 that we will moderate

This is a model you can use back in your school for your school moderation

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Writing Sample #1 for Moderation

	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Notes
Ideas								R3: Nobody likes a mean, horrible, dishonest person. Not enough to strongly show complexity.
Structure & Lang								R3 - Discussion around how many language features they have used: R2 mostly vs R3 some (used exemplar The Erfeh)
Organisation								R5 - basic paragraphs are there and the breaks don’t detract from the message or coherence. (prompt 14 exemplar 2)
Vocabulary								R3 - all every day words and phrases. Discussed horrible, kindergarten, dishonest, not enough. Great discussion over subjectivity and bias as would our knowledge of the age of this student have changed our thinking
Sentence Structure								R3 - speech like, waffley, run on not complex
Punctuation								R3 - punctuation errors in long run on sentences so knowledge is not strong for the few commas they used. Only one other ?
Spelling								R4 - good range of high frequency words but not enough complexity.

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Sample #2

IndependentlyMARK the sample noting down why you give each mark

Discuss marking taking note of the differences and justifications that exist in results

Look at Sample #2 that we will moderate

This is a model you can use back in your school for your school moderation

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Writing Sample #2 for Moderation

	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Notes
Ideas
Structure & Lang
Organisation
Vocabulary
Sentence Structure
Punctuation
Spelling

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Sample #3

Mark the sample noting down why you give each mark.

Discuss marking taking note of the differences and justifications that exist in results

Look at Sample #3 that we will moderate in pairs

This is a model you can use back in your school for your school moderation

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Writing Sample #3 for Moderation

	R1	R2	R3	R4	R5	R6	R7	Notes
Ideas
Structure & Lang
Organisation
Vocabulary
Sentence Structure
Punctuation
Spelling

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Highlighting Level 1

It is sometimes difficult for teachers to accurately mark writing at Level 1 in the higher years because of student experiences, maturity, developed vocabulary etc.

Let’s delve deeper into this.